Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Tofu is drained from the pack, pressed and then marinated. Pressing tofu removes water, so it more readily takes on the flavour from the marinade. Then it’s fried until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, it can then be eaten hot or cold. Personally, I like to cook up a batch of this, leave it to cool then store it in the fridge. Then it’s ready to use for a quick sandwich or wrap

We’ll start by taking a 396g/14oz pack of tofu (in this case, firm tofu by Cauldron)

Remove the tofu from the pack and drain away the water, it will look like this

Now we can press it. If you have a tofu press just use that, I don’t, so this is what I do.

Wrap the tofu in a few sheets of kitchen roll, place it near a sink, on something where the water can drain away (I use an upside down glass dish), then put something heavy on top. I like to use a right way up glass dish, that way I can stack more weight on top, a few tins will do

Then leave the tofu to press for an hour. Prior to pressing the tofu weighed 424g, after it weighed 332g. That’s almost 100g of water removed. This means we can add lots more flavour into the tofu with a marinade

Now let’s make a quick marinade

You’ll need;

1. Three tablespoons of ketchup
2. One tablespoon of light soy sauce
3. One tablespoon of nutritional yeast
4. One teaspoon of smoked paprika
5. One and a half teaspoons of dried mixed herbs
6. Three tablespoons of water
7. A good pinch of black pepper

Method;

• Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a bowl until well combined, set aside
• Next, thinly slice the tofu. I usually slice it into roughly 16 fairly thin pieces, it doesn’t have to be exactly 16, just try to keep them uniform in thickness
• Evenly spread two tablespoons of the marinade into the bottom of a shallow baking dish. Place the tofu on top, spoon more marinade on top until the tofu is all coated. I did one layer of 12 slices of tofu, topped with the remaining four slices of tofu
• Pop the tofu into a fridge to marinate for a minimum of a couple hours if you can, overnight is best
• Once you’re ready to cook it, add a few tablespoons of oil into a large frying pan over a medium to medium high heat. Fry the tofu in a couple of batches, for about fifteen minutes, flipping half way through
• Once fried, place the tofu onto a kitchen roll lined plate and leave it to cool. Once it has cooled to room temperature, transfer it to the fridge
• Eat in sandwiches or wraps along with salad and egg free mayo