Crispiest Baked Tofu

Don’t feel like buying an air fryer?

You can still get perfectly crunchy, golden, taste-like-they’ve-been-fried nuggets of tofu in your good, old-fashioned oven.

Crispy Baked Tofu

• *1 block extra-firm tofu, fresh or fully thawed after being frozen

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• *1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• *3 cloves garlic, crushed

• *1 tablespoon vegan chicken-less seasoning (entirely optional)

Process

1. *Freeze the tofu fully. Then thaw it in the fridge for 24+ hours.

2. *Open the package of tofu and drain it by pressing it with your hands. Squeeze out as much water as you can.

3. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

4. Cut the block of tofu in half width-wise. Then cut the blocks into 1-inch pieces.

5. *Place the tofu into a large mixing bowl with the oil and crushed garlic. Mix gently with a spatula until each piece is coated.

6. *Add the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Mix gently again until each piece is coated.

7. Place the tofu onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.

8. Spread the tofu across the whole baking sheet with room between each piece.

9. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

10. Remove the sheet from the oven and flip each piece of tofu over with a spatula.

11. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.

12. Cool the tofu on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before eating or adding to a dish.

Notes

• Thawed tofu/freezing tofu and thawing it beforehand - Seems random, but freezing tofu and then thawing it before cooking is incredible for the texture. Because things expand when they freeze, tofu is able to lose a lot more moisture once it’s thawed and pressed, and dryer when cooked. It can take some mental stretching to remember to pull it out of the freezer the night before, but it’s worth it. If you’ve already forgotten and just have fresh tofu on-hand, it’ll be fine.

• Extra firm tofu - Using firm or extra-firm tofus are best for this recipe, because their starchiness helps them dry out and get crispy. With how silky lighter tofus are, they would be too soft in the center and wouldn't hold their shape.

• Cornstarch - On top of the firm texture of the tofu, cornstarch helps it get dry and crisp as well. If you use too much, it will end up with a chalky texture to your food (lessons learned), but this ratio of olive oil to cornstarch is perfect.

• 3 cloves garlic - Sometimes I even use four cloves. Because tofu is so bland on its own, it soaks up the flavor and the acidity of garlic so well. So if you relish that sharp, unique flavor as much as I do, go ham on it. If you don’t have any fresh garlic on hand, garlic powder is a solid substitute - 1 tablespoon.

• Chicken-less seasoning - Like I said, this is entirely optional. If you happen to have it and want to make the tofu taste more like chicken nuggets, go for it.

• Pressing tofu - It’s very important to press tofu to get rid of the excess moisture. The more you press it, the dryer the tofu will be. I can press a solid amount of liquid from the tofu with just my hands, squeezing each side of the block between my hands. If you want to squish out even more liquid, you can wrap the tofu in a towel and place something heavy over it like a large, flat dish (so that it’s evenly pressed) for 10+ minutes.

• Adding the oil and garlic, and spices at different times - I coated the tofu in the oil and garlic first because I was afraid the cornstarch would coat the garlic before it got a chance to mingle with the tofu, keeping it from adding much flavor.

I’ve been making this incredibly crispy tofu in my oven for years, and it’s always come out perfectly. I have an air fryer (and it is great), but I didn’t want to post a recipe that relied solely on using a still-somewhat-expensive piece of extra equipment. As preached in my About Me page, that’s not my game.

Tofu for everyone - ovens and air fryers alike.