Homemade Tofu from Scratch
A couple of months ago, I shared with you how to make tempeh. This time around, let’s learn how to make tofu from scratch! Making your own tofu sounds daunting, but it’s actually super easy and only requires 2 ingredients. Soybeans and nigari flakes. Water doesn’t count!
The process of making tofu is so wholesome, and when you unmould your tofu from the tofu press you just feel so accomplished! If you decide halfway through that you don’t want to make tofu, then you’ll have some nice and warm homemade soymilk to drink. It’s a 2 in 1 recipe!
Have fun making tofu, but don’t jiggle those soy curds too much!
Love,
Elliz
Homemade Tofu
Yield: Makes a 500g block of tofu
Prep time: 1 H & 30 MCook time: 30 MinInactive time: 24 HourTotal time: 26 Hour
Ingredients
Soy Milk
Coagulant
Equipment
Instructions
Soy Milk
- Place the soybeans in a large bowl and cover with enough water to submerge all the beans.
- Leave to soak overnight.
- The next day, rinse the soybeans thoroughly.
- Blend the soybeans with 2 litres of water in a high speed blender. If you have a small blender, blend the soybeans in batches.
- Pour the blended soybeans into a non stick pot and place on medium high heat.
- Cook while stirring the soy milk constantly.
- Soy milk tends to stick like crazy, so be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot and sides with a wooden spoon as you stir.
- Bring the soy milk to a boil, about 8 - 10 minutes. When this happens, the soy milk will start foaming up, and will rise quickly. Immediately turn down the heat to low so it doesn't overflow.
- Cook the soy milk for a further 15 minutes then turn off the heat.
- Prepare a large heatproof bowl with a colander on top.
- Place a muslin cloth or nut milk bag over the colander.
- With a ladle, scoop the soymilk and strain it through the nut milk bag.
- Once all the soymilk has been poured through, gather the muslin cloth or nut milk bag and use a potato masher to squish the remaining soy milk pulp (okara) to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Be careful as the soy milk will be very hot. Only handle it with your hands once it's cool enough to touch.
- Do not discard the okara as it can be used in cooking things like pancakes, muffins or scramble.
- Rinse the pot and place it back on the stove.
- Pour the strained soymilk into the pot.
Coagulating
- Before starting, prepare all the equipment you're going to need.
- Place a tofu press on a wire rack, and place it on a rimmed baking tray.
- Drape the muslin cloth into the tofu press neatly.
- Measure out 15g of nigari flakes, and have some boiling water ready.
- Heat the soy milk gently to 75°c. If you don't have a themometer, wait till the soy milk starts producing a lot of steam but not simmering or boiling.
- Once you've reached this stage, dissolve the nigari flakes into 60ml of boiling water.
- Stream the nigari liquid into the soymilk by pouring on the back of your wooden spoon or spatula. Move in a circle as you pour to evenly distribute.
- Gently place your wooden spoon all the way to the bottom of the pot and stir in a zig zag pattern once to disperse the nigari. Do not stir it more than once, as this will agitate the soy milk too much and your soy milk won't curdle nicely.
- Cover the pot with a lid and leave to curdle for ten minutes. Don't move the pot at this stage.
- After ten minutes, remove the lid and the soy milk should be curdled and wobbly.
- With a slotted spoon, gently scoop the curds and place into the tofu press.
- Once the curds are no longer scoopable, pour them gently into the tofu press along the edges.
- Place the top of the tofu press on top of the curds and gently press down to even it out. Then place 2 - 3 cans on top to weigh the tofu down.
- Leave to press for 15 - 20 minutes.
- Prepare a large bowl with cool water.
- After 15 - 20 minutes, remove the weight and submerge the entire tofu press in the bowl of water.
- This will gently release the tofu.
- Peel the muslin cloth carefully and leave the tofu to soak in the water for about 20 minutes to firm up and remove any bitter taste the nigari may impart.
- Use the tofu in any recipe that you like.
- If not using immediately, store the tofu in the fridge submerged in water.
Notes:
- If you don't have a tofu press, you can also use a colander, a strainer or be creative and poke some holes into a plastic container (watch my video above to see).
- Tofu pressed in a colander or strainer will not be as firm and compact as one pressed in a traditional tofu press. But it will still taste just as good.
- You can use a regular pot instead of a non stick pot, but you have to be very careful and scrape the edges and bottom of the pot constantly or the soy milk will stick.
- You can store your soymilk in the fridge and coagulate the next day. Just heat it back up to 75 degrees celsius or until it steams like I outlined above.
