Ah, tofu… One of my absolute favourite sources of protein. I’ve been eating tofu since I could chew, so I will never understand that hate that tofu receives. It’s always been delicious for me and it’s one of the most versatile foods out there. It can taste wildly different depending on how you cook it so even if you don’t like tofu, I’m sure you could find some ways to enjoy it.
I think these ways might be where you can start. These dishes are easy to make, flavourful, delicious and brings a whole new experience to tofu.
I ended up making these with just the ingredients I had in my kitchen because I needed to use up what I had before going on a trip. I had a package of extra soft tofu (Korean “soon” tofu) and a package of medium firm tofu. Because you don’t need a lot of “fresh” ingredients for this (just some sauces and stuff), you could probably just whip this up with what YOU have in the kitchen already too.
Recipes Video:
Korean-Style Soft Mapo Tofu
v (3-4 servings):
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 package soft or extra soft tofu
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- 1-2 green onion, finely chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 bell pepper, finely chopped
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Sauce
- 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp gochujang
- 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp corn/potato starch (you can make this separately with 2-3 tbsp water if you want to make sure there are no lumps, but I’m lazy… so whatever)
Instructions:
- in a frying pan, heat up oil on medium high heat and add onion, green onion, garlic and bell pepper. Cook for around 2-3 minutes.
- Mix soy sauce, gochujang and maple syrup in a small bowl and thin out the gochujang. Add water and mix until most of the clumps are gone.
- Add the starch into the sauce mixture and mix well.
- Add sauce mixture and tofu into the vegetable mix in the frying pan. Break up the tofu a bit and mix up well with the sauce.
- Cook for a couple of minutes and add sesame oil. Mix well.
- Serve over rice!
Sweet Chili & Teriyaki Tofu
Ingredients (2 servings):
- 1/2 block tofu (firm or extra firm but you can also use medium firm for softer texture)
- 2 tbsp corn/potato starch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp oil
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
- Sweet chili sauce or teriyaki sauce
Instructions:
- Drain & rinse tofu and wrap with paper towel to soak up excess liquid.
- Chop tofu into bite sized cubes.
- Mix starch and salt on a wide plate and spread out.
- Coat the tofu pieces in the starch mixture.
- On a frying pan, heat up oil on medium high heat and add tofu pieces. Try and make sure the tofu pieces aren’t touching so that they don’t stick together.
- Cook on each side until slightly browned and fried on each side.
- Set aside tofu in a large bowl and in the same frying pan, cook up the onion and mixed vegetables.
- Add the onion/mixed vegetables to the tofu.
- Add as much sweet chili sauce and/or teriyaki sauce and mix well.
- Serve with rice or noodles and enjoy!
I will not be able to eat all this in one sitting. After cooking, how long approximately will this last in the fridge?