Tofu instead of rice

[dockhl]

In his delightful and informative food blog last month, hzrt8w mentioned that he and his wife no longer eat rice regularly, and that they substitute tofu instead.

Last night’s dinner…

My wife and I don’t eat rice regularly any more.  She wants to avoid the starch.  Instead, we eat tofu in place of rice.  We picked this firm tofu.  She said the firmer the better.

I cut the block of tofu into smaller cubes, and heated them up in the microwave for 4 minutes (too lazy to boil them).

Ate this instead of rice in every home meal.  To counter the “blandness”, I like to add a wallop of hot sauce.

I've not heard of that before but it sounds interesting. I am wondering about absorption of sauces and texture, mostly. Any one else out there doing this?

Kathy (who has some being pressed as we 'speak')

[JasonTrue]

I don't really appreciate firm tofu (give me fresh custardy oborodoufu with some yuzu-koshou and a splash of soy sauce any day and I'll be happy), but I think it's misleading when people talk about tofu "absorbing" sauces.

The only time tofu sucks up sauces is when it's freeze-dried (koyadoufu) or frozen and hit with boiling water, both of which make the tofu spongy. Age puffs absorb flavors pretty well too, but they aren't quite tofu anymore.

The spongy texture can be quite interesting, and works particularly well with soupy things, but otherwise, I don't thing tofu's osmotic pressure is quite right to absorb sauces.

Firmer tofu may absorb some flavors in the outer couple of millimeters if marinated, and aromatics like onion, garlic, and nira will probably permeate the rest. Fried tofu also has more surface area to absorb sauces.

Good tofu dishes contrast the mild, slightly creamy texture and gentle bitterness of fresh tofu against more intense flavors. Unless the tofu is past its prime or just poor quality, it's not necessary to cover up the texture.

So I think this kind of contrast (warm tofu with hot sauce) is well-balanced (even though I'd probably use softer tofu than hzrt82 ) but I don't think the tofu will "absorb" the sauce... the sauce should coat the tofu.

[hzrt8w]

When I first started this "diet", I was skeptical too. Being a native Chinese, I have eaten white rice with every meal for over 4 decades. But after a few times, I started to like it. I don't want to go back to eating white rice at home any more.

That is true, the firm tofu really doesn't "absorb" the sauce. (Note that I never said it did.) The sauce kind of coats on the surface of the tofu.

Whether this is really more nutritional is my wife's area. Taste-wise, this is quite delighting to me.

[dockhl]

When I first started this "diet", I was skeptical too.  Being a native Chinese, I have eaten white rice with every meal for over 4 decades.  But after a few times, I started to like it.  I don't want to go back to eating white rice at home any more.

That is true, the firm tofu really doesn't "absorb" the sauce.  (Note that I never said it did.)  The sauce kind of coats on the surface of the tofu.

Whether this is really more nutritional is my wife's area.  Taste-wise, this is quite delighting to me. 

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Ah Leung~

Thank you.

No, I think the absorbing part was a figment of my imagination. Do you cut it into small pieces? Does the meal feel "lighter" to you?

Kathy

[hzrt8w]

Do you cut it into small pieces? Does the meal feel "lighter" to you?

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I cut the block of tofu into 1/2 inch cubes - strictly because of laziness, for no particular reasons.

Yes I do feel the meal is "lighter" compared to eating a bowl of white rice. The tofu still kind of "filled us up" (or made us feel as if we were filled up.)

Edited March 26, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[Gastro888]

Have you lost weight since you've adopted this style of eating?

[torakris]

Though I don't eat tofu instead of rice, but I do eat a lot of tofu. Often a block of tofu is lunch for me. In Japan hiyayakko is a very popular dish of cold tofu with various toppings.

Some of my favorite quick lunches are hiyayakko topped with:

natto (fermented soy beans)

kimchi (or natto mixed with kimchi)

sliced cucumbers and a Thai sweet chile sauce

Here is the hiyayakko thread, with lots of ideas and pictures.

[hzrt8w]

Have you lost weight since you've adopted this style of eating?

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No. But my weight is not increasing - to my wife's pleasing.

[Gastro888]

I see. So it doesn't help you loose weight per se, but you don't gain weight. OK, cool.

I have a hard time not eating rice when there is alot of sung with jup involved!

[Abra]

I don't think this would promote weight loss per se. Someone can make this more precise, but my lazy lookup shows that a cup of cooked white rice and a cup of extra firm tofu have about the same number of calories.

Of course, you're getting a ton of protein from the tofu and a ton of carbs from the rice, so there's that difference.

Edited March 29, 2007 by Abra (log)