I often hear that tofu is very versatile; but I tried to use it once and was disgusted. Any ideas of what I can do with it ? creatively? tasty recipes?

tofu straight from the packet is an aquired taste, lol- i don't know what type you tried, or how you prepared it, but there are loads of different things you can do, and reasons why you weren't impressed straight away. i had to try it about 3 times beofre i was a convert.

there are different types of tofu- from the silken kind that comes on the shelf in the store, and works well in smoothies, desserts and dips, to the 'firm' kind thats chilled and water packed, which is denser, and works better in savoury things, and where one might have previously used meat.
you can press and marinade the firm type, and add it to reciepes sliced or crumbled, or fry or steam it, or freeze and thaw it first to change the texture, to make it denser and i guess, for use of a better term, 'meatier'.

if i was new to tofu, i'd familiarise myself with the different types and what each is used for, then try some different recipes that i liked the sound of the tastes and flavours of, from the reciepes forum. i like my tofu in a 'scrambled egg' style, and marinaded in soy sauce and other flavours, then pan fried till golden and crispy on the outside, and added to all kinds of reciepes... but everyone has their own preferences.

Tofu is very versatile. It's sort of like flour, it tastes pretty yucky by itself but it's a wonderful base for lots of other things. It's a good stand in for meat in dishes. It can be marinated, coated and fried, even sliced thin and fried to crispy strips. Make sure you press ALL the water out. I usually place it on an upside down plate in the sink, place another plate on top and carefully weight it with a few books. If you leave it for about 15 or so minutes it will squeeze the water out completely. Especially with silken be careful with the amount of the weight though because it can smush it if it's too heavy. Tofu is the veggie wonderfood, imo. It's a chameleon, stands in for anything. Just keep trying different recipes. In some recipes I can taste a hint of what I call "tofu flavor" but I found by tinkering with it some I can usually get rid of that. If you don't mind meat analogs and you liked bacon, try tofu bacon. My list of websites is gone off my computer because it's possessed by evil spirits but basically you slice tofu up in strips, fry it in vegetable oil about 5 minutes each side or until it's crispy. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp smoke and about 2 tbsp nutritional yeast on it, stir it around and flip them over until they're evenly coated. Generally I sprinkle a little more salt on top because bacon is salty and I don't give a fig about the health aspect of eating it. It's a treat. ;) Cook it until it's sticky and dry and then eat! It's really quite easy and it's a nice way to get used to tofu.
Mary

I feel kind of crass plugging my pet thread all the time, but what can I say? I'm brilliant! ;)

http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showpost.php?p=1171811&postcount=2

This tip should help you prepare tofu so it comes out less like "hot jello," as detractor say.

I feel kind of crass plugging my pet thread all the time, but what can I say? I'm brilliant! ;)

http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showpost.php?p=1171811&postcount=2

This tip should help you prepare tofu so it comes out less like "hot jello," as detractor say.
Yay! I've been a bit scared of tofu for the last six months or so but have been cooking lots of it recently. My four year old loves plain tofu. Any kind. Thanks for your "pet" thread Tesseract, I was wondering how to get rid of the moisture in the middle of my tofu before cutting it and the plates and books idea sounds like a great idea, I was using paper towels to "squish" the moisture out.

Thanks tess! great thread.

I love to fry tofu in a little bit of olive oil w/soy, peanut sauce and broccoli.yum!