Food

How I Learned to Cook Tofu

Tofu can be tastier than you might imagine

Twenty years ago, when I first started cooking tofu, I didn’t know what I was doing. Back then I could only make tofu as part of a stir fry with noodles because the tofu would break down and sort of cling to the noodles like egg.

Now I know that part of my mistake was in only buying softer, shelf-stable tofu. I didn’t grow up making tofu, so I didn't know that it comes in different levels of firmness, nor did I know the other benefits for ease of cooking when you buy it fresh.

In the last five years, I’ve become a lot better at cooking tofu, and here are some of my favorite tips. I’m far from expert, but these ideas have helped me. If you have other tofu tips, please do share in the comments!

Use the right firmness of tofu for your recipe

There are times when you do want a soft or “silken” tofu, like if you’re going to blend it into a chocolate mousse (so good!) or make a tofu scramble as an alternative to eggs. Or maybe you want some little bits of tofu in a dish like fried rice or my aforementioned noodles.

My favorite tofu is firm or extra firm. This kind of tofu will take on a satisfying and lightly chewy texture, will accept coating/breading nicely, and is much less likely to fall apart when cooking and eating. If you’ve had a dish with chunks of tofu, or a sandwich or other meal with sliced tofu, you’ve had firm/extra firm tofu.

My girlfriend likes to buy medium firm tofu for when she makes soup with rice noodles and veggies. She cuts very small cubes of tofu, and they stay pretty well intact in the broth while keeping the softer texture she prefers for her soup. (I like the soup, too!)

Press it

Personally I think the best thing you can do to improve the taste and texture of tofu is to press it. Of course, this is because my favorite way to eat tofu is when it has a firmer texture.

My mom bought me a tofu press for Christmas a few years ago, and I love it. I just add the brick of tofu to the press and put the whole works in my refrigerator until I’m ready to marinate or cook it. You can also press tofu under a thin towel using pressure with your hands or by stacking a dinner plate and maybe a book on top, but be sure you have the tofu on a surface (like a deep plate) that will collect the water that’s released.

I buy tofu that comes packed in water from the refrigerated section of the grocery store, so a lot of liquid comes out of the tofu when I press it. Tofu loves to soak up liquid, so you can give it the opportunity to absorb something more flavorful if you…

Marinate or dip it

You can use a ready-made sauce for stir fry, barbecue, etc, to flavor your tofu, or you can make your own marinade. After pressing the tofu, you can slice it into the size needed for your recipe and let it marinate in the fridge to absorb flavor.

Often, instead of marinating tofu, I’ll just dip it in a sauce to keep the flavor more on the outside as a coating. Or I’ll dip it in a sauce and then bread it with panko or cornflake crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper and whatever else sounds good — nutritional yeast is a good vegan option, or parmesan cheese is a good vegetarian one.

Bake it

The main way I cook tofu lately is to bake it. I like to dip it into a plant-based version of a dressing like ranch, and then coat it with cornflake crumbs. I was all about panko for a time, but I find that the cornflake crumbs give a thicker and more flavorful crispy coating.

I sometimes cut a brick of tofu so that I reduce its thickness by half, and then cut a little bit off one end to make two big squares. These are perfect for sandwiches when you bake the breaded tofu — it’s a great alternative to a chicken sandwich or a processed veggie chik burger.

I’ll also do smaller slices or bites of breaded tofu that are the size of mozzarella sticks or chicken nuggets. These are satisfying to eat with the sauce(s) of your choice, and they have way less fat than cheese or chicken.

If we’re already having a carb-heavy meal, instead of using any breading, I might just bake tofu that I’ve marinated or dipped in a sauce and cut into thin rectangles. This can be tasty in the air fryer, too.

Learn from others, and adapt for your tastes

I got my tofu sandwich idea from a lackluster tofu sandwich I had at a vegan cafe. That sandwich was way too mushy. I knew I could come up with something firmer that wouldn’t fall apart.

I also get ideas from cookbooks, YouTube, and people I know. I think it really helps to watch someone cook tofu. I learned a lot from seeing my former partner fry thinly sliced squares of tofu in her cast iron skillet — I realized I was stirring my tofu too much instead of letting it cook through on each side.

There are so many ways to cook tofu, and it can stand in for a lot of different animal proteins to make healthier dishes. You can grill it on a kebab. You can give it a smoky flavor with paprika or BBQ sauces. Sweet Potato Soul is a good place to start for savory tofu and other vegan recipes.

My advice is to try tofu dishes in restaurants and then research how to make the ones you like. Or think about meat dishes you like and see if there might be ways to make tofu versions of them — no, tofu doesn’t replace the flavor or texture of meat, but it can be worth a try in your menu.

I didn’t grow up eating tofu. I’m pretty sure I’d have laughed at the mere suggestion of it as a kid. These days I eat it once or twice a week, and I not only appreciate its low price tag, but I find tofu quite tasty, too.

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