- I’m Asian, not white.
- My tumescence is none of your business.
- This post is an obvious confirmation…
–G!
I tried to make Pork & Tofu without the pork. It just didn’t taste right. :mad:
I’m not sure I’l be helping, because I really like tofu. But my favorite tofu dish is Mapo Tofu. There are a million ways to make this, but try it at a good Chinese restaurant, preferably Sechuan (it’s not a Cantonese dish). It’s often made with ground pork, but it’s good without it, too. Nice and spicy! You can add whatever vegetables you like.
Tofu is more about the texture than the taste, so it’s all about what you cook it with. As noted, though, there are lots of different textures so go with what suits you best.
I like my tofu baked. Cut the block into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Marinate for a few minutes or just slather on some barbecue sauce and bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for about 20-30 minutes. If you leave it in the oven long enough, it gets a bit chewy and more meat-like. I serve it like I would chicken breast. It can be a bit bland, but makes a tasty meal with the right sides.
This was my gateway tofu dish.
http://www.isachandra.com/2008/10/scrambled-tofu/
It doesn’t change the texture of tofu but by having it torn in to smaller pieces it really helped me get over my disliking of tofu.
This is a great article for preparing and cooking tofu in general.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/02/vegan-experience-crispy-tofu-worth-eating-recipe.html
I really like tofu, (and I really like beans) so I don’t have any recipes for you. When we cook tofu we just do a stir fry and it ends up looking and tasting like tofu. Yummy tofu.
But if you are trying to do this to avoid estrogens, you might want to research tofu? I thought soy products were relatively estrogenic, because there’s something in soy that mimics estrogen in the human body. i’ve read that a high-soy diet can mitigate symptoms of menopause due to the estrogenic stuff in soy, for instance.
And back to meat… I’m surprised that actual hormones survive cooking, since heat denatures a lot of proteins. But to the extent that’s the issue, I wonder if some animals have more stray (relevant-to-you) hormones in their meat than others. Like, dairy cows have been bred to over-produce milk far beyond what any calf needs, and I think the biological mechanism underlying that is that they overproduce a lot of hormones related to lactation and reproduction. Whereas beef cattle have been bred to bulk up, and probably have a rather different hormone mix in their blood (perhaps more androgens). Maybe new zealand lamb (which has been bred primarily for wool) would have a lower (relevant-to-you) hormone load than beef, for instance.
If the issue isn’t actually consuming hormones, but the nutritional content of meat, then you may do best by just cutting back on saturated fats (or protein, or whatever the issue is) rather than on “animal products”.
And if there’s just some mediocre studies finding a correlation between people who say they eat a lot of meat and people who get breast cancer, I’d guess that no one has even studied whether people who eat a lot of soy get breast cancer.
Anyhow, I guess I’m with Qadgop the Mercotan, I’m dubious of the advice you’ve been given, and advise you to do more research.
These days, whole soy (tofu, edamame) is considered safe in moderation and possibly protective for people with ER+ cancer. The recommendation is to avoid things like “soy protein isolate.” IANAD, but a person who had ER+ breast cancer and consulted with a lot of medical people about soy.
Tofu is beans, Not trying to put you off but if you dont like beans then this might be a problem. That said you can do some tasty non beaney things with beans. Hummus can be made from pretty much any bean. blended into a paste you can add beans to lots of food for the protein content without messing up the taste much.
Hey, what good timing… Last night was enchilada tofu night! After properly draining/pressing your tofu brick, cube it and place it in a small casserole with the sauce of your choice (in this case, it’s enchilada sauce mixed with a generous helping of veggie-loaded black bean salsa and a bit of apple cider vinegar and/or water for added moisture). I usually bake it at 320 for 30 minutes, pull it to make sure there’s enough sauce, then bake it for another 25 - 30 minutes, depending on how much sauce I’ve added. Cook it higher for a chewier texture, or if you don’t plan on reheating it.
Sorry about the black bean salsa.
Have you thought about trying seitan? It’s very meat-like in texture, and still offers protein, though it is a bit higher in calories than tofu.
Were you told to avoid meat?
I’m just curious if the same medical advice that says “soy is okay in moderation” also says “avoid all animal products”.
**Make me like tofu (please)
**
We could, but it would involve a cattle prod and whatever drug it was they gave Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.
[Gets out magic wand]
tink
OK, you’re like tofu.
- Please tell me this is a whoosh-I was describing tofu itself.
- In the interest of fairness, I went to Chungdam Korean Fusion to see if I had just had some bad experiences with tofu. I tried the soft tofu soup, in which you crack a raw egg into the soup, which both cooks the egg and thickens the soup up to a somewhat New England chowder consistency. How good was it? If I hadn’t already ordered the spicy pork bulgogi I think I would have had a second bowl.
People, please stop turning me into tofu! Yesterday I was perusing tofu at Trader Joe’s and it felt like cannibalism. 
Puzzlegal, the way I understand it, cooking denatures growth hormones, but estrogen is derived from lipids and are therefore not killed by cooking. (Keep in mind I barely know what I’m talking about. This is all new.) We’re not talking about added hormones here but the ones naturally produced by the cow, chicken, pig, etc. Fatty tissue produces estrogen, so maybe lean cuts have less? Not sure. The doc said nothing about meats other than the hormone aspect.
**Susan **: sorry to learn you’ve had to deal with this, too. And I heard the same thing about soy. I’ve tried edamame, but–you guessed it. 
Critical1: I thought of the tofu-is-beans thing. I’m hoping the firm-textured stuff and preparation will help me forget the fact. I’m not wild about hummus, but maybe with enough stuff thrown in, I can get past the texture? I dunno.
Jeep’s Phoenix: What is seitan? I’ve never heard of it. And where would I find it? Thanks for the salsa recipe. I’ll try it without the black beans.
Thanks to all of you for the recipes and suggestions. I saw black bean pasta at TJ’s yesterday. While I couldn’t make myself buy it, it reminded me to give high-protein pasta another try. Plus, look at me, considering something that has “bean” on the label!
My daughter and her friend are coming for the weekend, so I’m putting off the tofu experiments until Monday. They like tofu, but nobody likes Botched Tofu Dish #1.
Another option you could try in lieu of tofu is tempeh. Tempeh - Wikipedia.
Also soy based; however, I prefer the texture of tempeh over tofu. It’s got a very pleasing mouth feel and absorbs the flavour of whatever you cook it with - I use it in place of chicken, and it is a pretty great stand in for most of those dishes.
It is not a whhoosh. Grestarian is in fact Asian.
Tempeh and Seitan are usually used as “fake meat”. Another fake meat you might want to look for is Quorn.
It’s supposed to have a very meat texture and not much flavor.
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I agree with everyone else who says that your doctor is…um…mistaken trying to force a vegan diet.
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I agree with you 100% on beans and tofu. (I’m not “allergic” per se, but beans cause stomach issues that “Bean-O” and other such products don’t fix. Plus, beans are just gross tasting)
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That said, if you are willing to fudge the vegan thing some, there’s a Chinese dish called Ma Po Tofu. It has ground pork (or chicken) in it, but not a ton (maybe 10% of the dish, the other 90% being veggies/spices/tofu) and might help you get used to the texture and flavor of tofu. I had it and enjoyed it, despite not liking tofu at all. (Also, unless you go to an authentic China-Town type place, I’ve rarely had it as crazy hot as everyone describes it as)
I was told by several docs with different specialties that a plant-based, Mediterranean-style diet low on meat and with extra olive oil was a reasonable way to go. I tried complete vegan for a few months, but it kicks my blood sugar too high even if it’s all whole vegetables, low-glycemic fruit, and no grains. Throw in a little oil, though, and it’s better. I aim for lean, no-hormone, no-antibiotic meat maybe once a week plus fish once a week, and a couple of eggs a week, and I do very well.
Alright, you can thank me later.
You need some red wine vinegar and some soy sauce. And some type of flavored sauce (I don’t care which one but BBQ or hoisin sauce are easy ones; be creative… or not). And, if you have it, some kind of flavored oil (again, doesn’t really matter which one).
Take your tofu out of the TJ’s tofu container thingy, cut the tofu hunk into, umm half-inch strips, place it in a tuperware or similar, and add your ingredients. The key here is the red wine vinegar – because it gets everything absorbed into the tofu – and, to a lesser degree, soy sauce. A few (6-7) healthy splashes of each should be enough.
Let the tofu sit for a couple days – or more – in the fridge and turn the container upside down for a stretch, so the marinade gets soaked up by both top and bottom of the tofu strips.
Then put the strips on the grill and barbecue like you would any meat. Once the char marks are pretty pronounced, you’re good.
The tofu is actually better after it’s cooled off – or a day later, coming out of the fridge – but plenty good right off the grill.
You can marinate tofu chunks or strips in lemon juice or a lemon/orange juice mix, then pan fry them for a more dessert-like dish. Or marinate them in limoncello, bake or pan fry, and sprinkle with a little cinnamon or ginger.