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?
This was one of the first recipes on this site that I tried and I knew I had made the right choice. Thank you.
Here is a question. I am the only one who eats tofu. Can I freeze portions so I have ready meals? Maybe freeze the sauce and tofu bites separately.
my partner who doesn't like tofu at all and has only ever eaten the *tiniest* bites ever and not very many actually ate this and enjoyed it!.
i was floored. it's really good. i would double the sauce so there is more for veggies and the rice.
I love you.
Me and my mom are new veggies, and we were beginning to lose hope.. We're not expert cooks and we don't have a lot of free time to spend cooking. We've been living off of vegetables and Morning Star products.
This is an innovative, relatively easy to cook recipe that tastes AMAZING.
The only problem I had, was that when I was coating the tofu with the egg (we're not vegan) & corn starch, it kinda started to mush together.. It ended up being more like tofu balls (maybe I was not careful enough).. But it was still delicious!
I made this tonight and it was as awesome as everyone says! My husband really loved it, as well :-) I always forget to freeze my tofu beforehand, so I pressed it for 30-45 minutes to remove all the water. It's a little more tofu-y that way, but that's okay because we like tofu! We eat eggs, so I just use an egg where it calls for egg replacer. Still, you definitely want to add the water to the egg, as it really helps the cornstarch stick.
I also used potato starch instead of corn starch. As a coating, it makes the tofu a little crispier after frying, and seems to brown more evenly than corn starch. As a thickener, it has a more "neutral" flavor, and can tolerate a higher heat.
We're not much for rice, so I actually found that we had too much sauce! But next time I will take the suggestion of including steamed broccoli, and perhaps a few other veggies, too!
This is a great recipe for when you're craving Chinese, especially the American-Chinese staple of General Tao's "chicken". Now, I made this recipe and it looked JUST like the real thing, so look and texture is 10 out of 10....taste is 7 out of 10 but lots of soy sauce and rice hide that after taste of tofu. I added splenda instead of sugar and I think I might use actual sugar next time. :)>>>
This is the 1st time I tried to get my hubby and kids to eat tofu and it was a hit! They are all asking for it again! They sauce is delicious!
Awwww HELL yeah.
(that was basically what I repeated over and over with each bite I took)
I agree that this took about 1 hour 15 minutes/1.5 hours to prepare, but I also have the world's tiniest ridiculous "kitchen" (Manhattan...) I doubled the sauce, but kept the same amount of oil and sugar. I used seitan instead of tofu, which was great, but next time I'll throw the seitan into the sauce earlier, to allow the flavor to be better absorbed. I think I'll also throw the steamed broccoli in at the last minute, for the same reason. I used powdered ginger instead of fresh, otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.
So yeah, great recipe, alot of work, but I'm sure it'll get easier. There was a lot of prep work mostly (cooking rice, steaming broccoli, simmering seitan, frying seitan). I'm gonna take some leftovers to one of my favorite bartenders now, in the hopes of scoring free drinks. Wish me luck.
Very Good!!! I didn't follow the recipe exactly (I left out the tofu) but it turned out wonderful.
I finally made this recipe, and it's definitely earned the rave reviews. I put the cornstarch and tofu dipped in egg replacer into a tupperware container and shook it to coat, which made that part easy. I was left with way too much cornstarch though - next time I'll probably use less than half that much. I doubled the sauce recipe, and that made enough for 4 people, but we really wished there was more of the tofu - that's the best part! I'm going to use this tofu-coating technique in other recipes, it's a great idea.
This is absolutely delicious. I served it on a bed of bok choy leaves (had to use it up) and added a little sesame oil to the sauce. I'll definitely make again!
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