Tofu Advice

I am on a huge tofu kick right now. I just can't get enough of it. But I am far from an expert on it. I have been struggling with the whole 'draining the water' part of making tofu.

Making sure that the water is out of the tofu is something that Josh is not a huge proponent of, however, every recipe I read calls for it. During soccer season I do a lot more of the cooking, so dinner the other night was the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at making tofu.

I found a super easy recipe online that literally called for removing the water, cutting the tofu into small pieces, marinating it in teriyaki sauce, and baking on 350 for 45 minutes. Easy right? Nah, I never do easy. I decided to make a contraption to make sure that all of the water was out of the tofu without me having to stand there. (Don't mind that the first few pictures are super blurry. The manual focus got the best of me at first, but I won in the end.)

I started the process by pulling down a large cereal bowl and placing a cooling rack on top of it to catch all of the access water and not allow it to soak back into the tofu.

Phase 1

Then I added 2 paper towels folded in quarters and put the tofu on top of it. This made sure that the tofu did not drip all over the counter.

Phase 2

I then added 2 more paper towels, also folded in quarters, on top of the tofu to act a barrier between the tofu and the 'weights.'

Phase 3

Finally, I placed 2 plates to act as weights on top of the tofu press contraption to make sure that all of the water drained out.

Phase 4

Despite the horrified look on Josh's face when he saw what I had done, I have to admit, my home made tofu press worked perfectly. There was no extraneous mess (besides the materials I used) and the tofu was not soggy at all. It was ready to soak up the marinade.

Phase 5

After an hours time, I popped it into the oven.

Phase 6

And 45 low maintenance minutes later, Josh and I enjoyed and a healthy and delicious tofu meal. (Don't tell Josh, but I think my tofu salad came out better than his did last week. ssshhh)

Final Product!

I highly recommend this recipe. It's easy, yummy, and healthy. Of course, you might want to try your own method for pressing the tofu!