Tofu Tacos Recipe

I love crispy tofu and I'm sure you do too! I'm sharing this tofu tacos recipe with you, it's an Asian taco with crispy tofu, pickled vegetables and a cabbage slaw. You need to make it ASAP!

This post is sponsored by Best Food Facts.

I actually grew up eating tofu. My mom cooked it all the time. I love it. A couple of years ago, I had crispy tofu tacos at a local Vietnamese fast casual restaurant and I was hooked. I loved getting to recreate this recipe at home!

I love working with Best Food Facts and learning about how we all can work towards sustainability when it comes to food. I participated in a Zoom chat with three registered dietitians: Dr. Ruth MacDonald is a food scientist at Iowa State University, Jennie Schmidt who is a farmer and Amanda Moder, who works for Hy-Vee.

I really enjoyed our conversation and I learned a lot! First, did you know that sustainability when it comes to food, is about more than the environment? Sustainability is the intersection of the environment, health, the economy as well as diversity and cultural sensitivity.

Why should we care about sustainability?

We should care about sustainability when it comes to food because we all want affordable food that tastes good. Some of us eat certain foods for health reasons, some of us value affordability over everything else and that's ok too. Sustainability allows food systems to flourish. Sustainability matters in food and farming because it helps farmers stay in business.

Dr. Ruth mentioned that we as consumers should be more thoughtful about our food choices. We should make informed choices based on science and not misinformation.

The biggest takeaway from our chat for me is how much food waste we have our in country. We all know it's A LOT. And I want to do better about not contributing to food waste. Having so much food waste is NOT sustainable.

And the most interesting point from Dr. Ruth was how if we don't do any processing of food (think canned foods, processed foods like tofu, frozen foods), we contribute to more food waste. Food waste is unavoidable if you only have fresh foods.

This reminded me of being in school and learning about humans utilizing preserving techniques before refrigeration was invented. Do you remember that?

How can we contribute to being more sustainable with our food choices?

Another big takeaway from Dr. Ruth for me was that we can do better and be more sustainable when it comes to grocery shopping by planning our meals.

Do you meal plan? Have you meal planned before?

This was eyeopening to me because I realized in the past when we did plan our meals, we spent less at the grocery store and most certainly wasted less food.

I don't know about you but when we let food go bad and have to throw it out, I feel guilty about. I think about the money wasted and the resources it took to make that produce, that meat or whatever food it was.

We started meal planning again recently and I found it so helpful! I don't plan exactly by the day and I leave a little wiggle room for having leftovers for dinner (which is really sustainable and is less waste!) and doing take out a couple of times a month.

And it makes it easier to solve the age old question, what's for dinner tonight?

You can use a notes app on your phone to meal plan. I use a grocery list app to keep track of things we need. After I plan my meals out, I gather the recipes and check out my pantry and refrigerator. Whatever I don't already have at home, I add it to my grocery list app!

I put together a little printable PDF if you to try your hand at meal planning! You can download it by signing up below. It has two different meal planners, one with a Sunday start and one with a Monday start. I also included a printable for a grocery list that you can print and put on your refrigerator too!

Now let's make these tofu tacos. I show you how to make the crispy tofu, it's so good. It was hard for me to not just pop them into my mouth when I was making them!

Ingredients for Tofu Tacos

• white vinegar
• granulated sugar
• salt and pepper
• carrots
• daikon radish
• cabbage (I used purple cabbage)
• olive oil
• sesame oil
• firm tofu
• cornstarch
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• grape seed oil
• sriracha
• mayonnaise (you can use vegan mayonnaise to make this recipe vegan, if you wish)
• corn tortillas
• cilantro

Can you make Crispy Tofu in the air fryer?

Yes, you can! I actually made it in my air fryer and my Ninja Foodi. I have instructions in the recipe card below for both!

How to make Tofu Tacos

First, make the pickled carrots and daikon. It's the same pickled veggies that you find in a Vietnamese banh mi! I cut the carrots into matchsticks.

And same with the daikon (which is a kind of radish).

Mix carrots and daikon with vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Cover and set aside for at least 2 hours.

Press the tofu for 20 minutes. I used this tofu press this time but you can also use a couple of plates and some cans. I show you how here where I shared my recipe for vegetarian dumplings.

Make the cabbage slaw but slicing up the cabbage and whisking together vinegar, oils, water, sugar, salt and pepper. You can add a little more pepper on top if you'd like as well!

Mix together sriracha sauce and mayonnaise with a small rubber spatula. Cover and refrigerate. (You can totally add more sriracha if you like it SPICY! I mean who wouldn't love spicy tofu tacos?!?)

Make this recipe vegan by using vegan mayo!

Remove the water from the tofu press and then remove the tofu from the press. Cut up the tofu in half and then continually cut into strips and then into cubes.

In a medium sized bowl or shallow dish, mix together cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. 

Add tofu cubes to the cornstarch mixture.

And make sure each piece of tofu is covered in the cornstarch mixture.

Add grape seed oil to cover the bottom of a nonstick pan. Heat on medium high for three minutes.

Cooking in two batches, add the tofu to the nonstick pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate.

Heat tortillas in a cast iron skillet with just a little bit of oil on medium high. Heat them for 1 to 2 minutes on each side.

I know you'll love these tofu tacos! They are so so good with the crispy tofu. Obviously, this is more of an Asian taco recipe. I know your family will love it!

One other thing, if you don't have any corn tortillas, you can make this dish as a bowl and enjoy it that way! So the corn tortillas aren't necessary but the sriracha mayo is!

Recipe

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Tofu Tacos Recipe

Ingredients

Quick Pickled Carrots and Daikon

• ▢ 1/4 cup white vinegar
• ▢ 1/2 cup water
• ▢ 1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 cup carrots, cut into matchsticks
• ▢ 1 cup daikon, white radish, cut into matchsticks

Cabbage Slaw

• ▢ 1/4 purple cabbage or green cabbage, sliced
• ▢ 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• ▢ 2 teaspoons water
• ▢ 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• ▢ dash of salt and pepper

Crispy Tofu

• ▢ 14 ounce package of firm tofu
• ▢ 7 Tablespoons cornstarch
• ▢ 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• ▢ Grape seed oil, for frying, or if using air fryer, olive oil

Sriracha Mayo

• ▢ 1 Tablespoon sriracha, or more to your taste
• ▢ 1/4 cup mayo
• ▢ corn tortillas, for serving
• ▢ cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

Quick Pickled Carrots and Daikon

• Pour vinegar, water, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Mix together and then add carrots and daikon. Cover and set aside for at least two hours.
• Remove tofu from the container and press for 20 minutes or put on a plate with sides, place another plate on top and use two 15-ounce cans on top to press the tofu and remove some of the moisture.

Cabbage Slaw

• Prep the cabbage slaw. Whisk together vinegar, oils, water, sugar, salt and pepper. Add cabbage and mix together thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate.

Sriracha Mayo

• Mix together sriracha sauce and mayonnaise with a small rubber spatula. Cover and refrigerate.

Crispy Tofu

• In a medium sized bowl or shallow dish, mix together cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cut up the tofu in half and then continually cut into strips and then into cubes.
• Add tofu cubes to the cornstarch mixture and make sure each piece of tofu is covered in the cornstarch mixture.
• Add grape seed oil to cover the bottom of a nonstick pan. Heat on medium high for three minutes. (Look in the notes for air fryer and Ninja Foodi instructions if you want air fry tofu.)
• Cooking in two batches, add the tofu to the nonstick pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate.
• Heat tortillas in a cast iron skillet with just a little bit of oil on medium high. Heat them for 1 to 2 minutes on each side.
• Serve the tofu tacos with the cabbage slaw, the pickled vegetables and topped with the sriracha mayo!

Notes

Notes: You can totally cook the crispy tofu in an air fryer too! I use a mister to spray olive oil on the all sides of the prepared tofu cubes. Then, in my air fryer, I preheated it at 400 degrees F. When it was ready, I added in the tofu cubes and then air fried it for 8 minutes. In yours, it could be anywhere from 8 to 12 minutes. Be sure to flip halfway through!

I also cooked crispy tofu in my Ninja Foodi using the Air Crisp function. I do use the Cook & Crisp basket in my Ninja Foodi. Preheat the Ninja Foodi using the Air Crisp function at 400 degrees F for 3 minutes. Once it's ready, set the Air Crisp function again at 400 degrees F and it took 12 minutes to cook my crispy tofu! It can take anywhere from 11 to 13 minutes depending on the size of your Ninja Foodi. You want to be sure to flip these halfway too! Enjoy!

Did you make my Tofu Tacos Recipe?Did you take a photo of it? Did you know you can upload your photo along with your rating and comments below? I’d love for you to share with me & others because you’re awesome. And because I’d love to see how it came out for you! If you share on social, be sure to use the hashtag #thelittlekitchenrecipes and tag me @TheLittleKitchn because I don’t want to miss it! Yay!!

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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Best Food Facts. I only work with brands that I love and share with you my own opinions.