Watch How To Make This Gochujang Tofu
This Tofu Makes Me Love Life.
The way to my heart is through max flavor with minimal effort, and this recipe is exactly that. It’s spicy, crunchy, sweet, sticky, and all-around FEEL GOOD. Here’s what I’m doing:
- Ripping tofu into chunks.
- Baking the tofu.
- Saucing the tofu.
- Dipping, dunking, devouring.
The end result here is craggly little bites of crispty, boingy, saucy, sticky tofu. Throw it onto a rice bowl with the crunch of cucumber and some herbs. Add more sauce. Happy dance.
The beauty of this recipe is that we get to go super minimal at the start – salt, pepper, oil and cornstarch. The main goal is just TEXTURE. And once the crispity golden texture is there, we drench her with spicy-sweet sauce (5 ingredients, thank you very much) that sticks into every tofu nook and cranny.
This tofu is fast enough and easy enough that I can make it for a WFH lunch, which I often do. And love. The girls are a no-thanks to the spicy gochujang sauce, so when I make this for dinner, we give them the plain tofu as “tofu nuggets” with ketchup or honey mustard and Bjork and I get to enjoy the whole batch of that finger-licking sauce to ourselves.
The gochujang sauce in this recipe is based around peanuts, sesame, and soy – but should you find yourself wanting a gochujang sauce that’s even a little more luscious (and potentially a bit more allergy-friendly), this mayo-based gochujang sauce is a total delight and would work just as well here!
Welcome To My House! Let’s Make This Sticky Gochujang Tofu!
1
Pull Your Tofu Into Chunks.
Pull the tofu into chunks and toss with cornstarch, salt, and a bit of oil – main goal here is to create a bit of a textural exterior for the sauce to cling to!
2
Make Your Sauce.
While the tofu bakes, shake up a quick gochujang sauce in a jar.
3
Toss Tofu with Sauce.
Once the tofu is golden and textured, pour sauce over it and toss to coat.
4
One Last Little Roast.
Send it back to the oven just long enough to get it deeply colored and roasty-toasty.
5
You’re Done! Yum!
Drizzle the tofu with more sauce to make it a lil sticky and delicious. Serve with all the goods. So yum.
Sticky Gochujang Tofu with Peanuts and Herbs
Total Time: 40 minutes
Yield: 3-4 servings
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Max flavor, minimal effort! This Gochujang Tofu is a beauty. Crispy golden tofu bathed in a 5-ingredient sauce that is spicy, sweet, tangy, and so delicious.
Ingredients
Tofu
- 1 16–ounce block extra firm tofu – ideally the kind that comes vacuum-packed
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and pepper to taste
Gochujang Sauce
- 3 tablespoons gochujang sauce (see note 1)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1–2 tablespoons water as needed
Serving
- Rice
- Cilantro, green onion, and/or peanuts as a garnish
- Cucumber, or other veggies for the bowl
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Press the tofu a few times with paper towels (if you use the vacuum-packed kind, this is hardly necessary at all – yay!). Tear the tofu into rough chunks.
- Tofu: Put the tofu chunks in a nonstick square baking dish, or a sheet pan lined with parchment. Add the oil, cornstarch, salt, and pepper directly to the pan; shake or toss to coat.
- Bake: Bake tofu for 15 minutes. Give it a shake or stir to rotate the pieces. Then bake for another 10 minutes. (Total bake time: 25 minutes.)
- Make Sauce: While baking is happening, shake up the sauce ingredients in a jar until smooth.
- Sauce on Tofu: Pour just enough sauce over the tofu to coat; toss to combine. Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, checking every so often to prevent burning, until golden brown.
- Done! Remove the pan from the oven and toss with a fresh drizzle of sauce. Serve with rice and a vegetable, and top with chopped peanuts, cilantro, green onion, and any remaining sauce. SO GOOD!
Notes
Note 1: Gochujang is a spicy Korean fermented red chili paste fermented paste. I use gochujang sauce for this recipe and I love the Bibigo brand! Gochujang sauce tastes like gochujang but it also has flavors of garlic, sesame, etc. – it’s more of a condiment. You can also use proper Korean gochujangpaste in this recipe, but it will be thicker, spicier, and have less added flavors. If you do this, use less (1 tablespoon would be plenty) and add a bit of extra flavor like brown sugar, garlic powder, ginger, etc.
Note 2: You don’t have to use a nonstick square baking dish, but I like that it has higher sides and makes it easy to toss everything around all in one pan. Here’s the one I have. (affiliate link)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
Category: Dinner
Method: Oven
Cuisine: Korean-Inspired
Keywords: gochujang sauce, baked tofu, gochujang tofu, spicy tofu, tofu bowl, rice bowl, vegetarian dinner, vegan dinner
Frequently Asked Questions For This Gochujang Tofu
Pretty spicy. Too spicy for my kids. You can scale the amount of sauce down even further if you’d like a less spicy sauce! Or, you can try this mayo-based gochujang sauce which is quite a bit milder and still really delicious.
You can, but a) you need to press it more to remove the moisture, and b) it’ll take a bit longer in the oven to get crisped up. Maybe closer to 40 minutes.
I would use this gochujang sauce instead!
Yes! This sauce would be delicious with chicken meatballs, air fryer chicken, sauteed shrimp, any and all.
Yes, but I’d suggest starting with much less. I think 1 tablespoon will be plenty. I would also add a bit more garlic or other seasonings to round out the flavor.
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