Community Pick
General Tso's Tofu
"Great alternative to General Tso's Chicken. Contributed to a vegetarian website by Sarah Booth."
photo by breezermom
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) box firm tofu
- 1 egg
- 3⁄4 cup cornstarch
- vegetable oil (for frying)
- 3 chopped green onions
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2⁄3 cup vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon sherry wine (optional)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- steamed broccoli
directions
- Drain, dry and cut tofu into one inch chunks-You can freeze the tofu the night before to get a more"chicken-like" texture, if desired.
- Mix egg with 3 Tbs of water.
- Dip tofu in mixture.
- Sprinkle cornstarch over tofu to completely cover.
- Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden brown and set aside.
- Drain oil.
- Heat 3 Tbs vegetable oil in pan on medium heat and add onions, ginger and garlic, cook for about two minutes (be careful not to burn garlic).
- Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes and vinegar.
- Mix 2 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs cornstarch and pour into mixture, stirring well.
- Add fried tofu and coat evenly.
- Serve immediately with steamed broccoli over your choice of rice.
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Reviews
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I am not much of a tofu lover so I decided to try this with A couple of modificatitions. I made the sauce and marinated the tofu in it before breading it with the egg and cornstarch.( for a couple of hours.) Then I baked the tofu in a 325 oven for approximatley 30 min. so that it was crispy and then I used the "marinade" plus made an extra batch of sauce and proceded with the rest of the recipie. I must say it was YUMMY YUMMY. I had it with stirfried broccoli, baby corn, snowpeas and rice. The tofu had better flavour by marinating first and you can eliminate a lot of the oil by baking it instead of frying. -
Flavorful sauce, and overall a good recipe. I highly recommend following some of the other reviewers' suggestions to marinate the tofu in the sauce before coating in the egg and cornstarch mixture and baking at 325F for about 30 minutes. If you like your General Tso's with a lot of sauce, I recommend doubling the sauce recipe, which will give you enough marinade for the tofu and plenty of sauce for the dish itself. -
Fantastic! I started by freezing the block of tofu overnight to make a more chicken-y texture. I followed the top review and baked the egg and cornstarch coated tofu pieces in the oven at 325 for 30 minutes. This made the texture come out wonderful! I used half the tofu called for (what I had on hand), and marinated the cubes for a couple hours in a ziploc bag with the sauce. After lightly squeezing the tofu as I removed it from the marinade, I had plenty of sauce left to pour in the pan later. I will definitely be making this again! -
This was good. I think if I make it again I will follow in the footsteps of some of the other reviewers and marinate the tofu so it takes on more flavor and maybe try baking it instead. This had too much of a fried flavor, but that may just be me, we try to eat healthy and don't eat fried foods very often so I probably noticed this more than anyone else. I did double the sauce and may try to thicken it a little more next time. Served with steamed broccoli and brown rice.
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Awesome! I doubled the sauce recipe and used water and ketchup rather than broth.
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Tweaks
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I egg and then cornstarch the tofu, then place it on a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan on parchment paper. Then I liberally drizzle the tofu with oil and bake in the over for 20 minutes on 450 F. It is crispy without the frying. Then I make the sauce in a pan on the stove and combine the tofu (minus the baking oil).
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Made this and it's definitely on the make-again list...it was yum!! But...I made some tweaks: - I halved the sugar and thought that was a very good call. - I needed a second egg/water for the first coating as my twice-frozen/thawed/squeezed tofu was a sponge and soaked up the liquid pretty quickly. I've done this technique a few times and the biggest benefit to the freezing of the tofu is that the tofu crisps up more nicely because it's drier and looks a bit more like actual chicken once cooked. - I used panko for the coating instead of flour. I've done flour before in other recipes and the panko crisps up way more nicely in my cast iron. It doesn't keep all the crispiness once you've tossed the tofu in the sauce at the end, but it looks way nicer and gives it a great texture. - I didn't have cornstarch, so I used flour to thicken the sauce as others have done. My only tweak is that I would suggest 2T to make it a bit thicker. Other than those changes to suit my taste, this recipe was great! :) -
Oh my gosh! I can't believe I didn't review this before -- we've made this recipe 6 or 7 times since I found it, and it's hands-down the best tofu recipe I've ever had. I'd give it 10 stars if I could!! I made it almost exactly as written -- the only change was instead of using all vegetable oil for frying, I added a splash of sesame oil. I also put the cornstarch in a brown paper bag and added a few cubes at a time, shaking well, and it covered them perfectly with no mess. We like spicy food so we added a good sprinkling of the crushed red pepper flakes. My son likes tofu extra crispy, so I leave it in the pan until it is almost a dark golden brown. I double the sauce and serve this as a meal with broccoli and rice -- with the sauce ladled over all. What a super recipe -- makes my mouth water just writing a review about it. :) Thanks for sharing! -
Absolutely fantastic! I have never liked tofu, and I ate seconds of this! We doubled the sauce and added all kinds of veggies (mushrooms, bell pepper, napa cabage) and instead of red pepper flakes used a little chile garlic paste. I also just used flour instead of egg/cornstarch mix. Set aside a bowl for my brother, who thought it was chicken! Will definately be making again! -
My DS recently became a vegetarian. I wanted to find a good recipe and this one looked really good. My DS did the sauce and I prepared the tofu and put everything together. He told me to get the silken tofu, as that is what they use in the Chinese restaurant where he works. That was a mistake because it broke apart like scrambled hamburg as it was cooking. It tasted great though, and be both loved it! Next time I will use the firm tofu. We doubled the sauce and may even triple it next time. I threw in snow peas instead of broccoli and it was a great addition. Even if you don't like tofu, I really think you would be surprised at how delicious it is made this way. I can't wait to experiment further with tofu now that I have had it like this. I picked up the taste from the sauce while cooking. I replaced the soy sauce with dumpling sauce as I was out of soy, but it has soy, ginger and garlic in it so it worked great. I still used the same amounts of garlic and ginger. Served on top of brown rice it was a winner all the way! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us Hadice! Linda
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>I have been married to my amazing husband for 8 wonderful years. We added a baby boy to the mix in March '08 with another just added March '10. We have two adorable rescue dogs, a chihuahua/min pin mix and a yorkie/westie mix. I have been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 14 years. <br /> <br />After moving to our fourth state in a year, we have finally settled in Texas. I don't know how I like all the rain and the human-sized bugs, but we really enjoy the area we have chosen to live in. Being a vegetarian in this part of the country is HARD. No one quite gets it. <br /> <br />I love testing my zaar recipes on DH. When he loves something he exclaims, Where did you get this recipe?!? and of course, my answer is always the same. <br /> <br /><img src=http://www.enviro-tote.com/imagesNew/stockart/bannerVeggie.gif alt= /> <br /> <br />My ratings system: <br />5***** <br /> I would glady serve this to guests, or make it and secretly eat it all by myself. <br />4**** <br /> Great recipe. Liked enough to print out and place in my permanent cookbook. <br />3*** <br /> Recipe not quite for me, but others might like it. Could be more to my liking with a few modifications. <br />2** <br /> Didn't like. Possible ingredient errors in recipe. Probably wouldn't use again. <br />1* <br /> Really didn't like. Would never use again. <br /> <br />#NOTE# <br />If I review any recipes containing meat, it is a recipe I prepared and DH reviewed. <br /> <br /><img src=http://www.enviro-tote.com/imagesNew/stockart/bannerVeggie.gif alt= /> <br /> <br />Little Italy, San Diego <br /><img src=http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e342/hadice/Cool/LittleItaly.jpg alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/DUCHESS13/berriesblinkie.gif alt= /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/projects/untitled_1.jpg alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/200_artistrichardneuman-art-prints_.jpg alt= /><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/untitled.jpg alt= /><img src=http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/tgifford/Game%20Room%20Banners/AM%20Banners/KBparticipation.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3316/3345270671_dd30334798.jpg alt= /><img src=http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/MrsTeny/AMpageSticker.jpg alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg271/MrsTeny/Permanent%20Collection/Aug09PaperSwapSticker.jpg alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/ZaarNicksMom/Animation6.gif alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/ZaarNicksMom/PACsticker-Adopted.jpg alt= /> <br /> <br /><img src=http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/kiwidutch/my3chefs2009final-1.jpg alt= /></p>
