A Tummy For Tofu

As I kept saying before, I adhere to a slightly strict diet that heavily involves veggies, fish, fruit and small to moderate servings of meat. However, my diet has taken a turn for the sensitive. Now that I have spinal arthritis, I had to drop a few more vegetables from my diet, ones that have beans and seeds in them like mung beans, string beans, snow peas and even tofu, which I always turned for protein replacement. Being every dieter's best bet, I felt a pang of frustration, because I liked tofu. Until I read that tofu does not actually increase uric acid levels and may, in fact, prevent gout attacks. That made me really happy. 😊
 

Knowing that, I came up with a delightfully easy to make tofu recipe that uses just whatever you have in your pantry.

                                                                                                                       

Made of ground soybeans, tofu is one of the easiest and most available substitutes one can ever find. Not only limited to supermarkets, tofu is available even in the smallest neighborhood market at a price so affordable, it should be considered gold for those taking the healthier route. Tofu, though a really good vegetarian choice, is as tasteless as air. Unless included in a dish of meat or fish, as a stand alone, it absolutely makes no sense to eat. For it to make a palatable mark, though, you need to up it's game by giving it a bit of that creative culinary touch. At first I thought of just frying it and dipping it in vinegar and garlic but I found it too common. So how was I to cook this? Here's what I did.

I realize that there are many ways on how to cook different things. You can stir fry, saute, boil or steam but nothing beats breading when it comes to horribly tasteless grub like tofu. I gathered the following ingredients which were already in my pantry (less the cost, really) together to begin my tofu food trip: flour, garlic salt, cumin, cinnamon (you read that right), pepper, liquid seasoning and Crispy Fry breading, garlic flavor.

 I put some flour in a bowl and added water to make a paste. When it got to the consistency I was comfortable in, I went to town in peppering it with my choice of spices and seasoning, except for the breading. My flour paste looks somewhat like thickened gravy. 

 Once done, I poured the Crispy Fry breading into a another saucer and set them all aside.

The tofu I purchased came in 3"x 3" squares. I cut them in fours and cut the fours in half, so that's 8 strips per tofu square. Thirty-two pieces. Not bad for sharing, really. 

I swirled the tofu into the flour batter, rolled it up in the breading and fried the tofu in heated oil until golden brown. Leaving each piece to drain in paper towels, I came up with a plateful of the crispiest, most flavorful tofu strips I've ever had. And the cinnamon was a unique touch to it. A deliriously delicious treat for the meat-deprived. You don't feel the deprivation at all.

Take your pick on the many choices of dips you could use: ketchup-mayo combo, sweet chili sauce or even vinegar and soy sauce with a little smashed garlic for some kick and a little sugar to sweeten it up. What I had was sweet blend catsup so that did it for me.

For something more lavish, you can do a sour cream and minced garlic dip with a sprinkling of shredded cheese. Served hot with steaming garlic fried rice, it was one trip that took me straight to tofu heaven.

For those who are taking the path to the healthy, the choices are, in reality, truly endless. One need not go beyond the four walls of their kitchen to discover food that could turn up to be remarkable revelations. One should only sprinkle a little bit of that wild imagination into a bowl of simple ingredients for an outcome of stupendous flavorful proportions. Who says going healthy equals tasteless? Discover!