This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
“What, making my lunches with tofu, are you kidding me?” Well, no, it’s not a joke. There are many benefits, for you, for the planet, for your taste buds and for your wallet, to eating tofu. So, let’s make back to school rhyme with tofu in the company of Joël Legendre, a multi-talented artist, a gourmet vegetarian and a doting father, who has just launched his third recipe book, Lunches for all.
Joel, how did you succumb to the charms of tofu?
I became a vegetarian in high school, when this diet was still marginal. It’s simple, even my parents were convinced that I would get sick and end up in the hospital! At the time, there was not much in my environment to cook vegetarian; I could only find tofu in Chinatown. So I relied on a cookbook by Renée Frappier, a pioneer in vegetarianism (she founded the Expo manger santé et vivre vert), and I learned a lot on my own, through trial and error.
Be honest: is tofu accessible to everyone?
Absolutely! You just have to choose it well and prepare it. Soft or silken tofu is used in soups or desserts. As for firm or extra-firm tofu, I consider it a bit like ground meat. Without cooking or seasoning, it will have an elastic texture and will be flavorless. It needs love, whether it is marinated for 24 hours for example, before frying or breading it so that it becomes crispy, salty or sweet.
A very simple way to get started is to cut firm tofu into cubes, brown them in an oiled pan until golden brown on all sides, then add milk, onion salt, maple syrup, ketchup and Bragg or soy sauce. You’ll be surprised! In fact, I once managed to fool my sister’s husband, a hunter and big carnivore, with a tofu pie at a Christmas gathering.
Your book “Lunches for All” of course contains tofu recipes. How did you come up with it?
At home, I am the one in the kitchen. So I have experimented a lot, especially during the forced pandemic break, to end up with dozens of vegetarian recipes that please my three children, Lambert, Anaïs and Marion. I can therefore confirm that they are suitable for everyone, for lunch boxes as well as for other meals.
I also wanted these recipes to be simple, quick to make, economical and reusable. For example, the leftovers from my Mexican tofu recipe can be incorporated into a salad, burrito or sandwich the next day. It can also be cut into smaller cubes and added to fried rice. In short, this book is a simple way to get started with vegetarianism, without falling into dogma, since vegetable proteins can be replaced by traditional meats.
What do we discover about tofu in this book?
That tofu is very accessible, versatile, delicious and nutritious. You can use it to replace meat, add it to salads, make desserts, like a protein chocolate mousse. I even turned it into fries in a poutine, with the advantage that they never go soggy. You know, it’s not for nothing that my son Lambert’s first word wasn’t “daddy” but “tofu,” because he loved the maple tofu candies I made. So if some kids are smitten with tofu, why wouldn’t everyone be?
Make your own tofu
This content was produced by the Special Publications Team of Dutyrelevant to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part in it.