As you might have seen in someprevious blogposts, I recently spend some time in China, and even though groceryshopping required a lot of text-scanning and translating, I did want to step outof my comfort zone to try some new products. One of the things I definitely discoveredwas “tofu skin”. When I first saw this I thought it was some kind of pastasheet, like an Italian lasagne, but it has a bit more of a chewier texture, it oftenhas a ribbed surface and it tastes a bit like tofu. After some googling I found an article on Wikipedia that told me this was in fact tofu skin.
Tofu skin is not actually a variety of tofu, since it does not contain coagulant, but it is a by-product of tofu production (much like whey is from cheesemaking, which is also a process which involves milk and coagulants). According to chronometer the nutritional breakdown per 100 grams is:
- 177 Kcal
- 24.7 g of protein
- 3.5 g of carbs
- 4.1 g of fat
This nutrition profile, combined with the fact that it comes in sheets which can be used as “lasagne” sheets right away, or can be cut up to resemble noodles, make it a perfect high protein, low fat, low carb pasta alternative!
In this post I just want to show you two ways I used these tofu sheets
Vegetable rolls
This recipe is inspired by a spring roll type dish I had at a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing, but with mushrooms instead of different mixed vegetables.
Ingredients for three rolls, a light lunch or side dish for 1 person:
- 125 grams of mushrooms, sliced
- A small onion
- A tbsp. of miso
- A tsp. of olive oil
- A tbsp. of soy sauce
- 3 tofu skin sheets (approximately 50 grams)
Instructions:
- Heat your oil in a pan, add the sliced mushroomsand small onion and fry until browned
- Add your soy sauce and miso and coat thevegetables.
- Place your tofu sheets on a plate, adding 1/3 ofyour vegetable mixture and roll to form three rolls
“Noodle soup”
This recipe is inspired by the tofu skins I found at my local Tesco in Beijing, which was cut and bundled to resemble a kind of whip, with the tofu being cut up into thin strips. I often used these as noodles in miso soup, and I really enjoyed that! Since these “noodles” don’t really need to be cooked, it makes for a super quick lunch/diner.
Ingredients for one bowl of soup:
- A tbsp. of miso paste
- A small handful of edamame beans
- 5-6 sheets of tofu skin
Instructions:
- Cut your tofu skin into small strips
- Add your miso paste into the bowl, addingboiling water while stirring to prevent unmixed clumps of miso
- Add your edamame beans and tofu skin into themiso and serve!
TIP: want to make tis a more complete dinner soup? Add some vegetables, more beans or wheat noodles (this would make it higher in carbs of course)
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