Vegan MOFO Day 29 - Touting Tofu

When I first tried tofu, it was anything but love at first bite. The texture weirded me out. Looking back, I'm fairly certain the preparation had a lot to do with my bad experience. While I am still certainly no expert in tofu preparation, I have learned the nuances between silken, firm, extra firm, smoked, etc. No longer will I attempt to make grilled tofu with soft tofu. This would seem to be a logical assumption, but when you are first diving into cooking with tofu, the choices are overwhelming.

It didn't take me long (once deciding to eat more veg and vegan food) to figure out that tofu is indeed my friend. I worried about giving up some of my favorite fried foods like fried chicken and fish and chips. I was very surprised to learn that tofu could fill this bill easily. Below is a crunchy fried version that fills the bill!

Tofu is wonderful to use in breakfast dishes. Tofu scrambles are fast, easy, and healthy to whip up for breakfast. You can get all creative with your bad self by mixing in your favorite veggies and spices to make it your own. Another dish I mistakenly thought I would have to do without was eggs benedict. Well feast your eyes on this. I want for nothing!!

I never knew about pressing tofu. It really makes a difference in the texture. If you are needing a firmer less moist tofu for a particular dish, you must press it. I find the best method to be using two 8x8 glass baking dishes. Place the tofu in the bottom dish, put the other dish on top. Put a heavy can or a bag of beans in the top pan and let sit for about 30 minutes. You will see how much liquid comes out. Now you can use it as a base for many "steak" like dishes. One such dish is this lovely Tofu Marsala from YRR. This is one of the dishes I never thought would come close to the non-vegan version. This one is even better. So cheers to tofu. How I now love thee.