If there’s one complaint you hear about tofu, it’s that it doesn’t have any taste. To which I say, well whose fault is that? If you want flavored tofu, add some flavor. A dry rub is a great way to do this. Dry rubs are spice mixtures rubbed onto food before it is cooked. Generally you see people use them for grilling, especially BBQ. It’s not exactly grilling weather here, nor do we own a grill, so I went with broiling.
The special ingredient in this rub is lapsang souchong. Lapsang souchong is a type of black tea that has a smoky flavor from being dried over pinewood fires. (A hot mug of lapsang souchong with a shot of Scotch and a smidge of honey is a great winter drink).
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 2 teaspoons lapsang souchong, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 12-ounce block extra firm tofu
- olive oil (to grease pan)
- Rinse the tofu and pat dry. Slice the tofu widthwise into eight even slices.
- Mix all the spices together. Rub all the spice mixture onto the tofu slices, covering all sides.
- If you’re not in a rush, let the tofu to sit for a couple hours (or even overnight) to allow the flavors to penetrate.
- Move your oven rack to its highest position. Turn the broiler on low.
- Grease a cookie sheet. Arrange the tofu on the sheet and place under the broiler. Cook for 10 minutes, then flip the tofu. Cook for another 10 minutes. Check the tofu — if it feels firm around the edges remove it from the oven. If not, flip again, place under the broiler, and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Continue flipping and broiling until the edges feel firm. Remove from oven and serve.
(Serves 2-4)
The tofu will firm up as it cools. It should be slightly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The longer you let it cook, the chewier it gets. Cook it long enough and you end up with tofu jerky.
I’m submitting this recipe to My Legume Love Affair hosted by Kiran at Sumadhura this month. I’m also sharing in Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Premeditated Leftovers, and Full Plate Thursday.
Yum! I laughed out loud about flavorless tofu being the cook’s fault. :-) Did you press the tofu first? Or do you think it would make any difference if you did or didn’t? Most of my tofu recipes require pressing the tofu first for it to come out right. Of course I always forget though until it’s already 6pm, so it would be great to have a tofu recipe that doesn’t need an hour of pressing!
No pressing, that’s why I went with the extra firm tofu. I imagine you could to end up with extra chewy tofu. And it would probably be helpful if you can’t find extra firm tofu.
You’re taking tofu to a whole new level. It looks beautiful with that lovely green salad
I have some other experiments floating around in my head I’ll have to work out.
This looks delicious! We use a rub on our not-turkey-roast at Thanksgiving. Your combination of spices sounds delicious, can’t wait to try this!
Thanks, I went through lots of different iterations before settling on this one.
Hi Kalinda,
Thanks for giving me a great flavor for the Tofu, this is just awesome! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Happy New Year to you and your family and Abundant Blessings in 2012!
Miz Helen
Wow, this looks great! I love your rub recipe! Thank you for sharing this with the Hearth and Soul Hop.
I just made this dry rub without the tea and the garlic for some smoked tofu and it tasted great! Now I’ll let it sit overnight, put it on skewers and barbecue it tomorrow, yummy!
Nice thinking with the smoked tofu. Hope you enjoy!
I’m a vegetarian but my boyfriend isn’t so I made this with pork chops instead of tofu and it turned out great! He said they were the best pork chops he’s ever had! I will definitely be making this again for us.
That’s quite a compliment. Glad to hear it was a hit.