Asian-Style Marinated Tofu

This is one of my favorite recipes. The tofu is deliciously flavorful, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Ingredients:
Pan-Fried Tofu
1/4 cup Soy Sauce or Bragg's
1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
2 tsp Sesame Oil
2 tbsp Honey or Agave Nectar
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Ginger Powder

Preparation:
1. Put soy sauce, rice vinegar and the sesame oil in a large pan and place on Medium heat. Stir until mixed.
2. Add honey and stir until the honey is dissolved.
3. Season with garlic and ginger.
4. Add in the pan-fried tofu and stir until the tofu is well coated.
5. Let the tofu and sauce simmer until the sauce thickens and the tofu has a thick glaze on it.
Optionally, you can add sesame seeds or crushed peanuts on top.

Serve on broccoli, with brown rice and peas, on wilted kale or bok choy etc.

Pan-Fried Tofu

This is the base recipe for most of my tofu dishes.
Ingredients:
1 pkg Tofu (Extra Firm)
Olive Oil (I use a spray)

Preparation:
1. Drain the tofu
2. Cut the tofu into small pieces. I like thin, square-ish pieces.
3. Coat a large pan in a thin layer of olive oil. I recommend using olive oil in a spritzer to get good coverage without using a lot.
4. Turn on Medium heat. If your tofu is taking too long to brown, you may want to turn the heat up a little later on.
5. Add a single layer of the tofu to the pan and let it sit there for about 5 minutes. You'll want it to turn a nice golden brown.
6. Flip the tofu and let the other side brown. This usually takes a little less time than the first side.
7. Continue until all the tofu has been pan-fried.

After the tofu is prepared, add sauces or spices to taste.

How to Drain Tofu, Quickly

Being vegan, it's pretty hard to avoid using tofu at least once a week or so. Personally, I love tofu, so I enjoy using it in the occasional stir fry or pot pie. However, in the past I neglected to use it due to the time-consuming process of preparing it.

A couple months ago I was in the kitchen after making some delicious vegan cookies (not so low-carb, but oh so wonderful), and I still had my cooking racks out. I wanted to have tofu with dinner, but I was hesitant...until I decided to use the cooling racks to help!

I got out a dish cloth and put it underneath the cooling rack, then I put a single folded paper towel sheet on the rack, and put the tofu on top of that. I added one more paper towel on top of the tofu and a heavy object (I happened to use a large can of beans I had laying around). I let it set for two or three minutes and came back to a perfectly prepared block of tofu!