Philosophical Vegan Forum

I'm one year into veganism and mum keeps on buying me this tofu. The trouble is in order to make it taste nice I use some products that are less than nutritious such as tofu and soy sauce sandwiches. This got me wondering how do you use your tofu?

I have to confess that I never have eaten it. That's why I love the myth that veg*ns are only eating soy beans. But maybe I will try it sometime, don't want to miss out if it's great.

1 cube and fry the tofu, thinly slice red onion, toss with mae ploy sweet chili sauce. Its SOO good and it's not spicy.

2 make rice. buy a jar of Double Golden Fish instant red curry and a can of coconut milk cube fry the tofu make the curry and add the tofu at the end. (you can also make red curry with curry paste if you dont have an asian gorcey. Thai kitchen has a very mild spice to it and is available everywhere)

3. Vegan Cheesecake.

4. cube fry tofu, toss with some soy sauce or braggs, get steak spice called "cracked pepper blend" toss it all together and bake until it firms up.

Honestly ask I did was take my favorite meat recipe and replace it with tofu. That's all there is to it just make sure that you season it properly.

I don't do tofu but I hear that it is suppose to absorb the flavor of whatever you are cooking... So maybe cook it with veggies in a stir fry...?

Last time I made tofu I breaded & deep fried it, tofu nuggets yum =]

I tend only to use the extra firm variety, unless I'm making cheesecake or a sauce (in which case, silken blends better in a blender than firm), because the extra firm will hold up to normal cooking stress without having to fry it first.

Mostly baking or stir-fry kind of situations, so it depends on what kinds of sauces and flavors the dish has.

I made a really nice tofu schnitzel, was aiming for tofu nuggets lol.

ingredients:
400 grams, of medium[hardness] tofu.
200 grams, of bread crumbs.
Flavouring, I used vegetable stock, but i guess any vegan flavouring would work.

1. Mash the tofu in a mixing bowl, with a potato masher. I'm assuming the blender may be more effective for this. Do not mash the tofu into a paste. A few lumps in the mix will not harm the finished product in any major way.

2.mix in your choice of flavouring.

3. Mix in bread crumbs (leave some over in order to crumb the tofu). The mixture should be at a consistency thick enough to hold a shape.

4. Spoon your mix, with a teaspoon, onto a small square of baking paper. Fold the baking paper over the tofu on both the right and left sides, the the paper overlap each side. Press the tofu in the baking paper, pressing down the tube like ends to stop it from spilling out of the paper, this is in order to shape the nugget. If you want your schnitzel to resemble a schnitzel than use your own method to shape the tofu.

5. Crumb the tofu.

6. Fry the schnitzel, on high heat. You can use a vegan bread spread, or oil for this, however I observed the schnitzel's where way more likely to burn when done like this. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

7. Serve on a sandwich with sauce (I used tomato) or on a plate with mashed potato.

I highly recommend you try this meal, you will not regret it.

A couple of people have mentioned vegan cheesecake. Could someone share a favorite recipe?

cufflink wrote:A couple of people have mentioned vegan cheesecake. Could someone share a favorite recipe?

Use a blender to blend some nuts and liquid (soy yogurt as the liquid would be ideal for taste).
Blend in some tofu after that's smooth to add a little more protein and increase bulk of the filling. You can use entirely tofu and no nuts, but that's not as good.

Add some sweetener (to taste), and a pinch of nutritional yeast. Vanilla if you like that in your cheesecake (I do). And a little lemon or lime juice.

Mix in a little starch, then put it in the oven to bake, and it should thicken. Then finally the refrigerator after it cools to finish setting up.
If you're making it for others, make a crust first... if it's just for you, I'd say don't bother. Crust takes half the effort and it's mostly for show anyway

About the amounts, I just taste while I'm making it, so I don't know about measurements. Maybe half tofu, half nuts, the same volume of liquid to nuts to let them blend enough (add more liquid if needed).
You'll be able to tell if it's delicious. I think it should be a little sweeter in the un-baked state; after setting up it will tend to taste less sweet. So, try to keep that in mind (like cookies or any other cake).

Excellent! I'll definitely try it. Thanks very much.

Just a couple of questions:

What nuts work best here? Cashews? Almonds (blanched, I assume)? Walnuts?

And does "starch" = corn starch?