Hey y’all,
Let’s have a chat about tofu. I’ve tried it. It tastes great (when done right – like any food).
However, I hate the cost of tofu for what you get. A 12oz package of tofu costs somewhere around $2.50. The suggested serving size is 3 oz (I’ve never seen anyone eat just 3 oz of tofu, but whatever). That comes out at around 62 cents, and that only gives you 80 calories! It does give you 9g of protein, so that’s about like an egg, but I can buy an egg for 15 cents or less. If I ate eggs, I could eat 4 for the cost of a tiny amount of tofu!
What I think is a significantly better deal is to just buy dry soybeans. I usually get this product. It’s a huge bag and only costs $2.38/lb of dry beans. Beans nearly triple when soaked and cooked, and there are about 2.7 cups of beans per pound, so that’s only 35 cents per cup of cooked soybeans. You also would get nearly 300 calories and 28g of protein from a cup of soybeans!
You also can’t really taste soybeans in things (when they’re cooked fresh), so I like to put 1/4 cup in my smoothies. That’s an easy way to get some extra protein for pennies. The blender grind them up, so I can’t even see them. If I wasn’t the one putting them in my smoothie, I’d have no idea they were there.
To me, it makes so much more monetary sense to keep some cooked soybeans on hand. Tofu has a place, but I tend to use it sparingly. It’s really not as good of a deal as people tend to think.
Frugal Treehugger 