I love tofu to death and beyond.
Which means I’m always cooking tofu and coming up with new tofu recipes. It’s fun and I like eating them!
Sadly, I only have ONE tofu recipe on this site so far, which is the Tofu in Ginger Soy Sauce recipe. I think it’s about time for me change that, eh? 😉 I’ve got a good number of tofu recipes under my belt, so don’t worry, more will be coming! Eventually :p
Honestly speaking, this vegan teriyaki tofu one of my favourite tofu dishes to cook.
I make this all the time.
Like seriously.
Not an exaggeration.
C’mon. You gotta believe me!
Oh well. Maybe you’ll believe me if I give you some reasons :p
Two very good reasons here: because it’s delicious AND it’s super easy.
Now, I prize easy dishes over delicious one when I’m the one doing the cooking and washing of dishes. If I had to pick between an easy but average dish versus a more complicated and delicious dish, I’d go for the easy one. I don’t even need to think. Time and energy are precious resources and I’m not going to use a huge chunk on it for an experience that is over in 15 minutes – so don’t judge!
But guess what?
I don’t have to make that choice with this dish because it’s both easy and delicious! I promise you – it really is easy. If you know me, you’ll believe my lazy ass. AND it really is delicious. You will love it if you love tofu 🙂
The key here is to fry the extra firm tofu with some salt first, and then pour the teriyaki sauce over. The teriyaki sauce is literally two ingredients by the way: brown rice syrup + soy sauce. I didn’t lie to you about it being easy, eh?
You might be wondering why didn’t I marinate it (or not). Marinating extra firm tofu is not very efficient, in my opinion. The firmer your tofu, the less likely your marinade is going to absorb anyway. It’s extra work (although not much!) and I don’t think the trade-off is worth it in this case. If you have a very strong marinade, maybe it’s worth it. But for this? Nah.
One the tofu is nice and crisp on both sides, turn off the heat (if you don’t, your sauce has a high chance of burning – don’t come complaining to me if it does!) and then pour in the teriyaki sauce. It will sizzle and bubble and reduce into a sticky glaze. Mmm.
If it doesn’t, by the way, then maybe you weren’t frying your tofu in high heat, which is fine. Sometimes my pan isn’t that hot, sometimes it is. Sometimes I get more sauce, sometimes I don’t. It’s up to you to decide! Just turn your stove back on to a low heat and reduce the sauce to a consistency you like.
So what to do with this already super awesome vegan teriyaki tofu dish?
You can just gobble it up as it is (which is what I do plenty of times, hehe, too lazy to cook anything else) OR…
Make a rice bowl with it!
I’ll be posting the vegan teriyaki rice bowl recipe next week so stay tuned 😉
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Vegan + Gluten-Free + Low Carb
Easiest Vegan Teriyaki Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 block extra firm tofu extra firm
- 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon brown rice syrup
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Slice the block of tofu length-wise into approximately 1/4" thick pieces.
- Heat the vegetable oil on medium to high heat in a frying pan. While the oil is heating up, sprinkle some salt on the tofu and rub it (gently) on each surface before placing it into the frying pan. The salt helps the tofu to brown.
- Pan fry the tofu at medium to high heat until it browns on both sides. Meanwhile, combine soy sauce and rice syrup to make the teriyaki sauce.
- When the tofu is done, turn down to low heat (or even turn off the heat if your pan is very hot) and pour in the sauce.
- Flip and move your tofu around to make sure that the sauce coats all the tofu.
- Let the liquid reduce and as it reduces, the liquid will turn into a sticky sauce that adheres to the tofu. That's when you know it's done!
8 comments
Do you press the tofu at all? Looks delicious.
Thank you! I personally don’t, but if you prefer you most definitely can. Just make sure to have some salt on each side of the tofu – it really helps create that outer layer. And the pan has to be hot enough so any water from the tofu will cook off.
Does this dish really only need 1 teaspoon of the brown rice syrup and the soy sauce? I’ve never cooked tofu before and want to try this out, and it just sounds so little! Anyway, very excited to give this a go as it looks delicious. 😀
Yes, and salt! It’s important to have some salt coat the tofu (either you rub it in beforehand gently, or you sprinkle a little over it when it’s in the pan – I prefer the latter because it’s easier lol) so that it creates a “crust” of some sort 🙂 just a little bit will do! like a pinch and sprinkle it over.
For the teriyaki sauce, yes really – just the brown rice syrup (or any liquid sweetener you have) and soy sauce and that’s it! If you want more sauce you can always scale up (2 teaspoon syrup, 2 teaspoon soy sauce for example) but I find 1 each to be sufficient for me. If you’re worried there is no harm in making more sauce 🙂
OMGosh! I simply love how simple you have made preparing tofu! I’m glad to hear you didn’t press the tofu before cooking it. I’m about to try this now since I have so the ingredients. Just skipping the press! 😉
Are you able to store some of the final tofu for later?
What’s the best substitute for rice syrup? Could I use agave or maple syrup?
This was such a hit with my family! Now I know what to do with tofu!