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Almond Butter Green Bean Pad Thai with Tofu – Healthy, Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, Oil-Free, Asian, Stir-fry Quick Recipe from Plants-Rule

This recipe for Simple Plant-Based Baked Sesame Tofu is a delicious way to get your family to eat tofu. Tofu is a healthy source of vegan protein, perfect for serving with a side of brown rice and steamed broccoli. The marinade also works great on chickpeas, mushrooms, and tempeh.

Enjoy the Baked Sesame Tofu on its own. Or, serve it with Oil-Free Cauliflower Fried Rice, Black Forbidden Rice Asian Bowls, or Quick Oil-Free Chinese Eggplant Stir-Fry.

What are the Basic Ingredients for Asian Sesame Marinade?

A healthy, plant-based Asian marinade is the perfect recipe for adding lots of flavor to your whole foods ingredients. While it’s easy to buy a store-bought sauce, many of these are loaded with salt, sugar, oil, and are ultra-processed. Plus, it can be quite expensive buying a big jar when you only need a small amount.

Instead, it’s simple and easy to make your own Asian sesame marinade. A balanced and delicious recipe has a few fundamental flavors:

Salt: This usually provides all of the salt for the dish. Asian chefs rarely use table salt or kosher salt. Rather, they opt for soy sauce, tamari, or miso paste.
Umami: This “yummy” flavor is often described as a deep, delicious and savory flavor. In Asian cooking, you find this in fermented foods like soy sauce, tamari, and miso paste. You can see the link between salt and umami…these ingredients do double-duty for both salt and umami
Acid: A good stir-fry sauce has a little “zing” of brightness from acid. This usually comes from vinegar (like unseasoned rice vinegar or black vinegar) but can also come from lime.
Spice: Spicy heat helps make a stir-fry sauce pop. This can came from crushed red pepper flakes, fresh ginger, dried red chilies, or fresh chilies (like Fresno and Thai bird chilies)
Sweet: A little bit of sweet helps balance the spice and salt of a good sauce. Coconut sugar, brown sugar, palm sugar, and even Chinese sugar (which looks like brown sugar) are all used in Asian recipes.

Measuring with a kitchen scale makes it quick and accurate for creating delicious sauces — no more messing with measuring spoons!

Other optional ingredients in a stir-fry sauce:

Toasted Sesame Oil: This optional ingredient is sometimes used for depth of flavor and an extra toasted flavor. As the name suggests, though, it is 100% oil and 100% fat. A little goes a long way (often 1 teaspoon is plenty). However, if you’re going completely oil-free, toasted sesame seeds will impart some flavor.
Thickener: A thickener is often added to sauces to provide a more unctuous mouthfeel. Cornstarch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, and even potato starch are all plant-based thickeners used in sauces. Always follow the recipe for how much to add — a little goes a long way.

This sauce works double-duty as a quick marinade for tofu

3 Tips on How to Roast Tofu for Healthy Eating

The goal when roasting tofu for healthy eating is to impart a lot of flavor while also keeping the portions in-check. You can achieve this by following these 3 simple tips:

Use Extra Firm, Pressed Tofu: Tofu comes in many varieties (soft, firm, extra firm, extra protein, and more). Look at the front of the package for “pressed” tofu, which will have much of the water squeezed out — making for a heartier texture that will soak up the marinade
Cut the tofu into small cubes: Smaller cubes of tofu will give you more surface area to soak up the marinade. Plus, it will help control your portion sizes so you’re not overeating on a huge slab of tofu.
Use Parchment Paper: Line your baking pan with parchment paper so that the tofu doesn’t stick. Using parchment eliminates the need to spray the pan or add extra oil to the marinade.
Marinade Longer for More Flavor: For extra flavor, leave the tofu in the marinade overnight (up to 24 hours). You can even batch-cook and freeze the tofu in the marinade, thawing it out later when you’re ready to cook.
Air Fryer for Extra Crispy: For extra crispy edges, cook the tofu in an Air-Fryer. You’ll want to skip the parchment here, and you’ll get extra crispiness on the tofu.

Look for extra firm pressed tofu for marinated and roasted recipes

Chef’ Katie’s Plant-Based, Oil-Free Tips:

Use Extra Firm High Protein Tofu: I love the Wildwood brand extra firm high protein tofu for this recipe. It has an incredibly firm texture and holds up really well with the marinate.

Serving Suggestions: You can enjoy this Sesame Tofu on its own However, I like serving it with brown rice, steamed quinoa or Super Veggie Oil-Free Fried Rice

Freezing Tofu: You can freeze either before or after cooking. Freeze it before (in the marinade), then thaw and bake before eating. Or, freeze it after it’s roasted and simply reheat before eating.

Oil-Free Mission: I’m on a mission to get rid of empty calories, and oil is the most calorie-dense food. For this recipe, roasted almond butter adds rich, nutty flavor, while also bringing healthy fiber and key nutrients. You can substitute with other roasted nut or seed butter. For a less calorie-dense option, swap out the almond butter for 1 cup of chickpeas.

Soy-Free: If you’re avoiding soy, use Coconut Aminos instead of the tamari. Replace the tofu with frozen green peas, canned black beans, or cooked chickpeas.

Tamari vs. Soy Sauce: Tamari is similar to soy sauce, but it is gluten-free. If gluten isn’t a concern for you, you can use them interchangeably in recipes.