Limey Grilled Tofu

Picture of the grilled tofu dish. — Grilled tofu over a Limey Cilantro Rice dish. A squeeze of lime before I ate the dish was the perfect action to pop the flavor. Photo by PattyCooks.

Diet
[x] Flexitarian + Omnivore
[x] Vegan
[x] Vegetarian
[x] Pescatarian
[x] Gluten free
[x] Weight Maint
[x] Keto Diet
[x] Mediterranean
[O] Lectin Avoidance: beans, grains, soy
[O] Oxalate Avoidance: nuts
[x] Purine Avoidance

Limey Grilled Tofu

A wonderfully limey grilled tofu made with cilantro and garlic.

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Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cilatnro lime grilled tofu, grilled tofu, lime and tofu

Servings:

Calories: 253kcal

Author: Patty

Equipment

Veggie workstation (wood cutting board, chef knife, discard bowl, bench scraper, damp rag)
Stove top grill (or outdoors)
Oil brush for grill
Tongs
Non-reactive (glass) bowl with tight fitting lid for marinade

Ingredients

Marinade

1/2 C lime juice + zest use fresh, zest how every many limes you are using
2 garlic minced + smashed
2 t chili powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

Main Ingredient + Toppings

1 block firm tofu If extra firm tofu press well, or use Hodu Tofu
2 T olive oil
1/2 C Thai Lime + Chili roasted Cashews 2T topping per serving, chopped well, a Trader Joe's specialty or make your own
1/2 C cilantro chopped, fresh, include stems

Instructions

Marinade

Wash limes well, including the skin. Then zest and juice. Place both in a non-reactive (glass in this case) bowl.
Mince the garlic, then smash the bits and add to the bowl.
Add chili powder and cayenne. Taste and then add salt and pepper as required.

Tofu

If Hodu Tofu is used, just slice into thickish slabs that will withstand the grilling process. I still press but it does not take a long time and there is not a lot of liquid.
If packaged tofu, slice the tofu into thickish slabs and then and press out all the liquid you can from the tofu. May take up to 30 minutes to get all the liquid out, even with weights.
Then place the marinade in a lidded non-reactive container, add the tofu, making sure the marinade gets everywhere. Then put in the fridge for ~2 hours minimum to marinade, setting aside for longer is no problem, you can even do this the night before.

Grilling

Carefully remove the tofu from the marinade and let the tofu reach room temperature.
Meanwhile heat up the stove top grill (or your outside grill), and add oil to the grill with a brush.
Add the tofu to cook ~5-8 minutes per side. Using tongs, carefully flip the tofu to cook on the other side. It might be a bit sticky so if that is the case brush on some more oil before putting the flipped tofu back on the grill.

Toppings

Wash and chop cilantro (leaves and stems), and set aside.
Chop the roasted, salted, and spiced cashews, and set aside.

Serve

I generally will make limy cilantro rice and serve 2/3C of rice with the tofu on top.
Then sprinkle the cilantro and chopped cashews. I use ~2T per serving.

Notes

At a Cooking Class vegetarians attempted to grill tofu since the grilling portion of the class focused on chicken, steak, and fruit. It did not go well and I promised to find or make a grilled tofu recipe. Here it is!

Since meat is not involved, you can baste the grilling tofu with the marinade, which will help darken the tofu as the liquid “burns” a bit.

Or if you want to assure grill marks, after removing from the marinade sprinkle some rice flour on the tofu grilling sides. Or you can sprinkle with just a bit of sugar on the grilling sides to caramelize the tofu grill marks a bit.

Nutrition