This silken tofu recipe is a quick and simple appetizer or side dish. It’s a wonderful introduction to mysterious silken tofu, and you’ll it’s smooth texture combined with a fragrant, savory sauce.
This 5-minute silken tofu with green onion recipe is a great example of a Chinese cold dish. It’s designed to be very easy to prepare. It’s a refreshing recipe for summer months when it’s too hot to cook.
This is one of my favorite recipes in my series for quick meals. Check out the other 5-minute recipes.
Tips For Success
- Toasted sesame oil: This adds a fragrance to this silken tofu cold dish that will make you want to close your eyes and breathe in the wonderful flavor. However, toasted sesame oil is very potent. It’s easy to add too much sesame oil and overpower your dish. Even though I’m a die-hard measurement eyeballer, toasted sesame oil is one of the few ingredients I will measure. I recommend you pour the sesame oil onto a spoon first to measure out how much you want and to avoid accidentally pouring a tablespoon onto your sauce.
- Herb substitutes: Substitute the green onion for your favorite garnish or herbs, such as chives, shallot, or cilantro.
- Tweaks: Get creative with how you want to modify this recipe. It’s very flexible. Instead of soy sauce and sesame oil, you could use teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce, or sweet Thai chili sauce. It will change the nature of the dish, but that only makes it more fun!
- Your sauce will pool at the bottom of the plate: Spoon the sauce over the silken tofu before serving to make sure the top cubes get the sauce too.
RELATED: Learn about the different types of tofu you’ve probably never heard of.
Can you eat silken tofu cold?
Yes, you can eat the silken tofu cold straight from the fridge. It is considered a Chinese cold dish after all. Cold silken tofu is very refreshing during summer.
However, if you don’t want to eat the silken tofu cold, you can cut the silken tofu block into cubes and leave it on the kitchen counter for 15 to 20 minutes to come to room temperature.
You can also zap the silken tofu in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up.
Keep in mind, this will likely cause the silken tofu to weep. You may want to drain the silken tofu before preparing the recipe or the water will dilute your sauce.
How Do You Serve Silken Tofu?
Silken tofu is so delicate that it is challenging to eat with chopsticks. I always eat silken tofu with a spoon or else it becomes a mess.
I serve the silken tofu on a plate or platter with a big spoon to allow diners to serve themselves. At least if they break the silken tofu when trying to pick it up themselves, it’ll look better than if I serve a messy plate of broken silken tofu.
What kind of tofu to use
This recipe calls for silken tofu. To be precise, I recommend soft silken tofu. We tried the recipe with firm and extra-firm silken tofu. The best texture was the soft silken tofu (but use a spoon to eat it). However, if you can only find firm or extra-firm silken tofu, that’s OK. The recipe will work but it might not be as silky and delicate. If your grocery store sells a silken tofu but doesn’t say which firmness, it is probably soft silken tofu.
If you can’t find silken tofu, you could substitute soft tofu. Again, it might not be quite as delicate as soft silken tofu, but it’ll still be tasty.
Equipment and ingredients you need for this recipe
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You need:
- Chef’s knife: Use a chef’s knife to slice the green onions and cut the silken tofu. This is the knife set in our kitchen and I use the 8-inch chef’s knife for this recipe.
- Chopping board: This is the chopping board I use. It’s pretty good at not trapping flavors, which helps when you chop fragrant herbs.
- Paper towels: I like this brand of paper towels because it’s absorbent and it doesn’t shed. I first discovered it for painting with acrylics but I like how easily it soaks up the water as the silken tofu drains without shedding into the food.
- Toasted sesame oil: This is my go-to toasted sesame oil. It’s what I grew up with and still my favorite.
Alright, let’s dive into the recipe!
5-Minute Silken Tofu with Green Onion
Equipment
- Chopping Board
- Knife
- Paper towel
Ingredients
- 1 block silken tofu
- 3 sprigs Green onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, light soy sauce is best but dark is OK
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, toasted sesame oil
- chili oil, optional, to taste
- sriracha sauce, optional, to taste
- sesame seeds, optional, to taste
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients.
- Place the silken tofu on a plate. If you find the silken tofu is weeping, drain it using a paper towel to soak up the water or tilt the plate over the sink to pour out the excess liquid.
- Cut the silken tofu into cubes. You may need to be careful when halving the block of silken tofu height-wise. Don't cut your hands and avoid squishing the tofu.
- Sprinkle the chopped green onions over the silken tofu.
- Mix the soy sauce and sesame oil in a bowl. Pour the sauce over the silken tofu and green onions.
- Garnish with sesame seeds (optional). Serve it with the chili oil or sriracha if you would like a touch of spiciness. Enjoy your silken tofu with green onion!
Nutrition
What to Eat With Silken Tofu With Green Onion
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Loved it! So easy and healthy!
Delicious !
Wow! I just made this today and it was so easy and satisfying. I love the versatility of this recipe too—I topped it with cilantro along with the green onions and paired it with homemade chili oil. Served alongside brown rice and some vegetables I bought from the freezer section at Vons. Overall an easy and tasty meal for those days that I’m just too tired to cook. So happy I found this and thank you for sharing!
a d d i c t i n g 🙂
Thanks for Sharing Useful blog. Learned a lot from your blog. Especially your informative blog . Thanks .vapedubai
I’m a confirmed carnivore but I also love tofu and vegetables. I’m having this for dinner tonight but will make double the sauce, more garlic, and drizzle my Sichuan green peppercorn oil over. I like it mala. The combination of sauce + silken tofu + scallions is lovely.
Omg this was so easy and so good. It’s definitely going to be a staple in our house.
SO easy and so very delicious! My husband is vegetarian but has never loved tofu. I made this and he was blown away. We ate it cold and it was delicious but warmed it and ate over rice with some spicy stir fried green beans and we both were in heaven! Thank you so much for adding tofu into our lives regularly 🙂