Baked Tofu

One dish i love is baked tofu. It makes the house smell great, and is super easy to make. here's a way to make it.

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I generally make a very simple marinade, but you can tweak it however you like. There are also a lot of simple good ones you can buy ready made, but it feels better to work from scratch.

- Block of Tofu (extra firm)
- Ginger
- Soy Sauce (tamari or shoyu both work)
- Garlic
- Sweet Onion (optional)


1. Take the tofu out, and drain it. Put it on a plate with paper towels on top and underneath, and balance another plate on top. This is not really necessary, but it's also very easy. Draining is more important when you stir fry tofu.

2. Make the marinade. I use a pyrex baking dish so I can eventually lay all the tofu pieces flat in shallow liquid. I just cut up 3 big cloves, grate a generous portion of frozen ginger, and some onion if you have tasty sweet kind, and add a bunch of soy sauce. I actually rarely use the onion, but it can't hurt. Mix it up a bit.

3. Cut the tofu in little rectangles - or however you like. I lay it flat, long side towards me, and cut down along the length of it, making little cross sections. I usually get eight rectangles out of it.

4. Put the tofu in the marinade. Doesn't have to be drowning in it. Half way up the pieces, I usually do, so less than half an inch deep. You can tilt the dish around to coat.

5. Cover and keep in the fridge, the longer the better. Overnight is best, but I tend to do it for 20 minutes when i get home from work. Flip at some point if you can.

6. Spray a baking sheet with Pam, and take the tofu out of the marinade and lay flat on the sheet.

7. Cook for about 25-30 mins at around 350. This step is actually the largest variable. I haven't found an ideal time, and I often end up with burnt, hard to get off marinade dribbling away from the tofu. But the tofu usually tastes great. I'm working on ways to improve this. If you want, you can flip it over halfway to crisp both sides.


I highly recommend pairing baked tofu with asaparagus or artichokes or broccoli, plus rice - white (with some shoyu) or brown.

Also, if you don't eat all the pieces, save them in the fridge. Two of them make a fantastic sandwich - even better than hot - with lettuce and maybe mustard.

(Picture from here, which has another run through of making baked tofu)