How to Make Creamy Pink Red Lentil Tofu: Soy-Free Protein Recipe

[Music] Hello friends and not yet friends welcome back to Mary's Test Kitchen

where today we are embarking on another soy free tofu Adventure making this creamy and dreamy pink tofu but this red

lentil tofu is not like other red lentil tofus that you might have seen here on YouTube I mean you've read the title so

let's get straight into it by soaking them but ew there is nothing wrong with these

lentils those are not bugs even though it looks like it so I don't think you really need to rinse these a bunch

however the very sight gives me the heebie-jeebies so I absolutely must rinse them until the water runs clear

we'll add more water and let them soak for about 10 to 15 minutes if you're using whole lentils I suppose you're

going to have to soak them a little longer then drain completely afterwards

and add half to your Wonder obviously adjust the amount to the size of your blender whatever it can handle by the

way the total weight of the soaked lentils was just under two pounds and I'm adding about three cups of water

then blend this time I blended about 15 seconds and it looks quite liquefied right it

smells nice and fresh too much better than the smell of raw soy milk and even better than the fava Bean milk from last

week however I gotta say straining lentil milk is even more annoying than

straining soy or fava Bean milk or maybe because all the texting I've been doing recently I am just tired of straining

milk so all I'm saying is the first company that comes up with a legume milk making machine that can do this job with

larger quantities of beans and lentils is getting my money like there are machines that claim to make soy milk but

they are never good enough to handle the amount of beans or this case lentils that we need in order to make a

reasonably sized flock of tofu it just doesn't exist yet anyways rant over gosh even the pulp is pretty what'll I do

with it uh in this case reprocess it because look at these lentil chunks this means I didn't blend enough and I'm

gonna have to go through the annoying process again the pulp needs to be much finer than this you want it to resemble

dry crumbly Play-Doh so back into the blender with some more water foreign into the milk bag squeeze it get a major

hand and arm workout first the day you were born and make this absolutely beautiful pink lentil milk full of

protein the pulp is much paler now but more importantly the right texture finer particles Play-Doh like smooth but dry

so it crumbles I might dry this and make lentil fiber flour and use it in low carb baking maybe let me know if you're

into that sort of thing so uh with the other half of the lentils I just use more water and blend it for 30 seconds

to get that ideal result of course depending on your blender your mileage may vary lentils have way more

starch than soybeans so we're going to have to let this settle for at least 15 minutes so after about 15 minutes you

can see the layer of starch through the glass bowl you can also assume the starch has settled in this pot as well

I'm going to pour the milk off the top into this extra large mason jar and see how much starch comes loose from the

bottom and goes into this jar check out that starch layer this my friends is a twofer if you have kids

you've made protein Rich lentil milk and this Oobleck is super entertaining even if you're not a kid

and just like with our fava Bean milk from last week I'll gently scoop this milk into my cooking pot whilst trying

not to disturb the bottom layer of starch I'll switch to a shallow spoon at the

end leaving the last trace of milk behind because it's just not possible to get it all without contaminating the

protein milk with the starch and because filming what you're doing and trying to get angles and stuff takes

a while this jar has been sitting for at least 15 minutes now and as you can see there's hardly any starch so maybe

pouring off the top might work in the future this was not the case with the fava Bean milk

foreign cook this pretty pink milk start it on medium heat and now is a good time to

get your tofu making equipment ready which includes the tofu press I told you about last time a cup of room

temperature water and a fine cloth to line the mold this one actually comes with a tofu press in a set so check out

my affiliate Link in the description if you want to check it out highly recommend especially as we are

continuing on our tofu Journeys together however you don't really have to buy special things back in the day I just

tied up a bunch of layers of cheesecloth put it in a steamer basket and stuck a weight on top to make My Tofu no mold

necessary was it wonky shaped and not super professional looking yes but did it taste any different no anyways also

get your coagulant into that water I like to use food grade gypsum AKA calcium sulfate though a few people

mentioned last week that they'd like to use nagari which is magnesium chloride or even Epsom salts which is magnesium

sulfate and those should be fine too just make sure it is food grade personally I grew up eating Chinese

style tofu which is more commonly using calcium sulfate I think it tastes more neutral nagari is used in Japanese tofus

more though not always always and I find it tastes a little bit bitter however some people really like that flavor more

my original at-home tofu recipe used lemon juice because back in those days it was harder to get gypsum or other

coagulants online but nowadays it is so easy so of course I'm going to leave links in the description for you however

in this recipe I only tested with calcium sulfate so use the others at your own risk one tablespoon of calcium

sulfate for one cup of room temperature water though I only ended up using half so you can save the other half for your

next batch or in case the milk does not fully coagulate the first time you can do another round of coagulation

back to our pink lentil milk when it has your full attention you can turn the heat up to medium high or high and

constantly stir so you avoid burning anything to the bottom and with your inexpensive and extremely convenient

laser thermometer check it every so often I want the temperature to be 180 degrees

Fahrenheit one to cook the milk because humans do not have a great time digesting raw lentil anything and

secondly because the heat is necessary for coagulation when it gets there why not have a taste I think this would make

a lovely protein-rich broth for a creamy soup it has a very mild but Savory flavor

I'm a little sad that the pink has mellowed out into a peachy pale color but it's to be expected right still

pretty turn the heat off stir the coagulant with one hand stir the milk with the other then slowly pour in half

the coagulant thank you and

[Music] stop leave it sitting there in the residual

heat for 15 minutes to let the coagulant coagulate the lentil milk while your weight you can line your mold with the

cloth which of course you know to dampen first right it just makes things easier when we come back reveal the peachy pale

pink curds and clear away you can gently press on the curds to make sure all the milk has separated

but you can see the curds are much finer much less solid than with the soy curds or fava Bean curds when I first saw this

I was scared that they would be like almond milk curds just completely unusable for making traditional tofu

however with a little patience a few different types of strainers a few muttered curse words and um well okay a

heck of a lot of patience you're going to need a heck of a lot of patience to fill up this tofu mold with these soft

fine curds and there are still some super fine clouds of curds in the way but I'm just gonna use those leftovers

for soup fold the cloth over and this will keep all the Curves in and help to keep the

shape of the tofu place the top plate on there and now holding it securely you can pour off the

excess liquid and then add the pressing lid which has a spring to keep pressure on the tofu so more liquid can be

drained out and the tofu has become solid solid-ish uh you'll see what I mean later I'll also twist the top which

adds even more pressure drain away any water through the built-in Vents and this will go into the

fridge to chill completely I always just leave it in overnight the next day

ever so gently ever so carefully pull the wrapped tofu out of there this tofu is more delicate than traditional soy or

our new vavavin tofu this brick is creamy it will crumble at the touch around the edges so treated with care

and the tastes well it's very red lentil tasting it's a little grassy but mild it's cuttable but you have to take care

and pick it up the same way is it bouncy like fava bean tofu no but it would make a great tofu dip or

spread however let me show you what it's like air fried first plain with a little salt because that's just fair and simply

in the air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes while they're in there let's make an

awesome simple seasoning that you can use for all your tofu frying meat it's nutritional yeast and my favorite ground

to a dust onion powder plus garlic powder and more nutritional yeast because we're just eyeballing here

Plus Salt never forget the salt because you can have all the seasonings in the world but without salt to wake up the

flavors it might still taste Bland mix it up and in goes a cube of pink tofu because it's so delicate I'm using a

spoon to help coat all the sides let's do a few more now we have four lovely cubes of coated

pink tofu and our plain air fried cubes are ready they are nice and golden and puffy you'll be tempted to squish that

puffiness and the stain might burn it so be careful [Music]

they taste pretty good plain because there's no seasoning except for a little sprinkle of salt the outside is not

crispy despite the look because the steam from the inside you know but it's kind of chewy like normal tofu Puffs not

bad but we can do better it's time to air fry our actually well seasoned pink tofu I'll spray half with

a bit of oil so you can see the difference and into the airfryer same temperature same amount of time they

come out looking even more golden and crispy around the edges and this time they do stay crispy around the edges you

can see a slight difference between the ones that were sprayed with oil they look a little more attractive but taste

wise they are almost identical very delicious with enough flavor to carry through to the creamy center the

contrast is absolutely wonderful I highly recommend it very delicious but the king of texture my friends comes

from deep frying coated in the same into oil heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked for about a minute or two until

they look golden and beautiful like this they are sizzling crispy gems of tofu and that crunch the contrast y'all know

I'm not trying to deep fry all the time because of reasons but it is so good and that's pink tofu would you eat it would

you make it I know it is super annoying to make but still sometimes you just have to make things from scratch because

you gotta know how it tastes so satisfy your culinary curiosity let me know what else you're curious about in the

comments below thank you so much for watching and please share especially with anyone who wants in on tofu or

plant-based protein but they cannot maybe do the regular soy kind or just want some variety please give this video

a like if you liked it and subscribe if you haven't already for more soy free throwing tofu trials also thank you to

my champions my channel members who help all the behind the scenes testing with your monthly support you are the best if

you haven't checked out my other tofu making tutorials make sure to check those out popping up on the screen now

or in the description and I shall I'll see you next time bye for now