Tofu used to cause me troubles — the tubs of water, the squeezing, the sticking to the pan, the lack of flavor. Then I discovered baked tofu and all of my problems were solved.
You can store baked tofu for up to a week without water in the refrigerator, it fries beautifully, and it is flavorful enough to add to dishes without additional preparation. Plus it’s extremely easy to make.
My method is based on Mark Bittman’s from “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian”.
Ingredients:
- As much firm or extra-firm tofu as you’ll eat in a week
- A few tablespoons soy sauce
Stack tofu on a plate and slice it into sticks roughly 3/4 inches thick. Don’t bother squeezing the water out of the tofu. Pour some soy sauce onto the same plate.
Dip each piece in turn and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the tofu in a 350 degree oven for roughly one hour. ( I don’t even bother preheating the oven, one needn’t be exact here.)
And that’s it! Store the tofu in the refrigerator for up to one week. I recommend storing it in a tightly sealed glass container, as it can take on odd flavors if stored in plastic or exposed to the refrigerator air.
By changing the cooking times and temperature you can achieve different textures: tofu cooked for twice as long in a 250 degree oven will be dense and chewy, cooking it at 400 degrees for around half an hour will give you a crunchier outside and a moist inside.
Baked tofu can easily be made on the weekend and then incorporated into meals throughout the week with no extra preparation. Believe it or not, my two-year-old daughter even likes to eat it straight from the fridge as a snack.