Tofu

Tofu is a food made by coagulating soy milk and pressing the curds into blocks. Its texture ranges from silken to firm, depending on how it is processed.

Soy milk: A plant-based liquid made by soaking and grinding soybeans with water, then separating the solids. Tofu begins when soy milk proteins coagulate into curds.
Han dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 206 BCE to 220 CE. A traditional origin story places tofu’s invention in this period, though the date is uncertain.
Mapo tofu: A Sichuan dish of tofu cooked in a spicy, savory sauce commonly containing fermented broad-bean paste and minced meat. Soft tofu absorbs the sauce while retaining enough shape to serve in this classic dish.
Tempeh: A fermented food made by binding cooked soybeans into a firm cake. Unlike tofu’s coagulated soy-milk curds, tempeh retains whole beans and is fermented.
Soybean: An edible legume cultivated for its protein- and oil-rich seeds. Tofu is one of the many foods produced from soybean seeds.
Coagulation: The process by which dispersed particles join into larger aggregates or a continuous network. Coagulation turns dissolved and suspended soy proteins into tofu curds.
Liu An: A Han dynasty prince and scholar associated with the court at Huainan. Later accounts credit him with inventing tofu, but the attribution is not established.
Agedashi tofu: A Japanese dish of lightly coated, deep-fried tofu served in a savory broth. Its crisp exterior and tender center showcase tofu’s response to frying.
Seitan: A chewy food made primarily from wheat gluten, the protein network in wheat. It offers a contrasting plant-protein structure: gluten rather than coagulated soy protein.
Soy allergy: An immune reaction to proteins in soy that can cause symptoms ranging from hives to severe anaphylaxis. Tofu contains soy proteins and can trigger reactions in people with soy allergy.

Linked from 15 pages