Kimchi Tofu, Easiest of the Easy Recipes

This Kimchi Tofu recipe is for you if you like high flavor return for little investment of effort. It's as simple as peeling open a package of tofu and serving it with some pan-fried kimchi. Kimchi Tofu is great as an appetizer or a light meal. Shall we?

Jump to:

• What is Kimchi Tofu
• Is Kimchi Tofu Healthy?
• What Ingredients You Need for Kimchi Tofu
• Instructions for How to Make Kimchi Tofu
• What Kind of Tofu is Best for this Preparation?
• Pro Tips and Techniques for Kimchi Tofu
• Tools and Equipment
• Storage
• FAQ
• What Else to Do with Extra Ripe or Over-Fermented Kimchi
• Kimchi Tofu Recipe

What is Kimchi Tofu

Kimchi Tofu is a popular Korean home cooking dish that combines soft, rich tofu with spicy, salty, tangy kimchi.

By itself, tofu has a fairly subtle, if not near perfectly neutral flavor, similar to the way chicken has a very neutral flavor in the animal protein world. This makes tofu a great foundation for highly-palatable marinades, glazes, sauces, and dips. For this recipe, that intense flavor comes from well-fermented kimchi combined with additional aromatics like tamari and garlic, all sauteed together to caramelize and concentrate the flavor.

The tofu can be served "fresh," i.e. straight out of the fridge and uncooked. But more traditional is to cook the tofu, either by gently poaching it in water, or lightly pan-frying it, which is my personal preference.

Is Kimchi Tofu Healthy?

Depending on your health needs and dietary considerations, Kimchi Tofu can be healthy! Tofu is a lowfat, lower calorie protein source, and kimchi is a fermented food that provides probiotics in support of a healthy gut.

Health and Dietary Considerations of Kimchi Tofu

As published, this recipe for Kimchi Tofu is:

• 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free/wheat-free
• grain-free
• sugar-free

This recipe as presented is gluten-free, wheat-free and grain-free because I use a gluten-free tamari. If you cook and eat gluten-/grain-/wheat-free, make sure to read the label of your tamari and/or soy sauce.

What Ingredients You Need for Kimchi Tofu

Kimchi Tofu fresh/refrigerator ingredients:

• tofu
• kimchi
• garlic
• green onions

Kimchi Tofu dry/pantry ingredients:

• tamari
• gochugaru
• sesame oil
• toasted sesame seeds

Instructions for How to Make Kimchi Tofu

Drain and Prep the Tofu

Cook Kimchi and Serve

Kimchi Tofu with sauce will keep for 1 day, covered and refrigerated. We never have leftovers.

What Kind of Tofu is Best for this Preparation?

Medium firm or firm tofu is best for Kimchi Tofu because the tofu requires a little bit of handling during cooking.

If you like the soft, custard-like texture of silken tofu and want to use it here with the sautéed kimchi, serve it as you would for Silken Tofu with Sauce, straight out of the package, with minimal handling.

Ingredients Notes and Resources

Soy sauce or tamari: Tamari is Japanese-style soy sauce very often brewed without the use of wheat so it is gluten-free. I use this brand, which is organic. Buy organic or non-GMO soy-based products (soy sauce, tofu, soy milk, etc), since soy beans are one of the crops that are more often sprayed with harmful weed-killing chemicals.

Gochugaru is a chili pepper powder made from an actual Korean variety of chili pepper. Its heat level ranges, but is generally considered medium spicy. You can find gochugaru in Korean grocery stores like H-Mart, other Asian groceries, and even some independent spice companies like this and this at Whole Foods. This organic brand purchased at HMart, is what I have in my pantry.

Sesame oil. Look for toasted sesame oil, which is darker and has deeper umami flavor. As a finishing oil rather than a cooking oil, it is added to dishes in small amounts just before serving. This is Japanese brand I've been using since I was a kid. There are now many brands of toasted sesame seed oil available, even organic, at regular grocery stores.

Toasted Sesame Seeds add texture and a layer of umami in addition to the toasted sesame oil. You can buy sesame seeds plain or toasted. Make sure the seeds are toasted. Otherwise, toss them in a hot, dry skillet over medium heat for about 90 seconds or until they are fragrant.

Garlic, ginger, green onions and all other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday, or Whole Foods Market.

Pro Tips and Techniques for Kimchi Tofu

1. Let the silken tofu drain for 5-10 minutes. This step in the recipe is not absolutely required, but draining the tofu whether in the package or on the plate to let some more liquid drain out will keep the kimchi from getting watery.
2. Poach the tofu to keep it soft. Pan-frying tofu changes its texture ever so slightly, giving it a little more "chew." If you want to keep the tofu on the softer side, you can gently poach the tofu slices in simmering water, essentially just to heat it up.
3. On tofu serving sizes: I generally allot 6-8 oz (half a pound) of tofu for each serving, which amounts to half a block of tofu.

Tools and Equipment

Storage

Kimchi Tofu, will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Reheating is best done in a pan on the stove over low heat. You can also use the micowave, though the texture of the tofu may get significantly chewier.

Tofu does not freeze well.

FAQ

More Tofu Dishes

Many Asian cuisines have versions of silken tofu served chilled like Japanese hiyayakko and Chinese liangban tofu. The tofu blocks are left whole or sliced, sometimes cut artfully with shaped cutters. Specific toppings vary, but they all have one thing in common: high degree of flavor. This recipe relies on umami from soy sauce, heat, and flavor from garlic, ginger and onions, but there are so many other ways to customize this sauce by adding ingredients. Or, abandon the sauce completely in favor of something totally different. Tofu is, after all, a blank canvas.

• Silken Tofu with Sauce
• Marinated Tofu
• Tofu Salad

What Else to Do with Extra Ripe or Over-Fermented Kimchi

Here are some ideas:

• kimchi jjigae (soupy hot pot)
• budae kkigae aka "party ramen"
• kimchi fried rice

The tofu is so awesome, it now has a permanent position on The Delicious Life List.

^{Originally posted July 2005, recipe updated 2024}

Food for Afterthought

The popularity of Korean restaurants is the grill-your-own galbi, bulgogi, and other meats, along with an array of bahnchan, perhaps a gurgling spicy jjigae, and to finish the feast off cleanly, a bowl of naeng-myun (cold buckwheat noodles).

But Korean food isn't always a big barbecue bonanza at the likes of Chosun Galbee, Kang Ho Dong Baekjong, or even on the backyard patio at home. Often, Korean food is much simpler. At home, we have a bowl of rice with a few banchan pulled from the fridge, or a bowl of soup, or a simple broiled fish. And when we go out, we find other simple Korean foods at Korean cafés, pronounced "kah-pae" since there is no natural "f" sound in the Korean language.

Kimchi Tofu is Café Casual

I don't know what the official name of the group that encompasses these Korean café foods is. It would be similar to café and bistro foods in France, or perhaps osteria foods in Italy, but even these are too fancy to compare. I think it's more along the lines of bar and pub foods in America like beer nuts and chicken wings.

These are things we order when we sit down with a bottle of soju, a few jahn (glasses) since we pour it ourselves, and the waitress makes a little disposable "ashtray" out of a wet napkin, since technically, there's no smoking inside. Ahn-joo are things like nuts, oh-jing-uh (dried squid), sweetened toasted nori, or even fresh cut fruit. And of course, there are things that are more substantial but ridiculously simple for what they charge on the menu, like kimchee dooboo - a simple stirfry of kimchee and perhaps a few slices of meat served with cold fresh tofu ("dooboo" is the Korean pronunciation for tofu).

Restaurant Recon

A few months ago, I had quite possibly the saddest kimchi tofu I've ever tasted at a pan-Asian fusion restaurant on Sawtelle. It was odd to see kimchee dooboo done up so "fancy," but then to have it taste so bad - I wanted to get GordonRamsay about it. The kimchee tasted so sickeningly sticky sweet that it couldn't even be rectified with tofu. It was an absolute waste of kimchi that could have been good by itself and tofu that could have been made into soon tofu jjigae .

So I went back to the original at a café in Koreatown, Bohemian, and I remembered how good kimchi tofu—as well as tong-dak and uh, soju!—is supposed to taste. Bohemian stir-fried the kimchee with thick slices of pork and added just a touch of sweetness to stimulate the entire tongue, not just the sour and spicy. It was delicious, but it stung just ever so slightly knowing I had paid $20 for raw ingredients that cost less than two.

Delicious.

But next time, we're making it at home.

We Have Tofu-d at Home

And so armed with a half bottle of over-ripe kimchi that mom has decided will either become homemade freezer packs-to-go of kimchi tofu jjigae in her house or bestowed upon pathetic daughter who never has the time to drive to K-town for groceries, I went home and made kimchi tofu myself. Mine didn't have thick slices of fatty pork, just a handful of kimchi sautéed in the pan with a swirl of sesame oil and soy sauce and a twinkle of sugar. The tofu can be cut in any manner, but I am partial to "oooh, fancy" triangles. Toasted sesame seeds are this season's hottest accessory.

Spicy, salty, sour kimchi, with an added subtle sweetness, now warm from sauté, with a piece of silky smooth cold tofu is almost a perfect, complete bite. Only perfectly complete when it's chased with a cold Hite.