Recipe: Crispy peanut butter baked tofu

For dinner the other night I made crispy baked peanut butter tofu to go with a stir fry. So I thought I'd post the recipe! I got the quantities from one I found on the Minimalist Baker website.

For four portions, you'll need:

• 1 block of firm tofu, cut into small cubes
• 2.5 tbsp (40g) peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, your preference)
• 1.5 tbsp oil (sesame oil if you have it, but I just used sunflower oil because that's what I have; olive oil probably wouldn't taste quite right)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce or tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
• 4 tbsp light brown sugar or honey

If you're familiar with cooking with tofu and know that you'd like more than a quarter-block as part of your meal, feel free to scale up. The above could equally serve as two larger portions.

Basically you can make this two ways. I've done both, but it was a couple of months between making each one so I can't remember which I prefer, haha. You can either marinade the uncooked tofu in the peanut butter mixture, then bake it; or you can bake the plain tofu then saute it in the sticky sauce. Try it both ways and see which you prefer!

Preheat oven to 200C, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Option 1 - Bake first:

• Pour the cubes of tofu onto the lined baking tray, and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes, or until it looks firm and crispy.
• Mix together the peanut butter, oil, soy sauce and sugar/honey.
• Pour the baked tofu and the sauce into a wok or other pan over a low-medium heat, and mix together for a few minutes (like, 3-5) until the sauce is warmed through.
• Serve with stir fry stuff! Veg, noodles or rice, etc.

Option 2 - Marinade first:

• Mix together the peanut butter, oil, soy sauce and sugar/honey, in a bowl.
• Add the tofu cubes and mix well till it's all coated. Leave to marinade for as long as you can (anything from 10 minutes to an hour to several hours, entirely up to you).
• Pour onto a lined baking tray and spread out a little so the cubes aren't clumped together.
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until at a level of crispiness you're happy with!
• Serve with stir fry stuff =]

I've just thought of an Option 3, which is a mixture of both: you could marinade the tofu cubes in soy sauce (or a mix of soy sauce and peanut butter) overnight (well, during the day), then bake, then saute them in the peanut butter sauce. I'll have to try doing that...

There isn't a picture, I'm afraid, as I thought of doing this post after I'd made it. Anyway, if you give this a go, hope you enjoy, and maybe let me know how you get on! :)