Crispy Fried Tofu
This Crispy Fried Tofu is super quick and easy, ready in about 15 minutes, perfect for dipping or saucing up!
I have Fried Tofu a bunch of ways before, such as my Tofu Fried Chicken. And while that’s a great recipe, it does require some time, dishes and ingredients!
However, this dish is stripped down and much easier to whip up, in fact it’s ready in about 15 minutes! And if you don’t wanna deep fry, this is a great alternative!
What’s the best tofu for Frying?
I highly recommend Super Firm Tofu as it’s vacuum packed and doesn’t require pressing. It has very little moisture so it will crisp up much easier!
ingredients for Crispy Fried Tofu
You can honestly season this however you like! The only thing I’d recommend sticking with is the cornstarch as it helps crisp the tofu up.
- Seasonings – I used nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and soy sauce.
- Cornstarch – For the crispy layer!
how to make Crispy Fried Tofu
This couldn’t be easier! First add a layer of oil to a 12″ skillet. Use a neutral flavored high smoke point oil (Vegetable, Canola, Avocado etc). Heat the oil to 375 F.
While the oil heats up, break your tofu into bite size pieces. This will get you rougher edges than simply cutting the tofu into cubes. These craggier edges will crisp up more!
Then toss the tofu chunks in the soy sauce. After that toss them in the seasonings. Once oil is heated to 375 F, add the tofu chunks and fry for 3 – 5 minutes. Then flip and fry for another 3 – 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Let them rest on a wire rack, and then dig in however you’d like!
These would be great with some Vegan Buffalo Sauce or Cane’s Sauce! Or cover them in Teriyaki!
storage
These are best eaten fresh, but I found that eating cold leftovers was good too. They are still crispy! Actually reminded me a bit of cold fried chicken, weird!
You can also reheat them in the Air Fryer for a few minutes, try 350 F for about 5 – 6 minutes.
can i air-fry or bake these?
For less oil, yes you can use the Air Fryer! Check out my Air Fry Vegan Chick’n Recipe!
Frying Techniques
If you want to see about different techniques, check out my BEST WAYS TO FRY VEGAN CHICKEN post!
other recipes you’ll dig!
- Popeyes Chick’n Sandwich
- Buffalo Cauliflower
- Buffalo Sauce
- Filet O Fish
- Seitan Fried Chick’n
- Air Fried Chick’n
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, please leave a rating & review! It really helps out the blog and it makes my day, thank you!
Crispy Fried Tofu
Ingredients
- 16 oz. Super Firm Tofu
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 2 Tbsp Cornstarch
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- First add a layer of oil to a 12" skillet. Use a neutral flavored high smoke point oil (Vegetable, Canola, Avocado etc). Heat the oil to 375 F. Keep an eye on the oil so it doesn't burn. You can also do this step after you season the tofu if you'd like as well.
- While the oil heats up, break your tofu into bite size pieces. This will get you rougher edges than simply cutting the tofu into cubes. These craggier edges will crisp up more!
- Then toss the tofu chunks in the soy sauce. After that toss them in the seasonings and cornstarch.
- Once oil is heated to 375 F, add the tofu chunks and fry for 3 – 5 minutes. Then flip and fry for another 3 – 5 minutes or until golden brown.Make sure you don't crowd the pan. A block of tofu in a 12" skillet is almost crowding, so you can do it in 2 batches if you are unsure about it!
- Let them rest on a wire rack, and then dig in however you’d like!
So yummy. So easy. Super firm tofu works great. Seasoning’s are good. So crispy when deep frying them in the oil. So good with Cane’s sauce. Cannot wait to make again. Thank you.
Excellent, so glad to hear that, thank you!!
long time vegan here and have made tofu lots of different ways, this was super simple but so delicious. i airfryed for about 15 minutes and they were super crispy. will be going back to this recipe again and again
Hey, that’s awesome to hear! Thank you and glad you dug it! I’ll have to get a good air fryer, mine sucks!!
Love tofu! Great recipe. What can be used in place of soy sauce? Thanks!
Hi, you can use Tamari or Coconut Aminos!
Yep! Sometimes you gotta enjoy the fried stuff, and this hit the spot! I can’t wait to make it again
Glad you dug it! Thank you!
Absolutely delicious and really as quick and easy as advertised. My new favourite way to have tofu!
Nice, so glad you dug it!! Thank you!
(Wasn’t able to leave this in the review section higher up, kept hanging.)
Finally managed to make fried tofu that my kids will gobble up just as fast as the adults. The nutritional yeast and tearing instead of slicing make these crunchy as heck with great flavour that’s cheesy and salty and just all round delish. A real crowd pleaser!
Awesome, so glad to hear this, thank you!
So, so very good that I ended up eating 1/4 of it while frying up the second batch. This recipe is a keeper for sure.
These are amazing! I have a question: could you cook these, let them cool, and then freeze them? Im thinking I’d like to spend a weekend cooking and then reheat later. Ever tried that? BTW, these are great in salads!
Glad you dug them! Yes, you could totally freeze this if you wanna make them in big batches. I would suggest reheating in the air fryer to get them to crisp up again, thank you!
Taking your advice to review things we love! I love this! It’s easily tailored to my low/no salt diet requirement. I make a bunch and chop them up into salads and put them into wraps for dinner for the week. I’ll soon start testing the soy curls waters. Thanks for this – i very much appreciate it!
My family loved it! Thank you!!!
Excellent, so happy y’all liked it!!
so excited to try ! if i were to air fry these would the air fryer temp be 375 still ? 🙂 <3 and for how long still the 3-5 minutes on each side ?
Yes that should be good! Let me know how it goes!
I used potato starch instead of cornstarch (I didn’t have any cornstarch) and they turned out great!
Excellent, potato starch is great too! Thank you!
Super easy, super delicious! I sprayed it with olive oil and air fried for 15 mins at 400, shaking half way. Yum!
This turned out really well for how easy it is. I substituted ground mushroom powder for the nutritional yeast and it tasted great!
Excellent! So glad that worked out, love mushroom powder!