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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
- 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
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 15% Total Fat 9.7g
- Daily value: 0% Cholesterol 0mg
- Daily value: 27% Sodium 646.8mg
- Daily value: 4% Total Carbohydrate 12.7g
- Daily value: 5% Dietary Fiber 1.1g
- Sugars 7g
- Daily value: 25% Protein 12.4g
- Daily value: 2% Vitamin A 34.6µg
- Daily value: 0% Vitamin C 0.3mg
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!
When I make your delicious burger bowl recipe for my family of beef eaters, I make this bbq tofu for me and have my own burger bowl. It’s perfect!
Oh, that’s such a great idea!
Hi! Could I roast sweet potato along with the tofu in the same pan to save time?
Hi! The sweet potato would take a lot longer to cook and the tofu would dry out.
This is a staple in our house! What a delicious twist on tofu!
Loved this so much! Had a bunch of different barbecue seasoning blends on hand to play with and used a favorite one of those – so delish! Froze my tofu a few days before (supposed to make it a better texture) and let it thaw in the fridge, then pressed as you said. Mixed seasoning and cornstarch, spread on sprayed pan, then sprayed the cubes lightly. After 10 minutes, flipped everything and continued another 10 – chef’s kiss!! Can’t stop snacking on them!!! Thanks again!
What can I substitute for sugar.
This tofu is THE BEST. I can even eat it cold!
Thanks so much for this and all your great recipes. 🥰
LisaG
This is my FAVORITE way to make tofu. So crispy, sweet, and smoky. This has been one of my go-to meals for the last 3 years since I have been vegan. Highly recommend.
This didn’t turn out well for me – very chewy, badly needed salt, and not much BBQ flavor. I did not enjoy this one.
One of our family’s favorite recipes. SO easy to make, and so delicious! Now that we’ve got an air fryer, it’s even faster to prepare the tofu in there (we put it on a little parchment for easy cleanup). I also love that this recipe can be made year-round with different seasonal veggies. An easy staple.
Easy and so tasty! A keeper.
I had firm tofu (not extra firm) and worked great! The spice mixed seemed like a lot for the amount of tofu (I double checked the recipe to make sure I was using enough tofu!). Obviously it was the perfect amount, the tofu is so flavorful and a great texture.
I love this recipe. Has anyone tried this in the air fryer- I’m thinking of trying this but have no idea how much time it would take.
Hi Lindsay! I’m new to the world of plant based cooking so found your tofu and sauce recipes intriguing. Haven’t actually made them yet (!) but that’s cos I’ve got leftovers in the fridge to eat up. Starting tomorrow I’m doing your sheet pan bbq tofu and the honey mustard sauce! I hate mayo so am substituting sour cream. Sound OK? Can’t wait!
We’d probably recommend subbing a full fat Greek yogurt instead. Enjoy!
Love this recipe! My current favorite way to eat is in tacos – corn tortillas with homemade guac and then fresh corn that I saute lightly in olive oil , salt & pepper. It’s amazing.
Sounds delish! Thanks for sharing!
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! 🙂
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!
This looks soooo good!!
Enjoy, Shailaja!
Thank you! I just love quinoa and green beans!!
Enjoy!
I need to try this recipe! That quinoa looks so delicious.
http://alexagmarsh.blogspot.com/
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.
Amazing Recipe Good .
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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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
This was delicious! I didn’t think I would like tofu, but this BBQ version was awesome.
Happy to hear you enjoyed this! 🙂
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!