I don’t want to be dramatic, but a recent recipe from Hetty McKinnon changed the way I think about tofu. To make her Sesame Broccoli With Crumbled Tofu, McKinnon starts by bringing a large pot of water to a boil, seasons it with salt, and lowers a whole block of tofu into it to simmer for a few minutes. After the tofu’s dunk, the broccoli is cooked until crisp-tender in the same pot, and both ingredients are mixed with white beans, rayu, and sesame oil to create a simple meal with flavors McKinnon calls “delicate” and “chiefly clean.” But we’re here to talk about the tofu, which the author describes as “bouncy and supple” after its bath in the salted water.
For the recipe in Tenderheart, her latest cookbook, McKinnon “really wanted that bouncy texture, which doesn’t come that naturally to firm or extra firm tofu,” she says. “Putting it into salted water and boiling it for a minute infuses it and allows the water to penetrate.”
She notes the technique has long been prevalent in Chinese cooking. “I think there’s a Western inclination to take the water out of tofu, but tofu really benefits from water. With this technique, the salt in the water is infusing flavor and drawing out moisture at the same time.” As someone who didn’t grow up eating tofu, it’s true that my formula for cooking the firm protein relied heavily on squeezing or pressing it first: Plank and fry. Tear and roast. Squeeze to an inch of its life and sear. And in every case, sauce it up with something delicious that will impart flavor.
But after cooking through McKinnon’s recipe, I’ve been experimenting with this technique more and more (it works best with medium-firm tofu, often just labeled “tofu,” but will work for firm or extra-firm as well). In deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s spicy peanut noodle salad, for example, Asbrink calls for poaching some chicken in boiling water with some garlic, ginger, and scallion, and I subbed a block of tofu in instead. “Even just a warm bath, like a Jacuzzi simmer, heats everything through and can pull out the grassier flavor,” notes Asbrink, who likes to use this process when making dishes like mapo tofu. She notes that it gives the protein some structural integrity so that those carefully prepped cubes don’t crumble as you stir them into the sizzling red mixture of chili oil and fermented black bean.
Many cooking experts champion a quick soak as a way to give the protein more texture and flavor. “Simmering cubed tofu in salted water for 60 seconds pulls out excess moisture and tightens the proteins on its surface,” Lukas Volger told Bon Appétit in 2021. In her book Asian Tofu, Andrea Nguyen recommends pouring boiling, salted water over cut tofu and letting it sit for 15 minutes before going on to fry it, and on Instagram, the Omsom account highlights a technique for brining slices tofu in salt water before pan frying them to get the crispiest pieces. If your tofu is on its way to a fried or baked end, be sure to drain the hot water completely, and pat the tofu dry very well to remove excess moisture and salt.
Hannah Che writes in her cookbook Vegan Chinese Kitchen, “The easiest way to cook tofu is to quickly blanch it, then season with salt and sesame oil and fold in a handful of finely chopped scallions or fresh herbs.” She showcases this in her recipe for Fragrant Dressed Tofu With Garlic and Basil, adding, “This preparation, called liangban, is minimal yet divinely tasty.”
McKinnon recommends using quickly boiled tofu in a rich sesame or peanutty sauce or in salads. “I love the cleanness of the flavor of the tofu when it comes out: lightly salted with a texture that really comes over,” she says.
The next time I pull out that block of tofu and contemplate which crisp, bouncy, or silky direction it might take me in, I'll put a pot of water on to boil while I decide.
