You can’t just replace paneer with tofu and call a dish palak paneer you twat. Like replacing black beans with lentils and calling it black bean soup IT’S NOT THE SAME AND DOESN’T TASTE THE SAME.
I swear half the reason people hate veganism is the fucking half assed garbage cooking content put out by vegan incluencers.
‘Hi today I’m going to make a yummy vegan grilled cheese sandwich but instead of cheese I’m GOING TO USE FUCKING ELMER’S GLUE’ And This doesn’t just go for cheese
When people told me they hated tofu or (far worse) that they were “not fans,” I wish I had said in no uncertain terms: “I love tofu. I am in awe of it. I am set free by it. It will be the finest staple food our galaxy has ever seen.”
I wish, in those exchanges, I had not asked gentle, tolerant questions about a hater’s ridiculous allergy to it, or tofu’s fictional misdeeds and imagined character flaws. More deeply still, I wish I had not reasoned with anyone, patiently countered their ludicrous emotionalism and psychologically disturbed theories. I wish I had said, flatly, “I love tofu.” As if I had been asked about my mother or daughter. No defensiveness or polemics; not dignifying the crazy allegations with so much as a Snopes link.
People can simplify all sorts of relationships to a food to as an allergy. Plenty of people are allergic to soy though and even things like rice or certain kinds of blood. Body works weird. I have a friend that just gets incredible diarrhea whenever they eat specific stuff so they just say they're allergic so people will take better care of not serving them that food
Honestly, not sure why some vegans believe allergies are just made up though, its down to a science, you can go get tested for it. Some foods also are just factually more gut irritable. Look into FODMAPs. Some healthy body builders avoid them even to digest protein faster.
Plenty of people are allergic to soy though
Good thing you can make tofu from all kinds of beans, then. You can make it from many different kinds of seeds, too, though I suppose you might technically call that "zifu" instead.
but the wide variety is soy milk or soy beans based, hard to get any other alternatives
skill issue?
also for FODMAPs certain kinds of tofu are fine but others are worse, if you are curious. firm is better for the gut, and the firmer the better. i have a friend that talks my ear off about this shit, its very interesting, i fully recommend everyone look into it to learn more about how food interacts with your stomach. a slight change in diet along these guidelines can make you feel so much healthier, even if you dont have food issues.
https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/talking-tofu/
Because I've never had a conversation about someone being allergic to peanuts when they're explaining why they have to eat meat
it just means they have a harder time with vegan alternatives
You’re right that Tofu is incredible but my love of Tofu runs so deep that i genuinely like it best when it’s retaining its original texture In some way. Of course this only applies to firm tofu. I can see silken tofu being a good paneer substitute so maybe that’s where this user went wrong. I generally find when you try and use firm tofu to make something creamier I am often dissatisfied with the results.
Is the lying about allergy thing common? I know a guy who is a pathological liar of sorts. He is supposedly allergic to tofu. But that's first case of it I've seen. Granted though tofu is not a popular food here.
Maybe? But I feel like soy and its derivatives are in everything so it smells like BS to me
But I feel like
i love arguing on hexbear, wonderful fact based analysis
I have no idea, this is an edited copypasta about Hillary Clinton.
Hi today I’m going to make a yummy vegan grilled cheese sandwich but instead of cheese I’m GOING TO USE FUCKING ELMER’S GLUE’
New tagline?
Anything that dilutes the unfunny jargon taglines please
It sort of reminds me of the 50's cookbooks that were like "Wrap a slice of bologna around a banana, nestle it on a bed of lettuce and then serve with warm Béarnaise sauce"
It very much feels like people who don't understand how cooking works and just slap shit together and eat it regardless of the flavor or texture
You can make so many dishes without meat or any animal products if you just stop for a second and think about what you're actually doing
Like, Ma Po Tofu is amazing and you can make it vegan by just leaving out the pork, the dish doesn't need it
Tofu is limited only by our imaginations.
Vegan food that leaves behind needless adherence to immitating dishes is always better.
My main association with tofu being tofurky until I learned about Chinese dishes with it demonstrates this point well
Ma Po Tofu is amazing and you can make it vegan by just leaving out the pork, the dish doesn't need it
This also makes the texture better. Thr gristly part was the only thing I disliked about the dish.
Wrap a slice of bologna around a banana, nestle it on a bed of lettuce and then serve with warm Béarnaise sauce
The church van is broke down and the members will not be in attendance
You’re not wrong that a lot of Vegan cooking influencers are trash and anyone trying to use Tofu as a cheese replacement is deeply unserious.
Tofu is amazing in its own right and there really aren’t any perfect cheese substitutes. The science is improving but they aren’t there yet.
There a lot of fatty starch amalgamations that pass for cheese and cultured cashew butters but ultimately you just kinda learn to live without it and it’s NBD.
Sorta, there isn't any 1/1 but there I also think that while it's good to compare a vegan alternative to the not vegan version it also wouldn't be fair to not judge it on its own merits, like sure sometimes it doesn't taste like the meat version of something but it kicks ass in it's own regard. Like adapting a book to film if every book was bound in flesh.
Right I agree with you and that’s kinda what I’m trying to say.
I think there’s no reason not to admit that cheese Is objectively very tasty and no small part of that is the casomorphin and its effect on the brain.
That is not something vegan cheese will ever do and that’s ok, that’s what you learn to live without. The subs are getting better and better and absolutely kick ass in their own right.
I’m also trying to make the finer point that IMO a lot of vegan recipes and influencers over extend Tofu and don’t play to its strengths, instead trying to use it to emulate something it cannot. I say this specifically pertaining to firm tofu. Because nothing makes me raise my eye brow faster at a recipe than just tossing a big beautiful block of that stuff into a blender to make something creamy. I find I am often dissapointed and dissatisfied with the result of that as opposed to just cutting up wonderful little tofu cubes, marinating those and eating them.
I kinda feel the same way about Avocado, like Guacamole is good, but it is specifically a recipe to fully utilize over ripe and sub optimal avocados. Not every avocado needs to be mashed and IMO it’s just using the ingredient poorly to mash up a perfect avocado as opposed to fanning it and serving it with its original texture and shape somewhat intact.
And of course I completely forgot about silken tofu which probably can make a great paneer substitute when done thoughtfully by someone with skill and knowledge of what paneer tastes like and how it’s used. I live in an extra firm tofu household. All hail the mighty soy bean.
And of course all of you should abandon all dairy products if you haven’t already unless you are a literal baby cow.
You have forgotten silken tofu. You have come undone. We're for sure on the same page, but it's not really a vegan thing, it's people who suck at food. There's plenty of trash meat recipes too. Tofu is for sure overused, I've made some tempeh using non soy beans and lemme tell ya, that's a whole new world. Black bean, chickpea and navy bean tempeh all kick a lil ass and I wanna try one with sweet green beans too. But you gotta start with the experimental part and not force it into a role it's not gonna fit. When you dick around with tempehs and seitans and stuff, you gotta roll with the results, same with any food experiment with a mew ingredient. You don't trash it cause it doesn't work for the what you were going for, you at least try to see if you can match it with something more appropriate. I did a Seiten hoping it'd make a cool vegan Philly cheesesteak and it turned out better for Bahn MI, that's no loss, thars a lesson.
There's vegan cheese that is actually good but I'm not paying $15 for an 8 oz packet.
I don't know how they turn cashews into a bomb ass pepperjack, but it's spendy enough to be a Sometimes Treat.
Here's how
https://rainbowplantlife.com/fermented-cashew-cheese/
However, cashews themselves are really expensive as well. It is fun to make and you do get a good yield from a mid sized sack of cashews
These days I assume cheese costs about that much anyway lol
I was looking at vegan burger patties (because I am trash and love to eat trash) and I got curious, they were ten cents more expensive than the equivalent beef patties 🤣
Dairy cheese is much cheaper, at least where I live. I should probably get back on using protein powder in the morning because even after being at least vegetarian for a couple decades I struggle with working in enough without plant based burgers and other mock meats. I would make my own sometimes but it's usually like a hour or two to make a batch and the kitchen would be thrashed.
I went to burger king for the last time the day they replaced their garden burger with a beyond burger. Sad.
Yeah I might take a swing at making veggie patties again, the place where I get most of my groceries stopped selling Impossible burger and I'm too lazy to find it somewhere else that doesn't have eye watering prices.
I saw a vegan pizza recipe that used tofu in place of cheese. Like what the fuck is that.
swear fucking to god that’s some ‘got milk?’ op.
Like, it’s ok if you’re fine eating it, or hell, even if it tastes good. But either don’t post it or call it a fucking flat bread open sandwich or something
They're better without anyway IMO. I found that a lot of the time when I thought I wanted cheese I really just wanted more salt.
I was agreeing with your title but then I opened the post and I gotta disagree on this specific recipe. The paneer/tofu sub results in some pretty dank dishes.
No, I’m sorry. Ok, maybe you can make it taste really good. But don’t call it palak paneer because it probably doesn’t taste remotely the same. The texture of the ‘paneer’ or tofu in this instance, the consistency of the plate… it’s all different. Use a different, more appropriate ingredient than tofu, have some respect for the dish.
it probably doesn’t taste remotely the same
oh so you didn't even try
paneer doesn't have a strong taste, and the texture is similar to firm tofu. marinate your tofu with some lemon juice and fry it in vegan butter, drop it into your palak and it's just like your tit juice tofu. but better, because it's beans.
I agree with you in no small part because it’s just not a good way to use Tofu IMO.
You may disagree but even just using like cashew butter and/or chick pea flour would probably be better and more authentic.
I've seen Indian vegan cooks use tofu as a paneer replacement. Sure, it may not taste exactly, precisely, you-can't-tell-the-difference same, but I think it is kind of stretching it to call it "massacring" the dish. Indian vegans who grew up with palak paneer will try to veganize it so they can enjoy it without the cruelty. It's not that deep.
Also, if vegan influencers put out garbage food then non-vegan ones do too, lol. How many different food influencer videos are there about steak when it's just a slab of flesh that's seasoned with salt and pepper, at the end of the day.
You've self-admittedly never tried it, and now you're shitting on people who just want to enjoy their cultural cuisine in a vegan way. You're really dipping into reactionary anti-vegan territory here.
Yes mate, chance of most dishes using Tofu as substitute for paneer not tasting like paneer is high
Are you saying that because I don’t think tofu or tofu in palak paneer dishes tastes like Paneer, I haven’t tried it?
If you brine up and crumble tofu you've got a very decent feta substitute
You have piqued my curiosity. Tell me more. I have weird sensory issues with most uses of tofu, but I love feta.
(Yes, I am aware that doesn't make any damn sense. Sensory issues rarely do!)
What we did was a mix of apple cider vinegar, salt and water, I cook by vibe and it was years ago so I don't have precise measurements but you're looking for about 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water and cause it's feta you wanna salt it like the dead sea or at least the ocean, if you wanna be sure, add the salt water to the vinegar after it basically tastes like sea water. I tossed it in pepper and a little bit of oregano and arame (dried seaweed), a little bit of paprika can also be nice but that's getting off the strictly feta lane.
I guess you could throw some olive oil into thr mix but I've yet to find a lack of fat to be a problem.
Not the op but everyone raves about this tofu feta whenever I make it: https://erinireland.ca/vegan-recipes/the-best-tofu-feta-ever-hands-down/
Bonus: if you have access to powdered lactic acid (e.g. Druids Grove), use 1/4 tsp of that instead of each tablespoon of lemon juice
Tofu can be a good paneer substitute but you've gotta mess with it.
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Boil in salted water to remove beaniness.
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Brine to make a little salty just like paneer.
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Coat with a very small amount of starch and fry at low heat to seal. This keeps the brine in.
This will make the tofu neutral and a little salty and have a texture close to paneer.
But otherwise yeah I agree tofu isn't similar enough to cgeese to be a substitute.
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Keep looking. There's some banger recipes out there. I can't speak for paneer specifically (I've never had it), but vegan cooking and cheese substitutes are getting better all the time. For example, if you want a grilled cheese or quesadilla, you can make a vegan one indistinguishable from the original.
People need to specify if their using it as the "protein" substitute or because it actually replicates taste/texture.
There are lots of different types of tofu with very different characteristics. In my supermarket I have at least 8 different types.
When I make a paneer style dish with tofu there's a type I buy that is very similar. It's pressed for extra firmness but in a way that does not make it more grainy like extra firm tofu normally is, keeping it smooth like paneer.
There's also types of tofu that melt and behave like other varieties of cheese.
If you have a better vegan paneer alternative just replace the tofu in the recipe with that. Recipes are there to be changed and adjusted.
Yeah I second this. The more I think about it I think you could actually do a pretty good paneer substitution w/ silken Tofu and the right spice blend. I tend to just forget different tofu firmness exist because I can never eat enough extra firm tofu lol
Yeah everyone knows nooche is the superior cheese substitute 😎
Tofu + nooch is very good but it’s tricky because I find when you add nooch into like a soup or something it doesn’t thicken it and the flavor just disappears. Nooch is best as a garnish IMO
For thickening you need either corn starch or, my favorite, xanthan gum. A little bit goes a long way!
