Orange baked tofu

June 13, 2016

In the spirit of celebrating old favourites this winter, here's a recipe that we've been making for five years. It's the Zesty Orange Mojo Baked Tofu from Viva Vegan!. (Yeah, we did write about it back in 2010 but omitted instructions.)

This is a nifty foundation for a weeknight meal. First the tofu slices get baked in a little oil and tamari for seasoning. Then they're baked a second time in lots of orange juice, a bit of lime and some garlic until most of the liquid is evaporated. The bright flavours cling to the tofu, and the slices condense down to chewy bars. We've often served them as a meat substitute alongside grains and vegetables.

This week I held back just a bit on the second bake, keeping the tofu more tender. I've been folding it into tortillas and layering it up with avocado, a simple cabbage salad, and a herb-oil I made from parsley, coriander and dill. The vibrancy of this meal felt almost summery, even as I relied on early winter veges.

Orange baked tofu
(slightly adapted from a recipe from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan!)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tamari
500g firm tofu

marinade
juice of 2 oranges
zest of 1 orange
juice of 2 limes
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper

Preheat an oven to 200°C.

Place the olive oil and tamari in a large, high-walled baking tray and whisk them together with a fork, spreading them evenly across the base. Slice the tofu into 1 cm-thick rectangles and arrange them in the tray so that they're not overlapping (they can cram right up side-by-side, though). Bake the tofu for 20 minutes.

While the tofu is baking, prepare and whisk together all of the marinade ingredients. When the tofu has had its 20 minutes, retrieve it from the oven and flip over each piece. Pour over all of the marinade and return the baking dish to the oven to bake the tofu for a further 30 minutes, until the tofu is chewy and most but not all of the marinade has evaporated.