People who dislike tofu have usually eaten it wet. Straight from the packet it is a sponge full of water: it cannot brown, it will not take on marinade, and it falls apart in the pan. Deal with the water and it becomes one of the fastest weeknight proteins there is.
Buy the right block
Firm or extra firm for frying, roasting and skewers. Silken for blending into sauces, desserts and soups. They are not interchangeable: silken tofu in a frying pan becomes scrambled sadness.
Smoked tofu is a shortcut worth knowing. It is already pressed, already seasoned, and it slices for salads and sandwiches without any cooking at all.
1. Press it
Wrap the block in a clean tea towel, put it on a plate and weigh it down with something heavy: a pan, a few tins, a chopping board with a kettle on it. Twenty minutes gets most of the water out; an hour is better.
Freezing is the other route. A block frozen and then thawed loses a surprising amount of liquid and comes out chewier and spongier, which soaks up sauce beautifully. Squeeze it gently after thawing.
2. Coat it
Toss the cubes in cornflour or potato starch with salt. A thin, even coating gives a crust that stays crisp much longer than bare tofu, and it stops sticking.
Do the seasoning here, not in a wet marinade. Tofu absorbs very little liquid, so a long soak in soy mostly makes it wet again. Salt, spices and starch on the outside give you far more flavour per minute.
3. Sear it and leave it alone
A wide pan, enough oil to coat the base properly, medium-high heat. Lay the cubes out with space between them and then do not touch them for three or four minutes. Tofu releases from the pan when a crust has formed; if it sticks, it is not ready.
Turn once, brown the second side, and take it out. In the oven, 200°C for 25 to 30 minutes on baking paper with a shake halfway does the same job with less attention. An air fryer does it faster still.
4. Sauce it off the heat
Add the sauce to the pan after the tofu is crisp and the heat is off, or toss the two together in a bowl at the table. Sauce added to a hot pan turns to steam and undoes the crust you just built.
Three that work: soy, honey or maple, rice vinegar and garlic. Gochujang thinned with vinegar and a little sugar. Peanut butter loosened with lime, soy and hot water.
Tempeh and seitan, briefly
Tempeh is whole fermented soybeans, so it is nuttier, firmer and higher in fibre. It can taste faintly bitter; steaming it for ten minutes before cooking softens that. Slice thin, fry hard, glaze.
Seitan is wheat gluten, so it is chewy and genuinely meaty in texture, and completely unsuitable for anyone avoiding gluten. It is the best of the three for stews and sandwiches.
The dish to start with
Press a block for twenty minutes while the rice cooks. Cube, toss in a tablespoon of cornflour with salt, fry in a hot pan until the edges are properly brown. Off the heat, add two tablespoons of soy, one of vinegar, one of honey and a grated clove of garlic; it will hiss and thicken around the cubes. Spring onion and sesame on top.
Fifteen minutes, one pan, and nothing about it apologising for the absence of meat.