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It took us a few months after starting our whole food, plant-based diet to start experimenting with tofu. It was a mystery to me and honestly, I was kind of freaked out to try it! Then we got this frozen Trader Joe’s Riced Cauliflower Bowl that had little cubes of tofu in it. It tasted amazing, and after eating that, I was ready to test out some tofu recipes!
As you may have figured out by now, Brian is always coming up with different spice mixes. We found some fennel in our pantry and Brian decided to toast it and grind it up. We had started making veggie pizzas on Saturday nights, but we wanted to add something to replace the meat. Brian created an Italian spice blend and we started using these amazing little tofu cubes on our pizzas!
They will taste good right out of the oven, but as you let them cool down… the magic kicks in! As they cool, they firm up and become slightly “crispy” and chewy… just trust us. Once they have cooled for 15 minutes or so, give it a taste and try not to eat all of them at once! We like to let them cool down and then store in a glass Pyrex container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
NOTE: As we are working on this recipe post and the video, Brian and I had a 20+ minute conversation analyzing whether these are actually “crispy,” to the point where we don’t even know anymore 😂. If you let them bake a bit longer, throw them under the broiler for a couple of minutes or even try air frying, they will likely get a bit more “crispy.” Let us know if you experiment with it! We always love trying out new variations of our recipes 🙂.
We eat these cold on top of our salads for a nice added texture and flavor. We also put them on top of our veggie pizzas and add them to our veggie rice bowls for some extra protein!
Check out the recipe below and let us know if you try it out!
Crispy Baked Italian Tofu
These little cubes of tofu make a great addition to your salad, pizza or rice bowls!
DRY INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 tsp toasted fennel seeds
- 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
- Dash of cayenne pepper
- Dash of smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
WET INGREDIENTS:
- 1 Tbsp liquid aminos
- 2 Tbsp coconut aminos
- *You can use any combination of these two as long as you have 3 Tbsp of liquid total. You can also substitute a low sodium soy sauce. Low sodium vegetable broth would work as well, but won’t pack as much flavor.
Directions
First, cut your tofu into eight 1/2 inch slices. We use a 15.5 oz package of Trader Joe’s Extra Firm Organic Sprouted Grain Tofu, but you can use any firm or extra firm variety. The Trader Joe’s tofu we use comes in two separate blocks, so we cut each block in half lengthwise and then in half again.Lay each tofu “slice” in a single layer on a few paper or tea towels. We put a cutting board on the bottom, followed by the paper towels, then tofu, more paper towels, another cutting board, and finally our really heavy dutch oven on top. You could also use a tofu press if you have one. It is important to get as much water out of the tofu as possible. We leave ours to press for about 20 minutes.
While the tofu is pressing, toast your fennel seeds. Heat a skillet to medium-high and once hot, add your fennel seeds. Toast for about 10 seconds, shaking continuously. If your pan is heated up, they will toast very quickly, so don’t leave them on very long!
Blitz the dry ingredients (including toasted fennel seed) in a coffee grinder, mortar & pestle, small food processor or high speed blender. If you are using a larger food processor or blender, it may work better if you double, triple or quadruple the recipe. If you do that, just divide it up and store any extra for next time. We bought a small coffee grinder to use specifically for grinding spices. If you don’t have a good way to grind your spices, you can just use the whole fennel seeds, but grinding everything together really helps bring out the flavors!
Combine the “blitzed” dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and whisk to make your marinade.
After your tofu is pressed, chop it into approximately 1/2 inch cubes and place in a sealable plastic bag.
Add the marinade to the bag, seal and toss the tofu to coat. It helps to blow a bit of extra air into the bag before sealing for this step.
After it is well coated, push the tofu into a single layer and remove as much air from the bag as possible. Reseal and let marinade in the refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours.
Spread the tofu out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Since we aren’t using oil on the baking sheet, the silicone or parchment will prevent it from sticking. Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes, stirring at least once halfway through. If you stir it more often or bake a little longer, it will get a bit more “crispy.”
Let the tofu cool for 15 minutes or so before eating it. Store in a glass container in your refrigerator for 3-4 days.
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*We have the Silpat baking mats, but the Amazon Basics brand above is basically the same thing for a lot cheaper. Just make sure you find the correct size mats for the baking sheets you have.
Great listening to you guys and think now helps me make better choices…thanks for your utube and blog…Michelle from Australia ox
Thank you Michelle! We are hoping to visit Australia some day 🙂
Just found your YouTube channel and love your recipes. For whatever reason, I cannot save your recipes to Pinterest directly, yet if I go to your Pinterest page, I can save the things you’ve pinned (like the Super Smoky Hummus.) Would you be able to start ‘pinning’ your recipes to Pinterest for those of us who are apparently pin-challenged? Thanks!
Hi Barbara! Yes I can definitely do that! I will admit, I have no idea how to use Pinterest LOL! I need to start getting into it. I just created pins of all of our current recipes, so hopefully that helps! I will start doing this for future ones as well. Thanks for the feedback!
OMG, guys!!! I made this yesterday and it was SO DELISH! Surprisingly, it made it to today (but just barely). My hubs is not yet plant based (and, sadly 60lbs overweight). Hoping to get him onboard soon, with more of your recipes! On another note, we have not yet invested in a Vitamix, but was wondering if you knew whether or not the “nice cream” might work in a food processor (if maybe the bananas were not frozen solid)? Thanks!!
Hello! We are so glad to hear you enjoyed these 🙂 It is one of our favorites to make! Before we got the Vitamix, our food processor was definitely good for nice cream! You MIGHT end up needing to add a bit more almond milk, which I try to avoid because then it doesn’t stay as creamy when you freeze it. But I think letting the bananas sit out for 5-10 minutes to soften would be a good idea! For us, the food processor definitely worked way better than our old “standard” blender.
This tofu looks so amazing! I normally make a marinade using coconut aminos and nutritional yeast and some onion powder, but I like this Italian twist, and also the tiny size of the cubes. I will definitely be picking up some tofu to try it soon!
Let us know how it turns out if you try it! It is super tasty, especially after it cools down a bit!
Made your black bean soup. It was awesome. Now waiting for Brian to come up with a good split pea soup and do some magic with the spices on that. Thank you for everything you do
Hi Jessica. Like you, I’ve been a little hesitant to cook tofu but not anymore!!! I made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. Thanks so much.
Awesome! Great to hear 🙂 I have really started to enjoy experimenting with tofu!
Your Italian Tofu is FABULOUS!! Thank you for sharing your recipes. I love watching the 2 of you, as you always make me smile. By the way Jessica, your new haircut is darling.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the tofu 🙂 Brian worked really hard on the spice blend 😀
Just made your Italian tofu and it is DELISH! I’m trying not to just eat it all right away! Planning to use it on homemade pizza….thanks for the recipe! Knocks rock 😊
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Love this recipe. I’ve tried a lot of baked tofu recipes but this is my favorite. Nice chewy bits to add to salad.
Awesome! Brian will be so happy to hear this 🙂 He worked really hard on perfecting this one 😀
I can’t thank you enough for this recipe! The one thing I miss is sausage. I gave some to my daughter and she said “Tastes like sausage!” Yeah!
Awesome! 🙂
I’m just wondering, when you put this on your pizza, do you bake it first, as in the video? Just wondering because I don’t want to bake it, then bake it on the pizza again and burn it.
We usually bake it first and then store in the fridge and throw it on the pizza before baking the pizza for about 10 minutes. You could wait until like the last 5 minutes of pizza baking too – you just want to heat it up really, but we haven’t had any issues with it burning.
This is just… so. damn. yummy. Great job, and thanks for sharing! Same with your mashed potatoes using veggie broth. Who knew?! 🙂
Thank you! These are dangerously tasty 😀
We just LOVE you guys! You are so inspiring, informative, and real. We love the way you two interact. Then there’s the PEEF factor! My hubby has become very I’ll from diabetes complications this last year. He was very near having to go on dialysis in June. We switched to WFPB at that time and his weight has dropped 60 lbs in 2 months. He was put on a diuretic, but a lot of that is pure fat loss. We are enjoying all of the ideas and recipes. Keep ’em coming! Also, we are so proud of your weight loss accomplishments! Be thankful that you two took your health seriously before a diagnosis such as my hubby had.
Hello! Thank you for the kind words! Great job to your husband on the weight loss – that is awesome. I am so glad we were able to get our diets under control now instead of waiting until we had any really serious health issues come up. Thanks for watching and keep us updated!
Hello!
Just curious how many servings this would yield for you?
The entire package of tofu says it is 5 servings, but we don’t really measure out. We just toss a few spoonfuls into a salad or on top of a pizza, etc.
my first time ever trying to make tofu. I did them in the air fryer… so delicious… Great recipe, and instructions.
Great! Glad to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
Are you guys going to do a video on your veggie pizzas? That would be awesome!
Hahaha… over two years later and I think we are going to film a pizza video soon! 🙂
I would love to see this awesome tofu on a veggie pizza. Please add that to future video “To Do” list. Thanks and I really enjoy your videos.
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for the recipe. I am trying to incorporate tofu into my food prep and am a little intimidated. I can’t wait to try this recipe this weekend. Love your videos. You and your husband are so inspiring, and helpful. Thanks for all the info and support.
My 4 and 6-year-olds were in love with this tonight when I served it for dinner! We actually ran out, they wanted more! I was lucky to even get any!
Brian you are a spice wizard. Every recipe I have tried is spiced just right and this tofu of no different. I’ve made it twice in 2 days and it gets devoured!!
I will be making this often!
Finally got around to making this. It’s wonderful to have a different set of seasonings for baked tofu! We will be making this again.