Although I am from Japan, I’ve never had tofu misozuke (miso marinated tofu) (豆腐の味噌漬け) until a few months ago. I’ve heard about it before I tried it for the first time but it wasn’t a common thing to eat in where I lived in Japan. My first tofu misozuke experience was during amazing vegan dinner at a pop-up restaurant in San Francisco. An American chef from mid-west introduced one of Japanese traditional foods to a woman from Japan! I found it was kind of bizarre but I totally loved the tofu misozuke that I had for the first time. This was my first attempt to make it, and it turned our pretty good.
It requires only two ingredients – tofu and miso. It’s simple to make but you need patience because it needs to be fermented for one to three months. It lasts long so you can make it in a large batch and enjoy eating it for several weeks.
I’ll share the step-by-step instructions. The shorter version of the recipe is at the bottom of this blog post.
- Slice tofu into half. You don’t need to do this but it will ferment faster if you have thinner tofu.
2. Wrap tofu with a kitchen towel or some kind of cloth. You can even use paper towel. I just happed to find this Hello Kitty kitchen towel handy so I used it. Your towel doesn’t need to be this cute. (^O^)
3. Use a heavy object to press tofu. I used a heavy cutting board. Leave it for at least one hour. This will squeeze excess water out of tofu.
4. Coat tofu with miso. Whiter sweet miso (as opposed to dark redder salty miso) gives a milder taste. I haven’t used darker miso to make tofu misozuke but I feel whiter miso works better for this. Tofu should be completely covered with miso. I used a butter knife and hand. This step could get quite messy. I wore vinyl gloves.
5. Place tofu coated with miso into a container with a lid and close the lid tightly.
6. Place tofu in a refrigerator and wait for one to three months. Wipe lid of your container when you see condensation. I checked it every week.
This is after 45 days. I peeled off miso with a butter knife. Tofu is yellowish and kind of looks like a block of cheese.
This is after two months. I also peeled off miso. This time I used a silicon spatula to remove miso coating. Tofu was very soft so a regular knife didn’t work well. Tofu looks more yellowish and more fermented. Since my tofu was already very soft, I didn’t ferment it any longer. You can reuse miso to make more misozuke or use it in cooking.
You can slice it and just eat it as is. I doesn’t taste like cheese to me but it doesn’t taste like tofu either. It tastes like salty cream. It’s very creamy and salty and sweet (because of white miso that I used). If you mix it with lemon juice, it does taste like cheese. You can add herbs and spices to miso when you marinate tofu for flavor. I like to use it in cooking so I made a plain one. I’ll share a salad dressing recipe using tofu misozuke in the next blog. Stay tuned!
- 1 extra firm tofu
- 1 cup miso
- Slice tofu into half. This is optional.
- Wrap tofu with a kitchen towel.
- Place a heavy object on tofu to squeeze water out for at least one hour.
- Coat tofu with miso.
- Place tofu into a container and keep it in a refrigerator for one to three months.
Adrienne Lowe says
It’s been years since I had tofu misozuke… probably nearly ten years at this point. I am going to try your recipe. Thank you!
admin says
It’s very easy to make. All you need is patience! I hope you like it!
Heidi Pafford says
This is very interesting and thanks for posting this amazing recipe. After the cheese has been fermented for the 3 months time, can It be used like a non-vegan cheese would be in recipes? Will it melt when heated? Thank you,
Heidi P.
admin says
Hi Heidi,
Thank you for your comment! This cheese is for eating alone and won’t melt. I would not use it in recipes. I made other types of vegan cheeses which melt and can be used in recipes. I’ll see if I can post recipes for other type of vegan cheese.
VeggieTater says
I make a similar easy cheezy spread just by blending a block of tofu with the miso. I leave it on the counter to ferment over night, then refrigerate it until it tastes as desired.