Crispy golden tofu bathed in a 5-ingredient peanut gochujang sauce that is spicy, sweet, tangy, and so delicious.
This was SO good!! I rarely use tofu but this recipe will be part of my regular rotation now! Thanks for always giving such wonderful recipes!
In This Post
- Jump To The Recipe
- Why I Love This Recipe
- Visual Walk-Through of the Recipe
- Video
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Ratings
Watch How To Make This Gochujang Tofu
This Tofu Makes Me Love Life.
The way to my heart is through max flavor with minimal effort, and this recipe is exactly that. It’s spicy, crunchy, sweet, sticky, and all-around FEEL GOOD. Here’s what I’m doing:
- Ripping tofu into chunks.
- Baking the tofu.
- Saucing the tofu.
- Dipping, dunking, devouring.
The end result here is craggly little bites of crispty, boingy, saucy, sticky tofu. Throw it onto a rice bowl with the crunch of cucumber and some herbs. Add more sauce. Happy dance.
The beauty of this recipe is that we get to go super minimal at the start – salt, pepper, oil and cornstarch. The main goal is just TEXTURE. And once the crispity golden texture is there, we drench her with spicy-sweet sauce (5 ingredients, thank you very much) that sticks into every tofu nook and cranny.
This tofu is fast enough and easy enough that I can make it for a WFH lunch, which I often do. And love. The girls are a no-thanks to the spicy gochujang sauce, so when I make this for dinner, we give them the plain tofu as “tofu nuggets” with ketchup or honey mustard and Bjork and I get to enjoy the whole batch of that finger-licking sauce to ourselves.
The gochujang sauce in this recipe is based around peanuts, sesame, and soy – but should you find yourself wanting a gochujang sauce that’s even a little more luscious (and potentially a bit more allergy-friendly), this mayo-based gochujang sauce is a total delight and would work just as well here!
Welcome To My House! Let’s Make This Sticky Gochujang Tofu!
1
Pull Your Tofu Into Chunks.
Pull the tofu into chunks and toss with cornstarch, salt, and a bit of oil – main goal here is to create a bit of a textural exterior for the sauce to cling to!
2
Make Your Sauce.
While the tofu bakes, shake up a quick gochujang sauce in a jar.
3
Toss Tofu with Sauce.
Once the tofu is golden and textured, pour sauce over it and toss to coat.
4
One Last Little Roast.
Send it back to the oven just long enough to get it deeply colored and roasty-toasty.
5
You’re Done! Yum!
Drizzle the tofu with more sauce to make it a lil sticky and delicious. Serve with all the goods. So yum.
Description
Max flavor, minimal effort! This Gochujang Tofu is a beauty. Crispy golden tofu bathed in a 5-ingredient sauce that is spicy, sweet, tangy, and so delicious.
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Press the tofu a few times with paper towels (if you use the vacuum-packed kind, this is hardly necessary at all – yay!). Tear the tofu into rough chunks.
- Tofu: Put the tofu chunks in a nonstick square baking dish, or a sheet pan lined with parchment. Add the oil, cornstarch, salt, and pepper directly to the pan; shake or toss to coat.
- Bake: Bake tofu for 15 minutes. Give it a shake or stir to rotate the pieces. Then bake for another 10 minutes. (Total bake time: 25 minutes.)
- Make Sauce: While baking is happening, shake up the sauce ingredients in a jar until smooth.
- Sauce on Tofu: Pour just enough sauce over the tofu to coat; toss to combine. Return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, checking every so often to prevent burning, until golden brown.
- Done! Remove the pan from the oven and toss with a fresh drizzle of sauce. Serve with rice and a vegetable, and top with chopped peanuts, cilantro, green onion, and any remaining sauce. SO GOOD!
Notes
Note 1: Gochujang is a spicy Korean fermented red chili paste fermented paste. I use gochujang sauce for this recipe and I love the Bibigo brand! Gochujang sauce tastes like gochujang but it also has flavors of garlic, sesame, etc. – it’s more of a condiment. You can also use proper Korean gochujangpaste in this recipe, but it will be thicker, spicier, and have less added flavors. If you do this, use less (1 tablespoon would be plenty) and add a bit of extra flavor like brown sugar, garlic powder, ginger, etc.
Note 2: You don’t have to use a nonstick square baking dish, but I like that it has higher sides and makes it easy to toss everything around all in one pan. Here’s the one I have. (affiliate link)
