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Great places to find tofu recipes are tastespotting.com and Oyshee app; both of these are community cooking forums.

Tofu is a soy product that can be eaten raw or cooked.  It is considered a protein substitute.  It is a common ingredient in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and other SE Asian cuisine.  It has become popular in American vegetarian cuisine as well.  You can buy tofu in different firmnesses and usually whatever recipe you are using is kind enough to call out what firmness you should buy for that particular recipe.

Health benefits of tofu.

• Tofu is a good source of protein and contains all eight essential amino acids.  Essential amino acids are the ones that our body cannot make for itself and are therefore a very important part of a well balanced diet.
• It is an excellent source of iron and calcium.
• It is also a good source of manganese, selenium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, zinc and vitamin B1.
• It contains isoflavone which is thought to be the compound that is helpful for controlling hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms. It is not recommended to take isoflavone as a stand-alone supplement because there is not enough research about this compound in isolation.

Here is the recipe for the tofu dish shown above.  I modified this from a recipe that I found on the Oyshee app.

Ingredients (2 servings)

• Silken tofu (I prefer the firm texture)
• 3 scallions
• 2 Tsp. Sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp. Mirin
• 1 Tbsp. Sake (you can sub in more Marin if you want)

Directions:

Drain the tofu and set on a paper towel (I let mine sit for a good hour before I even started cooking to get rid of the extra liquid).  Chop the scallions into fine pieces.  Add everything except the tofu into a frying pain and sauté until the scallions are caramelized.  Once caramelized, there should still be a good amount of liquid in the pan, if not add a little more mirin and soy sauce.  Halve the tofu height wise.  Put the tofu on plates and spread the scallions over the tops of each of the two tofu sections.