Tofu Katsu

Tofu katsu is a slab of firm tofu breaded in panko and deep-fried, the vegetarian answer to tonkatsu. It is a modern dish rather than an old one: the katsu cutlet reached Japan in the late 19th century as a European import, and swapping the pork for tofu is a recent and now very common variation.

What it really is

Firm tofu is pressed to drive out water, cut into a cutlet a centimetre or two thick, dredged in flour, dipped in beaten egg and pressed into panko. The panko is the point — its coarse, flaky crumb fries into a shell that stays crisp far longer than fine breadcrumbs do. It goes into hot oil only long enough to colour the crust — the tofu inside is already edible, so the frying is about the coating.

Seasoning does the work the meat used to do. Tofu has almost no flavour of its own, so it is salted, marinated in soy, or breaded in seasoned crumb.

How it is served

• Sliced into fingers, so the crisp edge and the pale interior are both visible.
• With rice and finely shredded raw cabbage alongside.
• Under tonkatsu sauce, or over rice with Japanese curry sauce as a katsu curry.

How to write it on the menu

• Call it tofu katsu, not vegan katsu — plenty of kitchens still use egg in the breading.
• Panko is wheat and tofu is soy; both belong on the allergen line.
• Say whether your version is vegan: replacing the egg dredge with a flour-and-water slurry is the usual change.