tofu

American  

[toh-foo] / ˈtoʊ fu /

noun

1. a soft, bland, white cheeselike food, high in protein content, made from curdled soymilk: used in Asian and vegetarian cooking.

---

tofu British  

/ ˈtəʊˌfuː /

noun

1. unfermented soya-bean curd, a food with a soft cheeselike consistency made from soya-bean milk

---

Etymology

Origin of tofu

First recorded in 1875–80; from Japanese tōfu, from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese dòufu ( dòu “bean” + fǔ “turn sour, ferment”)

Explanation

Tofu is a spongy cake made from the curds of mashed soybeans. Tofu isn't very flavorful unless you cook it with other ingredients and seasonings. Tofu can be described as a kind of cheese made from soy milk, and it often shows up on menus as "bean curd." Many East and Southeast Asian cuisines include tofu cooked in various ways, including deep fried, stir fried, curried, and grilled. Tofu is considered a healthy food, since it's high in protein and relatively low in calories. The word tofu is Japanese, from the Chinese doufu, a combination of dou, "beans," and fu, "rotten."

Example Sentences

Tofu was time-consuming, so that box moved around with us mostly unused.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026

Its name is BCD Tofu House, and it bills itself as “The House That Tofu Built.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 30, 2025

Tofu can be a great alternative to meat.

From Salon • Feb. 22, 2024

“We are losing this neighborhood,” said Tan Nguyen, who had come to eat at the ChuMinh Tofu restaurant, one of three that’s still hanging on at the corner behind barbed wire.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 30, 2023

Hitherto penmanship in Kyoto had taken for models the style of Kobo Daishi and Ono no Tofu.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by Brinkley, F. (Frank)