S6 E13: Tofu Meatballs in a Lemongrass Curry

In this episode we explore the challenges of cooking with tofu as a meat alternative when Erin tries to make tofu "meatballs." We discuss various recipes, cooking techniques, and the importance of flavour and texture. 

These tofu meatballs are baked, which does make the process super simple, but Erin ran into trouble with the lemongrass curry. The recipe said to blend the ingredients into a paste, and let's just say that lemongrass didn't blend well!  

But the flavour was great and we have thoughts for improving our experience with this recipe. Join us on the socials and let us know your lemongrass tips and tricks! 

There is no recipe to share this week, because Erin found this one needed some work. We don't ever share a recipe we wouldn't want to make again ourselves. 

 
Chapters

12:38 Exploring Meat Alternatives: Tofu Meatballs
14:57 Cooking Techniques and Ingredient Challenges
16:31 Flavour vs. Texture: The Lemongrass Dilemma
18:44 Feedback and Adjustments: Learning from Experience
21:14 Final Thoughts and Future Experiments

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Transcript

Three Kitchens Podcast S5, E13: Tofu Meatballs with Lemongrass Curry

Erin (00:13)
Hello and welcome to today's episode of Three Kitchens podcast. My name is Erin Walker and with me always is my co-host Heather Dyer. And we are coming at you from a new platform today. We're trying out some new recording technology and hopefully we just look and sound as awesome as we always do. New year, improving new things and this episode is kind of a new year, new things. It is a meatless recipe that I'm going to take on today. I found it in an issue of The Guardian that I got in the mail.

Heather (00:35)
Hopefully I'm crossing my fingers.

Yeah, I hope so.

Erin (00:58)
We had a postal strike here in Canada and nothing was coming in. And then I got like a whole pile of my little magazines in and now my first thing that I do is flip to the recipe and check out the Venn diagrams because I usually get a good chuckle out of those.

Heather (01:16)
Okay.

Erin (01:19)
They're jokes! They're Venn diagram jokes!

Heather (01:20)
I don't even know what it is. don't. Okay.

Okay. I'm like, what kind of science stuff is in this book?

EWrin (01:28)
It's like, no, it's just like, it's making fun of something political and comparing it to something else. So it's like climate change policies and picking up a kid from a birthday party. And it's like the critical point of overconsumption has been passed. And that's the thing that brings the two together. So it's.

Heather (01:52)
I see.

Erin (01:55)
Two ideas in two circles and then where they overlap is the funny.

Heather (02:00)
Okay, I'll trust you on the funny part. ⁓

Erin (02:02)
It's not just, it's just not, okay, it's a little bit nerdy, but bear with me.

However, I found a great recipe in here that it sounds like something I want to try making. And it takes me down the tofu road again. And I was really happy with what I created last time when I cooked with tofu. And that was that buffalo chicken tofu, which I...

Heather (02:17)
Wow.

Erin (02:29)
I'm using some air quotes for chicken because obviously it was tofu. But it was breaded and it was marinated, breaded and then baked in the oven and it had like a great crispy exterior and it was soft and flavourful on the inside and I was, I even tricked my kids.

Heather (02:47)
and you made your own buffalo sauce.

Erin (02:53)
That too.

Heather (02:53)
None of that store-bought stuff for Erin. Nope. She's like, I just sort of made it up. I just threw some things together and literally it tasted just like buffalo wings.

Erin(03:05)
There you go. Because I've learned from Heather who can pull anything out of her fridge at a moment's notice.

Heather (03:11)
Well, sometimes.

Erin (03:13)
So we'll try this out. These are going to be tofu, I almost called it Tuffalo. I'm not sure, buffalo and tofu crossed in my brain. All right, these are called tofu meatballs in lemongrass curry. And all of that just hits the right spots for me. So,

Heather (03:21)
Okay. Ooh, that sounds good.

Erin (03:41)
I don't think this is going to be too onerous to make. It's using a package of firm tofu, bread crumbs, chili paste and pepper. And all of that is getting blended together. So you put all this stuff into a blender and then scoop it out like you would a meatball. But instead of a ground meat, we have a blended tofu.

Yeah. And then sounds like they're going to be placed into the fridge so that they can firm up before you go ahead. And it recommends frying them in a pan, but I love baking my meatballs. Like when I make a chicken meatball or a beef meatball, I always put them into my oven and bake them because I find it. Sorry.

Heather (04:26)
And do you brown them first and then bake them or no?

Erin (04:31)
I don't because I find it so such a pain in the butt, especially like a chicken. Like if you have ground chicken, that stuff is no better than like, I don't know, peanut butter. Like it just it falls apart right away if you try and put it in a pan and then you end up with just

Heather (04:51)
Yeah, because it sticks and then when you try to flip it or move it and it just falls apart. Yeah.

Erin (04:53)
Ugh.

Yeah, it never works for me. So for a very long time I've been baking my meatballs so I will probably use the same sort of method with these guys. And then we've got lemongrass, garlic, ginger and lime as well as some of this chilli paste and some oil and we're going to blend that all up together and then put it in a pan. Cook it, cook our our aromatic paste and then we add some coconut milk to it and then we pop the meatballs back into that paste and you've got tofu meatballs in a lemongrass curry.

Heather (05:41)
Mmm, that sounds delicious. I love anything with lemongrass. It's like, it's the thing I never think to buy and cook with, but it's so delicious when you have a recipe that has it. It's just, mmm.

Erin (05:46)
Yes, as do I.

I buy it frequently. I love having a little bit of it in with my, in my broth bin or my broth bag. So when I got a little bit leftover, I will pop it into there and it'll go into my chicken broth and it just, Ooh, such a good flavour. I also have made a recipe before with ground chicken where you use the lemongrass stock as the skewer.

Heather (06:13)
Hmm.

Erin (06:25)
and you put the ground chicken around it. ⁓ that is so good. So all these flavours just sound delightful to me. And I think it'll check a few boxes. I don't think it's going to be terribly hard to make.

Heather (06:28)
huh.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. ⁓

A lot cheaper than meat as well.

Erin (06:46)
It's gonna be cheaper than meat. Yeah, I picked up the tofu today, yesterday, and yeah, the price for two packages of tofu was definitely cheaper than what it would cost for you to take ground meat and do that, especially in today's economy. And I just...

Heather (07:05)
Mm-hmm.

Erin (07:08)
I love the idea of cooking more things with this. I think it's a really fascinating ingredient. I remember watching the endless tofu cooking on the Korean cooking show that I had watched a while back and it was like endless cooking hell or something was their final challenge. And they had to like, every 30 minutes they had to make another every hour. I can't remember what it was. It was just endless cooking with tofu and they had to do new things every time and make it restaurant quality good and if it wasn't they were eliminated and they were just all busting out all these different tofu recipes and I was like this is fascinating like this is not an ingredient I'm familiar with this is really cool to see how many different ways you can do it and so

That first leap into tofu recipes was the breaded slab of tofu and now we're going to try some meatballs. So I think this could be good.

Heather (08:11)
Well you were successful the first time so I have faith that you're gonna pull out something really yummy again

Erin(08:20)
never blended tofu in a blender before, so this sounds like really exciting to me. And we'll see what we get. I also think I'm gonna be able to lie to my family about this because I often make chicken meatballs, as I was saying, and so.

They're kind of a lighter, softer meatball and not like a hard, like a denser, meaty meatball. Like a beef or a pork would be. so, and it's, and it's white meat in the chicken. So I think it will easy to fool my family into thinking that this is.

Heather (08:51)
like a beef meatball or something. ⁓

Maybe.

Erin (09:08)
I always like playing this game with my family. It's dangerous to eat in this house. You never know what you're gonna get.

Heather (09:11)
You don't know what you're really getting until after you've eaten and given your review. They have to say what they thought of it before you tell them what it actually is.

I got a while back, I got in my odd bunch box, which is a subscription box of like odd and ugly vegetables and fruits, the ones that don't end up in the store because they look a little funny or whatever. I don't know where this one came from because it wasn't funny looking or anything, but it was a little package of those mushrooms. They're in a they're like a bunch. They're all connected at the bottom.

But they're like a long stem and a little white top. Like they look like little buttons on top. I forget, they're called beach mushrooms or something, I feel like. Anyway, so I had cut some off and we had them in soup and I put them into something. I can't remember what, I, one of my kids is just like, who doesn't like mushrooms. like, pulls it out. What is, I think it was in stir fry or something. What is this?

Erin (09:50)
Yes!

Hmm, okay.

Heather (10:15)
I'm like, you have to eat it first before I will tell you. And so he's eating it he's like, that's a mushroom. You tricked me into eating mushrooms. Cause he knows that I know he doesn't like them. I'm like, no, I didn't trick you. I just put them in and it's up to you to try it. And then he's like, I'm not eating the rest of these just so you know. It's like, that's fine. They didn't taste like anything.

Erin(10:19)
Ha!


No, they just taste like mushrooms or sponges, guys. They're flavour sponges. Yeah, I get it. My kids have texture adversities as well, so. I always say if you're not lying to your kids you're not parenting well. Are you even a parent? That's right.

Heather (10:41)
He didn't, he doesn't like the texture.


Erin (11:01)
We famously would eat French noodle soup in our house because the onions were special French noodles.

Heather (11:08)
You make a good French onion soup!

Erin (11:11)
Yeah, I got some beef bones that I need to pay attention to, so I might be making some beef broth here soon too. So, we'll see.

Heather (11:19)
it's so easy to get off topic. Okay, we're having tofu.

Erin (11:22)
It is.

We're having tofu meatball form.

Yay! Okay.

[Second half...]
Erin
Well, we've been doing this a while, but we still seem to be just a little bit behind when life gets in our way. Well, let's talk about these ⁓ tofu. I feel I have this thing about calling meatballs and I see you putting up your chicken sticks here, but I don't I don't know what to call non-meat alternatives and "meatballs."

Calling them soy balls sounds...

Heather (12:02)
Hmm.

Anything as a ball, even a tofu ball sounds...

Erin (12:04)
possibly not appetizing.

I know. Meatball is totally passable. Everything else just sounds kind of eww.

Heather (12:13)
Well, least saying meatball, you understand what you're getting. Even if it's not made of meat. I think it's an okay word to use.

Erin12:18)
Right?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Okay, so let's have a chat about making these. I have some thoughts, comments, ideas, opinions, but let's...

Heather (12:38)
As we should have or else what are we doing here?

Erin (12:41)
Or, yeah, exactly. Why'd you show up today?

So, okay, we've been with family for Christmas, so we have lots of opinions we haven't been sharing, so now I get to share them all, but not about family. So, I had two packages of extra firm tofu that I crumbled up, I added in 115 grams of oats, and 50...
 milliliters of sambel oelek, which is like a red pepper paste in a jar. ⁓ I should have brought it. You know what? Pause here. I'm getting the jar.

Heather (13:19)
⁓ okay.

 Yes, I've seen it. And I do know it. Yeah.

Erin (13:25)
Yeah, this is, yes. We've all seen it on the shelf at the store. ⁓ There were a couple different types to choose from. This one was fairly low in sodium was the one thing that defined it differently than the other one. I would say the higher sodium one might've been better or add salt if you're gonna get the lower sodium one, which I did not do. So I would recommend that when you make up your meatballs. Anyway.

Heather (13:51)
We always think that the low sodium option is better, but you forget about flavor. Yeah, yeah.

Erin (13:55)
Well, then you control the sodium, right? And I just didn't put that into my mind as I was like, my God, I'm making these tofu meatballs. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. It always feels like I don't know how to cook. When I start cooking these recipes, like I don't know about you, but I get like the hot sweats of like panic as I'm opening this recipe book of like, do I know what I'm doing?

Heather (14:08)


And part of it is because we get out the camera and we film what we're doing just so that we have some clips for the viewer to see on social media. And that feels like this weird pressure we just suddenly put on ourselves. I'm like, does my stove top look clean? And then, well, do I know how to stir the whatever? Like it is this weird thing when it's like someone's looking at you. Yeah.

Erin (14:23)
And there's that.

Yes.

Yeah, it's a little bit of a mental game we're still playing out here. All right, so those three ingredients. ⁓

Heather (14:53)
Mmm.

Erin (14:56)
I tossed into a food processor. just have like a wee little one. So I mixed all this together in a bowl first and then I blended it in processor until it became a nice paste that I could work with

So I popped this through my little food processor in a couple batches until I got a nice paste that I could work with my cookie scoop to serve out my meatballs. I scooped them all onto a parchment lined baking sheet and then baked them in my oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees, because that's how I do like a chicken meatball or what have you. ⁓ I brushed each of them with
oil before they went into the oven because I thought looks kind of dry.

And based on now what I have learned, I might have gone with a medium or a firm rather than an extra firm because it is the densest least moist tofu. The firmer you go, the more dense it is and they take the moisture out. Yeah. And so I'm thinking for this, I would have done something either put some more

Heather (15:59)
Okay, so as they take the moisture out, okay.

Erin(16:10)
oil in there or fat of some sorts to make them just a little bit juicier.

I'm not sure, but I feel like they were just a little bit too dry

Heather (16:21)
I did not think they were super dry. Honestly, I didn't really think so, but.
where does the lemongrass come in?

Erin(16:31)
So then to make the curry that these meatballs are going to be cooked in.

This is where, man, I struggled, Heather. So, it was lemongrass, garlic, ginger, lime juice, and some more of our sambal ground fresh chilli paste.

All of that was supposed to get blended together in a blender then up that paste in a pan, add in your coconut milk.

Yum, yum, yum.

I could not get this to blend in my ninja in any sort of blendy type way. I had these long strands of lemongrass that was like chewing grass. It was...

freaking not working. don't know how much I tried. I just, I couldn't get this to and break down into a paste. It was just a wasn't, wasn't working out for me. I really was. Yeah, it wasn't happening. So

Heather (17:36)
picturing it.

Three Kitchens (17:41)
So whatever, finally was like, okay, well this is as blended as it's getting and I put it through my food processor, I put it through my blender, put it through my food processor, I was like between these two things and like, isn't this fucking working? So I dumped it into the pan and fried it up and thought, maybe these long, grassy, things will break down better? They didn't.

So then when I served it up to myself, as much as I enjoyed the flavour, the texture killed us. It was just like, this is awful.

Heather (18:19)
no!

Erin (18:20)
The flavour was good, the texture was a fail.

So then when I set aside your serving, I was like, I'm gonna strain out all of this roughage in my curry. Because if I give you grassy curry, it is just not gonna fly. And you're gonna be like texting me the WTF is this, Erin? What are you trying to make me eat?

Heather (18:44)
Yeah.

Erin (18:49)
So I think you had the best serving that there was out there.

Maybe I just don't know how to work with lemongrass. Maybe I needed to chop it into smaller little pieces before putting it into the blender so that I didn't end up with these of grass. I would try that maybe next time. ⁓

Maybe I should have been putting oil into the mixture of lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and lime juice to help lubricate everything so it blended easier. Maybe I should have strained it all after I did the frying and coconut milk step.

Heather (19:34)
I'm trying to remember having cooked with lemongrass. I know I have, but it's not something I use often. And I'm trying to remember if it is the thing that you put to simmer or whatever, and then you take it out before you eat. Is it like one of those items you're not really supposed to chew on? You're just supposed to get the flavour out of it? I have no idea.

Erin (19:58)
The recipe's directions were, and I quote directly, in a small blender, blitz the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, lime, and remaining sambal paste, and two tablespoons of oil to make a paste.

Heather (20:13)
Okay, and it doesn't say anything about chopping the lemongrass or...

Erin (20:18)
It says trimmed and roughly chopped.

Heather (20:20)
roughly chopped. See that's big pieces.

Three Kitchens (20:23)
See, that's big pieces in my mind too.

Heather (20:25)
Yeah.

Erin (20:27)
the sauce was a flop in terms of texture, but I loved the flavour in it. I really enjoyed the flavour in the I just felt like I was a cow chewing my cud. I don't know. It just, yeah. And just with the texture in the meatball being a little bit drier, the sauce didn't add anything.

Heather (20:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, I could, I can imagine. Yeah.

So I had this in my mind that it was going to be somewhat similar to meatball. So I was thinking of it kind of like I'm going to compare it, even though it shouldn't be compared, it should be its own thing. But you know, I had in my mind that it looks like a chicken meatball, so I'm going to kind of compare it to a chicken meatball. And chicken, ground chicken can be a bit dry. Like a chicken meatball can... sometimes be a bit dry. So to me, it was comparable to a chicken meatball in terms of the texture, a little spongier maybe is the word. that doesn't sound good, but it actually was, I thought it was very good. I didn't find it overly dry, but I also didn't really know what to expect aside from I had in my mind chicken. ⁓

Erin(21:21)
Mm-hmm.



Heather (21:40)
And I thought the sauce was really delicious. I really enjoyed it. thought overall, this was really tasty. ⁓ None of my family ate it because they were having other things and so I ate them. And so I don't have any more reviews aside from my own, but I really quite enjoyed it.

Erin (22:01)
Yeah, I'm thinking, I even wonder if I could have put an egg in and a little bit of milk, because that's usually what I do with my chicken meatball to keep it moist and fluffy.

I feel like... It's a good start.

but there is more to be learned from

Heather (22:19)
Yeah,

I feel like the lemongrass, it's a key flavour ingredient because it really is delicious because of the lemongrass. It's just how do we put it in there? I'm wondering if you like smash it a bit and put the big chunks in, cook it and then take them out and then see how the flavour is. 

Maybe instead of trying to blend them. I mean, I can see why they don't blend. Makes sense. They're kind of hard. yeah.

Erin (22:43)
 Yeah, it's like a long fiber.

Heather (22:55)
It was not nearly as bad as I... You kind of led me to believe it might be really terrible. Because when you brought it to me, you're like.. Let me know if you even want to record about this. Like you were clearly like up to here with the fucking meatballs.

Erin(23:08)
You got the best of the balls, I got the worst of it. That was the only unfortunate part. I think, you know, it's like everything else. Sometimes as soon as you make it, you know that you want to go back and do something different and change it up. And I think this is a completely valid...

way to maybe have a meat alternative in a diet and know maybe it doesn't have to flavour in this sauce right there's lots of different ways that we put together meatballs with you know like Swedish meatballs and put the seasoning and flavour that you would put into that or i make some with like oregano and garlic

and an egg and milk and then it goes with tomato sauce and it's delicious, right?

Heather (24:07)
Mm-hmm.

Erin (24:08)
or make the Chinese lion heads meatballs. Put some of those flavours into your tofu. But I'm gonna for a higher moisture on your tofu. Especially when you're baking like this, you can have a little bit more forgiveness and that your balls don't have to hold together as firm as maybe...

if you were frying it in a pan, because if you're just scooping it out and putting it onto a baking sheet, which I do with chicken because it often just like, all falls apart because it can be kind of soft and mushy. Yeah, you can get away with something a little bit softer and therefore maybe moister and maybe make a different Or if you know how to work with lemongrass better than I do.

Heather (24:40)
Yeah.

Erin (24:58)
Please, give me your advice.

Heather (25:02)
send us send us all the lemongrass tips. Go on socials and leave us a comment or send us an email just like we'd love to know because we really do love the flavour of it. It's so tasty.

Erin (25:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, your idea of just smashing it up and putting it in the pot with everything and then pulling it out off to the side at the end when you serve, yeah, maybe that's the way to go.

Heather (25:25)
Maybe, and I mean, it's easy. If it works, it's at least an easy solution, right?

Erin (25:30)
Yeah, yeah.

Heather (25:32)
boy, sometimes you know this is what we do. You guys we try recipes that we've never tried and everybody who cooks at home and who likes to try new recipes knows that it doesn't always work out. It doesn't always turn out the way you imagine it will be or maybe how the photo looks in the recipe book or whatever. So it's like that's the fun of it.

Erin (25:41)


So I think you can make a meatball out of tofu. Just careful what deciding to fry up it in.

Heather (26:07)
Yeah.

Good job, good effort. you were sick when you went to try to eat it too. had like no sense of smell and taste. had that cold. maybe... Yeah, so that makes a difference too.

Erin (26:12)

Yeah, I'm still coming back from that. My seasoning skills are not at their highest right now, shall we say?

Heather (26:33)
Yeah, so I mean considering all the things I thought it was actually quite good.

Erin (26:38)
I would try it again. I would for sure try it again. I think we've got some good ideas so hopefully works out better next time. And that's a year folks!

Heather (26:51)
Yes, is this the last episode of the year? Okay, happy new year and ⁓ may 2026 be better than 2025 in many ways. There are many applications for that statement in this life. So here's to a good one.

Erin (26:56)

Cheers!

Heather (27:14)
Cheers!

Voiceover (27:15)
And now for the fine print. Links to recipes and other things we talked about in this episode can be found in the show notes or on our website. www.3kitchenspodcast.com Come say hello on Instagram, Facebook, threads, YouTube and TikTok. We'd love to connect. And if you enjoy the show, pass it on. Word of mouth is the number one way people learn about new podcasts. Thank you so much for listening.