A thick and crunchy sesame coating with a deliciously juicy tofu centre. This is one recipe I guarantee you will make again and again. To create this recipe, I looked to Japan for influence. I love how Japanese cooking uses minimal ingredients to get full bites of umami flavours. It’s a vegan tofu dream on a plate and I hope you make it.
First thing I do is organise all my ingredients. Start by pressing and prepping the tofu and cutting into rectangles. (As you can see I like to use uneven rectangles!)
Ensure you have your coating dips ready. First is the cornflour as seen above.
Next is your maple and milk and panko and sesame crumb coat.
Next start the coating. Firstly, cover the tofu with cornflour.
Then dip into maple and milk mix.
lastly, coat with your sesame crumb dip.
It should look like this once done. As you can see below I made a lot. However, the recipe below is for one block. Just double up if you want more.
Now its time to fry it all up.
I served mine up with a Japanese inspired noodle dish. I’ll post this recipe soon as it is quick and delicious to make.
PrintRecipe The BEST Sesame Crusted Tofu Recipe
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 Pieces 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients
- 1 block of Firm Tofu
- 1/4 cup Black Sesame Seeds
- 1/4 cup White Sesame Seeds (see notes)
- 1/2 cup Cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup soya milk (any plant milk works)
- 1 cup panko crumbs (see notes for making it)
- 1 cup cornflakes
- 1/4 cup dark soya sauce
- 3 tbsp mirin (see notes for sub)
- 1 cup sunflower oil for frying.
- 1 large wok pan.
Instructions
- Press Tofu to remove excess water.
- Then Cut tofu into rectangles.
- For the marinade add a ¼ cup soya sauce into a bowl with the miren. Coat the tofu in the marinade and leave it soak up for ten minutes.
- While it is marinading you can get on to the next steps.
- Get three bowls to make the crust.
- In the first bowl add your cornstarch and salt.
- In bowl number 2 add the plant milk and maple syrup.
- For the final bowl combine the panko and cornflake crumbs with the black and white sesame seeds. See notes for making your own panko crumbs.
Coating
- Dip the tofu into the Cornstrch mix first. Then dip it into the sticky maple and milk mix and finely, coat the tofu with the panko/sesame crumb.
- Repeat this step until all pieces of tofu have been fully coated.
- Add your oil to a wok and ensure it is hot before you start adding in the tofu.
- Once oil is hot, simply fry the tofu, 4 or 5 pieces at a time for approximately 90 seconds or until it is crisp and golden all over.
- I usually do my frying in stages, and pop the cooked tofu into a warm oven to keep it hot.
- I served mine with spicy Japanese style noodles. You could eat it as is and dip in some soya sauce. Or have with sticky Japanese style rice and spring onions.
Notes
If you are making your own panko crumbs. Simply pop two slices of toast into the toaster. Allow to cool fully. Then, add to a food blender with cornflakes and whizz till you have a nice crumb mix.
If you can’t find or don’t have black sesame seeds its okay to just sub with all white sesame seeds.
Mirin is a sweet Japanese cooking wine, to sub it I’ve used a combination of distilled white vinegar sugar. You could also sub dry sherry. Rice vinegar and sugar.
If using vinegar use 3 tbsp vinegar to 2 tbsp sugar.
Honestly, this is probably one of the tastiest recipes I’ve created and made for the family. They are still raving about it. There is a little work involved, mainly in the prep, but the cook time is under 15 minutes so its well worth a go. See end for your shopping list for the recipe. Remember, anything you add to your cupboard, particularly ingredients like mirin and black sesame seeds you will use again.
Don’t forget to follow me on instagram for more recipe stories and ideas, @theveganhoneypot
Makes a tasty leftover snack too!
Shopping list 👇🏽
Here are some links to help you purchase. None are affiliated or sponsored. Just being a helpful cooking blogger 😘
Mirin bought online at the Asia market. You can use it to make all types of sauces. Including my favourite Teryiaki, and I have an easy one come up soon.
I buy Cauldron organic Tofu in Tescos.
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