The Chef Within

No one likes to throw food away, even if that food is tofu.  Seriously…we eat quite alot of tofu at our house and have found some great ways to use it.  In many cases when people buy a package of tofu they have use for part of it but frequently the remainder spoils and gets thrown out.  So here are some ideas on how to use up the entire package and not waste one bite and make sure that every bite is delicious.  I might also suggest that you look over a previous post on how to press tofu to remove some of the water and create a firmer, denser product.

But first make sure that once you have opened the package, place the remainder in a clean, airtight container, store in the fridge and remember that you have approximately two weeks to use it up. 

For starters…I’m sure everyone is familiar with the tofu-egg scramble.  This is where you take maybe one quarter of the block of tofu, dice it real small, warm those dices in the microwave and then add them to scrambled eggs with peppers, spinach, onions, cheese, anything you like. 

Something I have been doing recently is once again taking very small dices of tofu, browning them in a little oil…

and then adding some soy sauce and allowing the soy sauce to cook around the tofu, stirring as needed and cooking to the point…

that the dices soak up all the liquid (or the liquid evaporates) and turn deep golden in color.  These tasty, semi-crispy cubes are great on a pizza or a salad…

or on top of a baked potato.  You can also cut slices and do the same thing and then use those in sandwiches and in casseroles.

Then there’s tofu parmigiana.  Cut slices of pressed tofu…

dip them in egg or buttermilk…

and then in seasoned bread crumbs. 

fry to golden perfection on both sides

and serve this just as you would a breaded chicken breast.  With tofu like this, who misses the meat?