Crispy Vegan Salt and Pepper Air Fryer Tofu with Stir-Fried Veggies

Crispy vegan salt and pepper tofu made in the air fryer with Chinese five spice, paprika, and stir-fried veggies in a savory balsamic soy sauce.

Ingredients

This air fryer tofu recipe uses a simple spice rub and quick stir fry sauce to create bold, takeout-style flavor at home.

• 1 firm tofu
• 1 tsp ground white pepper (for tofu rub)
• 1/2 tsp salt (for tofu rub)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder (for tofu rub)
• 1/4 tsp paprika (for tofu rub)
• 3-4 tbsp corn starch (for tofu crispiness)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (for stir fry)
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (for stir fry)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce (for stir fry)
• 1 tsp Sichuan chili oil (optional - to taste for stir fry)
• 1 tsp sesame oil (for stir fry)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 large white onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 3 large portobello mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 green onion stalk
• 1 cup white rice (optional)

Instructions

Prep the tofu and rice

• Prepare the firm tofu by pressing it for ~15 minutes or so.
• Preheat your air fryer to 375F. We will use this temperature to cook the tofu!
• While the tofu is being pressed and the air fryer is pre-heating, heat up a small pot of boiling water and start making a side of white rice (omit this step if you are good with tofu and veggies only). Otherwise, move on to chopping up veggies for the stir fry.

Prep the stir fry ingredients

• Chop up half a large white onion, bell pepper, and portobello into small pieces.
• Finely chop up 2 garlic gloves and 1 green onion.

Make tofu seasoning and coat the tofu

• Create the tofu rub by combining the ground white pepper, salt, Chinese five spice powder, paprika together ideally in a shallow wide bowl so it’ll be easier to roll the tofu cubes in it.
• After pressing the tofu, cut up the tofu into small 1” cubes and roll them into the wide plate of spices. No need to press the spices in too hard, since we don’t want it to taste too dry from excess spices on each tofu.
• Next, evenly coat the tofu with cornstarch by working in small batches to keep the cornstarch dry. If your wide spice plate is dry, add the cornstarch to it and roll the tofu cubes until coated on all sides. If the plate is wet from previous tofu, rinse and dry it before adding fresh cornstarch.

Air Fry the Tofu

• Add the cornstarch and spice covered tofu into the air fryer and cook for 15 min, turning the tofu halfway through.

Stir Fry the Vegetables

• While the tofu is air frying heat up a large skillet on high and add a tablespoon of coconut oil (or ideally some high smoke point oil).
• Once heated, add the chopped onion and cook for a few minutes until they start to show a hint of color at the edges.
• Add the chopped bell pepper, stir, and cook again for a few minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if the onion starts to crisp up too much.
• Add the chopped mushrooms, finely chopped garlic, and half the chopped green onion and stir, cooking for another 2 minutes or so (half since it’s tasty to use the other half for the tofu at the end).
• Add the balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, Sichuan chili oil to the veggie stir fry. Cook for 2-4 minutes to lessen the flavor potency of the vinegars, and let the sauce reduce a bit more and infuse with the veggies.
• Once the sauce mostly evaporated, and you tasted a small pepper piece for “doneness”, if the pepper is cooked to your liking, you can add a tsp of sesame oil for more flavor at the very end.
• Transfer the veggie stir fry to a large bowl and clear out the skillet to next double fry the tofu.

Finish and serve

• Add a tbsp of coconut oil to the skillet again and toss in the air fried tofu cubes. The goal here is to just fry the tofu once more to make sure all the whiteness from the cornstarch coating goes away and give the tofu a nice darker color.
• Toss in the other half of the green onion if you saved that from earlier, and cook the green onion and tofu mix for another minute or so until the green onion chars a bit, re-add the stir fried veggies to reheat briefly, and stir everything together, then turn off the heat and get ready to serve!
• Add cooked rice to a deeper set plate or small bowl and top it with the stir fry veggie tofu mix and enjoy!

Tips

• Only coat a few tofu cubes with cornstarch at a time so the cornstarch doesn’t get wet and clump.