Nuggets | Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food

This is a very easy and quick savory snack recipe; Tuna and Tofu Nuggets.

The ingredients are only tuna, tofu, cornstarch and seasonings. You can mix all ingredients in your food processor and cook with one pan without using large quantities of hot oil. No, muss, no fuss.

I use salt and pepper as seasonings. You can add some onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, chili pepper…depending on your taste.

Ingredients (10 to 12 nuggets)

1 (5-ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained

1/4 (14-ounce) package firm tofu

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Here is a tip how to store tofu after opening. Place tofu in a clean container and pour in just enough water to cover. Cover and keep it in the refrigerator. Change water everyday and use within 3 days.

Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix well.
Heat the oil in a pan until it shimmers.
Spoon the mixture in the pan and cook over medium-low heat for 5 to 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. Enjoy!

Today I introduce you to “Delicious Vegetarian Pan Fried Nuggets” made from soybean powder. In Japan, we call the soybean powder “Dried Okara” and use it for many recipes as a meat substitution, to make the dish extremely healthy and to increase the amount of food in the dish. For example, We add Okara or we substitute it for the meat when we mix meat balls, hamburger steak,…etc. Of course we use Okara by itself in some recipes too.

This is Okara Powder (Dried Soy Pulp flour) I used in this recipe.

Okara is made while making tofu so it is high in protein, fiber, vitamins and Calcium. In Japan there is fresh Okara but it lasts only a few days so recently we have tended to use Dried Okara. When you use Okara for cooking, mix it with water. It is going to have a hard mashed potato texture, and it has no smell and no taste. That is why using Okara doesn’t change the taste of dishes and why we use it a lot.

In this recipe, I use only 3 main ingredients, Okara, Tofu and grated cheese. If you like to add meat, you can just add it to this recipe or you can use your favorite ground meat instead of tofu. If you don’t like tofu aroma very much, you can add some lemon juice. This makes the dish have less of a tofu aroma.

The recipe is very easy.