Fried Tofu 411: An Easy, Low-Fat, Tasty Option
+ how much tofu to eat?
Hello everyone,
Before we get going with delicious fried tofu, just a heads up that Napa is on my schedule this year. Next week, I’ll be doing cooking demos at the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Global Plant-Forward Summit. They invited me to cook from Ever-Green Vietnamese and share sustainable ideas with conference goers, many of whom shape what America eats.
And, in June, I’ll be back in Napa for a new cookbook conference co-founded by
of the Salt and Spine podcast. It’s the first of its kind. Brian invited me and my podcasting pals from Everything Cookbooks. Get preliminary details from Eater and the cookbook fest website.
Have you tried the effortless tofu sauces from last week? Jan dove in and made his own tofu. An overachiever? Yes, but actually, Jan lives in a small village in Europe where good tofu isn’t available. He’s been making tofu from Asian Tofu for years. His experiments were how we connected online. Jan’s photo (below) from Instagram shows his extra tender tofu, served up with Korean yangnyumjang sauce and the Taiwanese-style soy sauce. (This is not meant to shame you but to encourage you to use the terrific sauce recipes!).
And to follow up on Tofu Truths, Myths and Vagaries, Erin asked a great question via comments that many of you may have too:
This week, I filed my taxes 😮💨 and had blood tests done. Since 2019, my husband and I have focused more on how to have healthier lifestyles — tweaking our eating, sleeping, and exercising routines. What works for us is enjoyable, and doable for the long haul.
Thanks to modernity, we’re all living longer and hopefully, we can age with grace and minimal pain.
But, it takes practice, commitment, and time.
I wanted to know if what we’d been doing had been worth the effort. The lipid panel, glucose and Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) tests came back with number that kinda startled me. My cholesterol numbers were lower than they were 18 years ago when my doctor commented that they were “quite good”. Glucose and ApoB are both normal. Phew.
My doctor congratulated me and asked what had I been doing. My partial response to Dr. Maggie:
Since 2019, eating a plant-forward diet has helped a lot but in the past 6 months, I have consciously aimed to eat less. We have a high-vegetable, low-meat diet and it’s taken about 5 years for us to get to a point where we are happy with what and how we eat. That’s to say, we’ll be able to sustain this plant-based/plant-forward approach for the long haul.
Daily yoga, meditation and walking are part of the program too. We’re lucky to have the time to do all this!
We’ve also worked on eating fewer fried food. When my husband and I first started dating (eons ago!), we regularly gobbled up entire meals of deep-fried dishes from Chinese restaurants. We can’t digest such a lineup nowadays!
But that’s doesn’t mean giving up favorite treats. For Ever-Green Vietnamese, I developed un-deep-fried recipes for Viet favorites like fried wontons, chả giò (imperial rolls), and bánh tôm (sweet potato and shrimp fritters). I’ll occasionally indulge in old school deep-fried classics when they are well made and flavorful — worth the calorie spend.
I’d rather enjoy my modern, healthier versions more often! They’re tasty, craveable, and actually easier to make.
When I have to deep-fry a recipe multiple rounds for an assignment, I’ll try a few bites then share the remainder with our neighbors, who are remarkably fit people with high metabolisms.
What to do about fried tofu?
Deep-fried tofu is delicious. As the tofu bobs around in hot oil, its exterior develops a nutty golden shell while the interior remains tender and spongy — perfect for sauces or just snacking.
Wait, I just talked up the joys of eating naked tofu with sauces. Why fry tofu?
Giving tofu the hot oil treatment transforms it in several ways. The advantages:
Makes tofu sturdy. You can toss it around the pan with lots of sauce and other bulky ingredients without fear of it falling apart!
Creates extra tofu personality. Eat a cube of fried tofu and you’ll experience contrasts in flavors and textures between exterior and interior.
Keeps well for days in the fridge (no water needed) for rapid bean curd deployment. You can freeze fried tofu too!
After lots of tinkering, I developed a deep-fried tofu workaround that simply involves just a bit of oil — wayyyy less than you’d need for a typical vinaigrette. Remarkably, the resulting tofu tastes rich.
Below is not just a recipe but also:
Downloadable recipe pdf
How-to-video filled with prep tips (I agonize about how to tell people to cut tofu well and you may be skeptical 🤨 about the oil amount required.)
Tofu sourcing tips
Brand suggestions
Casual ideas for putting pan-fried tofu to use.
⚡️ Get ready for your new BFTF (Best Fried Tofu Friend).