Baked BBQ tofu with creamy cauliflower mash

Baked BBQ tofu is cubes of pressed extra-firm tofu roasted until golden and chewy at the edges, then glazed with a smoky, tangy barbecue sauce and served on a bowl of creamy cauliflower mash. It works because of two decisions about timing. The tofu bakes bare first, so it can dry and crisp before anything sweet touches it, and the sauce goes on only at the end, when there is just enough time for it to turn sticky without burning. The mash, meanwhile, gets its body from well-drained cauliflower and olive oil rather than butter or cream.

Why the tofu is pressed and baked before it meets the sauce

Extra-firm tofu is packed in water and holds a lot of it. If that water stays in, the cubes steam in the oven instead of browning, and a sauce slides off a wet surface. Pressing for 30 minutes under a weight squeezes out enough to make the outside dry and firm. The full method, including what to do if you have no press, is in how to press tofu.

After pressing, the cubes get a light toss in oil and soy sauce and then a coating of cornstarch. The oil helps the surface brown, the soy sauce seasons the outside, and the cornstarch turns into a thin, dry crust in a hot oven. The aim is a coat so thin it disappears: if you can see white powder, toss again until it has been absorbed.

Space matters as much as the coating. Spread the cubes in a single layer with gaps between them. Crowded tofu traps its own steam, and the cubes touching each other stay soft on those sides.

When the barbecue sauce goes on

The sauce on the card is canned tomato puree, sharpened with apple cider vinegar and sweetened with maple syrup and molasses, with smoked paprika doing the work that a smoker would do. Every one of those ingredients, the tomato included, contains sugar, and in a hot oven sugar caramelizes, then darkens, then burns. At 425°F (220°C), the tofu needs its full 25 minutes to crisp, which is far too long for the sauce to survive.

So the sauce goes on in two stages. About half is tossed with the hot tofu and baked for 8 to 10 minutes more, until it is sticky and darkened at the edges. The rest is served on the side, where it stays bright and tangy. Check at 8 minutes, and pull the pan early if the corners of the cubes are going black.

Simmering the sauce on the stove before it goes in the oven also helps. Tomato puree straight from the can tastes flat and a little tinny; 10 to 12 minutes of gentle cooking rounds it out and reduces the sauce so it clings instead of pooling on the parchment.

Do you need to marinate the tofu?

Not for this method. Pressed tofu is dense, and a marinade gets only a little way below the surface, so most of the flavor in BBQ tofu sits on the outside whatever you do. Soaking the cubes in sauce before baking also puts its sugars in the oven for the whole bake, which is exactly what makes them scorch, and a wet coat stops the cornstarch from crisping. Seasoning the cubes with soy sauce before baking and glazing them at the end gives a well-flavored outside with a crisp edge under the sauce.

If you would rather skip the glaze, a dry rub works too: stir about a teaspoon of smoked paprika and half a teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder into the cornstarch (extra spices, on top of those in the sauce), toss the oiled cubes in it, and bake for 25 minutes as on the card, turning once, or a few minutes longer for deeper color, with no glaze. Serve the sauce on the side for dipping.

Air fryer, grill or skillet instead of the oven

The pressing, coating and late-sauce rules stay the same whatever you cook the tofu in. Only the heat source changes:

Air fryers differ in size and power, so treat the time as a range and go by color. On a grill, leave the slabs alone until they release from the grates on their own; tofu that is moved too early tears.

Making cauliflower mash creamy without dairy

Potatoes turn gluey when they are blended hard, because their starch is released and turns sticky. Cauliflower has very little starch, so it can go in a food processor and be blended completely smooth without that risk. The challenge with cauliflower is the opposite one: it holds water, and a wet mash tastes thin and weeps on the plate.

Three steps deal with that:

1. Cook it only until tender. Simmer the florets for 12 to 15 minutes, until a knife goes into the thickest stems with no resistance. Overcooked florets fall apart and soak up more water.
2. Let it steam dry. After draining, leave the cauliflower in the colander for 5 minutes. The steam rising off it is water leaving the mash.
3. Add liquid last and slowly. Blend with the olive oil first, then add the soy milk a tablespoon at a time. Some heads of cauliflower need all of it; some need half.

The garlic cloves simmer in the pot with the florets, which softens their bite into something sweet and mild. If you like a sharper garlic flavor, add one raw clove to the food processor instead.

Substitutions: what works and what changes

• Firm tofu instead of extra-firm: works, but press it carefully and handle the cubes gently, because they break more easily. Silken tofu does not work here; it is meant for blending and falls apart in the oven.
• Arrowroot or potato starch instead of cornstarch: both coat and crisp in much the same way.
• Brown sugar instead of maple syrup: works in the same amount; the sauce tastes a little more like classic bottled barbecue sauce.
• No molasses: use another tablespoon of maple syrup. The sauce is lighter in color and loses some of its deep, slightly bitter edge.
• Store-bought sauce: use about half a cup for the tofu and check the label for honey and for Worcestershire sauce, which is traditionally made with anchovies.
• Vegan butter (a plant-based stick) instead of olive oil in the mash: gives a richer, more buttery taste. Use the same amount.
• Half potatoes, half cauliflower: makes a thicker mash that tastes more like classic mashed potatoes, but mash the potatoes by hand or with a ricer and fold them into the blended cauliflower, rather than putting potatoes in the processor.

Ways to change it

• Spicier: add a pinch of cayenne or some chopped chipotle in adobo to the sauce while it simmers.
• Smokier: a few drops of liquid smoke stirred into the finished sauce goes a long way.
• Torn instead of cubed: tear the pressed tofu into bite-size pieces with your fingers. The rough edges brown and hold more sauce than flat cut sides.
• Different base: serve the tofu over rice or quinoa with a green vegetable, or in a grain bowl with roasted sweet potatoes and quick-pickled onions.
• BBQ tofu sandwiches: pile the glazed tofu, torn or cubed, into toasted buns with crunchy slaw and dill pickles, with extra sauce spooned over.
• Another cauliflower dinner: for another plate built on the same vegetable, try stuffed peppers with cauliflower rice, or thread tofu and cauliflower together in tofu and cauliflower skewers with almond sauce.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Pale, soft tofu: it was not pressed long enough, or the pan was crowded. Use two baking sheets if the cubes do not fit with space around them.
• Coating that turns gummy: too much cornstarch, or cornstarch added before the oil and soy sauce. Toss with the liquids first, then sprinkle the starch over a little at a time.
• Burnt sauce: it went on too early or stayed in too long. Scrape off the worst of it and toss the tofu with some of the reserved sauce.
• Runny mash: it was not drained well or had too much milk. Return it to the pot and stir over low heat for a few minutes to drive off some moisture.
• Bland mash: cauliflower needs its salt. Taste after blending and add more a pinch at a time.

Storing and reheating

Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking, in shallow covered containers, at 40°F or below. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service gives 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator for leftovers. Keep the tofu and the mash in separate containers so the tofu does not soak up moisture from the mash.

Reheat the tofu on a baking sheet in a hot oven or in a skillet over medium heat, so it crisps again; a microwave works but leaves it soft. Warm the mash in a saucepan with a splash of plant milk, stirring until it is steaming. Either way, reheat leftovers to 165°F, measured with a food thermometer, as USDA advises.

Both parts can be frozen. FSIS says frozen leftovers keep for 3 to 4 months, and FoodSafety.gov notes that its freezer guidance is “for quality only”, because food stored continuously at 0°F or below can be kept indefinitely. Expect changes: frozen tofu comes back chewier and spongier, and the mash releases some water as it thaws, so whisk or reblend it after reheating.

Allergy and ingredient notes

This recipe contains soy in three places: the tofu, the soy sauce and the soy milk. Unsweetened oat milk replaces the soy milk without trouble, but there is no soy-free way to make the tofu itself. Most soy sauce is brewed with wheat. Tamari is often made without it, so for a wheat-free version use a tamari labeled gluten-free (and, if you swap in oat milk, one made with certified gluten-free oats); the dish is then made with gluten-free ingredients, but check every label for cross-contact, which the NIDDK notes can happen when foods are grown, processed, stored, prepared or served. The barbecue sauce also contains mustard. There are no nuts, peanuts, sesame or coconut in the recipe as written; if you use vegan butter in the mash, check its label, because many contain coconut oil, soy or nuts.

For another weeknight main from the same section, the one-pot chickpea ratatouille shares this dish’s make-ahead habits and reheats just as well.