General Tao's Tofu
1 (12 ounce) box firm tofu, in 1" cubes (frozen and thawed, if desired)
1 egg equivalent (e.g., EnerG Egg Replacer), prepared
3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons water, divided
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cornstarch, divided
vegetable oil for frying + 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2/3 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry, optional
red pepper, to taste
steamed broccoli, to serve
1. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg replacer mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil. Heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in pan on medium heat. Add green onions, ginger, and garlic; cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic.
3. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, sherry, and red pepper.
4. Mix 2 tablespoons water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and pour into mixture stirring well. Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Learning a new tofu cooking method was very helpful :)
I found this to be a bit labor intensive because of the different steps. Fortunately no one else needed the stove while I was cooking. I doubled the sauce and put a little aside to use as a sauce for the frozen pot stickers I love. It was delicious although if I were making it just to serve with scallion pancakes or pot stickers I would leave out the corn starch. I would definitely make this dish again!
This is a delicious recipe! :) My daughter just loves it. I double the sauce, and sometimes sprinkle chopped peanuts and a bit of cayenne pepper on top before serving ;)b
I may try making it next time with some seitan "CKN" strips. By the way, Quorn brand "chicken" products are amazingly real in both texture and taste.I ususally get their Naked ckn cutlets or the ckn bits. I recommend this brand highly.A bit pricey and I can only find it in health food specialty stores. It comes frozen.
Not that I really think there's much to be added to the 27 pages of glowing reviews this recipe already has but...
I finally made General Tao's Tofu for the first time on Sunday, and it was ace. I was trying to be organised, so I pressed, drained, chopped and crumbed the tofu early in the afternoon and put it aside in the fridge, and also cooked the sauce up at the same time. Needless to say by the time I went to get dinner ready hours later, it was super thick. However, I think I went a bit overboard with adding water to thin it out. So it was delicious, but I'll probably just not cook the sauce so early next time, and it should work out even better.
As for the recipe, I followed general consensus and doubled the sauce, though I might make even more next time. Also only used 2 tablespoons of sweetener in the doubled recipe and that was plenty.
I knew I had to try this recipe eventually because it's the most popular. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And now I know: sugar and oil!!!!
I don't know how so many people can eat something so sweet for dinner. I took everyone's advice, and doubled the sauce recipe, (which I'm glad I did, but not the sugar. I subbed agave nectar and some fructose, about half of what the recipe called for and it was still WAAAAAY too sweet. We don't even want our leftovers, we gave them to the dog.
Also, I suck at breading and frying chunks of tofu. But the chunks that did make it out okay were yummy. I added a bunch of chopped veggies: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, onion, mushrooms and served over brown rice. Very glad I doubled the sauce, as otherwise it just wouldn't have been enough.
If I were to make this again, I'd only use two tbsp of sweetener for the doubled sauce recipe, and bake the tofu instead of frying. Much healthier this way, and does not use up too much expensive oil.
This is a freaking badass recipe! I didn't pay attention to measuring, and added all of the vegies in my fridge. This really tastes great with some baby portabella mushrooms!!!! A+
this was perfect! I used the sauce to coat the noodles I made it with, stuck to the original tofu recipe, and added steamed broccoli. fabulous!
Does anyone recommend other great recipes from this sight? Not concerned with health particularly, just the lack of animal products. Cheers.
Congrats on going Veg! You'll never look back. Two of my favorite recipes on this site are ""Sour Cream" Coffee Cake" and "Pasta with Lemon and Capers." You should give them a try, they're both very easy. Also, under the "recipes" tab at the top you can click on "Popular recipes," and that'll give you pages of the most viewed ones, which tend to be amazing.
Happy cooking! ;D
Also, I only became a vegan 3 days ago, was definitely a good start. Maybe a little too good, hopefully it's not all downhill from here. Does anyone recommend other great recipes from this sight? Not concerned with health particularly, just the lack of animal products. Cheers.
Soooo tasty.
I left out the egg substitute and corn starch (apart from the spoonful in the sauce), and just coated the tofu chunks in all purpose flour for a batter and fried it in olive oil till it browned.
did the rest as instructed, it was delicious.
I'll be making it for friends at every opportunity
Great recipe.
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