Oil-Free Crispy Tofu

Hello, I'm Katherine. Brian is always behind the scenes of our videos, and we have a really quick and easy recipe for you this week. Although we're not currently in a heat wave, we have had a lot of really hot weather this summer. And on those days, I have not wanted to turn on my oven. And I've heard from some of you that you're the same. So I had started making my crispy baked tofu recipe in my air fryer, which gives off a lot less heat and also makes the recipe a tiny bit quicker. So I thought I'd share it with you. I have previously shown you the crispy baked version of this recipe in our universal stir fry sauce video, but I've never walked you through the process. So here is how simple it is. Cube 350 grams extra firm tofu that has ideally been pressed. The less water in your tofu, the crispier it'll be. So I ideally like to buy pre-pressed tofu for this recipe. But if your tofu is not pre-pressed, then you can press it at home using a tofu press or by wrapping it in a clean kitchen towel and putting something heavy, like a heavy cookbook on top for about 10 to 15 minutes. Or you can do what I often do and not worry about the pressing part and not be too bothered about less crispy, crispy tofu. Toss the tofu in one tablespoon of tamari or soy sauce, one teaspoon smoked paprika, and half a teaspoon garlic powder. Then toss in one tablespoon nutritional yeast. The reason I add the nutritional yeast after the soy sauce or the tamari is so that the tofu absorbs the tamari or soy sauce. If you add the nutritional yeast at the same time as the other seasonings, then the nutritional yeast will absorb all of that tamari or soy sauce, and it'll be a lot harder to get the seasonings to stick. So tamari, smoked paprika, garlic powder. First, give it a toss and then add the nutritional yeast, which gives the tofu some savory flavor, but also kind of helps it get a shiny exterior, crunchy texture. Spread on a parchment lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Or I air fry them in my air fryer convection oven at 400 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, turning them at the 10 minute mark. If you have a basket style air fryer, then you should be able to toss the cubes right into the basket. But since all air fryers are a little different, then you'll have to let me know in the comments, if you find that a different temperature and time works well for you with your model, the cubes are done when they are golden, slightly puffed up and have a little sheen to them. If the tofu is not pre-pressed, I do find that they take a little longer in the oven, especially to get pretty crispy. But again, if you're not too concerned about getting the most crispy, crispy tofu, then they will certainly be done nicely after 15 to 20 minutes. It's been nice to hear from some of you that this has been a really handy recipe for your little ones when you need a bite-sized protein source that's dippable and easy to throw together. So for those of us adults, this could also be a nice dippable snack, but it's a great, easy protein source to throw on top of stir fries, noodle bowls of any sort, salads, and today I'm going to combine the noodle and the salad ideas and make a cold noodle salad. Using rice noodles is handy in the hot weather because once again, I don't need to turn on my stove. Usually they just need to soften in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, so I just boil water in my kettle, pour it over the noodles and let them soften. Then I toss the softened noodles with shredded purple cabbage, edamame, julienned carrot and cucumber, the crispy tofu, and my five-minute peanut sauce, which I just whisk up in a bowl, and we have a veggie-packed, colorful meal that didn't take me much longer than 30 minutes to make and didn't make my hair frizz much more than is usual in the hot weather. This looks amazing. I, um, I don't even know what this video is. I'm coming in real cold here. I've been making this one solo, so you haven't even tried a version of this recipe, but I think if we like it, then I will put this up on the blog shortly. This one's like, how's crispy tofu? Crispy tofu. Went for it first. Yeah. Cause that's what the video is about. I mean, that's good. I'm an open book. But if we like this, then I will get the recipe up on the blog. So check the description below for a link to the recipe and the crispy tofu recipe will be there for you. The five minute peanut sauce I've mentioned. Oh yeah. There's the noodles in here. This is awesome. Get it on the blog. Let's go mix around here. This one, if you want to try this as all like mixed with the peanut sauce, you want to do a little swap. Sure. This is great. And it's super versatile. So we actually have a friend staying with us at the moment and she can't have the crispy tofu because there's nutritional yeast on it and she has a yeast allergy, but if we have this later today, then I might make my crispy tempeh bacon and crumble that up. So you could change up the protein source. There's the edamame in there. Change up the veggies, do it with soba noodles. That would be delicious. Let me know in the comments, if quick and easy recipes like this are helpful for you. Hit that subscribe button. If you haven't done so yet. Like, comment, share, hype, tell your friends, tell your loved ones, eat the crispy tofu, make this stuff. This is amazing. Look at how, this is a good, this is a good fresh bowl. Nice and colorful. Yeah. Eat your rainbows.