vegan

Microwaving tofu can actually work in lieu of or in addition to pressing if you want to press it. Note that pressing tofu is not required; it is an optional step to modify the texture for certain preparations

Basically cut it up, put it on a paper towel, microwave on high for a few seconds. This will cause the proteins in the tofu to constrict and literally squeeze the water out

You can also heat it by pouring hot salted water over it, which basically does the same thing but also seasons the tofu and doesn’t require you to work in batches. The heat is doing the work, not the water, so you just need to blot the excess that is drawn out.

These methods aren’t as effective as a press of course but a press isn’t necessary to begin with

Anyway you can cook it more thoroughly in a microwave as well, 2-3m on high. This will heat it through. You can season as you see fit before or after

Tofu is a hard ingredient to give blanket recommendations at this point. It’s extremely versatile. The flavor of most american tofus are extremely mild, almost nonexistent. If you go to an Asian grocer you can sometimes get tofu with stronger flavor but even well made tofu still has a fairly mild flavor, to be fair.

The texture varies pretty drastically. Well drained extra firm tofu that’s been frozen and thawed can be used pretty handily as a meat substitute, especially if prepared in certain ways. Cutting into bite sized pieces/strips and frying it so the outer layer becomes desiccated and a bit chewy, for example. Cubing it is less “meaty” because you now have a fluffy interior inside the chewy fried exterior but this is good in its own right. How you marinate it obviously factors in heavily and tofu will accept marinades much more readily than meats, which typically only have marinades penetrate about 1/8-1/4” unless you inject them. This tends to be how a lot of new vegans and vegetarians dive into tofu.

You can also heat and crumble slightly softer texture tofus (firm or medium) and create something akin to scrambled eggs. You can puree soft or silken tofus and create puddings. Cube it and add it to simmered/braised dishes like mapo tofu (which can be prepared without pork)

But then there are more traditional preparations as others have mentioned where you take blocks and simply pour a sauce and herbs/peppers over them. These are simple and quite delicious.

In this case I would recommend basically boiling it in a little salt first (put in a much taller bowl with water and nuke until boiling). This will give it a cleaner taste for later steps, especially if you just eat it with a nice sauce, which is a 100% legit option. Usually this would be done with a fresh softer tofu but this boiling trick can make it work very well for firm as well.

If you want yo have it with a sauce straight, then (carefully) pour out the water and replace with cold water. Repeat as necessaey until the tofu is chilled. Havr a nice chili oil or hoisin or a peanut sauce (or whatever you want!). Some chopped scallion will bring it all together.

If you want to prepare it to have more texture as part of another dish, make use of that convection option ans treat it like an air fryer as best you can. Cut into cubes, dry the outside (possibly rolles in a little starch or rice flour / wheat flour) and spritz a little oil, then blast with convection. I have never used a convection microwave but I feel like this should make it crisp up. You can then use it in a ton of different dishes, especially east asian and southeast asian ones.

You can also (cold) brine your tofu after the boiling step and use it as a paneer substitute in south asian food.

you can just eat tofu as it is. I prefer silken tofu for that, but if you just make a sauce of some kind and pour it on the tofu it's pretty delicious. I like to do a soy sauce, chili crisp with garlic and green onions. if you fry the aromatics a little bit in oil and mix it, it will be especially good.

if you want to bake it, I would just cut it into bigger slices, pour a dry rub on the top, and bake it for 20-30 min at 400. for dry rub I would use chili powder, black and white pepper, salt, paprika, cumin, coriander.

you can do the pressing, but keep it as one big cube first, wrap in paper towels, put on a plate with a plate on top, and put a can on top of the top plate for 15 min and then cut it into smaller pieces after. this just gets moisture out so that it will be more absorbent of whatever sauce you are putting, but this step isn't really necessary for eating, just changes the flavor and texture a bit for certain meals.

Damn, wish I could get in on that sale

I've never actually tried cooking tofu in a microwave so I may be way off, but my guess would be that you could have good results with crumble recipes like Tofu Chorizo (I haven't tried this particular recipe, but there are a bunch out there if it seems interesting). Maybe coating it in a bit of oil might improve the final texture

My three go to easy tofu recipes:

Mapo tofu

Matar “paneer”

Tofu scramble (can also become imitation scrambled eggs)

I do them all vegan. You’ll find plenty of recipes for each one and I can also share my own.

We use this kind of recipe (with vegan oyster sauce) and it is good. This on rice is tasty.

Generally, drying tofu first and squeezing moisture out helps you get the crispier surface. Breading the tofu with panko also helps with that, but I think of that as more of a frying method, not microwave

https://youtu.be/yA8v6-5LgiU

Press the water out and fry it in something yummy!