Make me like tofu (please)

[Shoeless]

poof You are like tofu! You’re welcome.
(Old running joke in our family. Somebody says something like “Hey, make me a sandwich.” And somebody else will say “poof You’re a sandwich!”)

[susan]

“Plant based” = mostly plants.

“Vegan” = all plants.

[MikeG]

Cantonese silken tofu with shiitake mushrooms,ginger,and scallions is really good. You add some shrimp or firm white fleshed fish if you decide you don’t need to restrict yourself to vegan lifestyle.

[Jasmine]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, curdled soybean milk!! :o

[Morgenstern]

I firmly believe a good hot sauce makes almost anything palatable.

[QuickSilver]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

I seriously question your doc’s credibility. There is no good evidence that a vegan diet is necessary. Best evidence indicates that one can achieve the benefits by just increasing the proportion of plant-based food in your diet, while still having animal products. To assert otherwise these days is to enter the world of woo.

I’m not opposed to vegan diets but it’s a shame so many folks, including those who should know better, are making false claims about them.

And tofu is yummy. I love it in soups, where it’s absorbed the flavor of the broth. I use it in my hot and sour soup recipes, and triple the amount called for!

I would not jump to the conclusion that her doctor suggested a vegan diet. “Plant based” doesn’t mean absolutely no meat/fish/eggs/milk. Although, a lot of people, perhaps including the OP have taken to calling a vegan diet, “plant based”, because vegan-ism has a bit of a negative connotation due to the lunatics that often preach it’s “superior” virtues.

[gonzoron]

I’m not a big fan of tofu, but I do love inari sushi, which involved deep-fired sushi pockets.

[gnoitall]

I assume the core issue is guaranteeing sufficient protein intake without meat or most legumes. (Focusing on tofu is, since it’s a legume product.)

[Lucas_Jackson]

Try TraderJoes seasoned tofu. It’s the only kind I like. It’s delicious.

[DCnDC]

Have you tried edamame (young soybeans in the shell)? The nutritional benefits are near identical, plus significantly more fiber, and they’re much more palatable, texture-wise, than tofu. You can buy them frozen in steam-in-bag packages that you just microwave a couple of minutes. Sprinkle with salt and sesame oil and you’re good to go.

[DavidwithanR]

@Morgenstern

I firmly believe a good hot sauce makes almost anything palatable.

I don’t know about that, but “… almost any tofu recipe palatable” - yes, if you like hot sauce.

[BeeGee]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

I seriously question your doc’s credibility. There is no good evidence that a vegan diet is necessary. Best evidence indicates that one can achieve the benefits by just increasing the proportion of plant-based food in your diet, while still having animal products. To assert otherwise these days is to enter the world of woo.

This is what I was told to do to help keep my macular degeneration in the dry stage. It’s not about NOT eating certain foods, but making sure that I get the full daily recommended amounts of fruit, nuts, and leafy greens with fish three times a week. That has lead to eating less meat or poultry, but I’ve never been told to kick them out. Just keep them lean. So by the time I finish my spinach, banana, and orange smoothie in the morning, I don’t really have any room for bacon and eggs.

[wonky]

This is a really good recipe for tofu (and an even better one for sprouts): Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Crispy Baked Tofu with Honey-Sesame Glaze - Cookie and Kate

[Czarcasm]

All of these things y’all are adding to the tofu sound delicious…so why include the tofu at all?

[gnoitall]

@Czarcasm

All of these things y’all are adding to the tofu sound delicious…so why include the tofu at all?

Because tofu has the protein.

That’s what this nutrition discussion is about, after all. OP’s seized upon tofu as the least unpalatable (to her) form of vegetable protein available. This would work for me; to me, tofu is delectable and 1/3 of the world’s population agrees with me on this. Doesn’t work for you, except as a snark target. Fine.

More to the relevant point, I sense it might not work for OP either. Some of these recipes are quite promising, but I don’t think they’re sustainable. (Can anyone cook and eat such a small selection of tofu recipes every day, even if they love tofu?)

The real problem is protein. OP, I recommend making sure you have plenty of sources of vegetable protein, and if your (poorly described) “plant-based diet” is sane enough to allow dairy, incorporate milk proteins too. And protein-enhanced grain products.

My wife is very slowly healing from extensive surgery, and her dietary limitations make it so that she has to try extraordinarily hard to get enough protein to support healing. She has surgical wounds that are only now closing 9 months after discharge.

Protein intake on a restricted diet is a huge challenge. First of all, OP, make sure your doctor’s dietary advice is sound and relevant, and not some woo-based bias. A second opinion may be in order.

[nelliebly]

Wow, so much good advice! I knew I was asking the right people! I’m heading out to Trader Joe’s and my local supermarket this afternoon and will try some of these suggestions and recipes in the coming days.

About the doc’s advice: she actually WAS talking about a vegan diet, but to clarify, she was talking about its benefits for estrogen-receptive* breast cancer*, as mine was. I cannot have radiation and so am trying to reduce the chances of any stray cancer cells getting enough estrogen to feed on. It seems to me like an inexact science, and believe me, I’d rather go back to cheese, eggs, etc… I could easily be led astray by a piece of bacon.

Until yesterday, I assumed if I bought meat raised without hormones, I wasn’t getting hormones. I guess I was wrong? This is from an Iranian study published by the NIH (NCBI, actually):

In summary, it seems that steroid hormones are very potent compounds in dairy foods, which exerting profound biological effects in animals and humans. Most of the previous knowledge about the steroids is according on their physiologic and sometimes supra-physiologic concentrations of steroids but recently it is found that these compounds even at very low doses may have significant biological effects.

I really wouldn’t be concerned about this if it weren’t for the breast cancer. That’s an experience I wouldn’t care to repeat. But I don’t want to skip eating the things I love for shaky science, either.

[simply_cats]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

I seriously question your doc’s credibility. There is no good evidence that a vegan diet is necessary. Best evidence indicates that one can achieve the benefits by just increasing the proportion of plant-based food in your diet, while still having animal products. To assert otherwise these days is to enter the world of woo.

I’m not opposed to vegan diets but it’s a shame so many folks, including those who should know better, are making false claims about them.

And tofu is yummy. I love it in soups, where it’s absorbed the flavor of the broth. I use it in my hot and sour soup recipes, and triple the amount called for!

Since I have seen this come up a couple of times (validity of the plant-based diet), I’d recommend The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. I’m still working my way through it, but I’m interested in his animal protein/cancer connections. He does NOT say that animal protein causes cancer, but that it promotes the growth of cancer cells already present.

Also, I’ll throw in that “plant-based” for me is actually “whole food, plant-based” which does take out all animal proteins, and processed food in general. I’m not a doctor, and I’m not trying to convert anyone, but I’m finding the studies compelling, and I’m all for better health.

[Johnny_L.A]

Fried tofu has already been mentioned. I put firm tofu on a paper-towel covered plate, then put paper towels on top, then another plate with a weight on it. Then I cut it into slices and cut the slices into triangles to fry up for ‘family-style tofu’. Yum.

Tofu is the basis for many meat substitutes. I like Trader Joe’s soy chorizo. It’s almost as good as the real thing. I had a TJ’s soy chorizo in a low-carb tortilla a couple/few weeks ago. And Tofurkey Italian sausages are good too. Slice it up and cook it with a bit of spaghetti sauce. Serve it on a toasted roll with some provolone cheese. (Or no cheese if you’re avoiding it.)

[Ulfreida]

Tofu does very well in tomato sauce. Tofu spaghetti, tofu lasagne. Yes you add cheese.

Tofu is really good marinated and then baked. After that it can go in cold noodle salads with peanut sauce, or with veggies on rice.

I eat tofu probably four times a week and have for decades. It is a staple in my house. Don’t expect it to be meat, it never will be.

[Chronos]

[Moderating]

Czarcasm, we get it: You don’t like tofu. One might expect, therefore, that you don’t have any good recipes for it. So why are you in a thread asking for good recipes for tofu, other than to threadshit?

Do not do this