It tastes just as good as chicken. I'm a believer in the soy curds now 
Tofu, when prepared properly (and I can't stress that enough), is a fantastic ingredient. The problem is that most westerners have absolutely no clue how to prepare it properly.
Mapo tofu is one of my favorite dishes and you should check it out.
as a dish or as an ingredient? because tofu is not a dish, but you can make a large portion of tofu recipes with just one firmness level tofu
Now I'm wondering how I can cook some up at home on the stove top with a skillet and use it as a meat substitute. It's way cheaper than ground hamburger, $3 for tofu versus $7 for beef.
I'd probably do TVP or crumbled tempeh instead of tofu, but it depends on the context of what you're trying to make
it's sooo good and nutty, i really like crumbling it and frying it until its golden so i can add it to a fried rice with some onions and corn.
tempeh can be a bit expensive where i am though, i want to learn to make it myself but i'm too nervous to try cause i don't want to mess it up lol
A little bit nutty, a little sour a little bit savoury. It has a more beany flavour than tofu ime
Like PointAndClique said - it's a little "funky" so it can be a bit of an acquired taste. It has little chunks of fermented soybeans in it.
A recipe book I have has this pretty good dan dan noodles recipe where you crumble it and cook it with shallots and seasoning to top the noodles with (instead of the ground pork you often find with that dish).
Thanks, looks like I can do a tofu twist on my favorite beef tacos.
ALSO
it may not seem important now and some tofluencers' recipes may say you don't need to do this, but press your tofu! If you have to, sandwich it between plates and put a heavy pot full of water or a stack of books on top for at least 15 minutes (though more time only helps, albeit with diminishing returns).
More water you squeeze out in the pressing stage => more room for flavors to soak into the tofu when marinading/cooking/resting and also less water to sog/stop the crisping when you cook it
tofu tacos are incredibly easy:
tofu in pan -> mush around -> add spice mix -> mush around -> add to shells -> done
add more steps where you feel the need, like adding lettuce or cheese or whatever
That's my way of preparing fast tacos anyway with beef
With the added benefit that you won't have diarrhea if it's not cooked right.
Certainly. If you ever feel like tofu doesn't quite have the protein density you need, seitan is amazing (and very meaty in texture)
Seitan's great, but generally kinda expensive to buy and more of a pain to make at home than some other thingsIt can be a bit of a pain in that it's spread out over time, but compared to pressed, marinated, and seared tofu, seitan made from vital wheat gluten (and not from flour) takes about the same amount of inactive time with maybe 15-20 minutes of additional active time per loaf
I will say it took me nearly 10 weeks of making seitan twice/week before I really liked what I was making. There was a lot of trial and many chewy glutenous errors. Both require a decent amount of patience to really learn and get right imo
Both require a decent amount of patience to really learn and get right imo
My family is probably too fussy to deal with my mid seitan for weeks before I get gud lol
Yeah for the first few months I had to make it as a side project kind of item so I really only made it when the other protein was a pot of beans. Every iteration was edible and nutritious, but quite a few were way too chewy, some were not chewy enough. A few were essentially flavorless because I didn't realize on the first two just how much garlic and other powdery spices the dough can take before they start being evident in the final product. On the last few I've been experimenting with mixing into the dough a handful of whatever beans are in the pot from earlier that week and the results have been
I was just watching a video about making mock ground beef with extra firm tofu. Lemme go find it.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elnRctjp9rk
I haven't tried this yet and it looks like a bit of work but promising.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
If there is an east asian grocery store (all three Korean, Chinese and Japanese should have them), you can find ingredients to make mapo tofu if you are into a bit of spicy food.
Very simple home tofu with a pan is basically fry it up in slices then coat in any sauce you like. The texture of sliced and fried well can be delightful with a firm tofu. And it'll take what ever flavor you like. Fry it with garlic why not
Get soy/soya chunks from an international section or store, they need a tutorial on how to make them but they're extremely cheap and shelf stable. They just need to be soaked and squeezed a few times to meditate aftertaste but I never really cared about it lol. I fry them to make burritos with a mayo (no egg) and siracha base. More dark texture than tofu.
you can also get soy puffs that are wonderfully chewy and spongy so they will soak up whatever you put them in.
"I don't wanna be overly prescriptive about tofu, but..." has some real "no offense, but..." energy.
And I'm not white either.
Your comment comes off as rather racist, whether you meant it or not, as it tries to go lengths to paint something as basic and understandable as air-frying a popular plant-based food as a "strange white people amirite???" thing.
I don't know if this is a part of HB's trend to have people subtly do anti-vegan concern trolling, but beyond that, please be considerate of the shit you say.
Freeze it, get the extra moisture out, dry it out a little bit, marinate it, let it dry a bit more, and fry it up.
Cutting extra firm it into thin slices, adding oil and rubbing salt and pepper into it then frying it on a pan is also good.
I would to freeze it overnight, press it and marinate and then fry it after coating it in starch and other fancy stuff but I realized it's good when made simply as well
Have to prepare those tofu blocks right, something really heavy, a pan or plate that can take the weight, and absorbent towels. Its the same with not running fresh mushrooms under water, you don't want all that excessive moisture.
i'm convinced that i would be so much healthier if vegetarian cuisine was more dominant in this country. it's especially delicious in the contexts or cultures where meat is rare because that's where it shines the most due to centuries of refinement through trial and error. culinary contexts like the beans-rice-tortilla heavy mexican peasant diet; or cultures like the spice heavy indian cuisines or the soy example that you shared are my favorite.
It's pretty easy to replace chicken since it tastes like nothing on its own. Most of the flavor is in the spice and seasoning so I just use those spices and seasonings on whatever protein I'm cooking it.
A lot vegan stuff online tries to be "healthy" which is why it's associated with being bland but there's lots of stuff like fries and mushroom gravy, apple pies, pancakes, chips, fruit or soy based ice creams, pizza and panzerotti with plant based cheeses (much less oily too), things like chocolate, though some substitutes can be expensive. I don't even notice the change but it was really difficult when I was younger and thought I had to eat only stuff like salads.
the spices and seasons are almost everything; i think that's why the indian and mexican work well because you can get multiple different meals out the same things; especially with lentils; based entirely how you prepare and season it.
with soy, however, i've learned to like it in block tofu form, uncooked (beyond how they made it) and with a one or 2 seasonings. a few drops of soy sauce and tiny jagged chunks of tofu are my favorite (aka soy with soy lol).
The meat industry is one of the main drivers of unhealthy consumption in the country, and directly linked to an insane amount of negative effects. we need to radically reduce its presence in all society, ideologically that can only be done with some education on animal products and the processes to get there.
It should be abolished, not "radically reduced," unless you mean radically reducing it to being non-existent.
Whatever suits the needs of the people and facilitates the transition to a world in harmony with the ecosystems that inhabit it. Reduction to nonexistence is definitely a solution, and if its done i will support it.
Of the people? Environmental and health concerns are definitely important, but ethically, it is basic decency to not exploit non-human animals, and honestly, I'm in favor of considering non-human animals as "people." I'd argue that it's not just a solution in their case; it's a moral obligation.
The veggie food-by-weight buffet place I used to go had the most delicious and greasiest food ever.
yeah, some restaurants just fuckin nail it. Others are just as bad as doing it at home with no real plan or preparation or idea how it is done.
there's a cambodian place in my area that does an amazing job with it in various stir fried dishes, and another that makes a wonderful soft silky mapo tofu
You gotta try smoked tofu. I basically never eat tofu but I'd gladly stuff my facehole full of that shit 10/10
if you like spicy food this mapo tofu recipe someone posted a month ago is pretty tasty and easy: https://hexbear.net/post/3458216
the hardest part is acquiring the Doubanjiang (also sold as broad bean sauce or paste in the west), I hard to narrow it down to like 5 jars out of a hundred sauces in my local asian grocery store, and then scrutinize the labels on each to make sure I was getting the right one
miso can be skipped, tbh I thought it was a bit too salty when included so I skipped it the second time I made it and it was still pretty good
My strat with my local asain grocer is just to show them the woks of life or Wikipedia page for an ingredient and say "sorry, I am not good at finding or pronouncing things. Do you stock this?"
I'm fortunate my area has a sizable Chinese and Vietnamese diaspora, cause I didn't know that stuff was hard to come by.
One of the best dishes I’ve ever had was a tofu dish at a French place in Portland. I’m not a huge tofu person, and I don’t really associate tofu with French food, but it was perfect and I still think about it.
https://www.seriouseats.com/seriously-asian-frozen-tofu-recipe
This is my recipe for making tofu for people who don't think they like tofu. It's so good. You can eat it alone or with rice, but I'll usually stir fry some veggies to go with it
This is a great recipe I make fairly often. Chinese grand dad knows his shit.
If you want something easy and tasty doing beer battered tofu with a cheap beer like Pabst that you mix with about equal parts flour, or just dredging them in corn starch and seasoning is great for getting them crispy too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_men1BU9RQ
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I'm literally reading this thread while eating Szechuan tofu...
