How to Cook Tofu Like a BOSS (BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TOFU)

[Music] hello friends and welcome back to cheap and lazy vegan today I have the very highly requested tofu video for you guys I did ask you guys if you wanted it to have a video and many many many of you said yes because apparently most people don't know what to do with tofu so hopefully I'm here to guide you along the way I am Asian so I feel like that itself is a qualification you know Asian people we love to who I've been eating tofu pretty much as long as I can remember I can't remember ever not eating tofu tofu is a very big part of Korean cuisine as well as Chinese Japanese and we just love this stuff you know hoping to give you guys some good advice some good tips and I don't know let's see let's just see what happens okay I personally think tofu is one of the best inventions ever it is just such a genius thing this this big block of random white soybeans thing somehow can transform into so many different things it is awesome it is great I'm gonna talk about this for a pretty long time home girl loves tofu in every shape and size every form I can eat it like I mean I could just beat those look straight out of the package okay but I dunno kind of why some people don't like it I understand I understand it's like a texture issue the main problem people have is that so who has I guess that kind of I don't want to say spongy like texture but kind of that not meaty but also not super soft texture and it's kind of weird I can kind of get that if you're not used to that I understand now I'm going to talk about how to kind of mitigate that how to cook tofu in ways that that doesn't necessarily all without texture so I know I'm part going to get some comments about the health risks of tofu now I am NOT your doctor or nutritionist or dietitian or any sort of professional in that manner and I have no idea what to tell you okay I personally do not believe that tofu is bad for you that's just my personal belief I think as long as maybe you use non-gmo soy I don't believe that tofu is harmful we've eaten tofu as Asians as Asians we've eaten tofu for a very very very very long time and we're also known to be quite healthy so I don't know what to tell you guys I'm sure if you eat way too much of it then it might cause some problems but again I'm not here to argue with you just putting that out there I know that I will get some comments on it that's why I'm addressing it right now I'm still probably gonna get some comments on it but that's okay so let's talk about tofu let's talk about the different kinds of tofu there are Sifu okay there are so many different kinds of tofu usually it's just kind of a definition of how much water content is in the tofu itself and how the texture is going to be so I'm sure you kind of have an idea but in case you don't we're going to just kind of go through it okay so generally tofu comes in various forms of firmness this right here is extra soft tofu this is a Korean brand it is called soon tofu oh I just packed anyways this is extra soft tofu extra soft is just that it's extra soft it's super custardy it's creamy and it this is not something that you want to try to fry okay this is very high in water content this is great for multiple things I think some of the best ways you can use it is to make a soup or a stew out of it I already have a recipe on a very delicious Korean dish called soondubu jjigae which is basically extra soft No what am I saying which is basically soft tofu stew and it's super popular in Korea it is so delicious and I love it so much and I'm using this tofu in that so if you want to see that video in that recipe I will link that down below you can make that or you can make other kinds of soups and just throw this in it kind of has like an eggy like very smooth custardy texture I don't even know how to describe it but it's super smooth super yummy to me anyway so it is very good okay and you can of course use it for other things you can use it for things like smoothies you can throw some of this into a smoothie and it will give that smoothie a very nice creamy smooth texture and it also has a nice kick of protein if you don't use protein powder you can also make desserts with this puddings you could also use this to make dressing or any type of nice creamy sauce the options and lists my friends now obviously like I said this is not to be fried okay this is just going to break in your hand so yeah the next thing after extra soft tofu what do you think it is guys it is soft tofu now I do not have soft tofu with me but you can kind of imagine what it is now soft tofu is just a slightly more firm than extra soft tofu it usually comes in a little container like this one and again it's great for soups it's probably what you'll find in like miso soup you know those little cute little cubes of tofu that you find in like Asian soups that's most likely going to be soft tofu it is possible to like cut it up until it cubes whereas this is just kind of like basically like a custard like I don't even there really is no way that you could kind of shape this thing because it's just so so soft it's just going to break if you try to cut it where a soft tofu you can definitely cut it and again you can kind of use it interchangeably with extra soft tofu it's just going to have a slightly firmer texture but it's pretty much gonna be a very similar style you're not gonna want to fry it or bake soft tofu that's just this is not a good idea you know next I have here well this says firm tofu but I don't buy it in my opinion this is more likely extra firm tofu but this is a Korean brand and thus Koreans like I don't know to us like this is probably firm because Korean tofu tends to be like not super extra firm because they don't really care if it's extra firm I don't know if that makes sense I feel like because in the West they don't like this kind of soft tofu texture they make it more firm whereas in Korea like we're used to come to that tofu texture so if we don't mind it so this is like supposed to be firm but in western standards this is probably a medium firm does that make sense medium firm is the nice middle ground now you can do a lot with medium firm tofu because again like I said is pretty much the middle ground between firm and soft you can fry me no firm tofu it might break more easily but you can pan fry it you can put it into an air fryer or even deep-fry it you can bake it you can do all of these things but you could also you know put it into a nice creamy sauce and you could blend it up and make it super kind of creamy if you add maybe a little bit of liquid into it so you could kind of do a lot with medium firm tofu I find but it's also kind of one of those things that people probably hate the most because it's kind of just not perfectly firm but it's also not soft enough to put into like smoothies so I feel like I don't know to me it's great but I don't know it depends on what you're using it for but I use media from tofu quite a lot I have pan-fried media from tofu and there are ways to make it like kind of nice and crispy like almost like firm tofu we'll talk about that and then of course there's firm and extra firm which again is kind of interchangeable it's just extra firm is extra firm you can already kind of tell by the packaging the fact that it's not packaged like this in fact that it's packaged like this it already tells you that it's gonna be a lot more firm and it's not going to break as easily now it just means that there's less of water and it's more densely packed than medium firm or soft tofu and this is going to be what you want to use extra firm tofu or firm tofu if you're trying to make it into like a nice kind of meaty like chewy texture okay if you want that kind of crispy meaty texture then you are looking for the firm or extra firm tofu because it just basically means there's just less water content in this stuff which means it's obviously going to be a firmer more solid texture you know what I'm saying and then this right here is the love of my life this is smoked tofu people now this is I think this is a Western invention although I'm probably wrong actually I just need that this is more expensive generally than other kinds of tofu because it's been smoked and basically if literally just tofu that has gone through some sort of smoking process and it usually comes in in like a kind of very firm package and there's no water really okay there's no water content in this it pretty much reminds me of ham it's kind of like vegan ham I've talked about this so many times at this point but this is something that I can literally just eat just straight out of this container I can just chop it up put it into a sandwich and just eat it and I think people that don't like tofu may still like this because it has a very kind of ham like texture and it's not I feel like the texture is very different from tofu or like you know this kind of tofu so if you don't like tofu maybe give smoked tofu a try because it has the flavor and it has the firmer texture so smoked tofu is your friend okay I'm Charlie new smoked tofu has changed my life many of you guys have asked me where I find smoked tofu and obviously it depends on where you are but I generally find mine at a health food store and Asian supermarket or just a regular supermarket if I'm lucky I also forgot to mention silken tofu as a type of tofu silken tofu is very very smooth and custardy in consistency it's used quite often in dessert recipes like puddings they are definitely probably closest to soft tofu you do not want a mistake in silken tofu for regular tofu if something calls for extra firm silken tofu that is not the same thing as extra firm tofu and of course there are many different brands of tofu around the world so they are all going to be a little bit different the consistency and the water content will be different so try out different brands and see what you like all right guys now what is s now let's talk about the different things they could do tofu the options are endless my friends I mean it is just ridiculous how little people understand about the possibilities of tofu so let's just cut it up in one of these so this is a very standard packaging of tofu you know it comes in this weird like box thing very traditional I'm just going to I usually just take a knife cool that looks giant like a freaking I don't even anyways I poked in like this and it is going to UM the liquid is just going to kind of you know so you might want to be out of sync for this give me a minute okay so I have just drain the water out and then you want to give it a nice quick rinse with just cold water you know I'm not gonna lie guys I very often forget to rinse it but it is so this is the firm it has that kind of sponginess that you all seem to hate so much most likely maybe you're not gonna use all this tofu so you're not gonna use all of it I just kind of cut however much I'm not using put it into a little container that you can close and what you want to do is you want to fill it up with nice cold clean water and then you cover it up and then you leave it in the fridge and now you want to eat it in the next probably 2 or 3 days and I think good practice is to change the water every day but anyway you could also freeze it and what freezing does to no food is that it actually changes the texture a little bit and apparently it makes it more like meaty what is going on up there it makes it our more meaty because it kind of expels more water out of the tofu and it also apparently absorbs more flavor so if you don't like the texture of tofu then I highly recommend trying to freeze it now let's cut up this tofu and when I slice my tofu I generally like to cut it pretty thin but not too thin that doesn't help at all does it out maybe about like a third of an inch or maybe half an inch maybe around that size now some of you may have noticed that I don't press my tofu I very very rarely presto I probably pressed tofu ten times in my life I don't press tofu I hate pressing tofu I just don't see the point in pressing tofu because the whole point I feel like of pressing tofu is to make the texture like more firm and like more medium stuff and because I don't mind non meaty texture like I just don't want to press it and there are ways of cooking tofu that doesn't necessarily require you to press it so I'll show you what I do with this so you can see what happens when you cook it without pressing it you don't have to do it save yourself the time the energy so the trick is number one you should probably be using a nonstick pan tofu does tend to stick especially in the beginning so what you don't want is your tofu to stick because then it's not going to fry properly so I'm using a nonstick pan and I have my heat on about medium to medium-high heat you don't want the heat too strong because they are going to be frying the tofu for a relatively long amount of time and if your heat is too strong it's going to burn your tofu so I have here this oil spray thing that I just got from Amazon this just allows me to use some oil but without using too much oil so I'm just going to spray just a few sprays and I'm just going to heat that up a little bit so I'm going to be adding the medium firm tofu and the trick that I find is to not move this around let it do the work let it cook on each side for a while so I'm talking at least five minutes on medium high heat maybe even a little bit longer maybe five to eight minutes I would say until it's nicely golden brown trust the process let it do the magic and when you turn it around it brings you nice and crispy and golden brown for comparison I'm going to add in some strips of extra firm tofu so as you can see here this is a lot more firm you get the other difference in texture I'm just gonna stick a couple of these in there and I normally don't like to season anything until it's completely cooked but you can at this point put some salt and add other seasonings at this point if you'd like so as you guys have seen I did not press the tofu you don't have to press it okay that is that it's all I'm trying to say it'll have to press Chopra mm-hmm so right now the tofu has been cooking for about five minutes on medium heat mium high heat ish I feel like it's almost not even done yet so here we go let's just turn these things around that was the medium firm this is the now this is what you're looking for that kind of brownish golden color and then you want to leave it here for another I don't know four to five minutes until it's nice and crispy on both sides now the longer you cook it you want to maybe turn the heat down a little bit and the longer you cook it it's going to give it more of that crispy outer texture okay so I can feel here the extra firm tofu is a lot more firm and then this one still has a little bit of that softness on it so with the medium firm I'm gonna want to cook it for a bit longer if I want that more meaty texture and then this you don't have to cook it for as long because I didn't press it you might have to cook it for a bit longer because I need to expel more water out as I cook and of course there are many different ways of flavoring your tofu I'm just going to show you a very simple way of flavoring it I'm just using some store-bought teriyaki sauce this is very thick teriyaki sauce so I'm just gonna add a bit of a water to thin it out a bit so it's easy to toss the tofu around and make sure to coat everything I'm also of course adding some sriracha ah what else is new and then we're just gonna mix that well and once that is nicely mixed and your tofu is completely pan-fried on each side and nicely golden brown you're going to want to throw that sauce into the mixture and toss your tofu around Oh make sure at this point that your heat is at a low heat because the sauce will caramelize very quickly so you want to make sure the heat is either off or just completely at the lowest heat and then there is your tofu if you cooked it enough on each side the texture should be very firm and crispy on the outside and the sauce of course you can make different types of sauces as well there are many different ways of cooking tofu I'll get to more in a little bit so as an experiment I froze some extra firm tofu and this is what it looked like it is going to turn yellow that's very normal so don't be alarmed and then of course I've thought it out in the fridge afterwards and then as you can see here you can easily squeeze that water out and the texture is a lot firmer than before so it's actually a lot easier to squeeze the water out without the tofu breaking which is very cool and because I heard that freezing and thawing out your tofu will help absorb more flavor I decide to try and marinate the tofu pieces so I created a simple marinade with just soy sauce rice vinegar and sesame oil and then I placed it on a plate and place the tofu pieces on it and guys look how fast the tofu absorbs the liquid the marinade look at this it literally absorbs it almost instantly how amazing is that oh my god so if you're looking to marinate your tofu and give it more flavor I highly recommend freezing the tofu first and then thawing it out and then marinating it because it makes such a big difference so I highly recommend trying this out and the flavors obviously got super infused into the tofu and it tasted really good and here are just some of the things you could make with tofu give your smoothies and extra protein kick and some creamy consistency with some extra soft tofu you can also use silken tofu you can use soft tofu just make sure you add in lots of other things in there to mask the tofu flavor and you've got yourself a beautiful smoothie and of course scrambled tofu is an option for you use different types of vegetables different seasonings like cumin nutritional yeast garlic powder and turmeric which gives it a nice yellow look and you can even microwave your scrambled tofu and yes there is a recipe video on how I microwave my tofu so check that out I also have a breakfast video where I used tofu in a variety of different ways so I'll link that down below as well soft and extra soft tofu's works super well in soups and stews especially of course Asian style soups and stews I love the consistency of extra soft tofu inside my soup it gives almost like an eggy like consistency it's super smooth and I love it definitely try out some different recipes you can try out my soft tofu stew recipe which is a very popular Korean dish and I have a video on it of course if you want to make your tofu super crispy on the outside and delicious you could of course coat your tofu with corn starch or other types of coatings like breadcrumbs or maybe even almond flour to make it nice and crispy I do have a recipe where I make some sweet chili tofu and of course I'm teriyaki tofu as well so I'll link that video down below another way of making your tofu crispy without actually deep-frying it is actually to coated and air fry it I love my air fryer as you can see here this is just simply coated tofu that has been air fried and very minimal oil has been used and then I am just tossing it in this beautiful sauce I have this recipe in my airfryer video if you don't have an air fryer check it out and see if you might want one because it is awesome it is bomb and I seriously love it so much it doesn't that look delicious it's so crispy and you don't have to fry it it is simply air fried and of course you can always throw your tofu in a blender with various different spices and sauces and seasonings and it could create beautiful dressings beautiful cheese's beautiful sauces Here I am showing you my tofu ricotta cheese which I used so often in lasagnas and it is seriously the bomb it's so good I fed this to so many people and everyone loves the tofu ricotta part it seriously can fool people guys so I would definitely recommend trying to make some delicious spreads or cheeses out of tofu another option is to take a softer or silken tofu and create a very delicious pasta sauce that is nice and creamy again recipe video is linked down below and of course I've got some delicious mouth-watering tofu recipes in my eBook such as a super yummy vegan tzatziki sauce recipe a Mapo tofu recipe eggless egg salad a spicy Korean tofu recipe and much more so if you haven't checked out the e-book yet check out the link down below to get your hands on it I'm hoping that all of this makes sense to you guys I hope this was helpful in any way shape or form try out different methods of making tofu I guarantee you there's at least one way of eating tofu that you may enjoy so do not do not fret people tofu is tofu is amazing check out my tofu recipes maybe I'll start a playlist of my recipes involving tofu that is it for my video I hope you guys enjoyed I hope you found it helpful please give it a thumbs up if you did find it helpful and if you are new here don't forget to click the subscribe button so you don't miss videos in the future and I will see you guys in my next video thank you guys for watching bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Cheap Lazy Vegan

Views: 1,594,468

Keywords: cheap lazy vegan, cheaplazyvegan, HOW TO COOK TOFU, how to cook tofu like a boss, beginner's guide to tofu, what to do with tofu, different kinds of tofu, silken tofu, extra firm tofu, how to make tofu taste good, how to flavour tofu, do i have to press tofu, tofu recipes, easy tofu recipes, easy vegan tofu recipes, easy vegan recipes, freezing tofu, how to freeze tofu, what happens when you freeze tofu, all about tofu

Id: HhQqfw8UAUY

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2018