Vegan Cooking with Beverly Lynn Bennett

Beverly Lynn Bennett is a vegan chef who recently completed her first electronic vegan cookbook, Eat Your Veggies. She's been working in the restaurant industry since she was 12. Please visit VeganChef.com to get some great vegan recipes and to learn more about her.

Question:

How long is homemade mayo made with tofu good for? And can a dish made with tofu be frozen? It was my understanding that tofu was only good for 2 days in the fridge.

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Answer:

If stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, homemade tofu mayonnaise will last at least a week. If it smells sour or has an odd appearance, discard it. Tofu, regular and silken styles, can both be frozen to be used in main dish recipes, but I'm not sure how the results would be freezing a main dish that contains tofu. Freezing tofu extends its shelf life and makes the texture of it "chewy" or dense (suitable for meat replacements in recipes) but it also causes it to release excess moisture and it is usually squeezed well before being used in a recipe. So if you were to freeze a main dish, it may result in a watery product, if this doesn't matter in your particular recipe then by all means give it a try. I personally don't think frozen tofu would work well in dessert recipes because it does alter its texture. Most packages of tofu have expiration dates, so use that as a guide for unopened packages. To store open tofu, keep it in an airtight container, submerged in water, in the refrigerator. Rinse the tofu and change the water daily, and it should last 5-7 additional days. If it smells sour or has an odd appearance, or as we say in the restaurant biz, "when in doubt, throw it out!"

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