Ingredients
Home-made Tofu requires really few ingredients; it is essentially just blended soybeans and water, but that’s exactly the beauty of it. So simple. So delicious.
The following simple ingredients will get you started
- 300 grams of soya beans
- 1000 grams or 1 liter of water (for soaking)
- 3000 grams or 3 liters of water (for juicing)
- 50 grams or 50 ml of acid/coagulant (e.g. Nigari), diluted with 250 grams or 250 ml of water (total 300ml)
In Switzerland soybeans can purchased in most BIO-stores (e.g. Müller, Reformhaus, etc.), in many Asian grocery shops (especially the larger ones) or online. The acid on the other hand is a little bit more difficult to come by, we’d say to try your luck online (e.g. Amazon). But you’ll only need the acid for your very first Tofu batch, because the Tofu making process yields enough acidic tofu whey for your next batch.
Materials
In order to make tofu you are going to need a bunch of tools to help you with the process. Most tools are standard in any kitchen, the only special thing is the tofu box. You can buy original wooden tofu boxes from Live Green, contact us if you are interested. Otherwise, you can also create your own tofu box, by making some holes in a plastic container. Check this video to get an idea.
The following tools will help to make your own home-made Tofu
- 1 weight scale
- 2 containers (or bowels) with a capacity of at least 3 liters
- 1 strainer (sieve)
- 1 blender
- 1 kitchen thermometer
- 1 cooking pot with a capacity of 4 litres or more
- 1 large spoon
- 1 cotton or cheese cloth
- 1 cheese cloth
- 1 large container or plate to catch tofu whey water
- 1 glass to store the whey water
- 1 tofu box
- Something heavy (e.g. a big rock or a pile of books)
Instructions
Now that everything is prepared, let’s make some Tofu.
- Put the soybeans in the large bowl
- Put the pot on your head
- Take the large spoon in your hand
- Speak the words “Tofumenti” and make a waving gesture at the beans
- Your tofu is now finished
If only it were that easy. By the way, if you are now holding a spoon in your hand and wearing a pot on your head, please do take a picture and share it with us 😉
Now here’s the real instructions for home-made tofu
- Weight out 300 grams of dried soya beans
- Add in 1 liter of water
- Pre-soak 300 grams of soya beans overnight (8-10 hours)
- Strain the water
- Weight the beans and divide into three portions, each contains around 220 grams-230 grams beans
- Add one portion of soaked soya beans and 1000 grams of water in to a blender
- Blend the mixture for about 3-5 minutes
- Prepare a 4 litre cooking pot and a cheese cloth (ideally place a metal sieve on top of the bowl, so the cheese cloth can be spread out)
- Pour all the mixture into the cheese cloth where it lays over a bowel to collect the filtered raw soya juice
- Collect each side of the cheese cloth and squeeze out all the juice as much as possible
- Remove the soya pulp or soya dregs in the cheese towel into another bowel
- Repeat the steps of blending and filtering until 3 portions are all finished up
- Heat up the 3 litre of filtered raw soya milk with medium high heat and stir gently but constantly
- Always check the temperature, when it reaches 100 degrees Celsius, turn down the heat to medium low for preventing it boil over; keep cooking the soya juice and let it stay 98-100 C° for about 5 more minutes
- Turn off the heat and let the juice start to cool down to 90-85 C°
- Meanwhile, waiting for the temperature to drop, weight out 50 grams or 50 ml of white vinegar and dilute it with 250 grams or 250 ml of water
- After the cooked soya juice cooled down to 90-85 degrees Celsius, use a large spoon to bring in the diluted vinegar solution in to the soya juice pot. Always follow the pattern, a spoon full vinegar in the juice, stir gently once and observe. Repeat and observe. When the liquid starts to separate, stop adding more vinegar.
- Close the lid of the pot and let the soya mixture sit quiet for 5 minutes
If the liquid cools down below 80 C°, heat it up again with low heat so it stays around 85-80 C° - Prepare tofu box and put it on a large clean pate to collect the tofu whey
- Wet a cheese cloth and spread it over the box
- Use a large spoon and bring all the soya curd into the tofu box
- Close the tofu box with a flat lid and press down slowly with increasing weight until desired firmness is reached
- Add heavy things on top or keep pressing for 10 minutes then the tofu is ready
- Soak the tofu in a cool water and store it in a container with fresh water for up to 3 days in the refrigerator
- Collect the tofu whey from the plate into a clean bottle, ideally 1.5 litre
- Keep the tofu whey in a dark warm place for 2-3 days till it starts to turn sour
- Next time you can use the sour tofu whey to make tofu instead of the vinegar solution
Information
All types of soya products should not be consumed raw in this recipe. Tofu is cooked, therefore it is fine to consume directly.
What to do with the Tofu dregs (a.k.a. Okara)?
Do not discard the soya dregs, they are still nutritious, contain good fibre and protein. The best way to consume soya dregs is steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, or cooked with soup. Check out some Okara recipes to learn how to create delicious dishes with leftover tofu dregs.
How to use tofu whey
The leftover tofu whey can be used to coagulate the next batch of tofu. To make leftover Tofu Whey into a coagulant, save about 1.5 liters of the whey. Leave for two weeks at room temperature in a sealed container. After that, store it in the refrigerator, otherwise it will mould. To use, use about 1/2 to 2/3 of it, depending on how much you need, and replace what you use from the fresh batch of whey. The amount of whey coagulant you use will be about 20 to 25% as much of the soy milk you are using. Pour slowly in, seeing how it does and how much you actually need.
