@cooking @food 'nI have a question for y'all.
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I have a question for y'all. I make a lot of chicken noodle soup, but was just given a couple blocks of tofu. I've never attempted tofu before so:
1) Can I even make chicken tofu soup?
and
2) If so, what should I do to prep the tofu? Fry it? Season it?
Thanks!
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C Cooking shared this topic on
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I would personally make dumplings, but for soup I’d fry or bake the tofu before adding it to the soup. For frying, heat oil in a skillet, season the tofu, and cook until golden brown and crispy, or toss the tofu with oil and seasonings, then bake it in a preheated oven until firm and golden.
Add it to your chicken noodle soup during the last 5 minutes of cooking to allow it to heat through and absorb the soup’s flavors without losing its texture, it could get mushy if cooked too long.
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I would personally make dumplings, but for soup I’d fry or bake the tofu before adding it to the soup. For frying, heat oil in a skillet, season the tofu, and cook until golden brown and crispy, or toss the tofu with oil and seasonings, then bake it in a preheated oven until firm and golden.
Add it to your chicken noodle soup during the last 5 minutes of cooking to allow it to heat through and absorb the soup’s flavors without losing its texture, it could get mushy if cooked too long.
Thank you.
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Very important question, what firmness is the tofu?
Usually things like miso soup use soft tofu. If you have extra firm you don’t want to use it in the same way.
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Very important question, what firmness is the tofu?
Usually things like miso soup use soft tofu. If you have extra firm you don’t want to use it in the same way.
It feels pretty firm through the packaging. It says, "I am great for baking and pan frying."
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It feels pretty firm through the packaging. It says, "I am great for baking and pan frying."
The packaging doesn’t state the firmness? It should have one of: Silken, Soft, Medium, Firm, or Extra Firm.
The note about baking leads me to believe it would be firm or extra-firm
Honestly, If that’s the case, what I would suggest you do is not put it inside the soup. That would be far better with a soft or medium tofu. Instead, like a lot of people have been suggesting, fry it and serve it on the side like you would with gyoza.
My favorite option for medium-firm and firm is to coat it in a light layer of starch (corn starch is what we use here, but potato or rice starch would work too) then shallow fry it in a bit of neutral oil (Canola, Peanut, Vegetable, etc.) until the sides just start to turn a bit brown. Then put it on a side plate, and if you have a bit of teriyaki sauce for dipping it’s great. If you don’t have teriyaki sauce, you could put a little soy sauce over it (or use soy sauce to make teriyaki sauce, it’s really easy)
Second option, especially if you don’t like the oil/frying part or want to cut the calories, is to cut it into strips and bake it in the oven after covering it with a glaze of Miso paste and a smidge of honey.
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The packaging doesn’t state the firmness? It should have one of: Silken, Soft, Medium, Firm, or Extra Firm.
The note about baking leads me to believe it would be firm or extra-firm
Honestly, If that’s the case, what I would suggest you do is not put it inside the soup. That would be far better with a soft or medium tofu. Instead, like a lot of people have been suggesting, fry it and serve it on the side like you would with gyoza.
My favorite option for medium-firm and firm is to coat it in a light layer of starch (corn starch is what we use here, but potato or rice starch would work too) then shallow fry it in a bit of neutral oil (Canola, Peanut, Vegetable, etc.) until the sides just start to turn a bit brown. Then put it on a side plate, and if you have a bit of teriyaki sauce for dipping it’s great. If you don’t have teriyaki sauce, you could put a little soy sauce over it (or use soy sauce to make teriyaki sauce, it’s really easy)
Second option, especially if you don’t like the oil/frying part or want to cut the calories, is to cut it into strips and bake it in the oven after covering it with a glaze of Miso paste and a smidge of honey.
Yes, extra firm. I can't believe I didn't see that last time.
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Yes, extra firm. I can't believe I didn't see that last time.
Yea, don’t put that in your soup as is. It’s not going to be great.
You really don’t want to be taking big bites of extra-firm at one time, it needs to be small or thin and integrated into the rest of the meal. Treat it almost like cubes of ham, except it doesn’t add flavour so the flavour has to come from elsewhere. (And chicken soup generally isn’t a heavy flavour)
What about other meals? It can be great crumbled into ground beef for use in things like tacos. Or crumbled into an omelet. Small cubes in a heavy sauce like spaghetti or curry are great too.
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Assuming firm tofu, no special prep is needed. Cut it up and add it near the end of the soup’s cook time. I usually give it about five minutes to heat up and absorb some of the soup’s flavour.
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