I love to order tofu when we get takeaway, but it’s not something I cook at home. I think I tried it once and failed brilliantly, though I don’t remember the recipe. It was a long time ago! But I recently found a couple of tofu recipes that sounded so good! This Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce recipe is the first one I’m trying this week. The peanut sauce in the Rice Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce I made recently must still be on my mind. Let’s give another recipe with peanut sauce a try!
Oven-baked marinated tofu skewers served with tangy, sweet, rich, creamy and extremely delicious peanut sauce.
The Ingredients
As ever I began this recipe with a quick pantry check while I made up my shopping list. I found I had peanut butter, Sriracha sauce (always!), brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger powder, and rice vinegar. I even had a few limes.
That didn’t leave me with all that much to buy for my tofu satay, and I found everything at my usual grocery store. Since I have never bought tofu I wasn’t 100% sure where to find it. I guessed the produce department, and I was right. I found it there in the refrigerated section.
The Process
First up was pressing the tofu. I put mine onto a sheet pan with a cutting board under one end to create a slight tilt. Then I added the tofu and pressed it with my 10-inch cast-iron skillet. I ended up pressing out about 1/4 cup of water over 20 minutes. The slight tilt the cutting board created let all that water drain away from the tofu.
I was able to mix up the marinade and the peanut sauce while the tofu drained. Prep work for the marinade and sauce was the same: just whisk all the ingredients together until smooth. The “hardest work” of this was just slicing and juicing a lime.
Once the tofu finished, I sliced it into 6 long rectangles. First, I sliced it in half horizontally to create 2 large slabs of tofu. Then I sectioned each of those into 3 pieces each for a total fo 6.
I used a small container that was just big enough to lay out all 6 pieces of tofu in a single layer (it was a 3-cup Snapware I use all the time). First, I spread some marinade onto the bottom of the container, then I added the tofu and poured over the rest of the marinade. That coated most of the tofu, and I used a basting brush to spread it over any uncovered sides.
The tofu finished marinating 20 minutes later, and it was ready to bake. I spread the pieces onto a sheet pan and baked them for 10 minutes. They didn’t seem to have crisped much, so I added another 2 minutes before turning them.
Another 12 minutes later my Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce was done. I added the bamboo skewers and transferred them to a serving plate. Then I topped my peanut sauce with some crushed peanuts and added some sliced green onions before serving. I also added a couple of lime wedges since they were in the recipe’s photo.
Timing
This recipe lists a prep time of 15 minutes, a cooking time of 20 minutes, and 50 additional minutes to drain and marinate the tofu. That comes to a total time of 1 hour 25 minutes. I came in 10 minutes under that:
- 21 minutes to drain the tofu
- 6 minutes to prep the marinade
- 20 minutes to marinate the tofu
- 25 minutes to cook and add the skewers
- 1 hour and 15 minutes total
