Vegan Cold Tofu Salad (涼拌豆腐 or Liáng Bàn Dòu Fǔ) - A Quick and Easy Summer Staple

Vegan Cold Tofu Salad (涼拌豆腐 or Liáng Bàn Dòu Fǔ) - A Quick and Easy Summer Staple

To be precise, "tofu salad' is actually called "cold mixed tofu" when translated from Chinese (涼拌豆腐 or liáng bàn dòu fǔ). While this is somewhat as close to a salad as you'll get in Chinese cuisine, Chinese salads are bold in flavors and textures while being satisfyingly cool, refreshing, and effective at relieving the summer heat. You'll be astonished at how incredibly tasty, delicious, and rewarding this dish is despite how little time it takes.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of silken Tofu
  • Sauce
  • Toppings

Sauce Ingredients (all optional, mix according to personal preference):

  • Toon Sauce
  • Soy paste (thicker than soy sauce so the sauce won't be too watered down)
  • Sesame oil (for fragrance)
  • Chili oil (for spice)
  • Vinegar of choice (I like Zhenjiang vinegar)
  • Salt (for slightly saltier)
  • Sugar (for slightly sweeter)
  • Cucumber
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Cilantro

Toppings (all optional, add according to personal preference):

Instructions:

  1. Remove silken tofu from box and place on a plate.
  2. Cut the tofu once length-wise and then along the width according to desired thickness.
  3. Place plate of tofu aside to drain.
  4. Mix your choice of sauce ingredients together in a bowl. If you want to include cucumber, mix it with some salt (and/or sugar depending on the flavors you want) in a separate bowl first and let it sit for about 10 minutes and drain the water before mixing it into the rest of the sauce to prevent the sauce from being too watered down.
  5. After letting the tofu sit for about 10 minutes, drain the water from the plate. Be careful to not pour the tofu down the drain too.
  6. Pour the sauce mixture onto the tofu.
  7. Sprinkle toppings over tofu.

Notes:

Sauce portions are dependent on your preference in flavors. There's a saying in Taiwanese - grandpa wants to cook salty, granny wants to cook bland. This is certainly the situation in our household so depending on who the dish is being made for, we may add more of less of different ingredients.

 

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