Saturday, June 11, 2011

I Cooked Tofu, Y'all!

Today marks a historic cooking milestone for me. I cooked tofu. Yes, Ma'am, I did. I have not been afraid to eat tofu (I will try anything), but cooking it has scared me for some reason. I just wasn't sure what to do with it to be honest. I guess I assumed you needed some special tofu cooking device that only special tofu-cooks have access to.

But a trip to Wyoming, of all places, alleviated my tofu cooking fears. Because my sweet friend, Maria taught me step by step what to do. And guess what? No fancy cookware required! Just a skillet and some hot vegetable oil and voila! Cooked bean curd in no time! I truly was inspired in a culinary way after my weekend with my vegan friends. And I came home determined to incorporate more vegan meals into our weekly meal plan. Which brings me to today's lunch. May I present, tofu wraps.
Opening the tofu package. I looked for extra firm, but my grocery store just carried firm. It still worked. And apparently I am trying out my hand modeling skills as well.
I added some vegetable oil to a skillet and let it get hot. Then I tossed in the cubed tofu and seasoned it with garlic powder. As it cooks it turns a golden brown color and shrinks up a bit. Honestly (I am just going to say it)-- it looks like chicken. If you have ever browned diced chicken, you can cook tofu. The good thing, aside from the health benefits, is that there is no gristle or weird things to bite down on. No worries here!
As the tofu browned, I sliced up some lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Some onions would have been nice too, but I was going to be in close proximity to other people after lunch and spared them my raw onion breath. Oh and that is some creamy vidalia onion dressing in the background to add as a condiment to my tofu wrap sandwich. Ok, I guess I did sneak some onion flavor into the meal, but just a hint. And I read the ingredients on the back of the dressing bottle to make sure it was vegan and it was!
Once the tofu had cooked, it was pretty straight forward. Tortilla, veggies, tofu, dressing-- done. A lovely, healthy, vegan wrap sandwich. It was easy, yummy and filling.

So, what do you think of tofu?

4 comments:

k_stin said...

I had a friend from Taiwan for awhile (she's still my friend, but moved back) and she taught me to like fried tofu. I have tried baking it and cooking it on the skillet. It was okay, but I definitely didn't do it justice. It wasn't the same as when I tried it in the restaurants.

I think I will try your recipe! Thanks for sharing!

Maria Rose said...

Y'all that was awesome! I will send you some recipes for baked tofu as well. You did it AND found that you have a second career opportunity as a hand model!

Onlythemanager said...

Wow! I am impressed!

Heather said...

I'm not a fan of tofu, but that actually looks yummy! Lovely hand too, by the way.