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Homemade Tofu Recipe | How to Make Tofu at Home

Homemade tofu recipe with step by step pictures. Learn how to make tofu at home using soy beans and lemon juice. This homemade tofu recipe is very simple with easy to follow steps like my homemade paneer recipe.
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Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Soaking & Setting Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 13 hours
Servings: 500 grams

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Soy Beans
  • 2 litre Water
  • 2 Lemons around 4 tbsp lemon juice
  • ½ cup Water

Instructions

  • Take soy beans a bowl. Rinse it really well. Add lots of water over it and let let it soak overnight (around 10 hours).
  • Once the beans are soaked. Drain and rinse in cold water to remove any smell from the beans.
  • Take the rinsed drained beans in a blender, Add 2 litre water to it and puree till smooth. You might need to do it in 2 batches.
  • Now take a large nonstick pot in which you are going to cook the soy milk. Place a colander on top. Place nut milk bag over the colander.
  • Pour the ground soy beans mixture into the nut milk and gently squeeze to remove as much soy milk as possible. You have to keep on squeezing the bag to get the soy milk. Take your time in this step and make sure you get as much soy milk as possible.
  • Once the milk is extracted, the product left in the nut milk bag is called as soy bean pulp or okara. You can make lots of recipes using it. Check my notes section for ideas.
  • Now place the large pot of soy milk on heat. Use a silicon or wooden spatula to keep on stiring the pot since the soy milk has tendency to stick at the bottom.
  • Bring the soy milk to a boil, Keep on mixing since soy milk will boil over. Also you might be seeing some scum forming on top of soy milk, you can remove it using a spoon.
  • Now once the soy milk has started to boil, reduce the flame and cook for 15 mins on low heat, keep stirring all the time.
  • Once 15 mins is over, your soy milk is done. If you are planning to serve it as soy milk, you might want to stop at this point. You can add honey and vanilla extract to soy milk and enjoy.
  • But to make tofu. In a bowl mix lemon juice with ½ cup of water. This is your curdling ingredients for making tofu.
  • Place the soy milk back on heat, once it starts to heat up, add in the lemon juice and mix gently. You will see the soy milk starts to curdle instantly.
  • Now take a baking tray, place a wire rack on top. Now place your tofu press on top. Line your tofu press with muslin or cheese cloth.
  • Spoon the curdled soy milk over the tofu press. Once u transferred curdled milk on the mould. Cover it over gently with the cheesecloth.
  • Place the tofu press lid and weigh it with any heavy object. I like to use my mortar and pestle.
  • Leave the tofu to drain for at least 1 to 2 hours.
  • Gently remove the tofu from the mould and unwrap.
  • Slice and use as required.
  • You will be getting around 400 to 500 grams or tofu from this recipe.

Video

Notes

Coagulant for Tofu

Tofu is coagulated or curdled with many coagulant sources. Some of them are
  • Calcium sulphate (gypsum)
  • Nigari Salts (magnesium chloride combined with calcium chloride)
  • Calcium sulfate is the most traditional and widely used coagulant for tofu
  • Lemon Juice
  • Vinegar

Tips and Tricks

  • Grind the soy beans in two batches. Take half of the soy beans in the blender and add 1 litre of water to blend, then extract the milk and then do the other batch for best results.
  • You can use vinegar to curdle the soy milk instead of lemon juice.
  • If you don’t have tofu press, you can buy it from amazon or use any mould to drain the tofu.
  • Make sure no soy bean pulp falls into the soy milk. If you find any soy bean pulp, you can strain the soy milk through a fine mesh strainer.
  • Soy bean pulp or okara can be used in baking, making pancakes, kneaded into chapati dough. There are tons of recipes online.
  • The longer you press your tofu the firmer it gets.
  • Use organic soy beans for maximum health benefits.

Storage Suggestions

You can store tofu in fridge upto a week. Make sure you immerse them in cold water. Change the water regularly.

Serving suggestions

Fresh homemade tofu can be used in many recipes. I have lots of recipes on the blog using tofu.
Here are some of my favourites.
Crispy Tofu
Tofu Matar
Tofu Makhani
Chilli Tofu

Nutrition

Serving: 1g
Tried this recipe?Mention @yummytummyaarthi or tag #yummytummyaarthi!
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