Sesame Baked Tofu

This sesame-baked tofu is good hot or cold and goes with lots of recipes like noodle bowls, lettuce wraps, and stir-fries. If you’re looking for a tasty plant-based protein recipe, you’ve come to the right place. Give it a try!

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About Sesame Baked Tofu

Baked tofu in lettuce wraps is one of my favorite things to get in Asian restaurants. We’re happily settled in New Mexico, but we haven’t found anywhere locally that serves that dish. So, we started making it ourselves, and of course, we had to make the sesame-baked tofu first. It goes great in lettuce wraps, but it’s also good alongside Asian dumplings and in noodle bowls. It’s easy to make, but it does take some time. For that reason, I make it earlier in the day and then dice it later when I’m ready to add it to other dishes.

Sesame Baked Tofu Ingredients

You’ll need a pound of extra-firm tofu and a few simple items for the marinade:

• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• honey (or agave nectar to make it vegan)
• minced garlic and minced ginger

A bit about Tofu

Tofu – it’s a mainstay for some of us and a scary thought for others. I’ve heard people say that tofu is bland or that it has no flavor. If you think those things, hit the reset button on your brain. Done? Okay, here’s the good news. Tofu is:

• easy to find and easy to prepare
• like a sponge for flavors
• a great source of protein
• plant-based and is therefore naturally vegan

For some nutrition info on tofu, check out this article.

Making Sesame Baked Tofu

1. Prepare the Tofu

• As soon as you cut open the package, put the whole pound of tofu in a colander and give it a good rinse under cool running water.
• Let it drain for a while in the colander before transferring it to a cutting board.
• Cut the tofu into 8 equally thick slices. Admittedly, I didn’t measure, but my slices are about 1/2 inch thick.
• Place a folded, absorbent kitchen towel on your countertop and put some paper towels on top of that.
• Arrange the slices on top of the paper towels.
• Put more paper towels on top of the slices and press to remove excess moisture.

How can you tell when you’ve removed enough moisture from the tofu? This is kind of tricky because there is no right answer. When I made these tofu slices, I patted them on top of the kitchen towel and paper towels with two sets of folded paper towels.

2. Apply the marinade

• After you have removed the excess moisture, put the tofu slices on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
• Put a coating of the marinade on top of the slices.
• Bake them in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes.

3. Marinate and bake the other side

• Remove the tofu from the oven and turn each piece over.
• Apply the marinade on top of the slices.
• Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the tops of the slices and put them back in the oven for another 25 minutes.

And the sesame-baked tofu is now ready to eat! It should look something like this.

When you take them out of the oven, the edges of the sesame-baked tofu might look overdone, but that’s okay. The honey in the marinade cooks faster than the tofu. Inside, the tofu is now firm, and it’s ready to go into other recipes.

Wrap-up

Sesame-baked tofu adds a unique flavor and texture to lots of recipes, and it counts as a major protein. It takes a little bit of time to bake, but the prep is easy, and you can make it ahead and use it the next day. Try this baked tofu with spicy peanut sauce, soba noodles, and zoodles with tofu, tofu lettuce wraps, or a stir-fry meal.

Products used in this recipe

• Oster Digital Countertop Convection Oven