Homemade tofu has a delicate taste that’s nothing like what you’re used to with store-brought tofu. I usually just chop it and add it to my food as is, it’s tastes good enough that it doesn’t need to be marinated or cooked.

You do need to buy or make a tofu press to make your own tofu. Mine was made by a small company named Passion Santé, and also doubles as a sprouter.

Tofu mold with holes on the left (covered with a cotton bag, and press on the right

Extracting the soy milk

To make a small 200g (7oz) batch of tofu, soak one cup of soybeans for 24 hours or more.

When you’re ready to make your tofu, drain and rince the beans. In a blender, grind one cup of beans with three cups of hot water to extract the milk.

Strain the milk through a cotton bag or a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a large cooking pot and press well to extract as much milk as possible. Do this until you run of of soy beans. The leftover pulp is called okara and used in some japanese dishes, but I usually just throw it away.

Separating the tofu curd and the water

Bring the milk to full boil slowly, stirring from time to time to make sure it won’t boil over and spill. It can be very sudden, so keep an eye on it.

When it’s ready, add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to curd the milk, remove the cooking pot from fire and let it cool for a few minutes. There are many others products you can use to curd the milk, but I have only tried the lemon juice since I like the lemony taste it adds to the tofu.

Pour the tofu in the mold carefully, fold the cotton bag over it and cover with the press. Push it with your hands to remove as much water for the tofu as possible and add a weight on top. I usually just use a big book as a weight.

Tofu curds, before pressing

After this, you can move everything in the fridge, pressing for at least 45 minutes. This will make a tofu that will hold together enough to cut in cubes, but a bit too soft to cook. So if you want a firmer tofu, you should press it for a few hours.

Fresh tofu, ready to be eaten

The tofu will keep in the refrigerator in water for about a week if you change water every two days.

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This soup made from frozen or fresh fava beans is a classic dish in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, but strangely enough the fava bean is not really used in the other parts on the province of Quebec. I have to get my frozen fava beans at a Lebanase grocery store!

The recipe varies depending on the family and the vegetables on hand. It’s also very filling and satisfying when the weather turns cold with all the protein.

Making a Fava Bean Soup

If you’re making the recipe from fresh fava beans, you must first shell them. Some recipes will ask you to remove the white skin over each individual bean, but DON’T do that for soup. The inside of the beans will turn all mushy so you need the skin to hold it all together.

After this, put the following in a pressure cooker (read my pressure cooker primer if you want to learn how to use it) :

• 1 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fava beans
• 1/4 cup of dry barley grains
• 1 cup of diced turnip
• 2/3 cup of cut green beans
• 2/3 cup of diced carrots
• 2 chicken drumsticks
• 9 cups of water

Cook for 25 minutes in the pressure cooker (from the time the pressure gauge starts moving) or about an hour in an ordinary soup pot until the fava beans are soft and mushy and the barley is well-cooked.

Remove the chicken drumsticks from the broth and remove the meat from the bones. Cut the big meat pieces in smaller bits, put them back in the soup, mix well and serve.

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