Why Every Vegan Should Master Grilled Tofu

Tofu gets a bad rap, and it's not hard to see why. On its own, it's totally flavorless. But that's like saying a blank canvas makes for a boring painting. Of course it does. You haven't painted anything on it. So if you wanna become the Michelangelo of tofu, you first gotta add a lot of paint, or in this case, a lot of flavor. And the easiest way to do that with tofu is to pair it with an amazing sauce. So today, in collaboration with my friends over at Aldi, I'm gonna show you how to make five easy but amazing sauces that will take your tofu over the top, as well as show you how to cook tofu on the grill and the stovetop. I've got this block of extra firm tofu, and I'm gonna slice it into four long slabs. You're gonna cover these with a clean dish towel and weigh them down with a heavy cookbook for 15 minutes or so. Tofu is a watery blob, so you need to press out as much water as you can. That's gonna improve the texture, but also help the tofu better absorb other flavors. And while the tofu is being pressed, we will get started with our sauces. And because tofu is that blank canvas, it works well with an incredible variety of sauces. I'm actually gonna show you five different sauces today, and you can get all the ingredients for these recipes at your local Aldi. You can make just one sauce, or you can get fancy and mix and match a couple if you want. We're gonna get started with a spicy peanut sauce. I'm using a quarter cup of this organic peanut butter. The only ingredients are peanuts and salt, which is perfect. A tablespoon of agave nectar for sweetness, two teaspoons each of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. Squeeze in about two tablespoons of lime juice, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and grate a bit of fresh ginger and garlic in there as well. And that is it, so simple. It took five minutes, just a few pantry staples. And if you have leftover peanut sauce, or you wanna make a double batch, you could use it with rice or noodles. It's really good as a dipping sauce for summer rolls. And if you're allergic to peanuts, you can always use almond butter. Another sauce option for our tofu is pesto, which is super easy to customize. I'm starting with these roasted pistachios with sea salt, but you can also swap them with walnuts or cashews or even pepitas if you're allergic to nuts. Aldi has all of those for you. You're gonna blitz them in a food processor until they're in tiny pieces. And then we'll add a bunch of cilantro leaves and tender stems, about two cups, some garlic, as well as a chopped jalapeno for a little bit of heat, some lime zest and juice for zing and tang, freshly cracked black pepper, and just a pinch of salt because there's already sea salt in these pistachios. Start blending, and once this all comes together in a paste, it's time to stream in the extra virgin olive oil. You wanna blend it until it's mostly smooth, yet a little bit creamy. And if you need more oil, go ahead and add some. Or if you don't wanna add too much oil, you can also add a couple tablespoons of water to help bring it together. Next up, I'm gonna show you how to make a chipotle citrus sauce. It's tangy, it's a little spicy and smoky, it's a little sweet, so it's got a really nice balance of flavors. For this sauce, you'll start with a handful of cilantro, about 3 1⁄4 cup. We're gonna add two peppers, or one huge pepper, from this can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, plus two teaspoons of the sauce itself, a lot of garlic, six cloves, some orange zest, and a third of a cup of orange juice. Oh, this is a juicy one. Plus the juice of one big lime, couple glugs of this extra virgin olive oil to bring it together, a teaspoon of ground cumin, and a bit of organic sugar, brown or white, either one is fine. And of course, some salt and pepper to season. And just blend that all together until it's relatively smooth. Let's give it a taste. Whoop. All right, our tofu has been pressing for quite a while, and now I'm just going to cut the tofu into these cubes. We're gonna make some really cute skewers for the grill, and I don't really measure the size of the cube, nothing too small or too big. Another way we're going to add some flavor into the tofu is by making a marinade. So the most flavor is actually gonna come from our sauces, but especially when you're grilling tofu, you wanna add something to the tofu itself so that it kind of seeps in while it's cooking. This marinade takes only three minutes and uses just a few everyday affordable pantry staples, two tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon and a half of agave or maple syrup. The sugar is going to help the tofu get a better, crispy, almost caramelized coating. Also a tablespoon and a half of Dijon mustard and lime juice, and just a few seasonings, garlic powder, onion powder, and just a pinch of cayenne. And just shake it all up until it's well combined. Let's give it a taste. Ooh, kind of tastes like honey mustard. And it took three minutes to make all pantry staples, so there's no reason not to make it. Add the tofu cubes to a reusable bag like this, pour on the marinade, and just toss back and forth pretty gently. You can marinate it for just 15 minutes on the counter or for a few hours in the fridge. While this tofu marinates, I'm going to show you two more sauce options. And these sauces are super versatile, but also really different. So you can vary the cuisine, the theme, the flavor of the tofu you're making, whatever sides you're making. And I'm going to start off with a peach salsa. I found some great seasonal peaches at Aldi, but you could also make this salsa with some of their pineapple or mango spears, which would make it a lot easier because you don't have to cut so much, or even some chopped strawberries. So use whatever seasonal fruit looks good to you. We'll start by dicing three to four peaches, depending on their size. And then maybe half of a small bell pepper, or use the whole thing, depending on how much you like bell peppers. Do the same thing for some red onion and an English cucumber. You need about a half cup diced of each. If you wanted to save some time on chopping, you could just add all these ingredients to a food processor and pulse them. And because this is a salsa, we need some heat. So I'm dicing two jalapeno peppers. For my baby mouse out there, use one jalapeno pepper, do not use two. And if you really don't want a lot of spice, cut out the membranes from the pepper, because that's where most of the heat lives. Live, lives, that's where the most... That's where most of the heat lives. But if you like it spicy like we do, two jalapeno peppers is really nice. Last thing to chop, a nice handful of cilantro. We're gonna mix all these gorgeous colors together, and then squeeze in three tablespoons of orange juice, three tablespoons of lime juice, and we cannot forget the salt and pepper, of course. For a really nice creamy element, I like to fold in a diced avocado just before serving. You can serve the salsa now, but it's even better if it rests for a half hour, so all the flavors get cozy together. This makes a fair amount of salsa. It's gonna go really great with the tofu. You'll probably have leftovers, so be sure to get some tortilla chips, because this makes an excellent pairing. Another sauce option is one of my go-to sauces in general, cashew cream. I'm gonna show you how to make a super basic version today, but if you wanna jazz it up with some other flavors, I've got instructions on how to do that in the blog post. You'll start by pouring a half cup of water into a high-powered blender. Then you'll need a cup of raw cashews that have been soaked and drained. You can soak them overnight, or you can do a quick soak, and instructions for both are in the blog post. And then all you need to do is add a couple of garlic cloves, zest some lemon, along with two tablespoons of lemon juice, a bit of onion powder. If you love Dijon, you can add some of that in there, and just season with salt and pepper. Blend it up for a few minutes until it's smooth and creamy. It really doesn't get easier than this. Sauces are done, so now it's time to cook the tofu, and you could just pan fry the tofu. It is super easy. You're gonna take your block of tofu, slice it into slabs like this, and pan fry them in a nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of oil, six to eight minutes on the first side, then five to six minutes on the other side, until they're nice and golden brown with a little bit of a crispy exterior. You can take that marinade we made earlier and use it as a sauce, or just leave the tofu plain. But since it's summertime, I'm gonna show you how to grill the tofu. It's really, really delicious. But if you are new to it, there are a couple things to keep in mind, so I wanna show you those. And stay tuned to the end because I'll be showing you my go-to combo of sauces with tofu that's inspired by one of my favorite vegan restaurants. Oh, and I made myself a little adult beverage for the outdoors because isn't that what grilling's all about? Excuse to have an adult beverage while you put something hot on something. Nope. Is this your first time grilling? What is grilling? Anyhoo, we're going to thread these marinated tofu cubes onto some skewers. If you're using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for at least 30 minutes so they don't burn on the grill. Now it's time to head outside and start grilling. First things first, it is important to pre-treat your grill regardless of what you are grilling. For my gas grill, I heat it to medium high for at least 10 minutes. Then you need a grill brush like this to scrape off any gunk from the last time you grilled. I keep a small bowl of a high heat oil out here. This avocado oil from Aldi works great. And you'll dip a clean towel into the oil and then rub some on the grates. The oil's gonna smoke a little bit, then wait 30-ish seconds and repeat this three to four times to build up a nice seasoning. If you skip this step, the tofu will absolutely stick to the grates and you will absolutely have to peel the tofu off your grill so just don't skip this step. Arrange your skewers on the grill like this. It does require a little finesse, which I obviously possess in great quantities, but a large spatula and tongs also make it a lot easier. As soon as you add the tofu to the grill, lower the heat, but only for the section directly underneath the tofu and then close the grill to trap the heat. On my grill, I like to turn the skewers about every three and a half to four minutes. And the reason we don't want the flames right underneath the tofu to be high is that you'll get grill marks really quickly, but the tofu on the inside won't really cook very much and it'll kind of just taste raw. Totally safe to eat, but not that tasty. Grilling is just as much an art as it is a science, so I'm giving you instructions, but you should also use your god-given, goddess-given senses. So if it looks like the tofu is burning, move it to a cooler part of the grill, or if it's not getting grill marks, do the opposite. You can also brush on some of that reserved marinade as the tofu cooks. The tofu is done when it's got nice grill marks all over. A little char is a good thing. And the tofu should start to dry out a bit so it's not like a raw, wet tofu. It should feel cooked through. These tofu babies are looking so nicely charred. They smell great. So I'm gonna head inside and show you how I finish them. Now, any of these sauces are gonna be excellent with the tofu. That's why I'm showing you how to make them, but I wanted to show you an epic combination that's inspired by one of my go-to vegan restaurants and cocktail bars here in San Diego called Kindred. I'm gonna drizzle on some of the cashew cream for some creamy indulgence, the cilantro pesto for something herby, and the citrus chipotle for something bright, tangy, and a little smoky. This is frigging fantastic. I know it should be fantastic. There's three different sauces, but it's honestly even better than I thought it was gonna be. And you can find all of the groceries you need for these recipes at your local Aldi. Thank you to Aldi for sponsoring today's video. And all of the written instructions for everything we made today is in the blog post linked below. Thanks for watching. Bye.