Soy-free tofu or pumfu
If you’ve been craving tofu, but soy is not part of your diet, now it’s time to rejoice: you’re about to get a 100% soy-free tofu recipe, with pumpkin seeds as the star instead of soy! Yes, you read that right – pumpkin seeds! These perfectly ordinary, unroasted green pumpkin seeds are perfect for making “tofu” or more correctly “pumkin seed tofu”. It takes a bit of time and patience to prepare, but it’s very easy and doesn’t require much effort. There are only two ingredients: pumpkin seeds and water. So, let’s try it out – the recipe is in front of you! 😉
Quantity: approx. 250 gram pump block
Preparation time: 16 hours and 30 minutes (only 30 minutes for the preparation)
Severity: medium
You will need:
- 454 g unroasted pumpkin seeds
- taken from
- a large piece of marlirie
- a tofu press or a box/can with holes in the bottom where you can later place the weight on top.
How to prepare a pump?
Place the pumpkin seeds in a large bowl and pour over the water so that all the seeds are covered. Soak the seeds for 8 hours. Then rinse under running water and drain thoroughly.
Pour half of the seeds into a blender with twice the amount of water (for example: 1 cup of seeds + 2 cups of water). Blend on high speed until the mixture is completely silky and lump-free. If you are using a smaller blender, process the mixture in 3-4 batches, using the same ratio: 1 part seeds + 2 parts water.
Using a rolling pin, strain the “milk” into a large bowl or jug. Squeeze the pulp as dry as possible – you should be left with a dry, curdling pulp. You can use this mass to make crackers, for example, or freeze it for later use. Repeat the process until all the semolina is used up.
Let the strained “seed milk” stand for at least 15 minutes to allow the starch to sink to the bottom. Then carefully pour the milk into the saucepan so that the starchy sediment in the bottom of the bowl does not come out.
Heat the pumpkin seed milk to 82 °C, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula to prevent the milk from burning to the bottom. The milk will start to curdle at around 65-70 °C, but continue to heat up to 82 °C.
The mixture is ready when a lumpy, curd-like or cottage cheese-like mass starts to form in the milk mixture. Strain it out and let the excess liquid drain through a sieve. Then dampen the marlirioche with cold water (so that the cloth is damp but not dripping wet – be sure to wring out any excess water) and place it in the bottom of a tofu press or mould of your choice. Slide the curdled mixture into the mould covered with the meringue, fold the edges of the cloth over and place the weight on top of everything (it is therefore important to make sure that there are holes in the bottom of the mould to allow the liquid to escape).
NB! If you’re not using a tofu press, make sure you have a handy weight on top of it to apply enough pressure to get excess liquid to drip out of the pump.
Put the pumpkin with the weight in the fridge overnight to set. Enjoy the next day just like regular tofu.
