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Friday, March 29, 2024

What you need to know about tofu

What comes to mind when you think about tofu? Is tofu bland, formless shapes that hide under the lettuce in your salad? Is tofu boring, tasteless chunks of squishy white pseudo-meat?

WRONG!

Tofu, also known as bean curd, is one of the world’s greatest food products. It’s healthy, versatile, natural, and actually quite tasty. It’s also super easy to prepare into quick, healthy and delicious meals for college students, vegetarian or otherwise. Tofu deserves more credit!

As you can probably tell, I am, in fact, a Tofu fan. Shocker. The point is, this blog post is dedicated to talking about tofu, including an explanation of what tofu actually is, as well as awesome recipe tips! Basically, it’s a chance for me to get my Tofu feels on.

A lot of people don’t know this, but Tofu is actually a lot like cheese, except instead of using making a curd of milk to form cheese, tofu is made by making a curd of Soybeans. Hooray for Soybeans! They are miracle. Soybeans contain 35% protein, making them higher in that strength giving nutrient than any other crop, and almost every animal protein!

½ cup of soybeans = 5 ounces of steak! Move over, Outback. Soybeans are a superfood.

Tofu is made out of soybeans, making it pretty much a total boss in the protein department. Also just like cheese, tofu has a hundred different types. Besides the regular, everyday Tofu you see at Publix or Walmart, there is smoked, fermented, dried, sheeted, marinated, and countless other types of Tofu. There is a world of possibilities at your fingertips!

(Local little grocery stores or less generic places than Publix like Asian markets or Trader Joes often carry less common types, which is always fun to explore if you feel adventurous.)

Let’s discuss some Tofu Tips!

So, the water-packaged, firm kind of tofu, widely available in supermarkets everywhere, is great for grilling and stir-frying anything. To add extra flavor, marinate your Tofu in anything from soy-sauce to chilli to salad dressing to barbecue sauce. Tofu is versatile and porous, so it soaks up the flavor of just about anything.

If the water-packaged, Chinese-style tofu isn’t firm enough for you, then an extra tip is to press tofu between heavy plates in the fridge before use. Tofu can be strong and hardy!

But if you don’t mind the more soft texture of tofu, there are still plenty of things you can do with it! Japanese “Silken” tofu has varying degrees of firmness and is an excellent additive to dips, dressings, and drinks! Try adding some into your favorite onion dip with chips, or blending it with fruit, ice and milk for a super jolt of protein in your morning power smoothie!

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Add sliced tofu to your eggs to reduce unwanted calories and cholesterol without sacrificing flavor.

If you love Asian food, (like me) add it to your standard instant miso soup packets for a more authentic and filling Japanese snack!

Tofu can replace all the meat in your diet. Not that I don’t enjoy crispy breaded chicken fingers or a juicy hamburger as much as the next girl, but Tofu can be and often is literally a main source of protein for people all over the world, and a lot of vegetarians. There are even monks in china who have invented incredible tofu recipes that can easily pass as meat, such as “mock-chicken” or “mock-duck.” In most supermarkets, you can buy tofu bacon, (Hooray for bacon) and tofu sausage, though be sure to read the label to check for sky-high calorie levels in some brands.

If you want to find a lot of supercool, delicious recipes and information about tofu, including info about the annual tofu festival, (Yes, tofu is so awesome it has its own festival) than you can find it here.

If you’ve never had tofu and want to try it out before you make it yourself, almost every Asian restaurant around has at least two or three tofu dishes. If you’re craving tofu on UF campus, you can find it at Croutons Salad or Panda Express in the Reitz student Union and sometimes at the dining halls. I fully recommend the Veggie-Tastic tofu salad at Croutons too, by the way.

Tofu is a superfood, an often underrated but actually fantastic source of healthy and delicious protein. Next time you feel like eating something new, give it a try!

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