16 Tofu Recipes To Convert a Meat Lover

Tofu is one of my favorite proteins to add to our dishes. It's versatile, easy to season, inexpensive, easy to find, and perfect to incorporate into your recipes. I made a list with 16 delicious recipes that will forever change the way you see this plant-based protein.

Types of Tofu

If you're still not familiar with this protein, it may seem like this bland and boring ingredient that vegans eat, but let me tell you, tofu is way more than that, and once you know how to cook it and look for the right type of tofu, you'll be including it in many recipes.

To start cooking tofu, you may want to try easy recipes using firm tofu, which is the easiest to marinate and cook. Maybe start with an easy noodle stir-fry using common ingredients to season your tofu, such as soy sauce, sriracha, and maple syrup, a combination that never fails.

You can find different types of tofu, such as extra firm tofu, firm, or soft. They are all great alternatives to cook different meals, vegan or vegetarian, or simply to add protein to your favorite dishes. Once you get familiar and confident with extra-firm or firm tofu, you should give the other alternatives a try!

Extra-firm tofu

This type of tofu has the firmest texture, meaning that it will hold its shape better when cooking it. This type of tofu is perfect to deep-fry, stir-fry, bake or air-fry. We love extra firm tofu to make our favorite tofu recipes, such as this Vegan Japchae.

Firm

Firm tofu is quite similar to extra firm tofu, but just a little softer. You will need to carefully remove any excess water for the tofu to hold its shape while cooking it. We personally love this type of tofu as it is really versatile and easy to cook with. You can use a tofu press to remove excess water or coat the tofu with cornflour, which will also help remove any extra moisture.

This type of tofu is perfect for recreating minced meat or ground pork if you crumble it. We use it to make tofu bolognese or vegan dan dan noodles. Also, you can make a satisfying scrambled tofu for breakfast using firm, or extra-firm tofu.

Silken Tofu

Soft or silken tofu can be used to cook soups, stews, hot pots, or desserts. It's delicate, and it won't work well to cook stir-fry types of dishes. Check these 25 Silken Tofu Recipes to learn how to cook using Silken Tofu.

Tofu Skin

Tofu skin is the result of boiling soy milk. The skin that forms on the surface is later used to make another soy product: Tofu skin. You can find it dry in some Asian shops, and it is used to make mock-duck, wrappers, or to add to soups and hot pots.

Where to find the Best Tofu?

Depending on where you live, it will be easier or more challenging to find good-quality tofu. When we lived in Malaysia, the choices for tofu were absolutely mind-blowing, at least for me, coming from Spain. You could get fresh tofu, fried cubed tofu, silken tofu, bean curd, tofu skin, smoked tofu, etc. They had a food stall in the market just for tofu products. Now, where we live is very different from that. We get our firm tofu from the supermarket, and if we need fresh or silken tofu, we go to our regular Asian supermarket.

You can find firm tofu in most supermarkets nowadays, but if you need to get something more specific, such as smoked tofu, silken tofu, or tofu skin, you may need to go to an Asian grocery shop. If you are lucky enough to live in Asia, you probably have way more choices than we do when it comes to getting this plant-based protein!

When we buy our tofu, we always look for organic options made from non-genetically modified soybeans.

Easy Tofu Marinades Ideas:

• BBQ. BBQ sauce, maple syrup, chili powder, smoked paprika, and optionally liquid smoke.
• Fajita. Cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and maple syrup.
• Sesame Ginger. Sesame oil, soy sauce, fresh ginger, brown sugar.
• Chicken flavor. Dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, chili powder, olive oil.
• Fish flavor. Nori sheets, soy milk, lemon juice, nutritional yeast.
• Italian flavors. Olive oil, dried herbs, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper.
• Thai Peanut marinade. Five-spice powder, peanut sauce, maple syrup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice.
• Asian stir-fry marinade. Soy sauce, sriracha, maple syrup.

16 Easy and Delicious Tofu Recipes