I am a little sad that I didn’t post this recipe during Vegan Mofo. But I am glad I participated, because it was tons of fun. We hit 20 posts this month (whooo group effort!) and we will be back next year, with hopefully a better theme. Maybe we will make a month of just ingredient pages! That was something I wanted to make a big focus on the blog and just haven’t gotten around to.
I am thinking I should be making pages for Tomatillos and Gochujang since there are a few recipes that use it on the site. They aren’t fully normal ingredients. And try and find a recipe for tomatillos that aren’t salsa verde related? Forget about it! This year my CSA has some great tomatillos and I’ve been unsure what to do with them. It is quite possibly the most frustrating thing. I have made Tomatillo and Chickpea Curry, which was pretty tasty. Now I take tomatillos in a totally different direction- sweet and savory.
I think the reason why I didn’t post this recipe during Vegan Mofo was that the photos kind-of sucked. I made it at night, so the lighting blew. And I was originally going to make the recipe for burritos, but it was a little oozy. And I was so hungry I couldn’t be bothered to take a bad photo. So I just decided to post the tofu, since I’ve eaten it with tacos, burritos, and it would easily taste great in sandwiches or as is.
The major downside is that the recipe takes a LOT of baking. It takes about 15 minutes of your time overall, but will take at least an hour or more of baking time. Then you add on another hour for pressing the tofu. But like I said, it leaves plenty of downtime so you can make whatever sides that you need, do the dishes, or read a book.
The ingredients list is pretty short, so it should be a cheap eat. Granted I have no idea how much tomatillos are. I just get the ones from my CSA, and it isn’t like I am paying by the pound. I give the recipe by quart, since I constantly use my porcelain quart to store the tomatillos.
If you have a choice in tomatillos, I highly recommend the purple ones. They are super sweet, making them all caramelized in the recipe. I used a mix, since I just grabbed whatever was ripe on the vine.
As you can see from the photos, basically you are just baking tomatillos on top of tofu. You basically pull it out of the oven to flip the tofu and you are done! Just thinking about this dish makes my mouth water! The salty and umami flavors with caramelized tomatillos works beautifully with tofu.
Okay okay. I’ll just leave the recipe so you can make it already!
- 1 lb extra-firm tofu
- 1 quart tomatillos
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon korean chili powder or chipotle powder
1 Press your tofu for at least an hour, with whichever method you choose.2 Preheat oven to 450°F3 Peel off husks and wash tomatillos. Cut into quarters and put into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and toss to coat.4 Cut pressed tofu in any size you choose. I prefer small and flat pieces to make it easier to flip. Place the tofu in a casserole dish. Arrange them so that they are evenly spaced and have room for flipping.5 Pour tomatillos and all juices over the tofu. Bake in over for 20 minutes, remove from oven and carefully flip each tofu, making sure it has contact with the pan. Bake for another 20 minutes. Flip tofu again, and bake for another 20 minutes.6 After cooking for a total of an hour, the tofu should be lightly browned and tomatillos should cook down, with a few whole pieces. Serve.
