This super tasty Ginger-Garlic Vegetable Baked Tofu is one of the most hearty and satisfying vegan, gluten-free dishes ever! It’s an easy and healthy dinner for a weeknight, and impressive enough for a weekend get together.
If you’ve been reading Cooking On The Weekends for a while, you know I love to cook and eat just about everything — from light salads and chocolaty cakes, to fresh seafood and cheesy casseroles — and everything in between!
I generally consider myself a mindful eater, and I try to feed my family super healthy meals as much as possible.
Of course, while doing so, I also serve a little dessert. Okay fine, sometimes a lot. 😉
This Vegetable baked Tofu is packed with scrumptious flavors and is a reminder that mindful eating can be just as hearty and tasty as eating any other way.
I could probably eat all six portions of this tofu, and then lick the plate! It’s that good.
The vegetable baked tofu is baked in a way that it easily absorbs all of the pungent flavors of the sauce, and it’s a vehicle to carry the delicious, delicate vegetables with each bite.
One of the reasons I love working with tofu is in fact how it can handle so many flavors! I like the texture, and you can pretty much, give it the flavors you are int he mood for.
With the tofu as the “crust,” you can pick each slice up with your hands and eat it pizza-style!
This is exactly what my family and I did. It makes for a fun, casual dinner.
A vegan tofu pizza if you will. And I do hope you will. 😉
Whether you use a fork or your hands, you will enjoy this vegan treat and want to savor it!
And we haven’t discusses how pretty the carrot ribbons are. So pretty! It’s that sort of detail that I think can take the vegetable baked tofu from casual to elegant. From weeknight to weekend.
Enjoy!
An easy and healthy dinner for a weeknight, and impressive enough for a weekend get together.
- 2 pounds extra firm tofu
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1/4 cup Mirin (sweet rice wine)
- 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 2 tablespoons low sodium Tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon ginger pulp, freshly grated
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili paste
- grapeseed oil for the pan
- 1 1/2 cups (about 6-ounces) Shiitake mushrooms, washed and dried, thinly sliced
- 1 cup carrot peels (see recipe instruction no. 2, under "for the vegetables")
- 1 cup red bell peppers, washed and dried, thinly sliced
- 4 scallions washed and dried, finely chopped
- 1 cup bean sprouts, washed and dried
- freshly ground black pepper
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and adjust a rack to the center.
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Add a double layer of paper towels to a sheet pan or a dry cutting board. Cut the tofu into 1/4 to 1/2-inch rectangular slices, and place them in a single layer on the paper towels as you go. Then place another double layer of paper towels on top of the slices and gently press down. Leave this for about 5 minutes, and then replace both the bottom and top layers of paper towels with new ones that are dry, and again, press gently down on top. Let it sit another 5 minutes, and then repeat one last time. (You can do the next steps — the sauce and vegetable prep, while the tofu is draining.)
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Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together until evenly blended. Set aside.
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Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with grape seed oil and place it over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the mushrooms. Sauté, stirring often, until they’re soft and beginning to turn golden, about 7 minutes. Once they’re ready, turn off the heat and set aside.
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To make the carrot peels, use a vegetable peeler. As usual, when you peel carrots, you will throw out the first layer of peels. Then, instead of grating or cutting the carrots, continue to use the vegetable peeler to peel the carrots until the entire thing is a pile of peels.
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Now add the carrot peels, red peppers, scallions and bean sprouts to the mushrooms and stir to combine all of the ingredients.
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Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and add the drained tofu slices to it in a single layer. Evenly drizzle the slices with about 2/3 of the sauce, and sprinkle with pepper.
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Drizzle the remaining sauce into the vegetables and mix. Then evenly distribute the vegetables over the tofu.
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Place the sheet pan in the preheated 400 degree F oven and bake until the edges of the tofu are golden, about 25 minutes.
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Serve!
I need to experiment with tofu more. I love all of the ingredients you used!
Thanks, Brandi!
I love the ingredient list for the sauce, already sounds bomb! can’t wait to try it 🙂
Thank you! Hope you love it!
We like tofu occasionally too! This looks like just the thing to do with tofu.
Thank you. Hope you love it — the tofu becomes an explosion of flavor with the sauce. 🙂
Oh this looks so gorgeous! Tofu is one of my favourite ingredients, I just love how it soaks up all that amazing flavour, and I’m always looking for new ways to cook with it. Thanks for sharing!
And thank you, for visiting my site! 🙂 Enjoy!
I somehow never got around to learn how to prepare tofu in a tasty way. Of course ginger garlic should make this simpler. Love the idea and I need a new veg weeknight meal idea! thank you for the share
Thanks! This is a great way to make the tofu full of flavor! Hope you give it a try. 🙂
We both love tofu and this will be fun to try! Will (of course) report back when I do!
Thanks, David! Hope you love it! XO
Anytime ginger and garlic are involved, I’m in! I love tofu, but never seem to get it right at home. Can’t wait to try this!
I hope you try it, Emily! 🙂
I never thought of using tofu as a pizza crust. This changes everything! You’ve turned pizza into health food!
Yay! Success! 🙂
I don’t usually like tofu, but this looks like a delicious recipe!
I can almost promise, you’ll like tofu this way. Try it!
What a beautiful recipe and meal! can’t wait to try it!
Thank you, Linda!
What a fabulous, nutritious dish! And the sauce sounds amazing
Thank you, Jasmin. Hope you try it.