Koyadofu Katsu(Japanese tonkatsu style dish)

Koyadofu katsu is Japanese tonkatsu-style cutlet(fried pork) with no meat. It's healthy vegetarian dish which will make you so satisfy.

Koyadofu is traditional Japanese ingredient made by drying tofu. It's healthy, and great plant based protein.

When it comes to koyadofu, simmered dish is the classic recipe but I adapted Japanese pork cutlet style to it and make it more modern recipe.

Recommend this recipe for
• Someone who love healthy Japanese recipe
• Someone who wants to learn how to cook koyadofu
• Someone who look for Japanese vegetarian recipe

By the way, we use "katsu" for fried dish so koyadofu katsu means "fried koyadofu".

Ok, let me walk you through the ingredients and how to make it with step by step instructions. Let's get started!

Jump to:

• About this recipe
• What is koyadofu
• 📋 Ingredients
• 🔪Step by step instructions
• Put the ingredients between
• Some dishes to serve with
• Thanks for Stopping By
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

About this recipe

• Main dish with Japanese koyadofu
• Simple, easy and healthy
• Vegetarian recipe(vegan adaptable)

What is koyadofu

It's traditional Japanese dry food, made by freezing and drying tofu.

It's hard like a bar soap but once you soak in water, it will be like a sponge.

It's flavorless and chewy, and important to give general seasoning when you cook. Otherwise it will be tasteless.

The great things about Koyadofu

Koyadofu is well known as nutritious ingredient. Protein and calcium are 7 times as much as tofu. It is also rich in iron, zinc, dietary fiber and soy isoflavone.

They say koyadofu is good for your health because it contains resistant protein...

Resistant protein suppresses to create neutral fat in the liver and also suppresses the rise of neutral fat in blood by not absorbing fat from the intestinal tract. Additionally combined with bile acid made from cholesterol and discharged to the outside, it has the effect of reducing cholesterol in the blood...

lettuce club

Sorry, sounds complicated, but it's healthy anyway.

Koyadofu is available all year round and can be stored for a long time. It's easy to use and healthy, so it's good to have it for everyday meal.

📋 Ingredients

Here are the ingredients(amounts is in recipe card below).

• Koyadofu
• Egg
• Flour : All type of flour is ok include gluten free flour.
• Panko(Japanese bread crumb) : I use dry panko with smaller flakes

Panko

There are 2 types of panko available:

• Dried panko
• Nama panko(not dried)

The difference is amount of water contained. Nama panko includes more water than dried one so it's soft.

Flakes of nama panko are often larger and the texture after frying is more fluffy and lighter than dried one.

On the other hand, the texture of dried panko is more crunchy.

Dried panko last longer and is versatile for any dishes in my opinion so I most likely have dried one in my pantry. However If you want a dish to be with lighter texture, then nama panko is suitable.

Size of koyadofu

I would like to talk a bit about the size of Koyadofu as you see there are various sizes.

• Full size
• Half size
• ⅙ size
• 1/20 size
• 1/60 size(thin slice)
• 1/150 size

I usually have these sizes(the photo above) in my pantry. These size are precut of full size so if you have a full size koyadofu, you can just cut it by yourself, but I like to have some variety.

The thin slices doesn't require to soak in water beforehand, so I often put them in soups. And other sizes are used for simmered dish, fry, and stir fry depending the size I want.

In this recipe we are gonna use full size which is the most common and largest size. It's perfect size for a tonkatsu-style recipe as the size is similar.

I also recommend ½ size or ⅙ size, because it's easy size for kids to eat, and also easier to fry.

🔪Step by step instructions

How to make is very simple! Just rehydrate koyadofu with water, breaded and fry. Let me show you the steps.

1. Soak in water: Soak koyadofu in water for more than 10 minutes and squeeze the water out
2. Prepare ingredients: Prepare 3 containers, put beaten egg, flour and panko in the containers
3. Breaded with panko: Coat koyadofu with flour, dip in the beaten egg, and coat with panko
4. Fry: In a frying pan, heat oil over medium heat, and fry koyadofu for 2 minutes or until golden brown
5. Turn it over: Fry the other side for 2 minutes or until golden brown
6. Fry the side also: Let it stand and fry the sides as well

Freshly fried one is so juicy and tender. When it gets cold, it will get dry so it's best to eat while it's hot.

Koyadofu is not seasoned, so it doesn't have much taste. I recommend to pour your favorite sauce over or try my homemade sauce in the following.

Serve with homemade sauce

We usually use a sauce called "tonkatsu sauce" for tonkatsu and it goes well with this koyadofu katsu as well. but if you have an extra time, why don't you try homemade sauce?

A blend of miso and honey based on ketchup. It's a rich sauce with sweetness and sourness. Please check the recipe in the recipe card below.

Vegan version

If you are a vegan, or try to avoid consume eggs, this recipe is vegan adaptable.

Make a batter by mixing flour and water at a ratio of 1: 1. It will a little thick batter. Then dip koydadofu in, bread with panko then fry it.

How to eat leftover

If you eat it the next day, it gets dry and not so good.

In that case, cut koyadofu katsu into bite-size pieces and toss with the homemade sauce(if you made) or your favorite sauce. The sauce makes it juicy and tender.

Put the ingredients between

It would be fun to tweak koyadofu katsu by putting some ingredients between. You can either cut the thickness in half and put the ingredients, or make a notch and stuff the ingredients there. Here are some ideas!

• Cheese and nori sheet(photo above)　>> My favorite cheese katsu! Kids love this.
• Potato salad　>> Rich potato salad seasoned with mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper would be good.
• Egg salad　>> Same as above, rich egg salad would be perfect for the stuffing.
• Hummus　>> Thick creamy hummus goes really well with plain taste koyadofu.

Some dishes to serve with

Why don't you serve it with plenty of vegetables, and have a healthy lunch (or dinner)? This is what I served the other day.

• Japanese steamed rice(or brown rice)
• Miso soup with shiitake mushroom and carrot(Niboshi dashi)
• Pickled cucumber
• Boiled okra
• Tomato and celery

Thanks for Stopping By

It's tasty, easy and healthy Japanese vegetarian dish that we often have it for dinner.

I hope you will enjoy the recipe too!

Thank you for taking time to read my blog♡ If you’ve tried this recipe(or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!

Also feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!

Chef JA Cooks is a Japanese food blog which share simple and healthy Japanese home cooking recipes include vegan and vegetarian. From traditional Japanese recipes to modern recipes with step by step instructions.

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📖 Recipe

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