Tofu is made with soy.

dcarch

Yes, not just with soy--it's made from soy, entirely soy.

my use of tomatoes, meat, soy and numerous other ingredients which I will not bore you with.

Maybe you should bore us with them, so we can help you figure something out.

I believe the soy was banned due to the high salt content. The tofu has little or none of this type of salt. Full speed ahead with the tofu.....

What's the matter with bread croutons??...I can't imagine how very strange tofu hazelnut croutons would be in a salad!

bread croutons are boring... I have used them for years and I am not interested in them.

If you are actually allowed to consume soy (just not the salt), cubed extra firm tofu, fried to a crisp, actually makes good croutons. However, hazelnut liquor is not going to make a good marinade. If you want the flavor of nuts, just use nuts. If you must marinate the tofu, try a low-sodium teryiaki sauce, Sriracha if you like spice, etc. The tofu will be easier to get crisp if it's dry, though, so I would recommend just pressing it to remove as much moisture as possible, then frying it in a flavorful oil. It will soak up the flavor of the oil and the crunch is really appealing.

My experience with frying tofu is that when it begins to get crunchy it resembled overcooked fried egg white - it has that sort of texture - rubbery instead of crunchy. I've been to the Tofu Festival in Little Tokyo (downtown Los Angeles) several times, and I never saw anything resembling tofu croutons, but then they did not exhaust all tofu options.

Toasted hazelnuts are good in salads, especially with Gorgonzola cheese and apple slices.

Another option for croutons would be fried Parmesan or Mozzarella chips. I found Buffalo Mozzarella chips in Brazil (not to be confused with buffalo chips), and they were quite tasty and crunchy.

I am jealous Lars, that you got to go to a tofu festival. Wait til my SO finds out there is such a thing and we missed it! :)

The last Tofu Festival in L.A. was in 2007, but they had another one in SF this year. One of the main attractions is Tofu Panda with Cutie Tofutti.

Maybe freezing the tofu first produce a better texture for croutons? Freezing extra-firm tofu, IMPE, makes it sponge-y. I also recommend pressing it to remove as much moisture as possible. The way I used to do it was to wrap the block in paper towel & place it between to plates w/ a heavy can or other weight on top several hours or overnight

I haven't cooked w/ tofu in years, but my go-to marinade was flavored w/ fresh rosemary black pepper & fresh garlic . I used tamari too, but you say low to no salt, right? I thinking if you mixed seasoning into some good olive oil & marinated tofu cubes in it, then baked it, that might do the trick. You might try thin slices, rather than cubes.

You can also buy seasoned pre-seasoned soy 'nuts' to add crunch to salads.

You could also try coconut aminos. It's pretty low sodium, not strong in flavor, but might work as an ingredient for the marinade.

I just finished a new round of testing of tofu. Same dismal results. I marinated a few pieces in a sweet chili sauce for three days. They say that tofu absorbs well but I don't see any of this... just the outer layer gets a coat of flavor.

I am done with this food ingredient. I will not spend another nickel on it.