this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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tofu
mmm, I could go for some crispy tofu with hot sauce right about now
I used to eat tofu to be vegan. I didn't like it much but I put up with it. 1-2 years later and I've acquired a taste for it. Now I can eat it cold, fried, baked, etc. It does need some sort of sauce to be genuinely good to me, but it requires a lot less effort than it used to.
My kids who are most assuredly not vegan like tofu, I think because it was never a substitute anything for them, just an ingredient I use. Ma Po tofu, kimchi jjigae, miso soup, they love it. The youngest even loves the soft silken tofu in miso or seaweed soup, I don't like that kind.
Yeah I think too many vegans try to pretend it's chicken or steak. It's just not. It is its own thing.
This is a problem with vegetarians and vegans in general: they try to pitch "meat substitutes" that are absolutely filthy-tasting with terrible mouthfeel. They show off the absolute worst side of the ingredients instead of selling the ingredients where they're strong.
There are tofu dishes that shine (like mapo doufu): make those, don't try to gaslight people into thinking that a tofu burger "tastes just like the real thing". It doesn't.
My go-to is usually: cubed, marinate briefly in sesame oil and soy sauce (or brine for neutral flavor), then laid out on a pan and baked for 15 or so in the convection oven, which makes it crispy. I use these in various dishes, but theyre also great as-is.
Literally everyone Ive prepared it for likes it, even the ones that "hate tofu." Because tofu doesnt really taste like anything.
I’ve never been vegan but I cook tofu for vegan friends and myself when they come over and I LOVE IT. My first experience with it was super firm, water squished out with heavy weights and a plate, marinated then in soy sauce and sesame oil, and fried in a pan. I overcooked it a little bit but I still thought it was delicious!
The key to tofu that tastes good, rather than being a carrier for whatever sauce or spices you're using and nothing else, is freshness.
When I lived in Canada I hated tofu (to my mother's eternal anger). It was tasteless crap and if I wanted the taste of the sauce or soup or whatever, I'd drink the sauce or soup or whatever without the tofu. Nowadays I get tofu that, if I time it right, is still hot from the process of making it. When it's like that it has its own flavour that's actually quite nice. (Which makes sense: it's made from legumes which, you know, have flavour.)