Brown Sugar Glazed Tofu Roast

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This tofu roast is loaded with sweet and smoky flavor! Made with a whole block of tofu that’s marinated, baked, and glazed to perfection, it’s the perfect main dish for everything from weeknight dinners to holidays and special occasions.

White wooden surface set with oranges, mint leaves and partially sliced tofu roast.

I’ve attempted to create so many vegan roast recipes over the history of this website, but until now was never able to come up with something I was happy with. I think the problem was that I was using ingredients like seitan in an attempt to make a roast that tastes like meat. That doesn’t always work.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my years of recipe development, it’s that sometimes you just need to let your ingredients be what they are, rather than trying to disguise them as meat.

That approach worked for my vegan meatloaf, which is made of chickpeas (and certainly not fooling anyone into thinking they’re eating meat). So I tried doing the same when developing a vegan roast recipe, this time using tofu.

This tofu roast isn’t pretending to be anything it’s not. What it is is a delicious block of baked tofu. It’s full of smoky flavor and smothered in a scrumptious brown sugar glaze. It also looks pretty cool, making it an excellent vegan main dish for holiday celebrations.

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Ingredients You’ll Need

Soy sauce. Liquid aminos and tamari can both be substituted to keep this recipe gluten-free.
Orange juice. Check the ingredients if using bottled juice, as many brands use non-vegan ingredients like animal derived vitamin D3.
Maple syrup.
Spices. You’ll need smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, ground cloves, and optionally whole cloves.
Tofu. Extra-firm tofu is your best bet for this recipe (and what I generally recommend for baked-tofu recipes). Firm tofu will also work. I don’t recommend using super-firm tofu, as it’s very dense and won’t absorb as much marinade as the other varieties.
Brown sugar. Be sure to buy organic brown sugar, as conventional brown sugar may be processed using animal bone char.
Vegan butter. You can find this near the regular butter at the supermarket. Earth Balance and Miyoko’s are a couple of popular brands to look out for.
Dijon mustard.

How It’s Made

The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!

Begin by pressing your tofu. Do this for at least 20 minutes, but the longer the better, up to about an hour.

While the tofu presses, stir your marinade ingredients together: soy sauce, orange juice, maple syrup, smoked paprika, onion powder and garlic powder.

Score the top and bottom of your tofu block. Do this by cutting making about 4 parallel slices, evenly spaced, then another 4 slices in the opposite direction. I like to make my slices on a diagonal, as shown above, but feel free to cut whatever pattern you like. Deeper cuts will allow more marinade to penetrate the tofu, but be careful not to cut too deep or your block will fall apart. ¼ to ⅛ inch is perfect.

Place the tofu into a shallow dish and pour the marinade over it. Let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, but up to 24 hours. Make sure to cover and chill the tofu if you let it marinate for longer than 2 hours.

After marinating, place the tofu on a baking sheet or baking dish and pop it into the oven. Hang on to the excess marinade and use it to baste your tofu every 15 minutes or so.

Make the glaze while the tofu bakes. Combine brown sugar, vegan butter, orange juice, Dijon mustard, cinnamon and ground cloves in a saucepan. Simmer the mixture for 6 to 8 minutes, then let it cool a bit.

After the tofu has baked for about 45 minutes, take it out of the oven and pour the glaze over it. You can also press some whole cloves into the top if you like. Return it to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.

Whole tofu roast on a plate with mint leaves and orange slices.

Let the tofu roast sit for a few minutes when it comes out of the oven. It will firm up a bit as it cools.

Close up of a partially sliced tofu roast on a plate.

Slice it up and enjoy!

Leftovers & Storage

Store any leftover tofu roast in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The leftovers make excellent sandwich material!

More Vegan Main Dishes

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