crispy tofu and cauliflower with miso peanut sauce

crispy tofu and cauliflower with miso peanut sauce

it’s tofu time!!!!

Caroline Chambers

Oct 17, 2026

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Today’s recipe reaffirms my stance that beige food is the best food. As if it needed any reaffirming after

last week

! It’s also delightful enough to convert any potential tofu haters out there into tofu lovers! If you’ve never cooked tofu, this is your moment! It’s DELICIOUS — I promise! If you’ve cooked tofu a million times, you’re gonna love this one! Let’s all do this together!

This miso peanut sauce could make a shoe taste good, but it’s

especially

delicious on tofu. Before we roast the tofu cubes, we’ll sprinkle them with cornstarch, which allows them to get nice and crispy on the outside while staying soft on the inside. And we’re adding thinly sliced cauliflower to the sheet pan, too, for a nutritious veg that also tastes amazing roasted and covered with this sauce!

You can serve it by itself, over cooked rice or quinoa to make it a little more filling (might I remind you that microwaveable frozen rice exists?!), over lettuce, or even stuffed in lettuce wraps. Do your thing! And we’ll garnish all that delicious beige food with cilantro for a fresh green. I also love finishing my bowl with a lime wedge. It adds a pop of brightness and acidity that’s really nice.

As vegetarian WTCers know, tofu makes a frequent appearance in the “vegetarian” notes in WTC. But it has — shockingly!! — only been the star of the show in this newsletter once, way back in 2021 when we cooked

this Thai tofu curry soup

. Tofu is essentially a block of condensed soy milk and it is an excellent source of plant-based protein. It’s also quite bland. In a good way! It absorbs whatever flavors you dress it in so well.

A block of tofu comes packaged in water, which prevents it from drying out. But when it’s time to roast it, we actually

want

to dry it out a little so that it can get nice and crispy. So the first step in this recipe is to press your block of tofu between two clean paper towels or dish towels and under something heavy. Ideally you’ll let it press for 15 or 20 minutes, but even 5 to 10 minutes will help squeeze out some of that water.

When you’re shopping, look for “extra firm” (ideal!) or “firm” tofu. You do NOT

want “medium” or “silken” tofu for this recipe, they will be too soft.

If you or someone in your family has a soy allergy, you could swap the tofu out for a can of chickpeas, or navy or cannellini beans. Dry them off really well before adding to the sheet-pan and they’ll crisp up nicely alongside the cauliflower. See the “soy free” note beneath the recipe for more info if you’re cutting soy.

Once you become a tofu lover, try the

Thai tofu curry soup

! The cubes absorb the soup perfectly, and become delicious little flavor-bomb bites. If you’re wanting more plant-based protein in your life, here are two of my seasonal favorite vegetarian dinners from the archives:

one-pot pumpkin chickpea curry

(you could add cubed tofu!) and

sheet-pan roasted sweet potatoes with chickpeas and whipped feta

.

One more vegetarian recipe I know you’ll love! On page 74 of

Make It Fas

t

(on sale at Target, Walmart, and on Amazon for $24 or less!!!), I share my ridiculously good 15-minute smoky black beans recipe, and then give you five ways to use them! The loaded sweet potatoes are my current fave.

Serves 2 to 4

Total time: 1 hour (20 minutes of prep time; 40 minutes of cook time)

Tools:

Heavy skillet or pot (for pressing the tofu)

Large rimmed sheet pan

Parchment paper

Chef’s knife

Cutting board

Mixing bowl

Ingredients:

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