Whether you are a Tofu Lover, just starting to cook with this plant-based protein or you decided to give tofu a second chance, our Teriyaki Tofu it's the perfect choice for your next meal! Sweet, salty, tangy and umami-packed, this Japanese-style recipe is a sure winner.
The first time I tried the Teriyaki sauce was in Sweden when I met Astra. He used to cook Teriyaki Quorn (plant-based protein) for me and all our friends. It was a weekly meal we would have as it was absolutely delicious and really easy to prepare.
I have to admit we would use the pre-made sauce to make the dish but now we still enjoy the recipe with our homemade teriyaki sauce. It's healthier and way nicer. All you need to do is get the ingredients needed in order to make the sauce and I can guarantee that making the sauce from scratch is totally worth it.
To make this dish we use tofu, our favourite protein. When it comes to cooking a stir fry, you want to make sure you are adding enough protein to the dish. As a vegetarian family, we are always using different plant-based alternatives to add this macronutrient to our recipes.
Tofu is the perfect plant-based protein to use in Stir-fries such as Teriyaki Tofu or our ramen noodle stir fry. It's easy to cook, you can find it in most supermarket and it works great with rich sauces like this teriyaki sauce packing in the flavour of your sauce.
We serve our Teriyaki Tofu with pan-fried broccoli. It gives the dish a nice contrast and adds some freshness and yumminess. You can choose to add a different vegetable or even add a combination of different veggies to make your dish more colourful and healthy!
This recipe is:
- Vegan.
- Can be made gluten-free. Some rice wines contain wheat so you can substitute the mirin and sake for white vinegar and brown sugar. You will need to change the soy sauce for tamari too.
- Family-friendly. The alcohol from the sake and mirin will evaporate while cooking so this recipe is totally suitable for your little ones. Luca loves it!
- Quick to make. Our Teriyaki Tofu comes together in 25 minutes.
- Easy to prepare.
- Made from scratch.
- High in Protein. Tofu is a great source of protein and we add some extra by adding broccoli and sesame seeds.
How to make Teriyaki sauce from scratch
Everything tastes better when made from scratch. When we started looking into making our own Teriyaki sauce, we found many recipes containing a really high amount of sugar.
When we cook, we try to make one dish for the whole family, including our two-year-old toddler. It took a while but we found the perfect combination of ingredients to make a damn good teriyaki sauce without adding any sugar except for the one that comes naturally in mirin.
Ingredients
To make our sauce, 7 ingredients are needed: garlic, ginger, mirin, sake, soy sauce, corn starch and water. You'll probably need to make a trip to the Asian supermarket to find mirin and sake but you can as well use substitute both ingredients using rice vinegar and sugar.
Garlic and ginger. We love starting our Teriyaki sauce stir-frying some garlic and ginger. Some people add it to flavour the sauce and removes it later but we keep them in!
Mirin. To add sweetness to our sauce, we use mirin, a type of rice wine used commonly in Japanese cuisine. It has a low alcohol content and high sugar content.
Sake. This second rice wine contains a higher alcohol content than mirin but doesn't contain sugar so it brings the right balance to the dish. Don't worry, as the alcohol evaporates when cooking the sauce.
Soy sauce. The key ingredient to make your teriyaki sauce. We recommend using light soy sauce.
Corn starch. Corn starch is how you are going to give the sauce the thickness that it needs. This ingredient helps to make the teriyaki sauce thicker.
Once you have the right ingredients, how do you make the Teriyaki sauce.
Making teriyaki sauce from scratch is extremely easy and quick.
- Heat some vegetable oil in a small or medium saucepan and add finely chopped garlic and ginger. Cook for 2-3 minutes or just before the garlic starts to turn brown.
- Add the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook the sauce for about 10 minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.
- Add the corn starch diluted in some water and keep cooking until it thickens. It shouldn't take more than two minutes.
How to cook the tofu for Teriyaki tofu
We cook with tofu a few times a week and as busy parents we try to keep it simple. You can marinate the tofu before using it, press it for 30 minutes or even make your own tofu from scratch, haha! The truth is that we don't do any of those on a daily basis.
We get our Tofu from Lidl and it's by far our favourite brand. It doesn't need pressing, we simply wrap it with kitchen paper to get rid of the excess of water and it's ready to cook.
Choose firm tofu for this dish as it's easier to work with. If your tofu needs pressing, simply leave it wrapped in a kitchen cloth or kitchen paper and press it using plates placing them on the top and bottom and adding something heavy on the top like a can.
Once your tofu is ready to start cooking, cut it into cubes or triangles, whichever you prefer. Now you can cook it using a pan or baking it.
Pan-fried tofu. This is the way we cook our tofu for this recipe. Pan-frying your tofu is faster than baking it and you can use the same pan that you use to stir-fry the broccoli. Simple heat some vegetable or sesame oil and add the tofu. Once it starts to golden, turn it over and cook on the other side. Add the teriyaki sauce and your Teriyaki Tofu will be ready to eat.
Baked tofu. You can as well use the oven the prepare the tofu. Baking your tofu is healthier and probably easier as you just need to turn on the oven. You can add some flour or corn starch to make your tofu crispier. Place your tofu on a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes at 200ºC / 400ºF. Then add the tofu into the Teriyaki sauce and serve.
Some of our most popular recipes on the blog are made with tofu such as this Thai inspired peanut curry or our Buddha Bowl with Tofu.
Serving Suggestions
Teriyaki Tofu at home means homemade Teriyaki sauce, pan-fried tofu, jasmine rice, pan-fried broccoli and loads of sesame seeds. Such a beautiful combination that everyone loves around the table.
We already told you how to prepare your tofu and the sauce. The rest comes together fairly easy:
- Jasmine Rice. It took us a few good tries to get our jasmine rice perfect but it's easier than it looks. Each type of rice demands a different ratio of rice to water. Jasmine rice gets even a bit more complicated and demands more or less water depending on the number of times you've rinsed the rice before cooking or if you've soaked it. To make it simple, we don't rinse the rice and use if you use 1 ¼ cups of water for every 1 cup of jasmine rice. We recommend checking Recipetineats's blog to get more info about how to cook Jasmine rice to perfection.
- Broccoli. We pan-fry our broccoli with some vegetable oil and season it with salt. Then it's ready to add to your dish. You can do this with any vegetables of your choice. As well, if you are baking your tofu, you could use the oven to bake your broccoli too. Just be careful as it cooks fast.
So once you have all the bits ready, it's time to prepare your restaurant-style dish. Grab a nice bowl, add some jasmine rice, then add the Teriyaki tofu, broccoli and sesame seeds on the top. You can as well add some finely chopped spring onions.
If you have any leftovers, you can keep them in the fridge for 4-5 days using an air-tight container.
We love using any jasmine rice leftovers to cook an egg-fried rice next day!
Teriyaki Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 piece ginger roughly same size than garlic clove
- ½ cup mirin
- ½ cup sake
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon water
- 400 g tofu
- 1 cup rice
- ½ broccoli head
Instructions
- Finely chop the garlic and ginger. Heat some vegetable oil in a small or medium saucepan and add them both to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes or just before the garlic starts to brown.
- Add the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook the sauce for about 10 minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.
- Mix the corn starch with the water and mix well until completely diluted. Add it to the sauce keep cooking until it thickens. It shouldn't take more than two minutes.
- Cut the tofu into cubes once all the excess water is removed. Heat some vegetable or sesame oil in a frying pan and add the tofu. Once it starts to golden, turn it over and cook on the other side. Add the teriyaki sauce and your Teriyaki Tofu will be ready to eat.
Jasmine Rice
- Add the rice and 1 ¼ cup of water in a small saucepan. Turn the heat to high and while the pan is uncovered bring it to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat down to really low, cover the pan and cook for 10-12 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed by the rice.
- Remove the pan from the heat and keeping the lid on, leave the rice aside for 10 minutes. Stir and the rice will be ready to serve.
Broccoli
- Simply cook the broccoli by heating a pan, adding some vegetable oil and stir-frying until it starts to brown. You can as well cover the pan for 1-2 minutes to gently steam the broccoli.
Nutrition
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