Perfectly salted, crispy on the outside, soft and eggy on the inside, this Salty Crispy Tofu is going to change the way you think of tofu. Shallow-fried with minimal oil, you’ll want to eat these crunchy, bite-sized treats right out of the pan. Whether you devour them all by yourself, or share them with friends or family, Salty Crispy Tofu makes a fun appetizer or afternoon snack. Or make it part of a meal with these fabulously flexible Buddha Bowls. 

TLDR

What's different about this tofu recipe?

This tofu recipe may be quite different than many others you’ve seen. The key differences are:

Ingredients

This recipe uses just four ingredients:

Medium tofu is firm enough to handle but soft enough that when shallow-fried it has a crispy outer shell and a soft, almost eggy inside.

The Steps in Detail 

This recipe is easy to make once you're familiar with the steps. 

Cut Tofu Into Cubes

Now that you’ve got your medium firm tofu in hand, the first step is to drain it and then cut it into relatively even-sized cubes. We cut them in roughly one-inch cubes, which is a good size for working with and also a perfect size for snacking on. Don’t worry if you can’t get them perfectly even. While testing, we ended up with some non uniform pieces and it wasn’t an issue.

Soak the Tofu in Salt Water

For this recipe, you dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in 2 cups of boiling water. Put the tofu in a shallow bowl and pour the boiling, salted water on it. Don’t worry if it doesn’t completely cover the tofu. In our bowl, the water comes just to the top of the tofu, but doesn’t cover it.

Your tofu needs to soak for about 15 minutes. Put your timer on and go put your feet up.

This salt water soak may seem counterintuitive but it actually helps draw the moisture out of the tofu.

After the tofu’s done soaking, drain off the salt water and pat the tofu dry with a tea towel. 

Coat the Tofu in Cornstarch

Now, we’re ready to coat the tofu in cornstarch. This, along with the salt-water soak, helps give the tofu its beautiful crisp outer layer. Sprinkle the cornstarch on a flat surface, then gently roll the tofu around in it until each side is coated.

Now the tofu is ready for frying. You can leave this sitting for half-hour or so if you aren’t ready to eat yet. The tofu tastes best when it's freshly made. 

Shallow-Fry the Tofu

The final step is shallow-frying. This doesn’t require any fancy equipment: the bare essentials are a large deep pan and a slotted spatula. If you own a splatter guard it’ll come in handy as well. You can buy these cheaply at dollar stores. In Canada, the one pictured below was about 3 dollars.

To shallow fry the tofu, add a thin layer of neutral-flavoured oil to the pot, just barely covering the bottom of the pot. The amount will depend on the size of your pot. With a 9-inch diameter pot, we used 3 tablespoons of oil. Don’t panic, all of this oil does not get absorbed.

Only about half of the oil gets absorbed by the tofu — that’s about one tablespoon and a half of oil for the entire recipe.

Turn the heat to medium high. Once the oil is sizzling, drop the tofu cubes in the pan. If you’ve got a splatter guard put that on top. Let the tofu fry for about 4 minutes, until golden brown on one side. Then flip the tofu over and fry it for another 2 minutes, until golden brown.

Drain the Tofu

The final step is to drain the tofu on something absorbent, such as a tea towel or paper towel. It’s ready to eat, but be careful it’s hot.

This is totally yummy as is, but it’s also delicious dipped into something herbaceous and garlicky, like chimichurri.

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