Like the title says,
my daughter has gone vegi and we want to support her decision, as well as fresh veg we have been buying vegi frozen food but we want to give her a varied well balanced diet, she's not keen on Quorn and so today we bought some Tofu, we haven't got a clue what to do with it, HELP!!!!!!!!!
Dave..

Loads of ideas here http://www.goodness.co.uk/tofu.shtml

Like the title says,
my daughter has gone vegi and we want to support her decision, as well as fresh veg we have been buying vegi frozen food but we want to give her a varied well balanced diet, she's not keen on Quorn and so today we bought some Tofu, we haven't got a clue what to do with it, HELP!!!!!!!!!
Dave.. Its far worse than quorn. So if she wasn't keen on that I don't hold out much hope for the tofu. Get her to try different quorn dishes, some are much tastier than others.

any veggies who may be interested, the 99p shop has got an offer on, of two packs of "silken" tofu (for stir fries etc) for 99p.

Tofu......:gag:

I'd rather eat my own leg!

That's not frightfully helpful however, is it?

I can understand traditional Quorn pieces not being very palatable, but Quorn mince is quite good in a bolognese sauce.

Try Asda for a good range of Quorn products. Yesterday I had their sweet chilli sausages, and the day before I had something else. I can't remember what it was, but it was nice. :confused:

I'll blame it on the meds....:D

any veggies who may be interested, the 99p shop has got an offer on, of two packs of "silken" tofu (for stir fries etc) for 99p.

Do you mean that 99p shop just below Argos in town ?

Good way of getting her to eat meat again, giving her tofu :hihi: . It's like polystyrene but without the flavour, and worse texture ........

What sort of Quorn have you been using, and how have you been cooking it? Tesco do an 'own brand' range of veggie "fast foods", which are all TVP (textured vegetable protein), which are nice, but I wouldn't recommend them as the main things for her to eat ......... only because of the fat content ......... if I remember correctly ........

Try some Sosmix (powdered veggie sausage mix - highly recommended!) from Holland and Barrett (and I'm sure other places!) - I used to use it all the time for things like veggie Scotch eggs (unless she's vegan of course), a veggie haggis occassionally, cheesy veggie bakes ....... RealEat do substitutes which are good, and Linda McCartney stuff is pretty good too - especially the deep savoury pies!

In my honest opinion, don't use tofu. It's horrible.

Do you mean that 99p shop just below Argos in town ?

That's the one, it's at the far end of the shop, with the rest of the foodstuffs.

I have to admit, the only tofu I like is the dessert tofu that comes out like blancmange/ angel delight. I really dislike, with a vengeance, the stir-fried stuff, cos it reminds me of the white of fried eggs, in texture and taste.

(I think I must be doing something wrong)

Like the title says,
my daughter has gone vegi and we want to support her decision, as well as fresh veg we have been buying vegi frozen food but we want to give her a varied well balanced diet, she's not keen on Quorn and so today we bought some Tofu, we haven't got a clue what to do with it, HELP!!!!!!!!!
Dave..

If you talk to Lizzmobile, I'm sure she'd be able to help you.

:)

I really dislike, with a vengeance, the stir-fried stuff, cos it reminds me of the white of fried eggs, in texture and taste.

(I think I must be doing something wrong)

You're doing nothing wrong, trust me!

You can't polish a turd!

:)

tofu is made by soya bean so it's good for skin (especially for lady..hehe). You can put it in soup with seaweed, pork and some salt.
Or make a stir fry. Chop it in cube, then fry it with other vegetable in chili sauce. Yummy...

That's the one, it's at the far end of the shop, with the rest of the foodstuffs.

I have to admit, the only tofu I like is the dessert tofu that comes out like blancmange/ angel delight. I really dislike, with a vengeance, the stir-fried stuff, cos it reminds me of the white of fried eggs, in texture and taste.

(I think I must be doing something wrong)

I love Tofu, in any way. Yes, I like it in the dessert way like blancmange(thats a hard word to spell) or if you fry it dont cook it for too long, as it dries up.Plenty of salt & black pepper on though.

I don't like packaged tofu. I like fresh ones. Which is softer. You have to be careful not to overcook it as well.

What about a tofu soup? Japanese style, chop into smaller pieces, and make up a light vegetable broth or stock to go with it.

You can try to make tofu burgers. You may have to squeeze out more water before putting into a mixture of veg, and flour.

You can actually get some dessert tofu kind of light like a creme brulee.

I don't like packaged tofu. I like fresh ones. Which is softer. You have to be careful not to overcook it as well.

What about a tofu soup? Japanese style, chop into smaller pieces, and make up a light vegetable broth or stock to go with it.

You can try to make tofu burgers. You may have to squeeze out more water before putting into a mixture of veg, and flour.

You can actually get some dessert tofu kind of light like a creme brulee.


that dessert tofu is the only one I can palate. the savoury one, i find inedible.

You're doing nothing wrong, trust me!

You can't polish a turd!


oh dear... I see... I thought it was something I had done wrong, to the stuff to make it turn out so :gag:

Like the title says,
my daughter has gone vegi and we want to support her decision, as well as fresh veg we have been buying vegi frozen food but we want to give her a varied well balanced diet, she's not keen on Quorn and so today we bought some Tofu, we haven't got a clue what to do with it, HELP!!!!!!!!!
Dave..


Is that one of the Greek islands?

Is that one of the Greek islands?

No you buy it from Atkinsons make up department, and slap it on your face.

Best thing to do with tofu is to leave it in the shop- can't stand the stuff unless it's heavily disguised as cream cheese or ice cream.

that dessert tofu is the only one I can palate. the savoury one, i find inedible.
Where did you get this sweet one from? Is it from a health food shop? I've tried the silken tofu before, and I don't really like it. I also tried a savoury one, with all the flavourings in it already. I got it from a Japanese supermarket in London. I found it so strange. I've been brought up to have the sweet type only. That was a bit of an experience.

I'm waiting for these ones to make it over to the UK! :thumbsup:
http://www.nestle.com.hk/ch/products/dessert/index.asp
(Can't believe Nestle got a hold on this local company already! Boo...)

On a Saturday, you can get plain "bean curd dessert" from the chinese supermarket on London Rd.
They look like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douhua
http://www.12hk.com/food/BeanCurdJello.html
(This website calls it gelatine, I don't know if the recipe has gelatine in it or not. So best to get the ones which are still in a package with water, but not a vacuum pack.)

oh dear... I see... I thought it was something I had done wrong, to the stuff to make it turn out so :gag:
It can't be that bad... I used to hate it as a kid as well, cos my mom made it. Then when I tasted a different one at my friend's house. It's like...:love: ... I think she's better at cooking it now.

yes bago, I worked for a time in a health food shop in Leicester, and we got supplies of the dessert type tofu, and that was really nice.

(I still don't honestly know if it's just me that has the problem with the stir-fry tofu, I can't abide eggs, and the texture is too close to that of egg for me to be able to eat it)

Hm... I suppose it's how you associate it in your mind. I know I didn't like the savoury one, which was supposed to be eaten like that in Japan, apparently. I found it odd as well. I always associated the soft tofu dessert to be a sweet dish, but someone told me that you can get it plain, and have it with soy sauce and spring onions?? :confused: I've been told that is how they have it as a savoury dish in China. I'm like 'Whaaat' ? lol. I guess it depends on what you are used to. (I've never been to China, so I don't know how they cook it there as a home-made dish.)

I'm used to my mom's dish, which is made from fresh tofu, with dried prawns, spring onions and oyster sauce. I think she's kind of perfected it over the years now. So it doesn't taste too bad. It took me a while to figure that a cooked piece of tofu does not mean it has to be hard. When cooked, the inside looks different as well.

Some good recipes at the bottom of this page (http://www.soyfoods.com/soyfoodsdescriptions/tofu.html).

thanks Bago

Can you clear your inbox Gypsy. Got a pm for you.

Just eat it like we do here in Japan,put a lttle grated ginger on top,pour soy sauce over it then tuck in.You can substitute horseradish or mustard for the ginger and maybe even Henderson's relish for the soy sauce.Just make sure there are no Japanese around.

Tofu is quite tricky to cook and will only become a soggy mess if you just chuck it into a stir fry and hope for the best. It can be really nice though if cooked properly, here's a good and simple technique for stir frying tofu.

1. Take some firm tofu (not silken tofu that’s harder to stirfry) and cut it into rectangular blocks about a cm wide and a several cm long.
2. Get a non stick pan with a wide base and put it on the hob on a very low heat.
3. Place the tofu in the pan and turn it occasionally until the surface of the tofu firms up it may also go slightly brown.
4. Add it to the stirfry.

This method of drying tofu takes about 10 minutes or so I generally prepare the veg whilst the tofu is drying, if the veg takes too long to prepare you can always stick to tofu in the oven on a very low heat to keep it warm without burning it.

You can also brush the tofu with a marinade when using this method of preparation if you want to give it some more extra flavour.

If you daughter doesn't like quorn there are other meat substitutes you can try other than tofu (which isn't actually a meat substitute but a traditional chinese food regularly eaten by meat eaters).

If you're doing a tomato based pasta source you can use kidney, borlotti, cananelli beans or similar instead of meat which your daughter may find more palatable than artificial substitutes.

There are quite a few good simply curry recipes based on chickpeas and beans of various kinds this site (http://www.in2curry.co.uk/recipe/recipe.asp?fArticleID=202) has lots of very simple easy to cook ones, the one linked to is fine dried chillis & without fresh coriander and is a really tasty and very quick to make.

The vital thing for tofu in stirfry is to get it slightly crispy... A soggy mess tastes vile :gag:
I put my tofu cubed into a hot frying pan, then fry until its browning sligtly, then add the rest of my things, onions, then peppers, noodles, sauce, etc... But tofu is always first... Mmmm delish!
Its a bit bland to say the least, so add garlic or chilli when your frying it, for a bit more of a taste.

Well thanks for all your sugestions, some good ideas of what to do with it, (I should have gone with the leave it in the shop one) I'll let my daughter have a read and decide what she fancies. I'm just glad I won't be eating it. I think I'll try Quorn mince though.
Dave..

Well thanks for all your sugestions, some good ideas of what to do with it, (I should have gone with the leave it in the shop one) I'll let my daughter have a read and decide what she fancies. I'm just glad I won't be eating it. I think I'll try Quorn mince though.
Dave..

Aside from the tofu recomendations, has your daughter looked carefully into starting a vegetarian diet? If you go to the vegetarian society website I think you can order a pack full of information about vegitarian nutrition, I think there's a section aimed specificaly at children and young people. There might be some handy hints there for parents of new vegetarians too.

Well thanks for all your sugestions, some good ideas of what to do with it, (I should have gone with the leave it in the shop one) I'll let my daughter have a read and decide what she fancies. I'm just glad I won't be eating it. I think I'll try Quorn mince though.
Dave..
That's a shame tofu can be really nice if cooked properly, I think many people are put off it because they first experienced it as the soggy fragments it ends up as in the hands of those who don't know how to cook it. In the hands of someone with a bit of basic know how it's very nice, it's absolutely wonderful when cooked by a decent chef.

Aside from the tofu recomendations, has your daughter looked carefully into starting a vegetarian diet? If you go to the vegetarian society website I think you can order a pack full of information about vegitarian nutrition, I think there's a section aimed specificaly at children and young people. There might be some handy hints there for parents of new vegetarians too.


Thanks Scoop, I'll get onto that right away, she decided to not eat meat anymore and full credit to her for sticking with it even down to cutting out jellies and other sweets containing animal based products, but like most kids she doesn't like a lot of veg so it isn't easy for us as parents, brought up on meat for every meal to find a ballanced diet for her. On the plus side though I have tried and liked a lot of veg and peppers that I have never eaten before.
Dave..

What not to do with tofu: apparently, don't try to cook it with spinach because I've been told by several Chinese sources that they are mutually destructive in some way... But it never stopped me trying :)

Tofu, the best way to try it is to buy it from a chinese takeaway. The chinese supermarket is also good. The one just off the moor has tofu with chilli which is really good (its in the fridge). If you can't get to theose places the caldron marinated tofu is good too (in most supermarkets).
Asda frozen meatballs are my favorite at the moment though. Although the idea of a veggie meatball is a bit strange:suspect:

The consistency of "fresh" tofu is not meant to be used as a traditional stir-fry, I don't think. You can get some erm... deep-fried ones already, which is harder in texture.

What a lot of people do is actually to 'pan-fry' it. Brown either side. Then create the sauce, and pour it over that. Or add the tofu back in for last minute heating. Then dish up. So, you don't juggle about it too much.

A possible vegetarian sauce could be made from vegetable stock, (the Swedish(?) Marigold one is great, I find. Better than Knorr...), throw in some thinly sliced carrots (it sweetens the sauce a little), then thicken with a tiny bit of corn flour. Can be served with rice, or cous cous.

Try this. Blitz a pack of tofu with a pack of frozen summer or forest fruits plus a bit of water (depending on how thick you want it) and sweeten to taste (I use fruit sugar). It makes a fab creamy pud and it's also great semi frozen too, or completely frozen, then defrosted a bit so you can get a spoon into it. My fave use for tofu. Apart from that I can't stand the stuff...

Like the title says,
my daughter has gone vegi and we want to support her decision, as well as fresh veg we have been buying vegi frozen food but we want to give her a varied well balanced diet, she's not keen on Quorn and so today we bought some Tofu, we haven't got a clue what to do with it, HELP!!!!!!!!!
Dave..

Stir fy it with garlic, ginger and thinly sliced vegitables.........Then chuck it in the bin and ring for a kebab.

Thanks Scoop, I'll get onto that right away, she decided to not eat meat anymore and full credit to her for sticking with it even down to cutting out jellies and other sweets containing animal based products, but like most kids she doesn't like a lot of veg so it isn't easy for us as parents, brought up on meat for every meal to find a ballanced diet for her. On the plus side though I have tried and liked a lot of veg and peppers that I have never eaten before.
Dave..

Dave, Also have a look a this website, it's a bit more "youth friendly"!

http://www.viva.org.uk/

Tofu......:gag:
I'd rather eat my own leg!


Agreed!!!!

I'm quite partial to a chicken, bacon and tofu stir fry. It's particularly handy if you don't have any tofu as it tastes just as good without!

Best thing to do with Tofu is the same as I do with cucumber.


Cut into small cubes (approx 1cm)

Add seasoning

After frying for 2 mins in hot olive oil, plunge into boiling water

Boil vigorously for 10 minutes

Remove from heat and allow to cool

Strain to remove any liquid

Chuck straight into bin!

Try looking at http://www.tofusite.co.uk/ for information and recipe ideas for all things tofu.

any veggies who may be interested, the 99p shop has got an offer on, of two packs of "silken" tofu (for stir fries etc) for 99p.

I might be wrong, but I think that the "silken" type is the soft stuff that you can use for dips and such. For stir frying you want the "firm" variety. If I'm right, trying to fry silken tofu would be a messy disaster ...

I like tofu, but I do find the fresh stuff quite hard to work with. My favourite is when it's fried (or rather sauteed) to be golden brown and a bit crisp on the outside, but still quite soft in the middle -- the main thing is to get the oil hot and keep moving the pan so it doesn't stick too much. When it's done, I take it out, lightly fry whatever else is going in, then put the tofu back in along with flavourings (a Chinese friend has recently introduced me to Szechuan pepper aka prickly ash, which is an unusual flavour but goes well with tofu -- but be warned that you really don't want a lot of it!).

You can buy tofu ready fried but that tends to be spongy on the inside - maybe they deep fry it. The marinated Cauldron Foods tofu that has been mentioned is not bad for stir frying too.

Well we've gone for it and cooked the Tofu. My wife made a vegetable cassarol and when it was cooked chopped the Tofu into small cubes and added it to the cassarol for the last 15 minutes cooking time. None of us really liked the texture, I found it rather tasteless so added a good helping of Hendo's and enjoyed the meal. My daughter (the only vegi in the house) took it out! The remains of the Tofu casserol was consumed with delight
















by the dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave..

As I said mate, a good way of getting her to eat meat ........ though that's not a good way to cook it.

If she still wants to be veggie, do it the easy way to start with - look for the Vegetarian Tick (it doesn't live on sheep ..... :hihi: ), and get a couple of quiches, a load of spring rolls, a ricotta and spinach tart, simple vegetable stir fry, for a snack marmite and strong cheese sarnie is wonderful!

Just be careful not to overdo it on the eggs and cheese - get good fresh fruit and veg in.

You'll be surprised how much stuff carnivores eat which is veggie too, you know!

Good luck to you all!

My wife made a vegetable cassarol and when it was cooked chopped the Tofu into small cubes and added it to the cassarol for the last 15 minutes cooking time.


Oh dear. That sounds like possibly the worst thing you could do with tofu (no disrespect to your missus who I'm sure is an excellent cook under normal cicumstances).

Buy some more tofu and try this.

cut tofu into peices about7cm x 4cm about 1cm thick.

Slice some yellow and green peppers into strips.

Lightly grease a griddle pan and fry tofu and peppers on both sides until golden and stripy. Then give them a light coating of cajun spice mix (you can buy it or I can give you a reipie to make your own) and toss em around.

Warm a couple of flat tortilla's in the microwave. When they're warm spread a bit of salsa on one side.

Put tofu and peppers inside tortilla, wrap it up and eat it.

Delish.

I dunno... to be honest, I don't think I can survive on a sole diet of just tofu. It's not meant to be eaten like meat, or veg anyway. Normally thrown in with a mix of other ingredients as well. Oh well never mind. At least the dog loved it! :hihi:

Yeah, sorry to hear it didn't go so well. Though I think tofu can be used in that way - I've certainly had miso soup with cubes of non-fried tofu in it. Maybe 15 minutes is a bit long to give it? And I can sympathise with new textures and (non-)tastes taking a bit of getting used to.

Bago - what is the staple protein source for Chinese vegetarians, then? Do they use a lot of seitan?

[I'm guessing there must be a fair number of Chinese vegetarians -- I've been abroad a couple of times to places where there's a big Chinese community, and both times I've found Chinese vegetarian places (where most of the customers were Chinese) without even looking for them.]

its not half as bad as most seem to be making out.
i could never be veggie but i quite like the stuff. works well in a green/red curry, especially the 5 spice marinated stuff. the smoked isnt as good a flavour. the plain can be great with the right accompaniments.