A tandoori marinade might be synonymous with the food it is usually slathered on and cooked with – tandoori chicken – but there are delicious, and vegan, ways to have your tandoori dish and eat it too. And I can’t think of any dish more delicious than this Oven Blackened Tandoori Tofu. There’s something so flavorful about the brilliantly orange-red, tangy, salty and spicy sauce, it’s a shame, really, to waste it on a poor chicken who, after six miserable weeks on earth spent inside a crowded cage never knowing what it is like to be a bird, was then shackled, hung upside down, and beheaded in an assembly line before she was dunked in boiling water and feathered and skinned – all by someone else – so you could waltz into the supermarket, buy her breasts and her thighs in neat packages, and eat her. (Sorry, carnivores reading this, but the truth needs to be slipped in sometimes so we don’t stay in the habit of ignoring it.) Getting back to the vegan stuff, while no one in Punjab, I am pretty sure, has slapped tofu into a tandoor, I am sure they would want to if they had a taste of this recipe. I don’t have a tandoor, but in my oven the tofu bakes up wonderfully firm and yet tender and juicy, with the bright flavors of the marinade complementing it beautifully. I love turning up the broiler at the end of baking for just a little bit to make the tofu blacken up in parts, making it even more crispy, smoky, and amazing. Just like you would with chicken, only better. The Oven Baked Tandoori Tofu is amazingly simple to make. And if you love crispy, toothsome tofu recipes, like this air fryer tofu or this chilli tofu, you will love this tandoori tofu for sure. It’s also so easy to make. All you need to do is press the tofu, slice it, marinate it once, marinate it once more, and then bake it. And no, the marinades are not complicated at all, they are in fact super simple. So simple that they’ll make you go, wow! Tandoori foods are usually served with tandoori breads, so serve with a vegan naan or aloo kulcha or roti. Or serve with basmati rice with a vegan cucumber raita on the side. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
Or cube this tofu, nestle it in a bed of greens, put it in a taco or a pita bread, and drizzle on some vegan yogurt. You can even layer it onto a pizza. The possibilities are endless. Here’s the recipe for my Oven Blackened Tandoori Tofu. Eat up!
More tasty tofu recipes
Glazed Lemon Tofu Tofu Tikka Masala Tofu “Paneer” Kali Mirch Instant Pot Vegan Butter “Chicken” with Tofu Tofu Makhani Sheet Pan Tofu with Chickpeas
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