Fab and Delicious Food

Hey guys!  Just wanted to give a quick reminder about the Nasoya Giveaway!  Up for grabs – some coupons to try Nasoya products, plus a very cool Tofu U t-shirt!  Click here to enter the giveaway!  Thanks! 

I was lucky enough to receive some coupons to try some Nasoya products (thanks, Daria!), and made Tofu Parmesan with Nasoya tofu. 

Parmigiana Tofu – Recipe Review

Pros

• You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry already, except maybe the tofu, so that’s the only thing you would really have to go to the store to buy.

• Pretty easy to make – only a few different steps.  Basically it was just breading the tofu, heating it in a skillet, and then layering everything in a pan and baking it.
• Done in no time – once you get the hang of heating the tofu in the skillet, it should take no time at all.  And once you have everything all set in the baking pan, the tofu parmesan takes only 20 minutes to bake. 
• The tofu makes it very filling, so this would be good to serve as a main meal/dish.
• Because tofu has such a meaty texture, you don’t miss the meat at all.

Cons

• The breading kept falling off while I was heating the tofu in the skillet. 
  • I think part of it was because you just dipped the tofu in water before breading it, instead of doing the usual process of flour, egg wash, breading (not that I’ve ever done this before, just seen it on a lot of food programs and in recipe directions).

   

  • Also, I was using tongs at first to flip the tofu over to the other side, but that kind of scraped the breading off of the tofu.  So halfway through I switched to using a spatula, which you could slide under the tofu, and therefore the breading, so it didn’t fall off as much.

• A bit too salty – the breading was a combination of bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano, salt, and black pepper.  Because the bread crumbs already contain a decent amount of sodium, you really don’t need to add the Parmesan cheese (especially since you add some on top of the tofu parmesan as well) or salt. 

Changes for Next Time

• I think would make tofu lasagna next time instead of tofu parmesan.  This way I could just skip the whole process of breading the tofu and then heating it in the skillet (even though if you do it right, it would probably taste really good).
  • Since the bread crumbs kept falling off the tofu, it didn’t really taste like tofu parmesan so much as tofu combined with tomato sauce and cheese.  You could still taste the bread crumb mixture, but since the tofu didn’t have that breaded texture, the breading tasted out of place, so it would have been better just to leave it out entirely. 
• Because the breading didn’t really work out as planned, it kind of needed something else in terms of flavor and texture.  Next time, I would add some veggies – mushrooms, zucchini, onion, and broccoli. 

Overall

• I think with a few tweaks and changes, this could easily turn out to be one of my favorite recipes.  It would make for a good meal anytime, but I also think it would be a fabulous entrée to bring to any family/holiday gathering.  The Parmigiana Tofu would be great for those looking for a vegetarian option, and since it has such a meaty texture it would probably satisfy meat-eaters as well.  And because it is made with ingredients that everyone is used to (cheese, tomato sauce), a lot of people would probably be willing to try it, even if they don’t normally go for vegetarian dishes, and it would be a great way to introduce someone to tofu if they haven’t yet tried it before.     

December 17th, 2011 | Tags: Nasoya, Nasoya Tofu Parmigiana, tofu, Tofu Parmesan | Category: Giveaway, Recipe Review | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL