Producer Spotlight — Organic Clean Bean Tofu
Get Loose started stocking Clean Bean Tofu in January 2021, it has been a huge hit with customers. To become our supplier Clean Bean very kindly tested and implemented home compostable packaging just for us!
We spoke to the creator of Clean Bean, Neil McLennan about his story and the product.
How did you become a tofu maker?
I got into eating tofu when I lived in China for a few years, and started making it for myself back here because I couldn't find the kind of fresh tofu I liked. 24 years ago I started selling it at market stalls (Spitalfields and then Borough) and gradually picked up enough wholesale orders from shops and restaurants to do it full-time. It still feels like a hobby, and a very satisfying way to make a living!
Can you tell us about your ingredients?
I now use organic soya beans from Europe. I used to use Chinese because they were the best available. Although I had wanted to use European soya, it's a fairly new crop to Europe and the first few years weren't great beans. Over the last 10 years the quality has been improving, the last harvest was very good quality and the beans are now making good tofu.
There are no special ingredients. Just time. The tofu is made slowly — if you try to rush the curdling/pressing process you produce tofu with a rubbery/granular texture and no taste. My aim is to show people how good tofu can taste when it's fresh and carefully made.
How is it made?
The process is in two stages — making soya milk and then making tofu from the milk. To make the milk, soya beans are ground with water, boiled and the husks are filtered off. The second stage is where the craft comes in. The milk is curdled with nigari (magnesium chloride) by pouring the nigari whilst stirring the milk. This has to be done slowly and carefully — it can easily go wrong! If all goes well soft curds are formed after 20 minutes, these get pressed in cloth-lined perforated boxes for another 20 minutes, the resulting blocks then get cooled down ready for packing.
Packaging
In order to start stocking this delicious tofu we asked Neil to experiment with home compostable vacuum bags. His current bags were standard plastic which did not fit the values of the shop. Neil obviously wanted to check the quality, and shelf life, of his special product would not be compromised. We had a nail biting two weeks to find out his verdict!
The compostable packaging is 10g lighter than the plastic version. So even if it does not get home composted it is still saving waste.
2022 Update - In the first year of sales we sold 1462 blocks of tofu so saved 14.6kg of waste. Of course we don't know how many were home composted. But the waste saving is most likely much higher.
Where is it made?
By Neil in a small workshop in Brick Lane. He currently has no other staff
Neil’s favourite tofu recipe and some other ideas
Adedashi Tofu — a small piece of tofu dusted with potato starch and deep fried. Neil’s favourite and many of his Japanese customers. Maybe a future Get Loose recipe for the website!
Nutritional information per 100g
2g carbs
120 cals
13g protein
7g fat
1g fibre
Clean Bean Tofu is certified by the Soil Association.
At Get Loose it costs £3 for a 325g block and is delivered to the shop every Wednesday.