What is silken tofu compared to regular tofu and how do you use it?
Non-textured, or 'Silken' tofu (which comes in extra soft, soft, firm and extra firm varieties, just to be confusing), is typically used in sauces that would otherwise call for cream (I have used it in vegan mornay- and bechamel- style sauces), or in making cheeses (i.e. ricotta), and things requiring softer cheese (i.e. cheesecake) as a component. It is also used in dips and smoothies. 

I use it in cooking for my vegan half and half (1 part soy milk to 1 part silken) as vegan half and half is more pricey. My girlfriend frequently uses it in vegan egg-salad (the secret is in using turmeric for color and black salt for the sulfurous egg-y taste), I have used it as a dressing for cucumber salad in place of mayonnaise.

It is a versatile component in both vegan desserts, and sauces, but textured tofu is typically the fore-runnner in terms of entrees due to it's flexibility (and compatibility with meat in most preparations) in frying and baking.


  Typical recipes involve prepping it as a raw ingredient or a component of another element (i.e. sauces), and not a finished product like textured or sprouted or fermented tofus.


In assessing whether, or how, you would want to use it, I would recommend that you taste it raw. It has a nutty flavor that many people find either bland or too-much-like-tofu. Although I cannot account for the reaction your will palate will shoot to your brain, I can say it is easily flavored and the soy bean flavor overwhelmed. In making some desserts, for better or worse, it will feature more prominently if there are no other flavors to crowd it out.