One of the highlights of my trip to Portland happened after Vida Vegan Con was over. That Sunday night, I got to meet my friend and long-time reader Maria, whom many of you know from the comments as Moonwatcher.
Maria traveled ten hours to visit her son in Portland and timed her trip so that she’d be in town at the same time I was. On Sunday night, Maria, her son Mike, and his girlfriend Kelly picked me up at my hotel and whisked me off to dinner at Blossoming Lotus, where a vegan friend of theirs joined us.
The meal was delicious but what made the dinner special was sharing it with someone I’ve gotten to know by email and, since we live across the country from each other, never thought I’d get to meet in person. Maria had mentioned Mike and Kelly often in her emails, and it was a joy to get to meet them all.
Maria turned out to be just as warm and perceptive in person as she is in her emails. She’s an expert in adapting my recipes to make them gluten free, so if you’re looking for help in that area, be sure to search the blog for her comments. One day I will have to get her to write a guest post about the reasons she follows a low-fat vegan diet and how it’s improved her health. She is an inspiration!
iPhone photo of Maria and me at Blossoming Lotus
At the time of our dinner, I was still suffering from a sinus infection and was taking antibiotics that left me with no appetite and a bad taste in my mouth. All weekend I’d been barely picking at the probably delicious vegan food we’d been served at the conference, but nothing tasted good to me.
When we got to Blossoming Lotus, I was in the mood for comfort food, so I ordered a bowl of spicy lentil soup, which was so flavorful that it was the first thing I felt like I’d actually tasted all weekend, and its warmth was soothing.
Though I was glad I’d ordered the soup, I couldn’t help but wish I’d been up for some of the interesting salads on the menu. The one that caught my eye was the Crispy Thai Barbecue Salad, which was described as “romaine, mixed greens, shredded cabbage, carrot, cucumber, raisins, crispy rice sticks, curried cashews and Thai spiced barbecue soy curls, with creamy sweet ginger dressing, fresh herbs and toasted coconut.”
When I got back home to Mississippi, I was still thinking of “the salad that got away” and resolved to make my own version. I wanted to use tofu instead of soy curls, and I wanted to make a barbecue sauce that is free of refined sugar.
Have you ever looked at a barbecue sauce recipe? Almost invariably it contains sugar, corn syrup, molasses, honey, agave, or all of the above! I needed to find ingredients that would give me the sweet-sour taste of bbq sauce without using sugar. So I turned to one of my current favorite foods, pineapple, and added pitted dates for some natural sugar. And, to thoroughly infuse the tofu with flavor, I first froze it, making it porous and spongy, and then cooked it all day in my crock pot. (Since meeting Kathy Hester, author of The Vegan Slow Cooker, in Portland, I’ve realized how much I’ve been neglecting that appliance.)
I served the tofu over a mixture of spinach, romaine, and red cabbage lightly dressed with my Low-Fat Tahini Dressing and accompanied by raisins, raw almonds, and clover sprouts. It was one of the best salads I’ve ever had!
Note: Slow cookers are all different. Some people are reporting that they had a better outcome using the oven, so an oven option is included at the end of the instructions.
Slow-Cooked Tofu in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 14-ounce packages extra-firm tofu frozen and defrosted
- 1 large onion chopped
- 8 large cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup pitted dates about 2.5 ounces
- 1 1/2 cup crushed pineapple in own juice
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 fresh hot chile peppers chopped
- 2 inches ginger-root peeled and minced (about 3 tablespoons minced)
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons tamari or lite soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- generous grating of black pepper
- Salt (optional), to taste
Instructions
- At least 1 day before you plan to cook, place two packages of extra-firm tofu (water-pack style, not silken) into the freezer. Freeze at least 24 hours (this makes it firmer and sponge-like, which helps it hold up to long, slow cooking). Remove from freezer and allow to defrost in the refrigerator or use a quick defrost method (microwave or hot water bath).
- When tofu is completely defrosted, cut each block into halves horizontally and cut each half again vertically. Take each piece of tofu between your hands and gently press over a sink to squeeze out as much water as possible. Cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
- Saute the onion in a non-stick pan (or on the browning setting, if your crock-pot has one) until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Scrape the onion/garlic into a blender and add all remaining ingredients except tofu and salt. Blend on high speed until sauce is a uniform consistency.
- Place the tofu into the slow cooker (sprayed with non-stick spray or canola oil, if necessary) and pour the sauce over it. Stir very gently to make sure all sides of the tofu are covered. Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or until sauce is absorbed and thickened. (Note: some crockpots run hotter than others so check once or twice to make sure the tofu isn’t sticking or falling apart.) Check seasonings and add salt and extra lime juice as needed. Serve over salad greens.
Oven Instructions
- Follow steps 1-3 above. Combine tofu and sauce in an oiled casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350 for a half hour. Remove cover and bake for 15-30 minutes, until sauce has thickened.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
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Diane Robuck
Hi Susan,
It has been a while since I posted! I am recovering well after the arteriorgram in February and working on vegan, but also vegetarian. You use tofu in some of your recipes and I am not sure I can take the spongy texture. I have noticed some of your recipes being cut smaller and baked. I haven’t tried them yet. Do you have advice for someone who is not a big fan of tofu? Thank you.
Diane
Susan Voisin
Diane, I am so glad to hear you are recovering well. As for tofu, if you don’t like the texture, I think your best bet is baked. If you use extra-firm and season it first, it isn’t spongy at all. I hope you’ll give one of those recipes a try.
Lori
Take a peek at my comment below – #70. There is none of the spongy texture left after grilling on a panini press, and I also think a Foreman grill work do the trick. You can even give the grill or press a little smoosh to get rid of the excess water during cooking.
Andie
Even people who loathe tofu and all things vegan (not me, but my mother in law), can appreciate this dish. I will be making it again and again. Even the two year old said it was “very good much”
Andie
Alter Egon
Hey Susan,
that recipe looks really amazing, I think about making this for sunday.
Since I have no slow cooker I was wondering if a regular cooking pan with a steaming insert might work as well. What would you say?
Thank you,
Best from Germany,
Daniel. 🙂
Susan Voisin
Yes, that should work just fine and take a lot less time. Hope you enjoy it!
Lori
Frequent reader, infrequent commenter. 🙂 I love your recipes, and this tofu looking amazing!
I have been meaning to share, and this recipe reminded me, of a tofu trick I learned recently. There is a bahn mi shop in my neighborhood where they use a panini press to cook the tofu. They cook it to order, quickly, and it has a great texture. I tried this at home with AWESOME results. I just slice it, give it a pat with paper towels and grill it on the press (with the press closed to cook both sides). You can either just spray the grill with nonstick or brush it with a fattening mess of sesame oil and tamari like me and cook to your desired doneness. I like mine nice and crispy on the outside, and it really only takes about 5 minutes rather than the ten years it always takes when I bake it. It works for pretty much anything – I add it to stir fry, cut it up for tacos or sushi, or cover it in gravy with potatoes as a side. And I love it for homemade bahn mi of course!
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
Susan Voisin
Great suggestion! Thanks!
Brittany Black
This looks amazing! I was wondering what the texture of the tofu turned out to be? Would it be feasible to make them into little tofu BBQ bites and have them as finger food at a party? (With toothpicks if course)
Susan Voisin
I’m sure it would be fine on toothpicks. Because the tofu is frozen first, it’s spongier and sturdier than tofu usually is, so it holds together well.
Hiral
Why we need to freeze tofu and then defrost it. why can’t we use it directly from the pouch? Please explain the reasoning behind it.
Susan Voisin
As I mentioned, freezing tofu gives it a chewy, spongy texture that soaks up the sauce better.
Hiral
Great Thank you will try
Lila
Hi Susan,
I find that when I freeze tofu I like the texture, but it becomes so porous that it immediately soaks up so much marinade, or whatever, that it is just too strong. I’m thinking specifically of my chicken sate recipe that I veganized, which has a tamari sauce. As soon as I poured it over the thawed tofu, it disappeared. I guess the key is just to use a lot less salty ingredients, huh?
Christine
Hello Susan,
FFV is my go-to for recipes, and have always had great success. However, this morning came down to inspect my crock pot of crispy bbq tofu and found a congealed mess. The tofu has a foamy consistency and breaks apart when trying to remove it from the crock pot. Yes, I squeezed the water out of it after dethawing.
Trying to think of a way to salvage this into something so as not to be wasteful of all the ingredients. Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.
Peace,
Christine
Susan Voisin
I’m so sorry, Christine, I don’t know why that happened. Does it seem like too much of the sauce boiled away? Maybe you could add more sauce and use it like sloppy joes. I would hate for all those ingredients to go to waste.
Christine
Thanks for the idea about sloppy joes. There is plenty of sauce, so that wasn’t the problem, it is more like the tofu became part of the sauce rather than holding its shape. Placing the tofu into the pot initially, it seemed firm enough. Will try again another time with baking the tofu.
Many thanks for your blog. It really is my favorite for the recipes and your writing.
Peace,
C
Rebecca
This was a really disappointing disaster and waste of time and money… I followed the directions exactly, but it was burnt around the edges after 6 hours and the tofu tasted like bitter, crumbly crud… I really don’t know how this could have gone so wrong.
Susan Voisin
Sorry about that, Rebecca! Some crockpots run hotter than others, and that may be what cause your problem. I’ve added a note to the recipe to check periodically to make sure the tofu isn’t crumbling or burning. I know that kind of takes away from the “hands-off” aspect of slow cooking, but until you know how quickly your cooker cooks, it’s a necessary adjustment.
Emily
This sounds delicious! I need to run to the store to grab the stuff now, as if my day wasn’t already busy enough lol! My question is, what is the point of freezing the tofu? Every time I freeze tofu it seems to ruin it and give it a sponge like consistency. Also, I don’t know if I’m even patient enough to freeze the tofu! 🙂
I love all of your recipes, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Susan Voisin
Freezing the tofu does make it sponge-like, which helps it hold up to long, slow cooking. But if you don’t want to freeze it, you can cook it in the oven with no problem.
Vickie
Hi Susan!
This looks SO delish. Can’t wait to try it. Can you explain why it’s important to freeze and then thaw the tofu before beginning? What does that add/provide?
Susan Voisin
Freezing the tofu makes it firmer and sponge-like, which helps it hold up to long, slow cooking. It needs to be frozen for at least 24 hours for this change to take place.
Bobbi Spargo
We were in Portland two weeks ago and ended up eating at Blooming Lotus twice that weekend. It was incredible! The plates were stunning and the flavors were amazing! I’m glad you got to experience it! We tried this recipe last night and were happy with it, but that isn’t unusual. We love your recipes! I think I make more of your recipes than any other site.
Karlie Shah
Hi! My hubby and I love your recipes, and have been using them often for about a year. Thank you for them!! I do have a question about freezing tofu, specifically in the slow cooked tofu in pineapple BBQ sauce recipe. When I freeze the tofu do I 1.) first take it out of its packaging and 2.) if so do I drain it at all first before freezing it?
Thank you again for all your wonderful recipes!!
Susan Voisin
Hi Karlie–You can freeze the tofu whatever way is more convenient to you. I’m lazy, so I just stick the whole carton in the freezer, but then I have to wait longer for it to thaw and squeeze it more to get the water out. But you can drain it first and then wrap it up in plastic wrap, and that’s less water for you to deal with when it thaws. It works the same either way.
Aoife
Can you recommend a sub for the tofu? I really want to make this but I’m on the soy free path…
Susan Voisin
You can make the sauce and use it on beans or vegetables. Canned hound jackfruit makes a very interesting barbecue.
Aoife
awesome thank you! I’ll definitely try a BBQ jackfruit salad!
Matt
Thanks for this recipe. I ended up following the baking instructions instead of using the slow cooker. My wife and I enjoyed it.
YorkMan
This smelled WONDERFUL as it cooked all day long. However, it was tasteless when served. Will not be making this one again!
Jane
Hi there, i don’t own a slow cooker but the pineapple bbq sauce sounds too good to miss. Do you have any tips on how to approach it just on the stove or in the oven? (i bet you hate Qs like this!)
Thanks!
Jane
Noooooo! so sorry – i just spotted oven instructions! apols.
Jessie
Love this recipe. It’s so good! I forgot how long it took to slow cook and I started a bit late. I’m using an instant pot as a slow cooker and have it on medium/high, any idea how long it might take to cook on this setting ?
Susan Voisin
Unfortunately I’ve never used the IP slow cooker function. My guess is that it is hotter than a regular slow cooker and also cooks from the bottom. So I would start checking it after 4 hours and maybe stir it after 2 hours.
Jessie
Amaaaazing! I didn’t have time to do the full slow cook so I did 4 hours of slow cooking on high and then I air fried it for 5-10 minutes to make it crispy and it was sooooo good! Highly recommend