Tofu Skin (also called yuba) is a great vegetarian ingredient and source of good protein. Dried Tofu Skin Soup is the simplest way of eating tofu skin. I made two kinds of soups with Yuba – Clear Soup and White Miso Soup.
I received two requests for recipes using tofu skin, or ‘yuba’ (湯葉) in Japanese. One request was in Nagi’s post, ‘Request a Recipe!’ and it was Yuba Gratin. The other request came through my Contact Form and was asking for yuba recipes
I thought yuba was one of those great Japanese ingredients that was not very well known by many people. So, I decided to post the simplest recipe today using dried yuba . Yuba Gratin will come some time later.
About Tofu Skin (Yuba)
When you heat milk, a thin film forms on the surface. You might have even experienced a very thin film on the surface of a cup of hot milk. The same thing happens to soy milk and yuba is the collection of these skins from soy milk. Hence, it’s called ‘tofu skin’.
A great degree of nutritions are codensed in the tofu skin with some water. Yuba contains much more protein, minerals and vitamins than tofu. It contains more protein than pork, no cholesterol and is low calorie.
In Japan, yuba is sold fresh as well as in dried form. I cannot buy fresh yuba in Sydney but dried yuba is available at both Japanese and Asian grocery stores.
You can make fresh yuba at home if you have pure soy milk or soy milk powder. I made it from soy milk powder. See the photos below. The left photo shows the thin film of yuba formed on the surface. When you pick it up (the right photo), the entire skin comes out.
The best way to eat fresh yuba is to dip it in soy sauce with wasabi, just like sashimi. It’s so sweet!
Dried Tofu Skin (Yuba)
The dried yuba sold at Asian grocery stores in Sydney is usually from China. They come in different shapes like the sample photos below. They are called Dried Bean Curd. The stick is about 13cm/5⅛” long and it is actually a tube.
I also bought a pack of dried yuba from the Japanese grocery store (bottom left photo). It is in rectangular shape of about 9cm x 16cm/3½“ x 6¼”.
Different shapes of dried yuba have different use in dishes:
- Dried yuba stick is great in soup like today’s dish as well as in simmered dishes.
- Tied dried yuba is quite bulky and large so I think it is suited for simmered dishes or hot pots.
- Dried yuba sheets can be used to wrap vegetables and meat, like a rice paper roll and cooked in flavoured soup or even fried. It can also be cut into small pieces and used in soup dishes, etc. Oh, yes, in gratin as well!
Different shapes of dried tofu skin (yuba) and rehydrated yuba sticks (bottom right).
How to Rehydrate
I tried different methods of rehydrating dried tofu skin sticks and came to the conclusion that soaking in hot water with a pinch of baking soda is the best method.
Baking soda gives the yuba a fresh and firm texture. It takes 2-10 minutes to rehydrate depending on the type of dried yuba.
Tied dried yuba takes a very long time to rehydrate completely but it is usually simmered in flavoured sauce so you don’t need to rehydrate completely.
Clear Soup and Yuba are a delicate combo
I like clear soup. Compared to miso soup, clear soup has a somewhat classy ambience. It is also visually attractive as you can see the ingredients inside the soup.
As long as you make a good lightly flavoured dashi stock with a small amount of light soy sauce, sake and salt, Clear Soup with Dried Tofu Skin is quite easy and fast to make.
Pop in rehydrated tofu skin pieces, a couple of accompanying vegetables into the dashi stock and it’s ready. In my recipe, I added a couple of slices of carrot and a tiny daikon leaf to give colour to the soup but you can substitute with other vegetables such as wakame seaweed, chopped shallots/scallions.
Shiro Miso and Yuba are a good match
In the second soup with yuba, I used Saikyo miso, which is the sweetest shiro miso (white miso). Yuba is slightly sweet and Saikyo miso goes very well with it. The description and photo of Saikyo miso can be found in the post Saikyo Yaki Fish. Normal white miso is great too. If you don’t have shiro miso, you can use brown miso but do not make the soup too salty.
Rehydrate a few sticks of yuba, cut into bite size pieces, then cook in dashi stock for a minute or so. Then add shiro miso to finish it up.
It would also be good to add one or two vegetables to give a different texture and colour to the soup. I added chopped enoki mushrooms and snow peas today.
Tofu Skin is a very delicate food. Together with a delicate clear soup or slightly sweet shiro miso, Dried Tofu Skin Soup becomes even more delicate.
Yumiko
PS: I added a new section ‘MEAL IDEAS’ below the recipe card. It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and the new recipe in this post that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you!
Tofu skin (also called yuba) is a great vegetarian ingredient and source of good protein. Dried Tofu Skin Soup in Clear Soup is very easy to make. Add some colours to the soup and make this delicate yuba soup visually attractive.
Use konbu dashi to make this soup vegetarian (see note 5).
Total Time does not include time to rehydrate dried tofu skin.
- 3 dried tofu skin (yuba) sticks (note 1)
- Hot water
- A pinch of baking soda (note 2)
- 4 slices of thin carrot (3mm/⅛" thick, note 3)
- 2 small daikon leaves (note 4)
- 400ml/0.8pt dashi stock (note 5)
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sake
- ⅓ tsp salt
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Add hot water and a pinch of baking soda to a bowl and soak the dried yuba sticks for 2-10 minutes (note 6) until the yuba sticks become soft.
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Remove the yuba from the hot water, pat dry and cut each stick into 4 equal size pieces.
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Bring a pot of the dashi stock to a boil and add the remaining clear soup ingredients.
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Add carrots and cook for 30 seconds, then add yuba and cook for about 1 minute.
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Add daikon leaves and turn the heat off. Serve immediately.
1. It is also called dried bean curd. Yuba is the collection of skin formed on the surface of heated soy milk. Skins are dried in different shapes and sold in a pack at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. Please read more about tofu skin (yuba) in my post.
2. Baking soda gives the rehydrated yuba a plump texture, but you can omit this if you want.
3. You don’t need to shape the carrots into flowers but if you want to, please visit my recipe Sanshoku Bento (Tri-coloured Rice Bowl), note 1.
4. My daikon came with leaves attached. In the centre of the leaves are tiny leaves that are tender. I picked a couple of them for the soup. You can add other green vegetables such as julienned shallots/scallions, or snow peas.
5. If you are using an instant dashi pack or granular dashi powder, you need to reduce the amount of salt slightly as the dashi already contains salt. You may even omit it.
To make this soup vegetarian, use konbu dashi (see Varieties of Dashi Stock).
6. Depending on the brand of dried tofu skin, the time required to rehydrate varies. If the entire stick becomes soft and sloppy, it is ready to use.
Tofu skin (also called yuba) is a great vegetarian ingredient and source of good protein. Dried Tofu Skin Soup with White Miso is one of the simplest way of eating tofu skin. The sweetness of white miso goes so well with delicate tofu skins.
User konbu dashi (see note 3) to make this soup vegetarian.
Total Time does not include time to rehydrate dried tofu skin.
- 3 dried tofu skin (yuba) sticks (note 1)
- Hot water
- A pinch of baking soda (note 2)
- 400ml/0.8pt dashi stock (note 3)
- 15g/0.5oz enoki mushrooms , stem removed, cut to 3cm/1¼" long pieces
- 4 snow pea pods , diagonally sliced into 5mm/3/16" wide
- 2 tbsp Saikyo miso (note 4)
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Add hot water and a pinch of baking soda to a bowl and soak the dried yuba sticks it for 2-10 minutes (note 5) until the yuba sticks become soft.
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Remove the yuba from the hot water, pat dry and cut each stick into 4 equal size pieces.
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Bring a pot of the dashi stock to a boil. And add yuba, enoki and snow pea.
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When it starts boiling again, add miso to a small sieve with a handle. Dip the sieve half way into the soup and using a spoon, small spatula or chopsticks, mix the miso into the soup without creating lumps (note 6).
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Turn off the heat when the soup starts boiling. Do no keep boiling the miso soup as it will lose the flavour of miso.
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Serve while hot.
1. Also called dried bean curd, yuba is a collection of skin formed on the surface of heated soy milk. Skins are dried in different shapes and sold in a pack at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. Please read more about tofu skin (yuba) in my post.
2. Baking soda gives the rehydrated yuba a plump texture, but you can omit this if you want.
3. If you are using an instant dashi pack or granular dashi powder, you need to reduce the amount of miso slightly as as there is already salt in the dashi.
To make this soup vegetarian, use konbu dashi (see Varieties of Dashi Stock).
4. I used Saikyo miso today because it is the sweetest miso among all kind and goes well with yuba. If you have shiro miso (but not Saikyo miso), you will need to reduce the amount of miso slightly as shiro miso contains more salt than Saikyo miso.
If you only have brown miso, that’s OK, too. But please refer to my Miso Soup Basics recipe for amounts of miso required.
5. Depending on the brand of dried tofu skin, the time required to rehydrate varies. If the entire stick becomes soft and sloppy, it is ready to use.
6. If you don’t have an appropriate sieve to use, place the miso paste in a small bowl, add some dashi stock to it and dissolve the miso in it. Then pour the miso mix back into the pot.
It is important not to drop in a big lump of miso paste as it will take a while to dissolve and the flavour will be lost.
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
Today’s recipes are soup so almost any dishes go well with them. The only thing I would avoid would be miso based dishes when matching with Dried Tofu Skin Soup with White Miso Soup.
- Main: Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs) – make ahead up to boiling and just grill on the day
- Side dish 1: Hijiki Seaweed Salad (Hijiki no Nimono) – make ahead
- Side dish 2: Pickled Turnip (Senmai-zuke) – make ahead
- Soup: Dried Tofu Skin Soup – pick either of the soup recipes today
- Rice: Cooked Rice
Hi, Yumiko,
It is so much fun to see your recipes since I have followed Nagi for a couple of years. I spent some time in Japan (my son taught English there) and truly loved it. My grandfather (who I never knew) was Japanese.
I wanted to thank you for posting the menu ideas! It really helps to know what sort of things you would serve with the recipes.
Donna
Hi Donna, thank you very much for your kind words. I am glad that the new section is useful. No wonder you and your son are fond of Japan!