This tofu recipe is stunning in every way. I was first introduced to certain fundamentals of tofu cooking by a previous roommate, and over the past few years, I’ve come to rely on this proportion of spices and other breading elements. The tofu sticks have a really lovely texture and a tasty crust. Serve alongside a relish or dip of your choice (I prefer this with plain yogurt and brinjal eggplant). Normally, I serve this with a side of garlicky broccoli and a rice dish flavored with cumin.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon sage
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Cut pressed tofu into 1/2-inch thick slices; then cut again into 1/2-inch wide sticks. Place tofu in a bowl, and pour broth over the top. Set aside to soak.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, yeast, salt, pepper, sage, and cayenne.
- Warm oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Remove tofu sticks from broth, and squeeze most (but not all) of the liquid from them. Roll sticks in breading. (You may have to roll sticks twice to end up with a fairly dry outer layer of breading.) Place tofu in hot oil; fry until crisp and browned on all sides. Add more oil if necessary.
Reviews
I cut the tofu and into four “steaks” and boiled them in veggie broth for about 15 minutes so they wouldn’t crumble when I worked with them. The I cut them into sticks and followed recipe as written, except I used rubbed sage. Flavor was great and they held together! I ended up with way too much of the flour mixture, so I am planning to try this recipe again, but baked instead of fried. Thank you!
Thank you for this excellent recipe! Others have skipped the nutritional yeast, but it is key to the umame flavor – and delicious. For vegetable broth, try miso, which is technically vegetable broth. I did add cumin to the breading; I like cumin. Excellent recipe that I will make many, many times and very worthy of sharing with others at dinner parties and potlucks.
My kids loved it so much that didn’t even know it was tofu! Love it. Thank you
Great snack! I also added Italian breadcrumbs to the flour mixture and served it with Ranch Dressing.
These were a hit at a holiday party I hosted. We had a began attending and I wanted to make sure there was an entree option for her. The entire platter was finished up and two people asked for the recipe.
I am new to cooking with tofu & can’t believe how good this was. I didn’t have sage so I substituted with equal amount of poultry seasoning. After frying, I discarded all but approximately 2 Tbsp of the oil & stirred in the flour mixture I had left over from coating tofu. Cooked for 2 mins then added 2 cups milk. (Obviously not vegans) Served with mashed potatoes. Was absolutely delicious!!!
This is the first time i am eating tofu without gagging. I did not marinate but i seasoned almond flour with the nutritional yeast. I also used an air fryer! Dipping in marinara sauce.This is now a healthy low cal meal
I made this for my granddaughter for New Year’s dinner (she’s a vegetarian). I used cornstarch instead of the yeast and it fried up nice and crispy. My granddaughter loved it, said it was the best tofu dish yet. She even took what little was left home. I certainly will be making this again.
This was really surprisingly good. The chicken broth gives it a totally different taste than tofu! I bought more tofu to make it again!!
DELICIOUS – I’d like to find a way to make it just as good, but by baking instead of frying it.
My kids and I really love this simple, tasty recipe. The 2nd time I made it, I used chili powder instead of cayenne and sprinkled salt on the tofu before marinating. It was excellent both ways, but I prefer a tad more saltiness. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these for my vegetarian adult daughter. She was less than thrilled with them served as sticks, and said they would be better if they were nuggets and used within another recipe as a meat substitute, rather than eating plain or dipped. So I may try that next time. I tried one myself — I’d never had tofu before — and thought it was pretty good, a nice recipe for tofu beginners 🙂
Didn’t have sage, & used a beef boullion cube in water to soak tofu. Turned out well!
Tastes like healthy fried chicken with a kick
Kids loved the breaded tofu. Very easy to prepare. I will definitely be cooking this one again.
I followed the instructions exactly and even marinated for extra long in the veggie broth but it was still pretty much tasteless. The texture was good, but it really needs sauce on it. I added sweet chili sauce to it which saved the meal.
Nice recipe! This is simple, really nutritious, and a great change if pace if you like tofu.
My first time cooking and/or eating tofu as it never looked all that appetizing. I was given some firm tofu and needed to do something with it. I made it according to the recipe as written. It was Awesome! As others have proven, it can be adapted to your preferences, but I liked it just fine made this way. Great recipe. Thanks!.
Great great great recipe! And such a fantastic way to prepare tofu for a nice starter to a recipe that needs toasted cubes of tofu. Here what I did– I made the recipe as stated, but toasted up some ginger, garlic and thinly sliced carrots in the oil while the cubes marinated in the broth–then fished them for later. After the tofu cubes were all fried, I fished them out of the oil and wiped the pan almost completely dry. Then I heated some the leftover broth with natural peanut butter, soy sauce, and sraracha. The remainder of the broth was used to microwave some frozen baby broccoli florets. There was literally no waste–except a small bit of leftover flour. I then combined the sauce, broccoli, the cubes and carrots/garlic/garlic bits all together, and served over rice. It was FANTASTIC!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
We made this for our Vegan daughter, not knowing much about how to prepare tofu. It was very good however, next ime we will let it marinate for hours rather than minutes and use a lot more spices. Especially garlic salt. Our daughter LOVED it.
I make this simple main dish repeatily! My kids love this, and my meat-loving extended family was pleasantly surprised! You won’t be disappointed :-)!!