Marinated Tofu

This is so simple - why I never tried this before is beyond me but here it is...

I found this recipe in the 'Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special' cookbook. This is a great cookbook IMHO. I will undoubtedly modify it each time, but you can get the basic idea. It is really good and really easy. My 2 favorite things.

1 cake firm tofu, pressed
3 T soy sauce
1T water
1T toasted sesame oil
1 T tomato paste/pesto
1 t rice vinegar
1 t honey
1/2 t anise (I used Chinese five spice)


Preheat oven to 375 F
Cut the tofu horizontally into 3 slices, then slice vertically into shapes you like.
Combine sauce ingredients and blend.
Arrange the tofu into a baking dish and coat both sides with the sauce. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes, turning the tofu every 10 minutes. When the tofu has a taut, seared appearance and the sauce is mostly evaporated, it is ready to serve.

This works well when you are also roasting vegetables. Just start the tofu 1st, then turn up the heat when the tofu is finished. Unfortunately, this does not result in the same chewy texture due to the steam from the vegetables.