Split Yellow Pea Tofu (affordable tofu made from peas!)

Pea Tofu or PeaFu? This soy-free tofu is made from affordable split yellow peas! The resulting “peafu” is high protein, low carb, plus it tastes and feels very much like regular extra firm tofu. The process is also very similar to the original tofu-making method with just one easy additional step.

Video Tutorial for PeaFu (tofu made with yellow split peas)

What does Yellow Split Pea Tofu taste and feel like?

Freshly made split yellow pea tofu is very similar to regular soy extra firm tofu. It is:

• similar in firmness and texture (like commercially sold, vacuum packed extra firm tofu),
• has a meaty, bouncy bite,
• easy to crumble for making tofu “ground”,
• bland without much flavor on its own (ready to take on the flavor of your sauce or marinade).

However, it’s not quite the same. It does have an underlying taste of peas which I actually love!

I’ve also made a version that I pressed in the fridge for a week. This was not intentional; life just got in the way. But the resulting aged yellow peafu was even tastier! The flavor of yellow split peas became more prominent, the texture was more firm, and the color became a deeper shape of yellow compared to the fresh version. 

But why make Soy-Free Tofu in the first place?

If you are allergic to soy or the people you are cooking for are, this is a great alternative so that you can still make tofu recipes without any soy! Personally, I eat a lot of soy but I believe it’s good to have variety when it comes to plant-based protein sources. 

Beans and grains are great sources of vegan protein BUT if you are like me and cannot have too many carbohydrates for medical reasons, having protein sources that are not attached to a lot of sugars or starches is really important for health. 

Why use Split Yellow Peas for Soy-Free Tofu?

Split yellow peas, like many legumes, are a great source of vegan protein. They are one of the sources that have all nine essential amino acids and therefore are thought of as “complete proteins.” 

They’re also widely available in grocery stores and usually very cheap as well. For the best price, look in the bulk bins. You might find the best deal there. I found them for $0.49 Canadian for 100g in the bulk section of my local grocery store.

Before experimenting with them, my only concern with using split peas for tofu is that they do contain a lot of starch. Excess starch can get in the way of making tofu with good texture that isn’t mushy. However, the problem is solved with a simple “settling” step.

What about other peas?

Well, we’ll see! Check back as I have upcoming posts in development using green peas, pigeon peas, and chickpeas. Feel free to leave further suggestions in the comments.

You might also be wondering, what about WHOLE yellow peas? My guess is that they will work just fine. Split peas are simply whole yellow peas split into half. That makes for faster split pea soup cooking times but in this recipe, we are milking the peas before cooking. 

What you’ll need to make Yellow Split Pea Tofu

The ingredients for making tofu from split peas include:

• 1 pound of yellow split peas, and
• food-grade calcium sulfate (gypsum) and water as your coagulant. Other coagulants may also work but I have not tested them. Gypsum is my favorite because it’s cheap, reliable, and does not add any flavor to the tofu.

For equipment, it will be helpful to have:

• a blender (I tested using only my Vitamix but other lower-powered blenders should work fine too),
• a good quality nut-milk bag,
• a large cooking pot,
• a flat-edged spatula for stirring the peanut milk,
• a tofu making mold (I prefer this one),
• fine cheesecloth (if your tofu press didn’t come with one),
• and a way to scoop up fine delicate curds (like a mesh strainer, slotted spoon, etc.)

Please note that these links are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you use them to make your purchases, I will receive a small commission but rest assured there is no extra cost to you.

How to Make Yellow Split Pea Tofu

Making tofu with split yellow peas is a lot like making regular soy tofu. However, since there is more starch in peas, there is one extra (but easy) step to remove the starch. I’ll get into the details in the step-by-step below.

1. Soak the peas

In the video, I hot-soaked the peas using boiling water and letting it sit at room temperature for 4 hours. However, it may be simpler for you to soak your peas overnight in the fridge. Then you have more flexibility as to when you get started on the next steps. Whichever method you choose, make sure to use plenty of water as the peas will soak up at least double their weight in water.

Please note that in the video, I am pouring just boiled water in to a mason jar and shaking it gently so that the peas don’t get stuck at the bottom as they swell up. This isn’t the safest practice because the pressure from the hot water can cause the jar to explode. Please play it safe! You can just stir with a spoon to do this instead.

After the peas have doubled in size, drain the soaking water. Then rinse the peas to get rid of loosened starch and drain once more.

2. Make Raw Pea Milk

Depending on the size of your blender, you may need to do this step in two batches. Combine the peas with double their volume of water (no need to be exact) and blend for 30 seconds on high in your Vitamix or other high speed blender.  If you are using a conventional blender, you may need to blend for 2 minutes or longer until the puree appears smooth. 

Pour the puree into a fine nut milk bag over a large bowl and strain until the pulp is as dry as you can get it. 

The fibrous pulp should be quite fine and white with no obvious chunks of yellow peas in it. We want the pulp so fine that we get all the protein out of it but not so fine that it becomes impossible to strain.

If your pulp is still a bit chunky, run it through the blender again with just enough water to get it going.

Let the milk rest in the bowl for 20 – 40 minutes. This lets the starch sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Afterwards, you can gently scoop the milk into your cooking pot. Be gentle and try not to disturb the starch layer at the bottom. When you get near the end of the milk, you may see loose starch in it. Just leave these tailings behind. Better to lose a bit of milk than to get starch into your pot.

3. Cook the milk & Prepare Coagulant

Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of food-grade gypsum (calcium sulfate) with 1/2 cup of room temperature water and set it aside.

Then, over medium-high heat, cook the raw split pea milk until it comes to a simmer. Like soy milk, a film can form easily around the sides and bottom of the pot so stir regularly. Also like soy milk, pea milk can easily foam up and spill over the top of your pot. So keep an eye on the heat and adjust as needed. 

Continue to let it simmer about 10 minutes until the grassy scent of the raw milk turns into nutty and fragrant. That’s how you’ll know it’s cooked through.

4. Add Coagulant

Check that the milk temperature is about 180°F and turn off the heat.  Stir up the coagulant so that the gypsum is once again suspended in the water, then pour it slowly into the pot while stirring in one direction. Then, stand the spatula upright so the spinning motion stops. Cover the pot and let it sit on the warm stove top for 15 minutes.

5. Press curds

After 15 minutes, the milk should have split into fluffy, wispy pale yellow curds and clear whey. If this is the case, you can move on to pressing these curds.

First set up a mesh sieve lined with fine cheesecloth over a bowl. Then ladle the curds and whey into the sieve, letting the whey drain through into the bowl. 

The whey can be reserved to use in place of vegetable broth for soups and sauces.

When enough whey has drained, it will be easier to transfer the curds into your tofu press. Gently arrange the curds they they sit evenly in the mold. Fold the cloth neatly over the tofu and add your pressing lid.

If using my preferred tofu mold, just twist the knob until it stops; do not force it. Pour off excess water using the vents. Please in fridge to cool overnight. If using weights, use about 5 lbs of weight, pour off excess water and place in fridge. The next day, gently unmold and your high protein split pea tofu is ready to use!

Troubleshooting

Making tofu is fairly straight forward but sometimes things can go wrong. Here are the solutions to the most common issues. There are two main issues see people having when their tofu doesn’t turn out correctly. One, the pea milk doesn’t coagulate fully (or at all). The second issue is the tofu falling apart after pressing it. And then one issue I see a couple times a year, the pea milk does coagulate fully but you only got a tiny amount of tofu out of it! How frustrating! But don’t worry, I have your answers! You might not like them though 🤷‍♀️

Pea milk not coagulating fully (or at all)

If your pea milk has partly but not completely coagulated, you may just need to heat up your pea milk again. Avoid heating the milk and curds up too quickly so use medium heat to get the temperature back up to 160°F. Then turn off the heat, cover and it should finish coagulating.

If that doesn’t work, you may need a little bit more coagulant mixture in there. Make another portion, then sprinkle it over the surface of your pea milk, especially over areas you see milkiness. Then double check the temperature, adding heat if needed, cover and let it sit another 15 minutes.

If that doesn’t work, the problem may be your pea milk is not properly made. Go back to the pea pulp and examine it. It maybe that you didn’t blend it enough. If you think that’s the case, let the pea milk cool, return it to the blender with the pulp and repeat from the blending step. You can add a bit more water if that helps.

Homemade Tofu is falling apart!

This is mainly because of how you wrap and press the curds. You may notice in the video I’m pretty particular about how I wrap it. The cheesecloth has tension that keeps the shape and I try to keep the weight even. This will make the consistency of the tofu …well, consistent. And therefore, the tofu becomes a solid block. If you don’t wrap it well, some parts of your soy curds will get higher pressure than others and it will fall apart.

The other reason may be that you skipped or rushed the final step of cooling the tofu. The temperature change makes the curds shrink which helps the tofu become denser and the curds interlock with each other, helping it stay together. Make sure the tofu is nice and chilly all the way through before attempting to handle and slice it.

My pea milk coagulated but I only got a tiny bit of tofu! What gives?

You probably rushed either the blending step or the milking step. 

You’ll know you haven’t blended your beans enough if your pea pulp is chunky. It should be really fine, pretty dry after milking, but sticks together like play-doh. I divide the batch into two parts when blending as my containers are not that big. And this takes about 30 seconds using my Vitamix on the highest setting or 2 minutes using my regular-powered Oster Blender on the Liquefy setting.

Similar to that, if your pea pulp is the right consistency but quite wet, you’ve got to squeeze it some more! Get all that protein and fat extracted out of those peas; put some elbow grease into it and strengthen your forearms at the same time!

Printable Recipe for Yellow Split Pea Tofu