Sheet Pan BBQ Tofu! BBQ-spice-crusted baked tofu that’s made in a snap. Serve it in bowls, add it to salads, or eat it straight off the pan!
Sheet Pan BBQ Tofu
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Lindsay! I saw this in my inbox while my daughter and I were meal prepping for her first week of school. Talk about perfect timing! We immediately put this together (so easy by the way!) and could not stop snacking on the tofu as soon as it came out of the oven. It’s SO tasty! Thanks so much…this is going to happen often in our house! 🙂
Caroline
This is tofu like you’ve never seen it before.
Like, tofu with a spice crust. (YES! THANK YOU!) Tofu that feels worthy of building a meal around. Tofu that you can eat off the pan as a snack.
This is sheet pan BBQ Tofu, and it is an end-of-summer, healthy eating lifesaver.
BBQ Tofu is awesome because:
- It’s stupidly easy.
- It’s hands-off (SHEET PAN FTW).
- It’s a good source of protein.
- It’s vegan!
- It’s goes with… kind of everything.
- It keeps in the fridge.
- IT. IS. SO. GOOD.
BBQ spice crust coming atcha:
I just really love tofu, you guys (Exhibit A).
The extra-nice thing about this BBQ Tofu (besides the spice crust) is that you can serve it with any end-of-summer thing that your little heart loves.
Ideas include: roasted sweet potatoes, zucchini, sweet corn, green beans, avocado, quinoa, rice, coleslaw, tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, AN-Y-THING.
My favorite combo is sweet potato, quinoa, green beans, and corn.
Shall we investigate the spice crust one more time?
Okay, and sauce. It’s important. I like a squeeze of honey and hot sauce for a low maintenance version, and green tahini for a fancy girl version. Magic green sauce would be very acceptable as well, and this beautifully easy honey mustard kind of sounds like the best of all worlds.
Check Out Our Video For How To Make BBQ Tofu:
Sheet Pan BBQ Tofu
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
Sheet Pan BBQ Tofu! BBQ-spice-crusted baked tofu that’s made in a snap. Serve it in bowls, add it to salads, or eat it straight off the pan! YUM.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 (16-ounce) packages extra firm tofu
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Press the liquid out of the tofu – you can use a tofu press, or wrap it with a towel and place a heavy pan on top of it for 10-15 minutes. Cut into cubes.
- Mix the cornstarch, brown sugar, spices, and salt together. Toss cubed tofu *gently* with the spices to coat, being careful not to break the tofu. Transfer to a baking sheet and drizzle with just a tiny bit of olive oil so it doesn’t stick. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the exterior is lightly golden and dry-ish to the touch.
- While the tofu is baking, prep your extras for the bowls (see notes for ideas). Arrange beautifully in a bowl, snap a pic for the ‘gram, and devour!
Notes
This makes for awesome meal prep. The tofu will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days. I like to saute it in a pan to get it crispy again, but sometimes you just can’t quite make that happen, and I promise microwaving the whole thing will also be delicious.
Ideas for bowl assembly: quinoa, rice, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, spicy coleslaw (I just toss a bag of preshredded cabbage coleslaw mix with a little bit of mayo, salt, and Sriracha. Vegan mayo works, too!)
Sauce ideas: hot sauce, green tahini, magic green sauce, honey / honey mustard (my favorite! but not vegan).
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: bbq tofu, vegan dinner, bbq tofu bowl, easy dinner recipe, vegan meal prep
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy and delicious sheet pan dinners. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Bowls Dairy-Free Dinner Gluten-Free Healthy Main Dishes Meal Prep Quick and Easy Recipes Sheet Pan Summer Tofu Vegan Vegetarian
August 26, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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How do you manage to create such wonderful recipes with tofu!!! This looks so good. My number 1 would still be the curry ramen recipe, that has tofu tossed in hoisin sauce. YUM. Totally trying this bbq style – which makes tofu look like extra toasted croutons. For dressing, I am forever team MAGIC GREEN SAUCE <3
Thank you for sharing yet another amazing recipe 🙂
I bought Tofu with Bok choy, Spinach, Ginger, Garlic cloves, and Oriental noodles recently and changed my diet. Tofu is a delicious protein that can be seasoned to taste like meat and better. 🙂
This looks incredible! I want to make this for meal prep this week!
Paige
http://thehappyflammmily.com
My nephew is just starting out on his vegetarian journey. 6 months and counting! He’s doing great with the change but the concept of tofu has kinda escaped him. I’m trying to expand his horizons a bit by introducing new foods and I think I’ll spring this on him this weekend (: It sounds delish and as he loves bold and spicy foods. Thank you so much for the idea of bbq tofu!
Lindsay! I saw this in my inbox while my daughter and I were meal prepping for her first week of school. Talk about perfect timing! We immediately put this together (so easy by the way!) and could not stop snacking on the tofu as soon as it came out of the oven. It’s SO tasty! Thanks so much…this is going to happen often in our house! 🙂
It’s soooo easy to snack on, right? Glad you and your daughter enjoyed the tofu, Caroline!
What do you do with the cornstarch and brown sugar??
Hi, Cindy! The cornstarch and the brown sugar get mixed together with the spices and salt. You can see more in step 3 in the recipe card. 🙂
Made the tofu for my daughter for lunch today after cross country practice. Her eyes were rolling back in her head! I put it in the air fryer and it worked great!
WOW. Best tofu recipe I’ve found!! Thank you 🙂
I am pleased to report I ate Tofu in the last few hours w/ Bok Choy, sliced Ginger, Celery, Garlic and in water with seasoning. Eating right is a must to keep a good health investment made in self.
If you love honey and hot sauce on this dish I am so going to make this weekend, you’d love our Hot Hawthorne Honey. See ya on Instagram!
The spicy tofu is yummy, but I only managed to coat 1 package with this amount of spices. I rolled a few pieces at a time in the spice mixture – would it be better to dump it all in at once?
Hey there, Sue! Yep, we’d recommend tossing your tofu cubes with the spices all in one large bowl.
I love barbecue tofu! This one looks absolutely superb with brown or black rice, even steamed vegetables or soba noodles <3
Yes! BBQ tofu for the win! 🙂
I don’t know what happened with this tofu… I drained it while cleaning the house so it had PLENTY of time to be smashed under a cast iron skillet!!! But it turned out gummy, not crispy, and when I left it in a little longer in hopes it would crisp up, the coating lost its flavor. Womp. I’m still a PoY fan!!! Surely this was a user error.
Hi, Emily! We’re sorry to hear this didn’t turn out for you. It’s hard to say what went wrong without seeing the tofu. The cornstarch is the key ingredient to getting it crispy, so we’d recommend just adding a smidge more next time.
To dry out the tofu, I put a clean dish cloth on a sheet pan, put the tofu blocks on top of the cloth, a clean cloth on top of the tofu, a plastic cutting board on top of the second cloth, and a big ol stack of cookbooks on top of it all. Ideally I leave it for an hour, but I was in a rush so I left it for only 15 min like the recipe states. Worked well for me!
Just took the tofu out of the oven. It’s good, but I’d cut down on the sugar next time. It was a little sweet for our taste.
Thanks for this feedback, Jen. 🙂
I’ve always liked tofu but this recipe takes it to a whole other level! I could eat this every day. I combined with roasted sweet potato with a light drizzle of maple syrup and a vinegar-based coleslaw. There’s leftovers for lunch tomorrow…if they last!
Okay, yum! That sounds so good!
This was delicious! I didn’t think I would like tofu, but this BBQ version was awesome.
Happy to hear you enjoyed this! 🙂
Unfortunately, this recipe didn’t work for me. I found the sweet overpowering. I quite liked the general method/idea and the way the tofu baked, but the overall flavour was strange in my experience. Not sure what went wrong, perhaps less sugar would be preferable depending on your tastes.
Hi there, Jess! We’re sorry to hear this didn’t turn out for you and that the sweetness was overpowering. We think using a little less sugar can totally work here. We appreciate you sharing this feedback with us!
Update: This tasted much nicer the next day. I think everything had a chance to mix together more and I definitely got the BBQ flavour intended.
It was a bit soggier but I didn’t mind it!
Hey there – going to try this recipe tonight and wanted to know the following:
Can I use chicken breast instead of tofu? Would you use the same amount of seasoning or do anything differently ? ( my husband hates tofu)
What is the green sauce you use in this video?
Can’t wait to try this!!!
Definitely a-okay to use chicken here instead. We’re using our green tahini sauce in this video – you can find the recipe here. 😊
I made this last night with chicken and it was delicious. I also used Lindsey’s jalapeño ranch dressing and it was so tasty 😋. Tagged you guys on insta – thanks for the delicious recipes !! By far my favorite food blogger 💗🙌🏽👩🏽🍳
So glad you enjoyed this, Fay!
I barely ever cook tofu and I was thrilled at how approachable this recipe is for beginners. It turned out great and even my partner who doesn’t like eating tofu snacked on a couple.
Yay! So happy to hear this, Rory!
Amazing Recipe Good .
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How did you prepare the green beans in the photo – blanched? I assume the sweet potatoes are just roasted – can they be made on the same sheet for simplicity?
Yep, we just roasted the sweet potatoes and did a quick blanch of the green beans.
I need to try this recipe! That quinoa looks so delicious.
http://alexagmarsh.blogspot.com/
Thank you! I just love quinoa and green beans!!
Enjoy!
This looks soooo good!!
Enjoy, Shailaja!
Yum!!! I made this for lunch and was delighted how good it was! (took most of your recos on pairings, and put it with sweet potatoes and green beans I roasted along with the tofu, quinoa, some shredded cabbage, your honey mustard and some avocado.) So excited for my lunches these week (since I made this with the intent of meal prep!) Thank you!!! Only change I will make next time is more olive oil and/or spraying the sheet pan with cooking spray.
So glad you enjoyed this, Betsy!
I promise to come back and rate after I make this but just a quick question, could you swap coconut sugar for the brown sugar for the rub or would it not work? Thanks 🙂
We haven’t tried that before, but we’d love to hear if you test it out! 🙂