I know some of you have some good recipes that use silken tofu and I finally bought some recently and want to make something Goooood!
So if you have a good recipe using silken tofu, post here! :)
I know I could always use the recipe for some sort of spinach dip on the package but I wanted to see what any of you had to suggest first :D

My favorite is Mapo Tofu... my "easy" way to make this:

1 tb black bean garlic sauce (like that Lee Kum Lee stuff in a jar)
0.25 lb (or less) ground pork
1-2 blocks tofu
1 tb cornstarch dissolved in water
green onions, chopped

1. chop up tofu into like 1" x 1/2" x 1/2 " long strips.
2. heat like a tb of oil to your wok & fry like 0.25 lb of the meat with the black bean garlic sauce until almost thoroughly cooked. (you can add chili peppers to it if you like it spicy)
3. Add like a block or two of the tofu (you should have like twice as much tofu in there as meat) and cook until heated (like a minute)-- fry gently once you add the tofu so it doesn't get broken up too much!
4. add in the cornstarch mixture (little bit at a time) until slightly thickened
5. sprinkle green onions on top


Another one I like:
fried shallots (you can get these already fried from the chinese store or you can thinly slice shallots and fry them in some oil over med heat until lightly crisp)
osyter sauce or soy sauce
tofu

1. cut tofu into 1" squares x 1/2" thick... and place in a single layer in a microwave safe dish.
2. heat tofu in microwave until hot but not overheated (like 1-2 minutes at a time)... drain off water
3. drizzle oyster sauce (or soy sauce) on top... heat another 30 seconds
4. sprinkle with the fried shallots.

Oh... you can put oyster sauce and fried shallots on top of steamed bok choy and that's great too!

Awesome! Thank you Joyce! I knew you (and Melanie) would have some good options for me to try out. That Mapo Tofu recipe may be a good one for me to try. I'd add chili peppers because I love spicy stuff! lol

Do you add tofu to soups or anything like that too? I want to start cooking more with it but I want to add it where it would benefit the dish to have that little extra. I have heard that tofu pretty much doesn't have flavor so it takes on whatever flavor you add it to so basically you're getting the extra texture, right?

Yes, you can add the tofu to soups. The main thing to keep in mind with the silken is not to overcook it. I normally cook my soups and then add the tofu at the end for a couple minutes... just to "heat" it.

And you're right about the flavor of the tofu... it takes the flavor of whatever else you put with it. It is bland on its own (probably because there is no salt!) But I love this crisp deep fried tofu... I don't know how to make it... but it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside... like a toasted marshmallow. I like it with chinese seasoned salt (so that's where it gets its flavor).

The silken tofu is also great as a substitute for like cream products... like you can make chocolate pudding with tofu or like a smoothie.

oh! I forgot to mention that if you don't get your tofu in the aspetically sealed block packages, you need to make sure you heat it to 140 F before eating. So, then that wouldn't be good for like the pudding/smoothie recipes.

mmm...texture like a toasted marshmallow? Wow. That sounds good. lol
Thank you for all the ideas and tips. It's good to know to add it in at the end when adding to soups too. I wouldn't have known when to put it in and it probably would've turned out like crap. lol

Really good ideas! I am so excited to start using it. So, are you saying I could add it to a jello pudding mix instead of milk or would I need some milk too? Would it matter to add it to instant or stovetop pudding? I usually use instant (sugar free, fat free) jello pudding soooo...hmmm

And smoothies...that would be good too. lol I could add bananas and berries and orange juice or something like that with it. :D

THANK YOU again... I am always open to any ideas anyone has out there... :D

I'm not sure about the pudding mixes, but I think you just blend it (the instant one) together with the mix instead of milk. Tofu has water in it already, so that should "dissolve" it?

I found this page, so I think you can replace the milk with tofu!
http://www.recipelink.com/ch/2002/december...rbrecipes3.html

Oh... if you are going to make chocolate pudding with tofu, you could probably make a sugar-free chocolate syrup (cocoa, water and splenda?) and then just blend that with the tofu... you don't really need the "thickening" agent they put in instant pudding if you use tofu.

I was wondering about that and if I really wanted to be lazy, I saw a sugar free chocolate syrup at a store recently. lol

That sugar free chocolate mousse recipe in that link looks good. I would probably only alter the heavy whipping cream with fat free or light Cool Whip.

Thanks again for the tips. I have been at a loss as to what I should try with it :hug

I think that mousse recipe uses the whipping cream to turn chocolate "pudding" into the mousse.

I like this product you can get at the store called "tofu pudding"... you just heat it and eat with sugar syrup (like a brown sugar). It is so good kind of warm. I think that is even softer than silken tofu. It has no shape at all.

Anyway, I've been looking at tofu recipes and I got soooo many ideas!

They use like the firm tofu in place of eggs in egg salad! And I think I can use it in place of meat in chili! Well, I'm sure the chili will turn out OK... but I'm curious about the "egg" salad. It got good reviews (I think the recipe was on allrecipes.com)

Now, I could really use it in chili since I make that quite often. It would be a good switch to the basic lean ground beef or turkey that I normally use.

Let me know if you come across anything else you think would be good :)
I am so excited...lol I have to decide what to try out first now. lol

Just think about the texture of the different tofus and then, it's pretty easy to substitute for other things in the recipes. It just soaks up all the spices and flavorings of whatever you put with it. I think chili is a good one to try with the firm tofu... especially since meatless chilis taste fine... you don't really need the meat for flavor. :mmm

I don't use silken that often, Erin, so I'm not going to be much help here. I have used it in cheese cake, in place of or added to Ricotta for lasagna, as an egg replacer (but I mixed it with something that I can't quite recall), and as the basis for eggless mayonaise. I've made a dip out of it, but I did NOT like that. I have a tofu cookbook, but it sucks. I could check out my How it all Vegan cookbook for anything specific you might want to try. I know there is a recipe for making tofu ice cream, however it seems like there will be several different steps to that. I never make anything that takes longer than a half of an hour to prepare. :lol:

Joyce has super great ideas for using tofu. I love miso soup. And Tom Kah (sp?) soup. I need to get some tofu and start trying out new recipes too. :D

I always use Boca burger crumbles in my chilli. ;)

Mmm...Boca burger in chili sounds good too...lol

Maybe Chili would be a good one to try it out with?
It's still in the cupboard just waiting for me to use! I feel like it's begging me to try it! lol

I don't know...I like Joyce's ideas of a smoothie or mousse, Mapo tofu, or Chili. Maybe the best would be to try chili first to get a feel for it since I love chili so much and always make different variations of it anyway. lol

Thanks for your help again!! :wave

I would probably use firm tofu in the chili. Silken tofu is just like pudding texture. It'd just fall apart in chili! LOL And you keep your tofu in the cupboard? I've never had tofu that wasn't refrigerated! I've got to look for that!

If I figure out how to make that fried tofu... I'll let you know! It is sooo good! You could probably use like regular seasoned salt instead of the chinese kind.