- Harley, can you chill?
(beeping)
(dreamy dance music)
Hey guys, it's Candice from the Edgy Veg,
and today, I am going to show you
three ways to level up your tofu.
So, tofu is a thing that a
lot of vegans love to eat
and a lot of vegans hate that people
assume that vegans eat.
The thing with tofu is
that it's super easy
to make boring, and bland, and just gross,
but it's also super
easy to make delicious,
and flavorful, and exciting.
So I'm gonna show you three different ways
that you can level up your tofu,
taking your tofu from
bland to beautifully,
wonderfully delicious,
an orgasm in your mouth.
(munching)
Let's start with a couple tofu tips
that maybe you don't know if
you are new to cooking tofu.
First thing we are going to
do is grab some firm tofu.
You can use firm, extra
firm, whatever you want,
but I really wouldn't go anything softer
than either firm or extra firm.
Because you want the
tofu to retain its shape,
but you have to press it.
So most tofu comes in this little
I don't know what you would call this,
air-sealed plastic
thing, with some liquid.
And if you leave your liquid in your tofu
and your marinade or your,
whatever you're cooking it with
can't really, like the flavor
can't penetrate the tofu.
So we have to press that.
So I'm gonna show you the
quickest, simplest way
for you to press your tofu.
So, there's all these
crazy gadgets out there
that you can buy that'll
press your tofu for you,
but I mean, I have enough kitchen gadgets
in my home;
(rustling)
I don't need more.
So I find that the easiest way to do this,
you don't need anything fancy,
is just take some paper towel,
throw it onto a cutting
board or another surface.
So, I'm just using a pizza stone.
Drain your tofu.
(rustling)
Throw the tofu on there.
Cover it with more paper towel.
I like to use about four to five squares
of paper towel, just
so that there's enough
to soak up all the liquid.
And then,
(clattering)
take something heavy.
So I have a cast iron
pan and a cast iron pan,
just two different types
(chuckling) of cast iron pans.
And I'm just gonna throw
that on top of the tofu
and let that sit for about 15 minutes.
It's a fun little kitchen contraption.
The more stuff you pile on top here,
the faster this will go.
But I've also had all
that stuff topple over,
so this is about as high as
I'm going (laughing) today.
All right, so Level 1 is a
super easy tofu marinade.
I find a lot of people just think
that they can throw tofu into a pan.
I mean, you can with a couple seasonings,
and then they wonder why
their tofu's super bland.
I like to marinate my tofu.
You can marinate it for up to two days.
So you can prep it on, like, Monday,
and then eat it on Wednesday,
and it has all that beautiful flavor
infused into the marinade.
The simplest marinade ever
is just tamari or soy sauce
and apple cider vinegar.
It's so easy.
It's quick.
It's delicious.
It adds a little bit of something
on the inside of the tofu.
So, let's make that marinade now.
So I have 3/4 cups of tamari that I'm
just throwing into this
Tupperware container,
(splashing)
(clanking)
and I have half a cup
of apple cider vinegar,
(splashing)
and then a quarter cup of water.
(splashing)
(clanking)
Then you can just throw
your tofu in there.
So I have pressed this tofu
for about half an hour.
I've cut it up into cubes.
And we're just gonna throw that in here
and let that marinate.
So, you can marinate
that for, I would say,
about 30 minutes at the minimum,
but you can marinate
it for up to two days.
And I like to take all the little cubes
and break them apart so that the marinade
is getting into all four corners.
Now the tofu is marinated.
Now, you can even eat this raw
by throwing it, like,
onto a salad or something
if you want some extra protein in salad,
or you can just pan fry it.
You can also go to Level 2,
which I'll show you in a second.
But it's really great for a stir fry
to just, like, throw these marinated guys
in with a little bit of oil, some veggies,
serve it on some rice or noodles.
It's a quick, easy,
delicious way to have tofu.
Okay, so once the tofu's nice and crispy,
I just like to take it out of the pan
so that I can cook up my vegetables.
Because if the tofu's nice and crispy
and then you add your veggies in there,
the steam from the veggies is
going to make the tofu soft.
So I just like to take it out of the pan
and set it aside until I'm ready.
(clattering)
And then, I'm just going
to add my vegetables
(hissing)
and cook that until it is
tender, about 10 minutes.
So that's Level 1, easy marinated tofu.
So, to make this coating, all we need
is some wheat germ, nutritional yeast,
garlic powder, and a little bit of salt.
And we're just gonna mix that together,
and then that's what
(rustling)
we're going to toss our tofu in.
So you can just take your tofu,
and coat it with this, and
then bake it in the oven,
air fry it in an air fryer, or
just pan fry it on the stove.
I'm just gonna put it on this plate here.
(clattering)
You want some liquid in the tofu
for this coating, but not so much
that the coating turns
into, like, a weird paste.
So I'm just throwing it onto a
paper-towel-lined plate first
to get rid of any excess.
All right, now that we've
dabbed our tofu a little bit,
it's really just as easy as
picking up this paper towel
and just you'll toss in the tofu here.
(clattering)
And then just toss the tofu in the coating
until it's completely coated.
So, you can bake this tofu or fry it.
Today, I felt like frying it.
You get extra crispiness out of that
when you do it that way.
This is why deep fryers are
'in awesome.
(bleeping)
Turn.
There we go.
Very carefully, take
your tofu out of the pan
and the oil, place it onto a lined plate.
And that's Level 2, crispy, delicious tofu
that you can fry or bake in the oven.
(beeping)
So this is where the day
where the mic failed.
Level 3 is toss your tofu
in your favorite sauce.
I'm going to show you how to make
an easy sweet and sour tofu sauce,
but you can really choose any
sauce that's your favorite.
I have a bunch on my
website and my cookbook
if you're looking for
some other variations.
But I love this sweet and sour sauce.
It's super easy to make at home.
All you need is one cup
of canned pineapple juice,
3/4 cups of coconut sugar, a
third of a cup of rice vinegar,
three tablespoons of ketchup,
and two tablespoons of soy sauce.
Now, because I'm using coconut sugar
and not traditional white sugar,
this sauce is going to come out
a little bit browner than
traditional sweet and sour sauce.
But we're gonna throw
all of those ingredients
into a sauce pan and bring that to a boil.
Make sure that you're
stirring that constantly.
Now that this is boiling,
we are going to add our cornstarch slurry.
So this is just one and a
half tablespoons of cornstarch
and two tablespoons of water.
(clattering)
And we're gonna bring
that to a boil again,
and it's just going to
help thicken up the sauce.
And that's Level 3, saucy, delicious tofu.
And if you want more sauces,
please check out my blog.
All right.
There you guys have it,
tofu three different ways.
We have marinated and fried.
You can also bake this, or, I mean,
do, really, anything
with this, eat it raw.
We have our crispy tofu.
And then we have our
tofu covered in sauce.
I mean, I already know that
they're delicious, but,
oh my god, that's so good.
And you know what?
The great thing about this marinade
is that this only marinated
for like 15 minutes,
and it really penetrates the tofu.
It's so good.
We have our crispy fried tofu,
my favorite thing on the planet.
There's a restaurant in
Toronto called Fresh,
and that's what I based
this recipe off of.
It's so good.
It's like $5 to get a side of it,
and it's worth every penny.
And then we have our sweet and sour
Sauce.
Just put sauce on everything.
All right, guys, well, let me know
how you like your tofu
by leaving me a comment
in the comments section below.
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because you guys love them so much.
And I'll see you next time.
Bye!
