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Jamie and I regularly spend 30 minutes to an hour before bed watching Great British Bake Off. We don’t have Netflix, where the recent seasons live, but we do have a Roku box, and thus access to seasons one through seven. We are watching in backwards order, and are now all the way back to season one, which is pretty different in format from all the other seasons. For one thing, they moved the baking tent to a different location around Britain each week, and for another, they inserted segments into each episode that explored the history of whatever type of item was being baked that day. Jamie has opinions about this: “Sometimes the history can be interesting, but usually I just want to watch people bake.”
In the episode we watched last night, which took place in Cornwall, they did a segment on the history of Cornish pasties. In theory, pasties sound delicious: a tasty savory filling stuffed into a sturdy pastry crust, big enough to hold with your hand and eat on the go. In practicality, pasties were food for the working poor. People of means got the good cuts of meat. Poor folks were left with offal, which is a gross-sounding term for innards and organs, and that offal was often on the verge of rotting. But mix all that dodgy offal together with salt and cheap root vegetables and stuff it into a crust, and … well, it was still pretty disgusting but if you were poor, you ate what was available, dodgy or not. As Jamie said, “The worst pies in London!”
So, all that is to say, meat is not high on my list right now (it never is, but particularly not after watching the pasty episode). And thus as a brain cleanser, I am sharing with you my very favorite way to cook up a block of delicious, delicious 100%-plant-based tofu. Drain it, dice it, season it, dust it with cornstarch, pop it into your air fryer, and about 10 minutes later you have a basket of crispy salty golden-brown cubes, with no offending offal in sight.
If you don’t have an air fryer, you can put the tofu on a piece of parchment on a baking sheet and bake it in a traditional oven for about the same amount of time, perhaps a little longer.
Crispy tofu cubes are delicious in many ways. Some of my favorites are:
- as the protein on a salad
- served with saffron rice, black beans, avocado, and halved grape tomatoes
- with stir-fried veggies like broccoli, onion, bell pepper
- tossed with some buffalo sauce, sriracha, or gochujang after cooking
- as a vegan Chick Fil A style chicken sandwich. Don’t cube it; cook the slabs flat in the air fryer. Serve on a bun with pickles and whatever sauce you like
Air Fryer Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 block (14-15 ounces) extra firm tofu
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- Olive oil sprayer
Instructions
- Cut the tofu block into five slabs; lay them flat and place them between kitchen towels or paper towels. Press on them gently to drain for just a minute or two – you want the tofu to be quite moist inside because the air fryer will dry it out rapidly. Removing too much moisture leads to tough overcooked tofu.
- After a bit of water has drained out, cut the tofu into 3/4″ cubes.
- Place the tofu cubes in a bowl and pour the soy sauce over, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir very gently so the tofu absorbs the seasoning, without breaking. Sprinkle the cornstarch over and stir or toss the tofu until it’s coated.
- Spritz the air fryer basket with oil. Dump the tofu in, moving pieces around as needed so the tofu is in one layer. Spritz the top of the tofu with oil.
- Air fry the tofu cubes at 400 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until it is crispy and golden brown on the outside, shaking and tossing about halfway through.
- Serve hot or at room temperature.
Notes
Sometimes if there’s a sale on tofu, I’ll buy up extra packages and put them in the freezer. Frozen tofu can be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. It will have different texture than fresh tofu: firmer, almost spongy, but not spongy in a bad way.
If you are using frozen tofu, thaw it fully first, and then proceed with the recipe as directed.