As I showed my ID to the checker at the commissary last week, she announced, “Cases of tofu for $1.” Behind her on a flat were about two dozen cases of tofu.
I had passed by and was headed to the produce section before what she said registered.
Cases for $1.
I don’t have any love for tofu. Does anyone? I knew what my husband would say when he saw 12 packages of tofu in the refrigerator. But $1!?!
No one else was picking them up, so in an effort to be a good steward and help the commissary dispose of their overstock, I added a case to my cart.
It has been well worth $1 to experiment with this gelatinous soybean product. The first package went into a traditional stir-fry: frozen mixed vegetables, soy sauce, sesame oil, chunks of tofu. Everyone complained, but they ate it, albeit reluctantly.
The second box went into a smoothie: frozen mixed fruit, milk, OJ, tofu, a couple packs of stevia. My teenagers and their friend sucked them down. I didn’t tell them until later what was in them. At first my 14 yr old berated me for hoodwinking them, but I tried to remind him that tofu is good for building muscles.
Another box got mixed into a batch of chili. I thought the tofu would take on the color of the tomato sauce, but it stayed whitish. So I told the kids those white chunks were like pieces of cheese. The 5 and 7 yr olds were deceived, and the older kids kept the silence because they were hungry and the tofu was in small enough chunks not to be noticed.
Box 4 went into chocolate mousse. I loosely followed a recipe my vegetarian friend gave me after I gave her 5 boxes of tofu. And actually, this mousse is pretty tasty and a nice texture. And easy! Melt chocolate chips and then add melted chocolate, the tofu, a couple tablespoons of cocoa to the blender with a sweetener and blend until smooth and fluffy. Then chill a couple hours before devouring. The recipe calls for maple syrup, but I didn’t have any. I thought it would be ruining the integrity of the tofu to use corn syrup, so I used my last teaspoon of honey, a little molasses and some stevia packets. Unfortunately, the molasses taste is noticeable, but not enough to slow anyone down from eating this fluffy stuff. I can barely call it dessert. It’s nutritious!
4 comments:
I used to make something that sounds like your "mousse," with silken tofu -- is that the kind you have? -- cocoa powder, sweetener, in the food processor -- oh, and some almond extract. Then into custard cups it went, and all the children and I loved the stuff. Such a high-protein snack!
I had a lemon version also, which wasn't as good; these puddings were made with the soft kind of tofu in aseptic boxes.
If you have extra firm, or hard tofu, which is my favorite, I can tell you our favorite ways to cook it. We used to eat a lot - but actually nowadays I am of the opinion from my readings that soy products aren't really that good for you, so I don't used tofu much anymore.
Oh, and your mention of molasses made me think of a gingerbread tofu pudding -- just add some spice to the stuff along with the molasses! I might have to go out and buy some silken tofu just to try this...
We make vegetarian lasagna with tofu and portabello mushrooms in place of the meat. Usually we use the food processor to combine the tofu and mushrooms and then cook it with onions as if it were meat. (you might need to add an egg to keep it together)
It is silken tofu - so it blended easily in the blender. I mixed another box with cheese and chili powder and cumin and used it in enchildas, which was the biggest hit so far.
I still have one more box. That lasagna sounds great - although I'll probably use eggplant instead of mushrooms since the kids don't care for them. Thanks, Entropy!
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