YUZU'S TOFU STREET TACOS
So I'm a Los Angeles native, and these are the tacos I had growing up, except now half of my friends are vegan, so I learned how to make them with tofu instead of meat. These tacos are so fucking good that a Latina friend of mine asked me for the recipe, which is the pride of my life. They're also dirt cheap, and I was able to serve 6 college students with $30 worth of ingredients and have leftovers. Normally this is where 8 more paragraphs of preamble would go, but you're probably hungry, so let's get to it.
Ingredients: For this recipe, you'll need tofu (firm works best), small tortillas or taco shells (preferably corn), beans (preferably black), shredded iceberg lettuce or cabbage, "Mexican spices" (follow your heart on this one, I used TJ's hot and smoky mix and also their taco spice, but literally do anything you want, although if you have low spice tolerance you can just use paprika), shredded cheese, cooking oil (I like avocado oil for tofu but that's pure preference), cilantro and lime (optional, but they add a lot), and love.
Prep: First you want to get a medium sized layer of oil (more oil than you think you need) in a big pan, get it nice and hot, while that's heating chop up a block of tofu, and get out your taco shells, shredded cheese, and lettuce or cabbage. For best results chop the tofu into small cubes, but if you're using a non-firm tofu (soft or sprouted), chop it larger so that it won't dissolve.
Cook: After you have everything ready, throw the tofu all into the oil, and immediately add spices to taste. One of the advantages to cooking with tofu is that it's never 'raw' like meat is, you can always taste it at any stage of the production to make sure you got the seasoning right. The spices are the most important step, make sure you taste everything before you add it. Move it around in the pan a lot, you can just shake the pan and toss it around like you're stir frying, or use a spoon to get it unstuck from the pan, but don't use a sharp implement like a fork or spatula, that will break the tofu. You can either cook it until it's lightly grilled (the tofu will be reddish brown from absorbing the spices) or get a heavier sear (the tofu will be darker and might become crispy depending on how much oil you use). When it's done, use tongs or your spoon to get it all into a bowl, DON'T POUR FROM THE PAN or else you'll get all of the oil too, and the tofu will be swimming in grease. Then, cook the beans in the same pan immediately after the tofu is out, to let them soak up the residual flavors. You can add the same seasonings to the beans that you did with the tofu, but some people like their beans mild to cut through the spice.
Finishing: After the beans are done, spoon a little of everything into a tortilla or taco shell (lettuce/cabbage, tofu, beans, cheese, in that order if you want to be a purist). Finish with cilantro and lime. If you opted for soft tacos, just put everything in a line in the center of the tortilla, and then grip it so that it folds parallel to that line. There's an entire school of debate on how to hold these things, but I just accept that I'm going to make a mess, and eat them outside. Enjoy! :3
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