Some Tips on How to Get Over Your Tofu Fear

On the day that I decided to venture into the land of veganism, I realized that at some point, there was a possibility that I might have to eat Tofu. The thought made me cringe with fear as, I imagine, it does with most people who have been brought up meat eaters. The public perception of Tofu seems to be filled with images of hoighty-toighty, Beverly Hills, salad-and-sunflower-seed-eating, soccer moms who have a wheat grass shake every morning before going for their morning jog while carrying their toy poodles Foo-Foo in their purses.

No offense to any hoighty-toighty, Beverly Hills, salad-and-sunflower-seed-eating, soccer moms who have a wheat grass shake every morning before going for their morning jog and carry their toy poodles Foo-=Ffoo in their purses. If that's your thing, more power to you.

But most of us do not fit into this particular mold of the typical Tofu eater and, verily, Tofu scares us. It is the food of health nuts and hippies and while we might be making the choice to eat healthier for whatever reason, very few of us want to willingly admit to any Tofu product or recipe that might actually be...(dare I say it?) delicious.

Upon making this important decision, I consulted a local nutritionist on the subject. After making it clear that one does not necessarily have to eat Tofu to be vegan or vegetarian,(there are plenty of food products available that don't contain meat or meat by-products, believe it or not) nutritionally speaking, it doesn't hurt to add Tofu to your diet. It's high in calcium, iron, and Vitamin B and it's low in fat and sodium.

But with any fear, the first step to conquering a fear of Tofu, (or To-fear as I like to call it) is understanding exactly what Tofu is.

Tofu is essentially curd made from soy milk - you know, like cheese curd made from cow's milk. Soy milk is coagulated and the resulting curds are pressed into little cakes. And that's it folks. Basically, little blocks of soy bean cheese. Hardly a big deal.