Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

These tofu chips/fries are brushed with a soy sauce based marinade, then baked until they’re crispy on the outside, but perfectly soft on the inside. I served them with some dairy free raita (the recipe for that is coming up next) but ketchup or other condiments will work too. I’ll also include some tips that I’ve learned along the way when cooking with tofu. Hopefully I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to! Anyway, onto the recipe

Yield; 16 Chips/fries Cook time; 30 minutes

You’ll need;

1. One block of firm tofu, I used a 396g block by Cauldron
2. One tablespoon of light soy sauce
3. Two tablespoons of oil
4. Half a teaspoon of the following; smoked paprika, onion granules, garlic granules, dried parsley, ground cumin

Method;

• Start by pressing your tofu. Remove it from the pack, drain away the water, then wrap in a couple of sheets of kitchen roll. Pop the tofu between two surfaces, and place some weight on top. I find a few tins are enough
• Whisk together the marinade ingredients (the last three things in the ingredient list) into a small bowl
  
• After it’s been pressing for an hour or so, pat it dry then slice into 16 pieces. Lay the tofu onto a baking paper lined baking tray, brush the marinade over it, then turn the tofu and coat the other side
  
• Bake at 200ºC/220ºC fan assisted/400ºF for 30 minutes, flipping half way through

Tofu Tips;

1. I’ve found pressing tofu really helps. Pressing tofu removes water, which gives the tofu a better texture, and means it will more readily take on other flavours
2. Once you’ve pressed it, don’t go too overboard with the marinade. To get tofu to go nice and crispy, I’ve found it’s better to not add too much moisture back into it. Tofu that is overly watery will probably not crisp up very well, due to the high water content
3. Sometimes tofu can be a bit of a pain when you fry it, as it can stick. I’ve found that baking tofu is an easier method to get it to crisp up. Especially if you bake it on baking paper, I’ve never had tofu stick to anything using that cooking method