Improvised grilled tofu

[feuervogel]

At a family reunion-type thing last weekend, I ended up in charge of the vegetarian part of dinner (everyone else had grilled steak.) So I improvised some grilled tofu. I figured you can't go too far wrong with a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

You need:
1 block of extra firm tofu
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
garlic
baking dish
grill

Prep:
1. Press your tofu to get the water out. (Since it's extra firm, this should take 20 minutes at most.)
2. Slice your tofu into 7-8 slabs.
3. Mix approximately equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a bowl. Stir vigorously with a fork until they're emulsified. (That is, it looks sort of gloopy and like well-shaken salad dressing.)
4. Stir in a few cloves of garlic, chopped. (Or the equivalent from a jar.) Add salt and pepper as desired.
5. Dredge the tofu through the marinade and place it in the baking dish. Pour marinade over.
6. If there's not enough marinade, repeat step 3 and pour over.
7. Cover dish with foil and refrigerate for an hour or so. Flip the tofu about halfway through the marinating process. (We didn't do this, and there was a distinct line where there was more flavor.)
8. Heat grill to moderate heat.
9. Grill tofu 2-3 minutes on each side or until heated thoroughly.
10. Serve and enjoy. Use leftover marinade for salad dressing or bread dip.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

thank you for this! could you do the same prep and saute it? do you need to use a fish basket for it? that is, will it fall apart on the grill, or can you just sling it right on there like you would for a steak or a boneless chicken breast?

I'm very interested in doing more with tofu, and would also love any recs you might have for tofu cookbooks. since I'm cooking after work for a family I don't want anything too elaborate, but I want to do more with tofu than I have in the past.

thanks again.

[feuervogel]

I don't advise sauteing it - we tried that, and it came out fairly flavorless. I'm not sure why; tofu normally soaks up the flavor like a sponge. Maybe it was the brand of tofu...

But anyway, extra firm tofu is pretty solid, and you can just drop it on the grill. Anything less firm than that will be too runny.

Tofu is fairly easy to cook with, I've found. Firm or silken can be mashed up a bit and used in place of ricotta (in, say, lasagna). You'll want to press it between two plates (with a can on top) to get any excess water out, because it improves the texture a lot. It takes, hmm, 15-20 minutes.

You'd think there would be a lot of tofu recipes in vegetarian cookbooks, but I can't really think of any off-hand. I just saw your post, so I'll drop a couple links there!

[princessofgeeks]

thanks again!