Teriyaki Tofu Balls

Teriyaki tofu balls is vegitarian balls made with fresh tofu, spring onions, carrot, pepper, cornstarch, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger powder, sesame oil, brown sugar and salt. Teriyaki tofu balls can replace your favorite meatballs. The tofu made this dish super budget friendly but still high with good quality proteins. Each tofu ball is fried just enough to have a crispy outside but tender core. Pouring the teriyaki sauce or having it as a dip will surely enliven each tofu ball. The teriyaki tofu ball is best served as a finger food or an appetizer.

TERIYAKI TOFU BALLS

Would you actually believe that tofu is made from soy beans? These beans are dried, soaked, boiled and process until they become the large tofu cubes we know. I became a super fan of tofu once I knew about its health benefits. It contains high quality proteins which are comparable to meat. So if you would like to shift to being vegetarian, tofu will probably be your best friend. What I love about tofu is that the taste and flavor is mild, which makes it best dipped or coated in sauces.

Since I was a fan of tofu, I tried serving it a lot of times during family meals so that they will love it too. I usually just fry them and serve with special soy sauce. But I noticed that their love for tofu declines day by day when I serve the tofu plainly fried. While fried tofu cubes is one of the easiest tofu dishes, there are a lot more ways on how to enjoy tofu.

Just like chicken and other meat, tofu will instantly be enliven once we pair it with a nice sauce. This teriyaki tofu balls is just an upgrade of the simple fried tofu with soy sauce, since the tofu is just mixed with veggies and then fried, and then the base of the teriyaki sauce is soy sauce but is made sweeter and aromatic.

If you wanna know how to make teriyaki tofu balls, read and follow the easy steps below. Happy cooking!

HOW TO MAKE TERIYAKI TOFU BALLS

Making teriyaki tofu balls is just like making meatballs. If you have tried making meatballs or similar dish in the past, then this dish will be too easy for you.

The base of this recipe will be the tofu mixture. This version is actually much simpler since instead of grinding some meat, you will simply be crushing the fresh tofu into small crumbs. Since the tofu is soft, you can easily do this with your hands. Before crushing, make sure to dry the tofu a little just so it would not be too watery later. After you crush the tofu and you notice that there are excess liquid, you can use a clean cloth to absorb and remove them.

You may add any veggie or seasoning that you like into the tofu mixture. It is important that the ingredients are shredded or atleast finely chopped. To make this easier, you can throw your preferred veggies in a food processor or blender and pulse it a bit. (Make sure they wont turn liquid!)

Important note: do not put the crushed tofu in the food processor because overblending might turn it into a thing similar to soy milk haha.

Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl and then add cornstarch just to hold them together. Scoop and turn them into balls and then fried. The size of the balls are up to you, just don’t make a giant one because the core might not cook well enough. (You can use the size of the normal takoyaki as reference).

For the teriyaki sauce, simply combine all the ingredients into a pan and wait for it to thicken and come together. You can make it extra sweeter by adding sugar or honey.

Drizzle or serve the teriyaki sauce with the tofu balls. I usually eat them as an afternoon snack together with some sago’t gulaman. Yum!

COOKING TIPS:

• Aside from teriyaki sauce, you can also try other sauces with the tofu balls. Some of the highly suggested ones would be cheese sauce, buffalo sauce and orange sauce. Yum!
• If you want to save calories, you can try aair frying the tofu balls instead of frying. But make sure not to make giant balls.

Teriyaki Tofu Balls Recipe (TAGALOG)

Mga Sangkap:

• 500 grams tokwa
• bugkos ng spring onions (hiniwa)
• 1 malaking carrot (hiniwa ng maliliit)
• 1/2 kutsaritang pamintang durog
• 1/2 kutsaritang asin
• 1/3 tasang cornstarch
• mantika pang prito
• 3 butil ng bawang (hiniwa ng maliliit)
• 3 kutsarang oyster sauce
• 2 kutsarang toyo
• 1 kutsarang suka
• 1 kutsaritang ginger powder
• 1 kutsaritang sesame oil
• 3 kutsarang asukal na pula
• Slurry (1 kutsarang cornstarch + 1 tasang tubig)

Paano Lutuin:

1. Hiwain ang spring onions at ilipat sa maliit na bowl. Isantabi.
2. Hiwain ang mga carrot ng malalaki. Ilipat sa food processor (o blender) at iblend ito hanggang maging maliliit.
3. Tuyuin ang tokwa gamit ang paper towels. Ilipat ang mga ito sa malaking bowl at durugin. Ilagay ang mga carrots at spring onions at timplahan ng asin at paminta. Sunod na ilagay ang cornstarch at haluin ng mabuti. (Pwede mong dagdagan ang cornstarch kung masyadong basa).
4. Kumuha ng 1 – 2 scoops ng mixture (depende kung gaano kalaki mo gusto) at bilugin ito. Gawin ito sa iba pang tofu mixture. Ilagay sa ref ang mga tofu balls ng 1 oras.
5. Para sa teriyaki sauce, magpainit ng mantika. Igisa ang sibuyas hanggang maging light brown. Sunod na ilagay ang oyster sauce, toyo at suka. Haluin ng konti at patamisin ang sauce gamit ang asukal. Ilagay na rin ang ginger powder at sesame oil. Ilagay ang slurry para lumapot ang sauce. Kapag malapot na, isantabi.
6. Magpainit ng maraming mantika. Ilagay ang mga tofu balls at ideep fry hanggang maging golden brown. Wag masyado punuin ang kawali. Baliktarin ang mga ito para maluto ang kabilang side. Kapag luto na, ilipat ang mga ito sa strainer o paper towel para tumulo ang sobrang mantika.
7. Ilagay ang mga tofu balls sa serving plate at buhusan ng teriyaki sauce. Pwede mo rin sila iserve ng magkahiwalay para maging dip ang teriyaki sauce. Budburan ito ng spring onions sa ibabaw.
8. Enjoyin ang teriyaki tofu balls o iulam kasama ng mainit na kanin na parang meatballs. Yum!