Na Dofu Seasonal Vegetable Tofu

Quick answer

Total time: 550 min
Level: Hard
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients: 5

About this dish

Na dofu is a specialty tofu from Shiiba village in Miyazaki that mixes finely cut seasonal vegetables and nigari into hot freshly made soy milk, setting their color and aroma inside the tofu curd.

Spring versions used rape blossoms, wisteria flowers, and mitsuba, while an aromatic local green called Heike kabu appeared from autumn through spring. Carrot, radish greens, shiso, and spinach are also used today. In a mountain village with poor farmland, adding vegetation both stretched precious soybeans and increased the block's nourishment while expressing the season. The vegetables are washed carefully, passed briefly through water held at seventy to eighty degrees, and chopped very fine. Soy milk made by soaking, grinding, straining, and fully boiling soybeans cools to about sixty degrees before powdered nigari and vegetables are folded in. The curds drain and press in a cloth-lined mold. Unlike plain tofu, the finished block is not soaked in water; it is cut directly and eaten with soy sauce or yuzu miso.

Ingredients (4 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Unit
dried soybeans	500	g
potable water	2500	ml
powdered nigari coagulant	12	g
Heike kabu greens or mustard greens	80	g
carrot	20	g

Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

8 steps

1

Step

Sort and rinse 500g dried soybeans and soak in at least three times their volume of cold potable water for 8 to 12 hours.

When doubled and soft through the center, drain and discard the soaking water.
2

Step

Blend the soaked beans in four batches, sharing 2.5L potable water among them, for 1 minute each until very fine.

Transfer to a large pot and heat over medium while stirring the bottom.
3

Heat

When foam rises rapidly, lower the heat and keep stirring to prevent overflow.

After the mixture reaches a full boil, cook 10 minutes more to remove the raw-bean aroma, then turn off the heat.
4

Heat

Pour the cooked soybean mixture into a clean tofu bag and press with tongs to separate soy milk from okara.

Do not squeeze the hot bag by hand; collect the milk in a clean pot and hold above 75°C for 2 minutes.
5

Prep

Wash 80g greens and 20g carrot carefully.

Hold water at 75°C, pass the vegetables through for 30 seconds, drain and squeeze in a clean sieve, then chop no larger than 3mm.
6

Step

Cool the soy milk to 60°C while stirring.

Dissolve 12g powdered nigari smoothly in 100ml warm soy milk, stream it into the main pot, and fold bottom to top only three times.
7

Control

Scatter the chopped vegetables evenly, fold only twice, cover, and let curds form for 10 minutes.

When clear whey separates from white curds, ladle into a clean cloth-lined tofu mold.
8

Prep

Fold over the cloth and press with 1kg weight for 25 minutes.

When whey nearly stops and the block holds shape, unmold, cool 10 minutes, and cut into four portions without soaking in water.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Fresh soy milk from 500g dried soybeans
Finish cue: When whey nearly stops and the block holds shape, unmold, cool 10 minutes, and cut into four portions without soaking in water.
Avoid this: Do not consume uncooked soy milk.