Just like white fish, chicken breast, and pork loin, tofu’s flavors are subtler, so it’s up to you to make the magic happen. Nutritional yeast is perfect for this job because it has as much of a mouthfeel or essence as a flavor. It’s made from Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, which is grown in sweet liquids (yeast are living cells that like to eat sugar), then harvested, heated, and dried into flakes. If you like bready, yeasty varieties of beer, like ​​hefeweizens, which are made with the same variety of yeast, then you’ll definitely like nutritional yeast in your food.

The easiest way to punch up the flavor of your tofu is to make a marinade using nutritional yeast. Tofu may not be meat, but you can still use some of the same tricks you’d use with meat to make it taste good, and tofu will soak up marinade just like any other tasty protein. All you have to do is add a couple of teaspoons of nutritional yeast to any marinade to get the effect. You can either make your own marinade from scratch using cooking oil, vinegar, and spices, or try marinating your tofu in premade vinaigrette salad dressing with a little nutritional yeast mixed in. Leave your tofu in the marinade for at least 30 minutes before you cook it, and you should be rewarded with yummy, savory tofu.