Origins of Soya
The soya bean plant is native to China, where it has been cultivated for a very, very long time, well over 13,000 years. It was an essential crop for the ancient Chinese who regarded it a necessity for life (we are with you on that).
Soya beans were introduced into other regions of Asia centuries later and it wasn’t until the early 20th century that it began to be used for more than animal feed in the West.
The soya bean is now the most widely grown and utilised legume worldwide – High Five!
We’ve created a CHICKENY taste and texture that’s waiting to be STRIPPED and STUFFED in a taco, or COVERED in breadcrumbs and FRIED ‘chicken style’. All hail Seitan!
Our Tofoo is made to a traditional Japanese recipe using only 3 ingredients: water, soya beans and nigari.
We use nigari (an all-natural extract made from seawater) to bind our tofu while many others use calcium sulphate.
Our Tofoo looks a little wonky but that’s because every block of our delicious tofu is handmade int’ Yorkshire.
Our block Tofoo is so organic we caught the attention of The Soil Association who gave us a certificate and everything.
Who’s got time to press their own tofu? Not you. So our Tofoo always comes extra firm and ready for action.
We use a TRADITIONAL JAPANESE RECIPE – that’s our secret! But, essentially our 100% organic, GM Free, soya beans are cooked, whizzed up to create soya milk and then nigari is gently stirred in to help form the bean curd.
After this our Tofoo makers scoops the curd into a muslin cloth lined settling box, tops with a pressing lid and heavy weight and its left to rest for a while – there is no rushing this process – so time for a brew.
During this time the curds are firmed and we ensure it is pressed for just the right amount of time, that’s 8 mins 44 seconds to be exact, to get just the right firmness and texture to our delicious tofu.
Seitan (also called Vital Wheat Gluten) is a great plant-based protein alternative made from wheat gluten – that has a chickeny taste and texture. And you’ve probably had it already and not even realised. Seitan is in loads of different vegetarian and vegan products that you already know and love.
Short answer: however you like! A maverick like you makes their own rules. But you could try slicing it in a sandwich as a veggie ‘ham’, tearing it into strips for a taco or covering it in breadcrumbs and frying it ‘chicken style’.
It’s not rocket science. Seitan is made by mixing flour and water and kneading it into a sticky dough. It can get pretty messy! The dough is then washed to remove the starch, leaving only the gluten protein. And to make our Tofoo Seitan, we simply mix in our famous tofu to boost the protein content and give it a softer texture.
