What's for Dinner? Oven Fried Tofu

Any tofu lovers out there? I first fell in love with this stuff after eating fried tofu in authentic Chinese restaurants. I used to fry it at home until I saw a recipe for an oven roasted version. It pretty much fries in the oven without all the splatter. Splatter me no likey.

I prep my tofu by wrapping it in multiple layers of paper towels, setting on a cutting board, and placing my cast iron skillet on top of it for at least 30 minutes. You want to press out a lot of that extra moisture.




I cube my tofu into bite size pieces when I'm tossing it into a stir-fry. The little cubes get generously sprayed with oil spray and generously sprinkled with salt and pepper on both sides.




Roast your perfect little cubes at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. You can turn yours over half way through for even browning and crispiness. I find that way too much work, so I just let it get really crispy on one side. It tastes just as good.




For this particular dinner I put my tofu into a simple cabbage stir-fry. I didn't have stir-fry sauce on hand and have been trying to cut down on sugar anyway so I used toasted sesame seed oil, red pepper flakes, fresh ginger, garlic, onions, and soy sauce for flavor.




If you've read my post on stir-frying you'll remember that you barely want to cook your veggies. You want them to retain a good amount of crunch. This cabbage is perfectomundo right here.




Toss in your "fried" tofu and you're good to go. You can serve as is for a low carb dinner or over a small bed of rice or noodles. For extra deliciousness, stir fry cooked noodles in a little bit of toasted sesame oil with red pepper flakes and garlic.

Oven Fried Tofu & 

Stir-fried Cabbage

INGREDIENTS
1 lb firm or extra firm tofu (use 2 lbs for a big family)
olive oil spray
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 Tbsp soy sauce

DIRECTIONS
1. Wrap tofu in several layers of paper towels, place on a cutting board, and put a heavy skillet on top. Leave for at least 30 minutes to get some of the moisture out.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3. Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray generously with oil spray.
4. Cube tofu and lay cubes on your sheet pan. Spray generously with oil spray and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Turn cubes over and repeat.
5. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes until desired color and crispiness. Check after 20 minutes. You can turn your cubes over at the half way point for even browning and crispiness, if you desire.
6. Heat sesame oil on high heat in a large skillet or wok until screaming hot.
7. Add red pepper flakes and cook for a few seconds. Then dump in the rest of your ingredients and cook for a few minutes. You want the veggies to remain fairly crisp.
8. Sprinkle in soy sauce and toss in tofu, stirring to combine.
9. Serve with extra soy sauce and sriracha sauce.