Tofu Dishes, How It’s Made & All The Varieties Of Tofu

As one of the staples of East Asian cuisine, tofu (豆腐 dòufu) is a food you will definitely encounter on a trip to China.

Tofu (豆腐 dòufu), also called bean curd, is soy milk curdled with a coagulant such as gypsum or nigari and pressed into blocks, much like making cheese. It comes from China, where tofu-making was first recorded around the Han dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. From there it spread with Buddhism to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

But what is tofu?

And how is tofu made?

Tofu comes from China, and its Chinese name 豆腐 dòufu is very logical: 豆 (dòu) means ‘bean’ and 腐 (fǔ) here means curdled or soft, so the name literally means bean curd.

💡 On its own 腐 can mean ‘rotten’ or ‘fermented’, but everyday tofu is not fermented at all. It is soy milk curdled with a coagulant (a substance that makes a liquid set into curds), a bit like making cheese.

In English it is also called bean curd. The word ‘tofu’ itself reached English through Japanese, which borrowed both the characters and the word from Chinese.  

Where Does Tofu Come From? The Legend of Tofu

How is Tofu Made? Our Imprecise Guide to Tofu-making:

Tofu Varieties

Is Tofu Healthy? Protein, Soy and Estrogen

Popular Tofu Dishes in China

Where Does Tofu Come From? The Legend of Tofu

Tofu comes from China, where tofu-making was first recorded around the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), more than 2,000 years ago. A Han-era tomb mural is often read as showing tofu being made, though historians still debate it. The soybean itself was already prized in China, traditionally counted among the five grains, 五谷 (wǔgǔ), the staple crops of ancient Chinese farming.

The legend tells that Prince Liu An invented soy milk for his elderly mother.

She was ill and couldn’t chew her food. At her suggestion Liu An ground up some soya beans into milk, which is step one in tofu-making. 

The invention of bean curd has also been attributed to Liu An himself.

As a devoted Daoist, Liu An spent a lot of time and money on discussions of how to attain immortality and cultivate an inner elixir known as dān 丹.

According to another legend Liu An produced soy milk as he believed it would help with keeping Dan.

One day the soy milk was accidentally mixed with gypsum powder and the first tofu-like substance was formed.

And that, in a nutshell, is what tofu is: soy milk set into curds by a mineral such as gypsum.

However, some sources discredit this theory and claim that it was the group of monks with whom Liu An lived who taught him the tofu-making process.

These Chinese Daoists were said to know ‘alchemical’ methods used to make bean curd from soy milk.

As a fairly powerful person of the time, Liu An enabled increased production and propagation of soy milk and tofu, which made him famous for the products.

Legends aside, the earliest surviving written record of tofu comes from the scholar Tao Gu 陶谷 (903 to 970 AD). In his Qing Yi Lu 清异录, written around 965 AD, he notes that people called tofu ‘little mutton’ (小宰羊 xiǎo zǎiyáng) because it stood in for meat. By the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279 AD), bean curd was a widespread, everyday food across China.

Before refrigeration, fresh tofu spoiled quickly, especially in the warmer months, so it was usually made fresh and eaten the same day.

Traditionally, it is used as a food offering to the deceased, because spirits are believed to have lost their jaws so can only eat very soft food.

The spread of tofu across East and Southeast Asia is believed to be linked with the spread of Buddhism, as it’s an important source of protein in the Buddhist vegetarian diet. Japanese Buddhist monks who studied in China are credited with bringing tofu home, probably during the Nara period (710 to 794 AD), and it later became a pillar of shōjin ryōri, the vegetarian temple cooking of Zen monasteries. Tofu also took root in Korea, and some scholars date its arrival in Vietnam to the 10th and 11th centuries, from where it spread further across Southeast Asia.

Tofu reached the West much later. In a letter dated January 11, 1770, Benjamin Franklin, then living in London, sent soybeans to his friend John Bartram, a botanist in Philadelphia, and described ‘tau-fu’, a Chinese ‘cheese’ made from them. Even so, most Americans only discovered tofu in the second half of the 20th century, helped along by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi’s The Book of Tofu (1975).

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Chinese hot pot (火锅 huǒguō) literally means fire-pot. It’s history goes back over 1,000 years. It is one of the most traditional and popular meals in China.

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How is Tofu Made? Our Imprecise Guide to Tofu-making:

I signed up for a making-tofu-from-scratch class at The Hutong cooking school in Beijing, and it was a lot of fun.

Aside from generally being quite useless when it comes to cooking, I also had zero idea of how this mysterious but tasty substance is produced and my curiosity got the better of me.

So here’s a very rough explanation of what we did and how tofu is made.

1. Soak the beans 

Luckily for us the Hutong had this side of things thoroughly prepared for us.

Usually when you buy soy beans from the local market/supermarket they’re dried.

You need to soak them in water overnight to re-hydrate them. Rinse them first.

How Tofu Compares to Other Soy Foods

Tofu is just one thing you can make from soybeans. Edamame is the whole young bean, while soy sauce, miso and tempeh are all fermented, which plain tofu is not.

💡 Next time you’re at a market in Beijing, look for the stall selling several of these side by side. It’s the quickest way to see how one bean ends up in so many different foods.

2. Raw soy milkshake

Once the beans are fully rehydrated you need to mix them with even more water, this time in a blender.

Blend them as smooth as you can (the more powerful the blender, the smoother this will be) to make a milkshake-like liquid.

3. Sieve out the pulp 

The curd is made from the liquid only, so use a sieve lined with cheesecloth (this catches the really fine pulpy bits) to separate the pure soy milk from the pulp.

This part can get a little messy. Don’t throw away the pulp, known in Chinese as 豆腐渣 dòufuzhā (‘tofu dregs’).

This can make a really delicious veggie burger patty or ‘meat’ ball.

4. Cook the soy milk 

Heat your raw soy milk on a medium to low heat, stirring so it doesn’t catch or boil over, and let it simmer gently for around 10 minutes.

TIP💡 Never drink soy milk raw. Cooking makes it easier to digest and takes away the grassy, ‘beany’ taste.

Now you have soy milk ready to drink! If you have a sweet tooth you can add sugar.

5. Magically turn the milk into tofu

This works just like making cheese: you add a coagulant to hot milk so the proteins clump into soft curds, leaving behind a thin, pale yellow liquid called whey. Then, like a cheesemaker, you scoop the curds into a cloth and press them into a block.

We added spoonfuls of vinegar to do this, which acts as a coagulant to turn the soy milk, like magic, into tofu.

We had to add them carefully, one at a time to make sure we didn’t break up the curds.

Vinegar is only one option. These are the coagulants you’ll come across most often:

💡 Nigari is so well known in China that it has its own saying: 卤水点豆腐，一物降一物 (lǔshuǐ diǎn dòufu, yí wù xiáng yí wù), literally ‘brine sets tofu, one thing masters another’, meaning everyone has their match.

6. Press your bean curds

Once your soy milk has turned into a tofu-like substance you can spoon it into a wooden basket, place a cloth and something heavy (like a bowl of water) on top.

This presses your tofu together and the excess water will leak out of the bottom of the basket.

And voila, you have a basket of fresh bean curd.

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Tofu Varieties

When I first came to China I was surprised by how many different things were translated into ‘tofu’ when I asked what I was eating.

Here’s a brief overview of some of our favourite foods that are ‘tofu’:

Soft or firm tofu:

The texture of fresh bean curd ranges from silken to extra firm, with all the stages in between.

The main difference comes from how much water is pressed out of the tofu.

The firmer the tofu, the higher it will be in both protein and fat content.

There are also many other types of pre-prepared/partially cooked tofu products available

Deep-fried tofu:

Deep-fried bean curd cubes are crispy around the edges and soft-centred.

Tofu Skin:

Tofu skin tastes much better than it sounds.

There are 3 main different types

All three are made from the dried and cooked skin of the soy milk as it’s being turned into bean curd.

Dry Tofu 豆腐干 (dòufu gān): 

A tasty vegan alternative to smoked cheese, dry bean curd needs little to no preparation.

If you’ve eaten tokwa in the Philippines, you already know this one. Tokwa is firm, pressed tofu, and its name comes from the Hokkien Chinese tāu-koaⁿ, the same 豆干 that Mandarin speakers call dòugān or dòufu gān. So yes, tokwa is tofu, just the firm, dry kind.

Frozen Tofu 冻豆腐 (dòngdòufu):

You can buy pre-frozen bean curd to add to hot pot and other yummy dishes.

Frozen tofu has a spongey texture when thawed out.

Fish Tofu:

A bit of a red herring in this list (excuse the pun).

Fish tofu is actually not tofu at all, it’s a starchy fish cube that has a tofu-like texture.

It usually does contain fish and soy bean oil.

Is Tofu Healthy? Protein, Soy and Estrogen

Tofu is a complete protein, which means it supplies all nine essential amino acids, and it is low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol. Tofu set with calcium sulfate (gypsum) is also a good source of calcium. The American Cancer Society notes that soy foods have been linked to lower rates of heart disease and may even help lower cholesterol.

🤔 So does tofu contain estrogen? Not the human kind. Tofu contains isoflavones, plant compounds also called phytoestrogens, which bind only weakly to the body’s estrogen receptors and behave differently from the hormone your body makes. According to the American Cancer Society, human studies find that soy’s estrogen effects either have no effect at all or may reduce breast cancer risk.

There are a few downsides to know about. Soy is one of the major food allergens in the US, so anyone with a soy allergy should skip tofu. Concentrated isoflavone supplements are a different matter from tofu, and the American Cancer Society does not recommend them for cancer prevention. If you have a medical condition or take thyroid medication, ask your doctor how much soy suits you, and keep an eye on the salt and oil in restaurant tofu dishes.

Popular Tofu Dishes in China

Today bean curd turns up in countless traditional Chinese dishes like Mapo Tofu. It’s cheap, packed with protein and has a subtle flavour that soaks up sauces, so it works in both savoury and sweet dishes, from breakfast 豆腐脑 dòufunǎo (silky tofu pudding) to late-night hot pot.

In case you don’t know where to start getting your tofu fix after all that, here are a few recommendations:

1. Mapo Tofu – 麻婆豆腐 (Má pó dòufu)

Mapo tofu is a delicious Sichuan dish of soft bean curd chunks.

It has lots of chilli and mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns.

It generally contains ground pork for flavouring, but the vegetarian alternative Mala tofu is also delicious.

It’s always good to check whether it contains meat when you order, just in case. 

2. Drypot Tofu – 干锅豆腐 (Gān guō dòufu)

Drypot tofu is a member of the hotpot family without the soup base.

Different types of tofu can be used in this sort of dish, dry bean curd, bamboo bean curd, bean curd skin are all popular.

Additionally vegetables are often added to the mix. 

3. Home-style Tofu – 家常豆腐 (jiācháng dòufu)

There are many home-style tofu recipes across China.

Hunan home-style bean curd is one of the most common versions, and you’ll find it on menus all across the province.

This dish is generally made with deep-fried tofu pieces, though often contains strips of pork, so be careful veggies.

Simple vegetables such as spring onions or leeks are also often added.

4. Stinky Tofu – 臭豆腐 (Chòu dòufu)

As the name suggests, you’ll probably smell this dish before you catch sight of it.

It is usually sold at street stalls and markets as a snack rather than a main dish in a restaurant.

There are lots of variations of this in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. One of the most famous is again Hunan-style.

The worse the smell, the better the flavour, so we’re told. You just have to get close enough to eat it to try this out.

5. Cold Marinated Bamboo Tofu – 凉拌腐竹 (Liángbàn fǔzhú)

These chewy bean curd sticks are marinated with vinegar, garlic and sesame oil.

It is often served with celery stalks, and is perfect for hot humid days when you want to eat something cold.

In case you missed it…

Tofu is the backbone of Buddhist and plant-based cooking here, so if you’re avoiding meat, read our guide to vegan and vegetarian eating in China, packed with dish recommendations.

Tofu also goes hand in hand with Chinese hot pot, check out our guide to eating Chinese hot pot also.

Please feel free to visit both of these blogs!

Tofu – FAQ’s