Crispy Baked Tofu Nuggets (Plus the Best Frozen Tofu Trick!)
Servings: 4
Calories: 262kcal
Tofu is a core ingredient of the vegan diet, and learning how to cook it well can take a dish from bland and average to extra delicious and over the top! In this post I teach how to oven-bake the best, most crispy tofu nuggets. The key? Freezing the tofu overnight and thawing it before marinating. Let me explain.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 ounces tofu extra firm
- ¼ cup coffee
- ¼ cup coconut aminos
- 2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 Tablespoon tahini
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ cup cornstarch
Instructions
- Freeze the tofu overnight. Take it out and thaw in the fridge for a day or on the counter for a few hours. Drain the thawed tofu. Gently press with your hands to remove as much liquid as you can. (You should NOT put this into a tofu press.) Pat dry with a paper towel.
- Preheat the oven to 400° and prepare a large sheet pan by covering it with parchment paper, silicone mat, or foil.
- While the tofu is thawing and the oven heating you can mix together the other ingredients. Mix together the coffee, coconut aminos, soy sauce, oil, tahini, garlic and onion powders, and smoked paprika. Mix well, mashing the tahini into the other ingredients so that it is fully incorporated.
- Cut the thawed and drained tofu into small pieces. Please see the blog post for examples. Place the cut tofu pieces into a large zip back or lay in into a shallow pan. Use a pan that is sized just right so that there is no more room after you place the tofu. I like to use a large glass pie plate.
- Soak the tofu in the liquid. Pour the liquid on top, covering each piece. If you are soaking the tofu in the bag then pour the liquid into the bag, covering the tofu and sealing the bag.
- Let the tofu sit in the liquid for ten minutes. If soaking in a bag then occasionally flip to make sure all sides of the tofu have soaked well. If soaking in a pan/pie plate then flip the pieces after 5 minutes for even coverage.
- Place half of the cornstarch into a shallow bowl. Dredge each piece of tofu in the cornstarch and place each finished piece on the prepared pan. When you've covered half of the tofu then pour in the rest of the cornstarch. Continue dredging and placing on the pan.
- Bake for about 25 mintutes. It will be dark around the edges and crispy when done.
Notes
You do not need to press this tofu in a tofu press after freezing. Just gently squeeze out excess moisture.
You can sub in arrowroot powder for the cornstarch - in fact, I usually do!
Nutrition
Calories: 262kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Sodium: 614mg | Potassium: 49mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 64IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 151mg | Iron: 2mg