Ultimate SavouryTofu Recipe

Tofu..
When you have tofu for the first time, you ask yourself,
 Is it fish?
Is it chicken?
Is it beef?

This basically means one thing...its the most versatile meat/egg replacement you can find. I like tofu for my Meatless Monday tradition because its feeling...the good kind of filling, and its delicious no matter how you cook it, and its really good for you. Especially if you use organic tofu... I strongly advise against store bought tofu, because they are too expensive and I feel, that most of them have undergone too much work for it to last that long in a tin or a tetra pack. So if you can, buy tofu from an organic grocer, its usually water-packed, a firm white block and in the cold foods section.
I get my tofu from this grocer near my home and its really really cheap.
I scramble it for breakfast, I grill it, I bake it, I fry it....you can do anything with tofu.

This recipe features my favourite tofu marinade, which is slightly tangy and oriental inspired. And takes three steps.

1. Draining Your Tofu

Because tofu is water packed, you need to drain it. The reason for this is because the tofu is water logged, and if it is not drained, it will not properly marinate.
You drain your tofu by removing the block of tofu from the packaging and throwing away the water,
Place paper towels on a plate...I use around six paper towels for this,
Place the tofu on top of the paper towels, then cover the tofu with more paper towels, around six,
take two more paper towels and place around the uncovered tofu, then place another flat plate on top of that...then place a heavy object on top of the plate, like a canister or something.
I usually use my wooden cutting board and my a mortar. My mortar is pretty heavy so it works really well for this.
Leave it for four hours. YES...four to six, in the refrigerator.

2. Marinating.

After your four to six hours, take out the tofu from the fridge, and remove the paper towels, they should be very soggy..throw those away.

Oriental Savoury Tofu Marinade

Ingredients
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar,
2 tablespoons toasted sesame
 1 clove garlic,
1/2 an inch of ginger,
a pinch of salt,
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce,
a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ( more if you want a sweeter taste)
a teaspoon of hot sauce

grind garlic, ginger, sesame seeds and salt together.
Mix in all the marinade ingredients and set aside.

cut up your tofu into desired pieces, I do cubes when I am baking it, and quarter them when I am grilling
toss it in the marinade and refrigerate for thirty to one hour..I normally go for longer hours.

Now I see, you must be thinking, how is this an easy meal, especially on a Monday, when you are tired from work, and you just want something easy and fast to toss up and go to bed.

The biggest secret to eating healthy, fun and filling meals on a weekday for me, is meal preparation. you can not go wrong with meal prep. I promise to do a post later on my meal prep routines.

But with tofu, I drain it on sunday when I am already in the kitchen making brunch, then I marinate it in the evening and let it marinate the whole night and day. When I come home I just preheat my oven and make a good salad and literally that is there is to it!





3. Bake/ Grill/ Pan fry
Preaheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, or preheat your grill to mark 5. If you are frying, mix this step ;-)
spray your baking pan with non stick spray, or just grease it with a bit of olive oil, just enough so that it doesn't stick.
Place tofu on baking pan, and put in oven

Bake for fifteen minutes, then flip and bake for another ten minutes. If you want it slightly crispy bake it some more. But I find that baked tofu is hardly ever crispy.

If grilling just grease your grilling rack and grease, if you have cubes, you will have to line it with aluminum foil, and grease,
Grilling at mark 5 can take a total of fifteen minutes, for a crispy tofu. Flip them halfway through the cooking.

If frying, heat four tablespoons of oil on a non stick frying pan until smoky,
carefully add in your tofu, fry for three minutes then flip and fry for another three minutes.
remove tofu from heat and pat dry with napkins.

serve hot, or store in the fridge and have as left overs!

Love, me,


Lola