I made ranch dressing with silken tofu, cider vinegar, garlic powder, salt and some dried dill (original recipe called for dried parsley but I felt bold) the other day. So so delicious.
My immediate thought with the Gnocchi dish was remembering a fairly common dish I saw growing up in the United States Midwest. Tater Tot Casserole. Basically a shepherd's pie with frozen tater tots instead of mashed potatoes.
I know no one cares but it's a cottage pie with beef, shepherds with lamb. That sounds really good though. We've only just started getting potato tots in the UK and I know they're bad for me but I'm a bit addicted.
This episode gives me an idea for a Battle. Have it be a limited ingredient battle. They can only use 3-4 ingredients throughout the entire dish. It would really show of how to use typical ingredients in new and exciting ways and maybe a few hacks here and there.
Would love a 3 ingredient dish series, anything that promotes lazy/fast cooking but still comes out with a great dish is awesome! I had no idea you could use tofu for something like that, will be trying it out.
I could see this whole 3 ingredient battle working amazingly as a chef vs chef battle, maybe bring in Chef Poppy but ban her from using potatoes for the lols and ban Ben from using his herb garden and allotment!
The silken tofu thing blew my mind - I always feel like I buy cream, don't use all of it, and it goes off before I finish it. Having a shelf stable option in a small pack is a game changer. Please feature some recipes on this!
my friend is a vegan and loves experimenting with food replacements in recipes and i found this chocolate pie that used silken tofu for the base and unless you were informed you would have no idea, it is delicious and rich and everything you expect from a cream pie without any dairy
You can freeze cream and it thaws out and becomes useable without any special instructions. Tofu you don't finish can also be frozen, but it does affect the texture and sometimes the color. There's a lot of information out there on how to freeze and defrost tofu/
As someone with ADHD, who loves cooking (sometimes) and struggles with feeding myself most times, these tips have really helped give me some great ideas of how to make my meals more 'ADHD friendly' and exciting. Thanks for the great and inspiring content, i really appreciate y'all! :)
I second this, the first tip made potatoes accessible again. Between my ADHD and poor hand skills peeling and mashing potatoes take an embarrassing amount of effort both physically and mentally.
Same! Also, the Meal Packs (and now Sidekick) app worked wonders for me. It’s a great tool for managing shopping and cooking with ADHD. I stopped using the app for some time but I started using it again, because it makes a huge difference for me.
I use capers as an alternative to garlic in pesto for a low-FODMAP friendly pesto. It works great and I get so many compliments and folks surprised there is no garlic in.
Okay, that's a brilliant idea for people with chronic acid reflux as well. Lots of foods and processes have to be avoided... often exactly the ones that are usually used to make food tasty. And sometimes it seems like there's garlic in everything.
They were asking for "cupboard stock" implying it's something that can be stored at room temperature. Which is totally not the case for tofu 😅 But as to the silk tofu itself, I agree, it's great and should be sold in more places (I still can only buy it in my local Chinese supermarket).
@@anniestumpy9918 The regular, plastic-packaged silken tofu isn't a cupboard stock item, but the carton-packaged tofu is't stored in the fridge section of the Asian store. I think it will do fine.
The tofu trick reminded me of Alton Brown's "mooless chocolate pie", which also uses a pack of silken tofu as its base, so you can have a dairy-free and ultimately vegan chocolate pie that is super delicious. Tofu really has SO many uses and I hate that it got a bad reputation from a few decades back as being mostly seen as a meat substitute in the west, when in the east it's used in SO many dishes, it's just treated as another ingredient.
Yes! I've lived in Asia for the past 6 years, and have always jumped at any chance to have a tofu dish, as I know when I move back to the US (next month!) I'm gonna be in sad sad tofu land again.
@@jamesbond1231 that's actually the soy that is needed for feeding animals. At least in Europe. The soy for human consumption is generally not contributing to rain forest deforestation but grown elsewhere. I'd have to google it to give you sources.
@@beamingserpent of course it's not. That doesn't fit your agenda does it? God forbid you look at facts and statistics. (P.s- it's usually found on propaganda sites spreading misinformation; usually with an agenda to push people to stop eating meat)
Honestly, I would watch an entire episode of just you guys using the Tofu on different dishes. Would love to start incorporating that into pastas, etc..
Yes! I'm vegan and am so bothered I didn't get the game changing ingredient for the second dish! Granted, I haven't used silken tofu myself, so I should give myself a little leeway. But I'm always looking for new (preferably easy) ways to incorporate tofu or TVP to make a protein heavy dish on the days I have a big workout.
There is a beef extract called borvril which is normally though of as the base for a drink (I love it on toast), it make amazing beef stock and cos it a liquid you can make as much or as little stock as needed.
I'm vegan (transitioning still) so I've known about the silken tofu substitution a while ago. But to see the reaction from Mike & Barry really makes me feel good about making more of this kind of dishes. Another dessert that can use silken tofu as substitute is cheesecake.
Just remember this, while you can get every nutrient a human needs from meat and the fat that goes with it. Over 20 essential nutrients are completely missing when eating like an herbivore, and lacking the gut of a herbivore, you are also very likely to get too little of most other nutrients as well. While herbivores have good ways to deal with natural plant toxins and anti nutrients ( and there are lots of them), humans, with a more carnivore gut system, cant really handle plants well at all. I have no idea why people go vegan.. it is worse for health, worse for anumals, and worse for nature. It benefits big pharma and the sugar industry the most.. Biit each to his own I giess. kist remember to supplement from the start, as your main meal of the day, will be the pills.
I don’t think you need one - he basically said in the video. Blend a pack of silken tofu, add melted chocolate, and a splosh of Kahlua/coffee liqueur, to taste. Takes less than two minutes
Best estimate from looking at similar recipes 300g silken tofu drained (leave in sieve /colander 10mins) 200g melted chocolate 1Tbsp Kahlua [some of the recipes use cocoa powder, honey in place of some of the chocolate, others add plant milk and inst expresso to amp up coffee flavour]
I made a dessert made of silken tofu that was a layered peanut butter and chocolate. I had friends over for dinner who think tofu is gross and flavorless. They were blown away by the silky texture and the fact that it was only tofu mixed with chocolate and nut butter. Tofu is so diverse and flavorful, you just need to know how to use the different firmness types!
Thanks for the idea. I was hoping someone knew a non-alcoholic version I could make for my kiddo. She wants to try tofu but we haven't had much success with it yet. This both sounds yummy and delicious.
@@Wilderina5050 it was so easy! I blended up 2/3 of the silken tofu with melted dark chocolate, filled some cups, put the cups in the freezer and blended the rest of the tofu with peanut butter. The chocolate layer was cold enough to put the peanut butter layer on top. Then I shaved some chocolate on top. Looked gourmet but took little time and ingredients! I was surprised how great it turned out and my dairy loving friends were floored. I was a little "shady" and didn't tell them until they were eating and gushing that it was tofu🙃
@@Wilderina5050 If you want to try more tofu stuff, I like taking firm tofu, freezing it, and then defrosting it and chopping it into cubes and frying it with lots of great flavours. I really prefer the crunchy texture of the fried tofu when it's in a stir fry or salad or even in a sandwich! :)
@@lanyreads8725 frozen firm tofu has such different texture once it's defrosted! I love to throw in in the air fryer and then tossing it in a sauce. Fast, easy and yummy!
Atomic Shrimp did a series of videos where he spent £5 for his meals for the weekend and he brought a bag of Bombay mix and used it in several dishes! Can confirm it’s very useful and versatile!!
@@darren_anscombe yeah…I love his food challenge videos, and his ration pack, foraging videos! I’ll admit, i don’t think I could eat everything he makes, but it’s very educational watching his thought processes
Its really just a package of silken tofu and melted chocolate to your taste blended up till smooth. Ive made this before depends on the type of chocolate and how chocolatey you want it
I love the concept of using an already spiced ingredient to cut down on the number of items needed for a recipe. Now I'm wondering how a peanut butter using masala peanut bhujia would taste and what kinds of dishes I can create from it.
I am definitely going to try that tofu dessert. My mom is diabetic, and I figure the less sugar I need to add, the more she can enjoy something like that. Yeah, there is chocolate, but everything in moderation! Thanks for the great video as always! I'm sure we'd all love to see more of these! 😍
Not sure where you are located, but here in Australia you can find a few different brands of chocolate bars with low carbs/low sugar that would work really well. Or dark chocolate usually has less sugar.
@@novellahickmannh thanks for the tips! I'm actually over in the US, but I'm sure there are some products I can find that are similar. With most Asian desserts, they tend to be a bit less sweet than some American desserts, so we typically have a preference for less sweet desserts than what we can purchase. Either way, my mom does kind of have that sweet tooth, so I like to try to give her a break on her restrictions and try to give her something nice to eat without spiking her glucose levels. 😁 Thank you again. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for less sweet chocolates. I was thinking dark chocolate would be nice, like you mentioned.
The inspiration that using ingredients like Bombay mix is the best thing to take away from that ingredient in particular! Using a preseasoned ingredient like a bag of crisps that would provide lots of flavour is a great hack, it provides endless possibilities and gives people the confidence to experiment with different containers of seasoned ingredients
That caper and sultana puree would go well spread on toast with a fried egg on top, as a kind of replacement for a fruit chutney, with fried capers on top--The bombay mix could also be blitzed up like breadcrumbs and used to crumb chicken or fish.
Capers are part of one of my favorite dishes! Butterfly, cook, and cube some Italian sausage, par boil your choice of pasta (the original recipe uses bowties aka farfalle) then soften garlic in some olive oil, add balsamic vinegar and white wine, and the juice of the capers. Cook it off a bit then add the sausage and some fresh basil, then the pasta and capers. Mix and enjoy! Sometimes it’s even better leftover after it has time to all meld together and absorb the sauce
There are a few Sorted videos through the years that have blown my mind and really changed how I cook (how to make fresh pasta, learning porridge ratios)--this is definitely one! Excellent job making me rethink these ingredients!
i knew about silk tofu as a korean, but that bombay mix cheat is SUCH a game changer! will definitely be using both the ingredient and trying out the recipe for a quick fix for a meal. srsly love this!!
As Jamie once quipped that Ben is always making things a mashed potato consistency but never mashed potatoes and it’s ironic that he isn’t there in the episode lol
The Bombay Mix reminded me of one of Atomic Shrimp's budget challenges, where he also bought a bag and sorted it apart to use bits of it in different dishes.
Guys I’m so happy I watched this video when it first came out. I just found out I’m lactose intolerant and almost all the recipes I love to make at home involve heavy cream. I was so discouraged and then remembered this video! I’m gonna give silken tofu a try, thanks so much!
This whole episode is a game changer! Ben, I have to say you really outdid yourself this time. I am dairy-free for 3 years now and never really accepted the idea of having tofu in my dessert, but I have to say I’m really looking forward to using tofu in all sorts of desserts recipes!
Great collection of ideas, really inspiring. Especially the silken tofu. I usually avoid tofu as the texture of the normal stuff gives me the hebbie jeebies. On the caper front I make a lot of my own. There are two stand ins for caper berries I use. The most common is nasturtium seed pods. The plant is so easy to grow & you can also eat the leaves & flowers. But the seed pods once pickled are a great match. The second is "ash keys". These are the winged seeds from an ash tree that you played helicopters with as a child. You have to pick them whilst still green & immature otherwise the tannin make them inedible. Capers fried with unripe/wet pepper berries with a steak is heaven! Big fan of gnocchi used for other things, I tend to make big batches & freeze them. Like you say great for toppings but also nice fried & used to replace macaroni in mac & cheese. Are you going to put the recipes up so we can get the quantities correct? Would like to try the silken tofu & Bombay mix ones especially.
Plant nerd fact: Capers are the unopened flower buds of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa). The caper berries are the seed pods. The buds form sequentially and the flowers open sequentially - usually one flower per branch per day.
I have an idea! What if y'all make a secondary channel "Sorted Foodie" and post strictly recipe videos. For example, if people want to know how you made the Chocolate Ganache, or put together the salad, they could refer to that channel and watch the food team (or y'all) make the dishes and explain how it's done, why they (or you) do it the way they do, and share tips and tricks to be more successful when preparing the dishes. I'm just suggesting this because I joined the channel MANYYY years ago because I fell in love with your recipe videos, and as the years went by, you guys started doing less recipe videos and more of these fun challenges, and interesting bits. Which I'm all for, but I just really wish there were still as many recipes. This is a proposition for the best of both worlds!!
That is actually a good idea, at first i felt a bit skeptical, since the guys are pretty busy(regular vids, business stuff, creating new recipe for app, etc), not to mention the crew (camera and editor),and ingredient cost, however , i feel like they could save a lil bit of money by using single camera setting like babish(so the crew who wish to remain anonymous can remain so), using left over ingredient only,not using voice over, and maybe rotate the crew as some sort of cooking practice (for the non chef of the crew) I understand they still need to paid extra, for the editor, and possibly have to add an extra editor(adding explanation text, for the part where they cannot move the camera, etc), but it fulfill the need of so many viewer, relatively low cost, extra ad sense revenue, reaching new viewer (maybe atracting asmr and lofi crowd with the sound of knife chopling and sizzling of pan?)
I think it is mainly due to their packs app so now they “sell” their recipes. I would love to see more recipes too, but dont think they will revert back tbh.
I’m really blown away by the new way of looking at gnocchi! I’ve never not ever thought of it as a pasta or dumpling. I’m adding this to my grocery list for sure and excited to try it out in different ways in my meals! This one feels like a real game changer.
Some of the best food tips yet. They’re always decent, but most of these were genuinely great shouts and apply to me and my store cupboard directly (and as someone with a vegan girlfriend - tofu as cream is ingenious and really obvious now)
As for the Gnocchi, Our family often love a breakfast hash for dinner. I usually par boil the gnocchi in the day and refridgerate. Come the evening when Ive fried off the sausage, mushrooms etc, add in the gnocchi, let it get crisp. With that fried egg, nothing quite beats it.
I've used that silken tofu hack for years. Not only is it good for pudding or mixing with sweet things, a lazy dinner hack is to blend silken tofu with curry paste to taste and pouring that over noodles with some stir-fried veggies. Complete balanced meal in minutes.
WOW!!! That Bombay mix is going to be a future dish for me. I love capers, so they are always present in my cupboard. Need to grab some silken tofu. This episode had my mouth watering all the way to the end. Thank you
Dried mushrooms (especially shitakes from an Asian grocery store) are my favorite pantry staple. A huge bag is only $10-20. Grind some up, add them to anything you want more umami in. Soak whole in hot water and you have mushrooms & mushroom stock. Dried mushrooms actually gave more umami than fresh.
One of my favourites along this line: instant noodles and vinaigrette. Chop a cabbage, roughly break the dry noodles, mix seasoning with vinaigrette, stir together and wait 10 minutes. If you wanna be fancy you can also add Bombay mix, or Japanese rice cracker mix.
The asian fusion restaurant I've been working at for almost two years now, makes - as a dessert- what we simply call ''white'' ice cream. It has an excellent taste , incredibly smooth and silky texture and it's made of white chocolate, yogurt and silken tofu. It pairs really well with warm strawberry sauce with green pepper and ginger.
Thanks for capers ideas! I also have a neglected jar. I normally just slice them and add them to ham and mustard sandwiches haha. Also for silken tofu try Taho! Filipino snack/dessert/breakfast, silken tofu with a brown sugar syrup called Arnibal. With tapioca pearls (like boba tea/bubble tea) or sago pearls (more common). Its beautiful and simple
One more thing about the tofu. Silky tofu is most often made using gypsum, and the harder and more grainy one are hard tofu made using kind of brine solution. The compression part mostly changes it from a more liquid version (豆花）into tofu.
We have those sort of Bombay mixes in our kitchen all the time, cheap, moreish. Great idea to use them for cooking. Silken tofu hack was brilliant, though usually more expensive than cream in a lot of the shops I've seen so not sure it's that viable. Protein instead of fat is great though.
Using Bombay Mix is a legit genius idea. I can see how it will transform a dish with its textures and layers of flavor. Incidentally, the Indian "misal" dish is made in a similar way. You take sprouted cooked soupy lentils, mix in Bombay Mix (or similar crunchy deep fried mix), add more spices or spiced oils as needed, sprinkle cilantro, healthy squeeze of lime, and eat it with soft fluffy pav bread that soaks up the soupy liquid.
If you beat it/whip it it turns into a cream-like product, just at the end of making your sauce. We also have a silken tofu risotto and a silken tofu tomato dish on the way in the Sidekick app :)
One simple dish I always have the ingredients for is a potato salad with capers. Boiled potatoes, strained and while still warm add red onion, capers, salt, pepper and olive oil( and maybe parsley). It's so simple yet so good.
Bombay mix as a stew base is GENIUS. Also a really good way to cut down meat consumption without cutting it out entirely. If a person wanted to make it vegan all they'd need to do is sub in jackfruit for the mince.
I love this it's so creative and interesting. I have a challenge for you boys. I would love to see you explore different medical diets and find ways to make tasty food that works in those diets. A lot of people might be most familiar with the diabetes diet or celiacs gluten free diet, but there's also diets like low FODMAP and low histamine that is incredibly strict and can be overwhelming to try and make food following it and I'd love to see people who are more familiar with the cooking side to try and follow them. I'll give you a hint, pumkin seed butter is the best most peanut like alternative to peanut butter as long as you ignore the color (it's a somewhat concerning shade of green) you can make pretty much anything you'd use peanut butter to make. I'm on a low histamine diet and I avoid some high FODMAP foods and that seems to have stabilized my condition but it is overwhelming trying to figure out food.
I was screaming TOFU at my screen the whole time Mike and Barry were trying to guess. Tofu gets such a bad wrap because they either think it's gross or they're never had it done well. Truly super versatile
Years ago I was helping a chef friend cook for a LARP. So we decided to make cheese cake as the final desert on the final night. So rather than trying to cook for everyones diatary needs individually, we worked out a gluten free, dairy free vegan Cheesecake. Our main body of the cake was chilled layers of soft tofu with home made jam between the layers and then extra drizzled over the top. The base was gluten free ginger biscuts sealed with a sugar water instead of egg wash. It was a success and ever since then I've always looked as tofu as a solid replacement for that kind of thing, or as a replacement for meat in curries and such.
My guess for the second dish ingredient was Coffee, so I was kind of right since it had Kahlúa in it. I was completely shocked by the Silken Tofu though, I audibly gasped.
I would really appreciate a whole episode on capers. I would also appreciate it if you could please show us how to make these dishes from cupboard ingredients, especially this episode because these are probably the most useful and creative for me. Thank you for these videos. Generally I like the channel because I usually learn things, not always about cooking 😂, but usually about cooking that help me. Theses are the frustrating videos because they are so good and helpful, but I am left to work out how to practically achieve these simple dishes. Once I have seen them demonstrated, it starts becoming do-able. Thank you for reading to the end. Just a little note: you have to make the dishes anyway, so a demonstration video would not really be that extra Mmmm. Thank you for considering my requests and suggestions.
Ok, wow ... I saw the mousse and directly thought - omg that must be silken tofu. I had it one time at a friends at it was soo delicous but it totally slipped my mind from that. Definitely have to try this!
Also the difference between silken and for example hard tofu is the coagulant used. Silken tofu uses gypsum as a coagulant, which results in the softer, silky texture.
Gnocchi can be used in so many ways, we used it instead of (a swedish dish) "stekt palt" with small pieces of fried bacon and lingonbarry jam and som butter on top. Worked great.
Not a criticism but an observation, does anyone feel like since the rebrand sorted has become a lot more stale? Feel like everything is centred around sidekick and there isn’t much creativity in the video ideas anymore
I was actually just thinking the opposite. They’ve become more creative. They may mention Sidekick, which is understandable - but even if you don’t subscribe to it, the Sidekick app and all their current themes and episodes are so relevant and useful to our daily lives - mproving creativity & affordability in the kitchen. This cupboard staples series, the budget vs expensive ingredients, the global ingredient series, the shopping bag, Pass It On, chef tips, the Chef Skill Badges, they are all more accessible than some of the more crazy Ultimate Battles, as fun as those were… I’m loving the more creative tips they give us, & learning from every episode now.
I think it's become much more structured like a company's "proper RU-vid channel" - which is a massive success that shows just how much they've grown!! - but I definitely miss the chaotic energy in the fun, less-scripted old videos.
wholeheartedly agree with capers. Just an easy little ingredient to sprinkle through anything for a bit of extra to it. Also quite nice in homemade mayo.
These are the kinds of themes that make great ideas for battles. Particularly the last one. I almost think a neat idea would be a battle where everyone has a unique snack food or something that has to feature in their recipe, and the winner is the most creative.
Silken tofu is traditionally made with silk cloth as opposed to cotton, the latter having rougher texture. In South East Asia (due to Chinese influences), as well as being used in savoury dishes, they make sweet desert with syrup. Not from a carton though! Freshly made, it’s absolutely delicious ❤
Right so I dont usually comment on Sorted Videos, Im just a nerdie food lurker, but wow. I havent watched a Sorted vid that blew my mind as much as this did. PLEASE PLEASE DO MORE!
After watching this I'd personally love to see a 3 ingredient series simple easy to make dishes is something I'm always interested in and seeing creative things like the ganache and stew using an ingredient I never would have thought of I'd really enjoy seeing more things like that
One thing I’ve come to love recently with gnocchi is air frying it with herbs,garlic and cheese, Then just eating a bowl of it like little roast potatoes with a dip
This is just the kind of thing I needed to learn. I love to cook but midweek I always make everything to complicated so I eat late then have to clean up a big mess. Thanks.
I made the silken tofu chocolate dish today. Kids (two boys, ages 7 and 9) and husband loved it. No clue it was tofu. Don't go too dark on the chocolate as I went with a 70% and added a few tablespoons of confectioner's sugar as it was pretty bitter. Highly recommend and will definitely make repeatedly.
I get my capers dry in rocksalt, then it getting sprinkled over green salad (including salt) with a little olive oil and balsamic vinigar. The rocksalt complements so well
I started keeping silken tofu in my cupboard when I saw it at a store a couple years ago. It's affordable and so handy! I mostly put it in miso broth, instant ramen, or with hot spiced oil on top as a very quick protein for midweek lunches. I'd love to see more uses for it!!
this is great, i love simple things i can just keep in the cupboard, that will last a long time, because then it wont spoil and go to waste, cant afford to waste food
I have made Mississippi mud pie using silken Tofu (from Alton Brown I believe) and have served to my father without telling him because he would refuse it otherwise. Loves it.
ever since the chef vs. normal battle where Ebbers made bolognese with tinned corned beef, that is the only way I make it. it is an absolute game changer. we now have tinned corned beef in the cupboard at all times, when previously I gave it a suspicious glance on our way down the canned meat aisle in the grocery store.
