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Sweet and Sour Tofu

October 15, 2017 17 Comments

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This lovely sweet and sour crispy tofu with veggies is paying all the work off. Inside the delicious sauce, the amazing crispy shell with a faint aroma of bean curd is extremely appealing.  

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Sweet and sour taste has two explanations in Chinese. One is “酸甜”, literally means “sweet and sour” and the other one is “糖醋”, which means sugar and vinegar. We think the taste is a combined and balanced taste from all kinds of seasonings and condiments. To achieve the authentic sweet and sour sauce, we also have different approaches too. In Chinese cuisine, we name the dishes using vinegar (either black vinegar or rice vinegar) and sugar as the main seasonings “糖醋” . Take sweet and sour ribs for example, vinegar and sugar are mainly for the taste and the red-color is bought by the fried sugar. So they are usually in dark red.  However when ketchup is added in the sauce, we love to name this group of dish “酸甜 or 茄汁”. Ketchup builds a very basic and solid sweet and sour taste, with only a small a rice vinegar and sugar to highlight or balance the taste.  Those dishes usually have bright orange color.

In generally, sweet and sour sauce can be applied on all kinds of meat including pork, chicken, ribs and fish.  Tofu is a great substitute for those who are on a vegan or vegetarian diet.  And the two match great with each other too.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Cut firm tofu into small cubes. Place around 1/2 cup of oil in a small pan. Place the tofu cubes in. Start the fire and fry them ( by two batches if necessary). During the process, stir them from time to time so they can be heated evenly.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

When they are golden brown, transfer out.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Remove extra oil and leave only around 1 tablespoon in the pan, fry garlic, scallion white and ginger over slow fire until aromatic. sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Pour the sweet and sour sauce mix in, heat to boil.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Return the tofu cubes and continue heating over slow fire until the sauce is sticky to the tofu cubes.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

My favorite way is to serve it with steamed rice.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

4 from 2 votes
Print
Sweet and Sour Tofu
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
25 mins
 
This lovely sweet and sour crispy tofu is paying all the work off. It tastes lightly sweet and sour but within a slightly crispy taste on the near surface of the tofu pieces.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: sweet and sour, tofu
Servings: 2
Calories: 674 kcal
Author: Elaine
Ingredients
  • One box of firm tofu ,around 300g
  • 1/2 cup of cooking oil for frying
  • 1 clove garlic ,minced
  • 1 tsp. minced ginger
  • 1 scallion white ,minced
  • 1 scallion green part ,minced for garnishing
Sweet and Sour Sauce
  • 2 tbsp. ketchup
  • 6 tbsp. water
  • 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
  • 1/2 tbsp. sugar
  • 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
  • 1/2 tbsp. vinegar
Instructions
  1. Firstly, mix all the ingredients for sweet and sour sauce together.
  2. Cut firm tofu into small cubes. Place around 1/2 cup of oil in a small pan. Place the tofu cubes in. Start the fire and fry them ( by two batches if necessary). During the process, stir them from time to time so they can be heated evenly. Transfer out when they are all golden brown.
  3. Remove extra oil and leave only around 1 tablespoon in the pan, fry garlic, scallion white and ginger over slow fire until aromatic. Pour the sweet and sour sauce mix in, heat to boil.
  4. Return the tofu cubes and continue heating over slow fire until the sauce is well-thickened and sticky to the tofu cubes.
  5. Garlic some spring onions and serve with steamed rice.
Recipe Notes

The recipe is firstly published in 2014 and then re-tested and posted in 2017.

Nutrition Facts
Sweet and Sour Tofu
Amount Per Serving
Calories 674 Calories from Fat 558
% Daily Value*
Fat 62g95%
Saturated Fat 4g25%
Sodium 350mg15%
Potassium 46mg1%
Carbohydrates 15g5%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 7g8%
Protein 14g28%
Vitamin A 75IU2%
Vitamin C 2mg2%
Calcium 188mg19%
Iron 1.8mg10%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

sweet and sour tofu| chinasichuanfood.com

Filed Under: Recipes, tofu, Vegan

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  1. David says

    January 15, 2014 at 5:03 am

    Hi Elaine,

    I’d like try this recipe this week. Usually, in chinese cooking, do we use raw sesame oil or toasted sesame oil ?

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      January 15, 2014 at 7:40 pm

      Hi Davide,

      We are using raw sesame oil.

      Reply
  2. David says

    January 20, 2014 at 6:26 am

    Is the toasted sesame oil used in chinese cooking ?

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      January 20, 2014 at 8:00 am

      Hi David,

      I further checked and we are using actually both raw sesame oil and oil from stir-fried sesame seeds depends on the manufacturing technique. However most of the sesame oil on the market is raw sesame oil using squeezing technique.

      Reply
  3. David says

    January 31, 2014 at 3:29 pm

    Hi Elaine,
    Thank you for this vegetarian recipe.
    I did it today with a bowl of rice and the sauce tastes incredible! Great!
    David

    Reply
    • Elaine Luo says

      January 31, 2014 at 9:32 pm

      Hi David,

      Nice to see you again. And I am really glad to know that you love it too.

      Reply
  4. Byron Chou says

    October 19, 2017 at 4:41 am

    This looks SO DELICIOUS! can’t wait to make my own

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      October 19, 2017 at 8:04 am

      They are quite yummy. I am quite satisfied with the result.

      Reply
  5. Lisa says

    October 19, 2017 at 6:05 am

    Hi Elaine,
    Are the tofu pieces being deep fried or shallow fried?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      October 19, 2017 at 8:03 am

      Shallow fried.

      Reply
  6. 再兵 says

    October 20, 2017 at 11:47 am

    5 stars
    Hi Elaine,

    do we have to use ketchup or can it be replaced with something else?

    再兵

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      October 30, 2017 at 9:18 am

      Yes, you can use only vinegar, soy sauce and sugar to create a similar sweet and sour taste just like this one.

      Reply
  7. CSW says

    November 20, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Hi Elaine! I love your website and trying out new dishes from here. What kind of vegetables do you think go best with this kind of tofu?

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      November 20, 2017 at 8:33 pm

      I believe broccoli and tomato are great partners with tofu.

      Reply
  8. Ruth says

    June 14, 2019 at 10:43 am

    in this recipe that vinegar use? (white, rice, or Chinese black)

    Reply
    • Elaine says

      June 14, 2019 at 8:20 pm

      White vinegar.

      Reply
  9. Jessica says

    September 13, 2019 at 4:35 am

    3 stars
    This one was not our favorite actually. I’m guessing it had something to do with ketchup, an ingredient I’m always a little hesitant to use. It’s easy for ketchup to dominate other flavors in my opinion. Ithis dish just wasn’t as flavorful as we were hoping even after adjusting some of the amounts. Maybe it needed more garlic and ginger??
    But that being said, we have made a number of recipes from this site, and the others have all been great! I highly recommend this cooking site to friends who are interested in Chinese cooking. Maybe our family just likes the sharper, more aggressive flavors that are normally associated with Sichuan. I generally haven’t had much luck with milder, more Cantonese style stir fry type dishes that we’ve tried from cookbooks and other sources either.
    Oh well, can’t win em all
    But it sounds like lots of other people loved this recipe. All a matter of preference🙂I absolutely love chinasichuanfood.com!

    Reply

Hi, Welcome!

Please not be limited by site name, as Elaine shares Chinese recipes beyond Sichuan dishes. Know me more from About Page

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