What Type Of Tofu Should I Use?

There are three basic types of fresh vegetarian tofu: Soft or silken tofu, Asian firm tofu, and Western firm or dried tofu. Soft or silken tofu is also referred to as “smooth tofu” or “silk-filtered tofu.” This vegetarian tofu has the highest moisture content of fresh tofu because it is undrained. Many people describe the texture of this particular tofu as that of a very fine custard. Traditionally, this soft tofu is made with seawater. This tofu is the best tofu for making a vegetarian tofu desert because of its texture. This tofu is so soft that it cannot even be eaten with chop sticks, which is how tofu is traditionally eaten in its country of origin. You can sweeten this tofu into a vegetarian tofu desert very easily.

Asian firm tofu is the second basic type of fresh vegetarian tofu. This tofu is not nearly as moisture filled as soft tofu because it is drained and pressed, but it still contains a large amount of moisture. A good way to describe it is that is has the same firmness of raw meat, but instead of staying down when pressed, it bounces back. Inside of this vegetarian tofu is like firm custard. This tofu’s skin has the same pattern of the muslin it was drained with, and it is firmer than the inside. Unlike soft tofu, it can be easily picked up with chopsticks. This particular type of tofu is great for a vegetarian tofu recipe like fried tofu or vegetarian tofu and beans.

The third basic type of fresh vegetarian tofu is Western firm or dried tofu. This is an extra firm type of tofu and it has the lowest moisture content of any fresh tofu. It feels like fully cooked meat, but it still has a rubbery feel to it. When this vegetarian tofu is fully cooked, it can crumble easy. This is a favorite as a salad topper for a vegetarian trying to get more protein in his or her system. Like Asian firm tofu, the skin of this tofu is the same pattern of the muslin it was drained with, but sometimes the pattern is missing because the tofu is milled and reformed after the pressing. This type of vegetarian tofu is also great for a stir fry recipe.

No matter what type of tofu you are using, you can create a delicious tofu meal or dish as long as you prepare it correctly. Make sure to pick the proper type of tofu to prepare your dish, or else the dish will not turn out how you desire it to.

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Easy Vegan Tofu Recipes

There are many easy vegan tofu recipes around. Stir fry is a simple vegan tofu recipe. You can use your basic stir fry ingredients like vegetables, stir fry sauce, soy sauce, etc, and add some extra firm or firm tofu. Make sure that if you are putting it over noodles that the noodles do not contain eggs or milk. Another easy vegan tofu recipe is tofu quiche. It is both attractive and delicious to vegans and non vegans alike. Make sure to use a vegan crust recipe, and that the filling recipe does not include any animal products or byproducts. Yet another quick and simple vegan tofu recipe is a tofu scramble. While this is usually prepared for breakfast, breakfast for dinner can be a treat once in a while. The possibilities for a tofu scramble are endless. You can add faux meat crumbles to it, various vegetables, and different spices. You can serve the scramble in a tortilla, like a breakfast burrito, or on a plate topped with soy sauce for a little more sophistication.

What To Look For In A Vegan Tofu Recipe

The thing to note is that a vegan tofu recipe can vary greatly from a vegetarian tofu recipe. You may be aware that your vegan friend does not eat any vegan tofu recipe that includes animal meat or byproducts like eggs, milk, and cheese, but what you may not know is a little more complex. Some vegans do not eat anything that is processed with animal byproducts, even if there is no animal byproduct in the final product. One example is refined white sugar. Make sure to ask your friend what his preferences are before you chose a vegan tofu recipe for dinner!

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Why Chose Tofu

Tofu is a better alternative to meat for human beings. To begin, the human body does not properly digest meat products. Red meat raises cholesterol and generally worsens a person’s overall health. Tofu, on the other hand, does not. Tofu is easily digested and is filled with the same vital nutrients that meat has: namely, protein. Choosing tofu over meat can lead you to a wonderful vegetarian tofu recipe, or many for that matter!

How To Find A Vegetarian Tofu Recipe

With the tide turning for vegetarianism, there is not a lack for vegetarian recipes or vegetarian tofu recipes. Any vegetarian recipe book will have tofu recipes, and more likely than not you will be able to find a vegetarian tofu recipe that suits your need.

Various Vegetarian Tofu Recipes

Vegetarian tofu recipes are as varied as any other type of recipes. Soft tofu is one type of fresh tofu that lends itself to many sweet vegetarian tofu recipes. It has a texture like very fine custard, and is unable to be picked up with chop sticks, making it more of a desert like tofu. A vegetarian tofu recipe for soft tofu could be as easy as adding vanilla flavoring to the custard like tofu or as complex as making baked goods from it. Firm tofu can be used in a vegetarian tofu recipe like stir fry, which is extremely popular since it includes plenty of fresh vegetables. Extra firm tofu is often fried into a vegetarian tofu recipe like fried chicken, only with tofu. You can also make a vegan baked tofu dish like quiche from a firmer tofu. The possibilities with vegetarian tofu recipes are truly endless. Because tofu takes the flavor of whatever it is cooked with, you do not have to worry about the tofu being bland if you are cooking it properly. A vegetarian tofu recipe will take this into account and allow the most flavor to be added to the tofu. Enjoy!

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Food For Vegans

So what exactly do vegans eat? Tofu is a major source of nutrients for a vegan. While meat is not great for a person’s body, it does provide the necessary protein needed in life. Tofu also provides the protein necessary for daily life. There are thousands of tofu recipes, including tofu stir fry, vegan tofu salad, fried tofu, tofu dogs, tofu sausage, tofu bacon, etc. etc. etc. One of the favorite tofu recipes, however, is vegan baked tofu.

Different Vegan Baked Tofu

Tofu can be baked in many different ways, and there are many different vegan baked tofu recipes. One favorite vegan baked tofu recipe is miso vegan baked tofu. In this recipe, you use firm pressed tofu. Other ingredients include miso, rice vinegar, sugar (make sure you use unrefined sugar if you object to food prepared with animal byproducts even if they do not include animal byproducts in the final product), soy milk, ginger, garlic, water, soy sauce, oil, cayenne pepper, and sesame seeds. The recipe includes combining all ingredients and broiling the tofu, making a tasty vegan baked tofu straight from the oven.

Another vegan baked tofu recipe is vegan baked tofu strips. With this recipe, you cut firm tofu into strips and place them into a wide, shallow bowl. Use a marinade and marinate the tofu for up to two days. Depending on the texture and firmness of the tofu, it may take just a few hours to marinate or a few days. After marinating, coat the tofu in your favorite toppings for baking. You then bake the tofu at 400 degrees Fahrenheit on a nonstick cooking sheet or a sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Once it is golden brown on all sides, you have got a wonderful vegan baked tofu ready to eat and enjoy!

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Vegan Tofu Salads

One way to keep tofu vegan is to prepare it in a vegan tofu salad. One particularly delicious vegan tofu salad is barbecue vegan tofu salad. This recipe uses one block of firm or extra firm well pressed tofu, corn, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, cumin, vegan mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce. Combine the tofu, corn, pepper, and vegan mayonnaise in a large bowl. In a different smaller bowl, whisk together all of the rest of the ingredients. This is to make the dressing. Pour the dressing over the tofu, corn, pepper, and vegan mayonnaise mixture and gently toss it all. Put it in the refrigerator and serve it chilled. Voila, you have a wonderful, delicious, vegan tofu salad—barbecued!

Another delicious vegan tofu salad is a colorful vegan tofu salad with basil and cashews. It includes a variety of deliciously fresh vegetables and spices and is served in a blooming tomato. This vegan tofu salad is filled with flaxseed (which is a great natural remedy for lowering bad cholesterol!), water, tofu, carrots, onions, celery, peppers, basil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, oregano, garlic, salt, and cashews. All of these ingredients are healthy and low fat, which makes this a low fat tofu recipe. Combined together, these ingredients create one of the tastiest vegan tofu salads you will ever come across.

Nicoise Salad, But Vegan!

If you are a fan of the French Nicoise salad, you will love this last vegan tofu salad recipe. This salad recipe is very much like the traditional French Nicoise salad. This is called “Salad Lucoise.” Instead of the traditional tuna, use braised tofu. Instead of the eggs, use olives. You do not even have to braise the tofu yourself. Purchase a tin of braised tofu, like marigold, for this salad. Use all of the French Nicoise ingredients, cutting everything into large chunks. Toss and serve!

Vegan tofu salad recipes are everywhere, and it is likely that you will be able to find one that you love!

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The First Unhealthy Pitfall: Cheese

While vegans do not eat cheese, vegetarians do. A low fat tofu recipe will not include cheese. While it is a great source of protein, vitamin D, and calcium, since most cheese is made with whole milk it contains quite a bit of saturated fat. This fat clogs up arteries and can lead to heart disease. One ounce of cheese is the size of an average thumb. That ounce of cheese contains anywhere from seven to nine grams of fat. A solution to this is to not use any tofu recipes that include cheese in them. A lot of times a tofu recipe that includes cheese can be made into a low fat tofu recipe simply by eliminating the cheese. If you cannot live without your cheese (and you are not a vegan), look for non fat or low fat cheese to use instead or use just a sparse amount of regular cheese.

The Second Unhealthy Pitfall: Nuts

Nuts are very popular in vegan and vegetarian tofu recipes. Nuts and seeds are a great source of protein, and the fat that they contain happens to be a healthy, unsaturated fat. Nuts can prevent heart disease. Unfortunately, because of their high fat content (be it “good” fat or not), if you eat too many nuts you are going to gain weight. If you have a tofu recipe that includes nuts, try to switch it to a low fat tofu recipe by either eliminating the nuts or cutting the amount in the recipe. Cut one cup of nuts to half a cup, for example. Or, if the nuts are not essential to the meal, simply do without.

The Third Unhealthy Pitfall: High Fat Recipes

While this seems obvious, it may not be obvious to many people. You cannot have a low fat tofu recipe if it includes ingredients that are high in fat. Many vegetarian recipes have ingredients like oil, butter, and sour cream. These are silent killers because many people do not even think of them as part of the dish. Instead of adding these to your tofu dish, if you want a low fat tofu recipe try limiting the additions to the dish. Do not add margarine, mayonnaise, sour cream, salad dressing, cream cheese, etc. If you absolutely have to add anything, do so in small doses. Use a vegetable broth or wine to sauté food instead of plain oil. Most of all, if you want your tofu dish to be a low fat tofu recipe, limit high fat toppings.

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What’s The Difference?

To the non-vegetarian or non-vegan, vegan tofu and vegetarian tofu might seem like the same thing. In fact, when it comes straight from the store out of the package, it is. However, the way that it is prepared can make a huge difference between labeling it as vegetarian or vegan tofu. Vegans do not eat anything that comes from an animal, even if the animal is still alive (like, for example, chicken eggs or milk from a cow or goat. It did not kill the animal to get the product, but nevertheless, since it came from an animal a vegan will not consume it. So for a tofu to be a vegan tofu, it must be prepared according to vegan guidelines. If the tofu is cooked in the same pan as scrambled eggs, it is not vegan tofu. Instead, it is vegetarian tofu. If the tofu is cooked in a stir fry with broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, and soy sauce, it is both vegan tofu and vegetarian tofu. All vegan tofu will also be vegetarian tofu, but not all vegetarian tofu is vegan tofu.

How Do I Keep It Vegan?

The answer to this question is simple: do not cook the tofu with any animal byproducts if you desire it to be vegan tofu. However, implementing that answer may not be as simple. Even if you want to make a simple stir fry, you must look at the ingredients for the noodles. If they are made with eggs, then they are unacceptable for a vegan tofu dish. Some vegans even go so far as to not eat anything that was prepared with animal byproducts even if there is not animal byproduct in the finished product, like white refined sugar. If you are cooking for a vegan and do not know exactly what to do with your tofu, the simplest solution is to ask your vegan friend what to do to make it vegan tofu. He or she will know exactly what to do!

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Basic Recipe

The basic tofu stir fry recipe has some vegetables in it, combined with the typical ingredients of the east like mushrooms, ginger root, garlic, bamboo shoots and maybe water chestnuts. Vegetable broth or chicken broth may be used, and the sauce is generally made of soy sauce, dry sherry, mustard and red pepper and thickened with cornstarch.

The tofu is cut into large pieces, in fact it is always cut a size above the other vegetables, so that it stands out as the main ingredient of the tofu stir fry recipe. The stir fry is served on a bed of rice and garnished with cashews and red pepper.

The ingredients mentioned earlier make up a basic tofu stir fry recipe, and can be made even simpler by not adding any fancy vegetables or chicken. Just two varieties of vegetables can be used, whatever is available, like broccoli and carrots. No oil is used at all, just stir fry the vegetables in a wok with 2 teaspoons of water. The sauce acts like a coat and is made of dry sherry, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, seasoning and cornstarch for the rest of the ingredients, and gives it a special taste.

With Broccoli

The sauce for this Broccoli tofu stir fry recipe has a subtle yet addictive taste. If you want to reduce preparation time, you can use precut broccoli florets. The sauce also contains soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice vinegar. The oil often used is sesame oil. It is possible to prepare this recipe within 15 minutes, because the tofu is cooked in oil for about 8 minutes and then the broccoli is boiled until crisp and tender for only 4 minutes. Another 2 minutes are required to mix them with the sauce and can be eaten with brown rice.

Crispy tofu stir fry

In this tofu stir fry recipe the tofu is pan-fried with a rice flour coating. This changes the texture of the tofu and can be ideally combined with a sweet and sour sauce. It is possible to marinate the tofu for even more flavor before you fry it, which you can do if you have no time constraints. This procedure makes the bland tofu a little interesting and tasty. The crispy tofu stir fry can be served with rice, or with any Asian noodle.

The ingredients include the vegetables used in the basic tofu stir fry recipe like mushrooms, broccoli, carrots and bell pepper. Onions, ginger, garlic and soya sauce are common too. But here there is fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, peanuts and fresh cilantro which make the difference. The tofu has to be firm, and if it is a soft variety, the water should be drained. Preparation time is about one and a half hours and crispy tofu stir fry can be served with toasted peanuts, a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and cilantro leaves on top.

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Garden Vegetable Stir Fry

The tofu vegetable stir fry is eaten in combination with brown rice. A garden tofu vegetable stir fry contains a lot of vegetables like zucchini, snow peas, carrots, water chestnuts and bell pepper. The tofu should be firm and fat-reduced and cut into small cubes. The sauce is made of vegetable broth, soy sauce, rice vinegar and thickened with cornstarch.

The preparation of any tofu vegetable stir fry does not take more than 10 minutes, as tofu cooks very fast and just needs to be stir fried until golden brown, and the other vegetables should be gently fried and then cooked in the broth for not more than two minutes. The nutritional value is high, especially because it is cooked fresh just before the meal. You can add and delete the vegetables of your choice, so that every time the recipe takes on a different flavor.

In Indonesia

In Indonesia the dried shiitake mushroom is a special ingredient of the tofu vegetable stir fry. Besides, chicken stock and rice wine are used to marinate the mushrooms, even dry sherry can be used. Sesame seeds are common as an ingredient, along with ginger and garlic. Vegetables of the east like fresh bean sprout, green onion, snow peas, yellow bell pepper, and cauliflower are put into this special tofu vegetable stir fry. Sabal oelek is used for the sauce, which is a delicious Asian chilly paste, but it is very hot. So use it carefully, just a little bit the first time. Fine rice noodles can be eaten with it.

From The Chinese Kitchen

The Chinese version of the tofu vegetable stir fry is loved by all because it is simple and healthy. The Chinese tofu vegetable stir fry enables you to serve a protein which even the vegetarians can enjoy. This stir fry is served with rice for a colorful and healthy kosher dinner.

The preparation time is 20 minutes and you can cook the tofu vegetable stir fry in about 15 minutes. For the sauce you need soy sauce mixed with sugar and the vegetables are carrots, onions, red bell peppers, mushrooms, string beans and bamboo shoots. All the vegetables have to be cut into fine strips, so that it looks beautiful on the bed of rice. The tofu is marinated in the soy sauce and then all the vegetables are stir fried with it one by one till they are crisp.

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For any type of tofu stir fry, whether it is vegetarian tofu stir fry or chicken tofu stir fry, the vegetables used should be fresh and not canned. Chicken breast is best for chicken tofu stir fry and the other vegetables used in it are celery, onion, bell pepper, pea pods, bean sprouts, cabbage and scallions. The tofu should be firm and cut into cubes. Besides the sauces and curry paste, you need chicken stock and some sherry.

You need not use all the vegetables mentioned above, but a few of them of your choice. Vegetables like broccoli, sweet red peppers or carrots could be used as well. The proportion of chicken and tofu should be the same, so that one can taste both. Besides, it is better to take a combination of not more than 3 vegetables at one time. The chicken tofu stir fry can be served with rice or noodles. The crispy Chinese noodles make a very attractive garnish for this meal.

Just remember to use a variety of vegetables for the chicken tofu stir fry, but don’t overdo it. Although chicken is used in the chicken tofu stir fry, it can easily be replaced by beef or pork. Since tofu is rich in protein, you can use less meat if you like. You can actually add your favorite spices or herbs for extra flavor and enjoy the meal the way you like.

Extras

Besides ginger and garlic, mint or fresh coriander leaves can be used for cooking. Plum sauce or chilly sauce can be used in addition to soy sauce and vinegar. Marinating the tofu is also not necessary always, but it can lend that extra flavor to the chicken tofu stir fry.

Classic Stir Fry

Let us take a look at the classic chicken tofu stir fry served with brown rice. The chicken breast is less in quantity than the organic tofu that is used. All the ingredients used are fresh and organic like ginger, garlic, water chestnut, carrot, broccoli, snow peas and bok choy. The chicken broth used is organic as well, the soy sauce and the brown rice too.

Health Tip

Tofu is rich in phytoestrogens and stir frying is a cooking technique for which you use low fat. Besides, fresh vegetables are always a healthy source of food and the chicken tofu stir fry is a quick meal with a short preparation time, it is easy to make and fun too.

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