I grew up in a farming community on meat and potatoes for dinner. When I came to the big city for school I was excited to expand my horizons but also reluctant to try new foods and flavours. I just didn’t know where to start. Now many years later my recipe roster has become vast and varied but one thing I had yet to try cooking at home was tofu.
I’d enjoyed it often while out for dinner but just never thought to try it at home. I mean, T. and I aren’t vegetarians after all. Of course, I know tofu isn’t really just for vegetarians but somehow I’ve formed this stereotype in my head. This is why I decided to tackle tofu over the weekend and I actually found two recipes that I wanted to test.
The first was a tofu purist recipe from the greatly missed Wish magazine, Grilled Tofu with Chili Pepper, Bok Choy and Ginger. The second was one I had my eye on for a while from The Kitchn, Quick Udon Noodle Soup. I decided to test them both because I suspected tofu would require two chances to impress us and I wanted to make sure I used up the whole brick. The results? It turned out two recipes simply doubled our pleasure.
Surprise #1: Tofu is quite economical. Our brick cost us $2.29 and we were able to use it for two meals (plus I ate leftovers for lunch). Surprise #2: Tofu is really easy to work with. As a texture person, I was a little worried but a firm brick is way easier to handle than raw meat any day.
We tried the Grilled Tofu with Chili Pepper, Bok Choy and Ginger first and it lived up to all of its claims. The marinade gave the tofu amazing flavour (note: we think it would also be perfect for chicken or beef) and we were able to prep and cook dinner in 20 minutes flat. Chopping was the hardest part and we used our George Foreman Grill for the tofu (if you can imagine). There was nothing to this recipe and I think it’s an excellent gateway to soy. Surprise #3: T. and I were actually excited to have another tofu meal planned for dinner the next night.
The Quick Udon Noodle Soup also didn’t disappoint. Even easier than our previous night’s dinner, this soup took under 15 minutes to whip up (note: we used frozen noodles instead of dried) and was also a hit (though we’re pretty easy to please when it comes to Asian soups – they're a takeout favourite). This will definitely be a go to recipe for me when I’m in a time crunch (or have a takeout craving).
Surprise #4: Both T. and I have given up meat. OK maybe not (sorry my vegetarian friends, deep down I’ll always be a farm girl at heart), but we were surprised to find ourselves quite smitten with our new friend soy and we decided to work it into our meal plans more often. Meatless Mondays anyone?
Are you already on the tofu bandwagon? Do you have a tip or feedback? Leave me a comment below. I’m also always taking test recipe requests so feel free to leave me suggestions for what I should try next.