Vegan Tofu “Spam”
I love how versatile tofu is and how well it absorbs flavour so I decided to make some vegan tofu “spam”. I sliced the tofu into cubes and some into slabs before marinating it overnight in a smokey hickory sauce. The tofu gets the pinkish red colour from beet powder, which is optional but adds that nice touch to the tofu and makes it look more like spam visually.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 2 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 400 g extra firm tofu
- Neutral oil (for cooking)
- 3 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari for a GF option)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
- Pinch ground pepper
- 2 tsp liquid smoke (this is what gives the sauce that smokey hickory flavour!)
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tsp sugar (or to sweeten)
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp beet powder (optional for colour (see notes))
Instructions
- 1
Press the tofu for 10 to 15 minutes to remove excess water. I like to wrap mine in a towel and place a weighted surface or a few plates on top of the tofu.
- 2
Slice the tofu into cubes.
- 3
You can also slice some into 3/4-inch thick slabs.
- 4
Prepare the marinade by mixing all the ingredients together in a plate or container. Mix it well until the sugar has dissolved. This marinade in the photo doesn’t have the beet powder. Using beet powder will make it appear pinker/reddish in colour as seen in the photo below.
- 5
Add in the tofu cubes/slab and coat in the marinade.
- 6
Leave the tofu to marinate overnight for the best flavours. You can opt to marinate it longer for 2-3 days. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
- 7
When ready to cook, don’t discard the excess marinade!
- 8
Heat a large non-stick pan or skillet over medium high heat. Add in some oil to the pan.
- 9
Add in the tofu pieces. Cook over high heat until lightly brown on each side, around 10 minutes total.
- 10
Scoop the excess marinade to cook the tofu in. The sauce will be absorbed by the tofu as it cooks.
- 11
Repeat this for the rest of the tofu (or the slabs of tofu, if you sliced them into slabs too).
- 12
Turn off the heat.
- 13
Enjoy your tofu “spam” in fried rice, as is, in wraps, and more.
- 14
You can find my tofu "spam" fried rice recipe here.