Make A Mouth-Watering Tofu Marinade With Some Expert Inspiration

If you're going to make a tofu dish at home that is super flavorful and delicious, then you'll want to marinate it beforehand. Tofu will soak up all of the tasty flavors of the marinade, making for one memorable meal. To find out everything you need to know about crafting the best tofu marinade, Daily Meal spoke with an expert: Nisha Vora, the New York Times Best Selling Cookbook Author of "Big Vegan Flavor."

If you're new to marinades, then you may not know where to start — so Vora gave some suggestions for ingredient combinations to make up a delicious marinade for your tofu. First up, an East-Asian inspired marinade that consists of six ingredients: Soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, white pepper, brown sugar, and Chinese five-spice powder.

Vora says, "The soy sauce brings umami, the sesame oil adds nutty richness and helps the marinade cling to the tofu, and the brown sugar helps the tofu caramelize, creating a crispy, golden-brown exterior." Additionally, if you're unfamiliar with Chinese five-spice powder, it consists of star anise, cloves, Szechuan peppercorns, fennel seeds, and cinnamon. You can either make it at home or buy it pre-made at the store — and from there, you can explore other uses for it, such as adding it to fried rice. Finally, white pepper is the earthier-tasting counterpart to black pepper, which will also help with the overall depth of flavor.

When it comes to tofu marinades, Nisha Vora also recommends a maple syrup-dijon mustard combination, completed with soy sauce, avocado oil, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and freshly squeezed lime juice. You can also swap out the maple syrup for agave nectar for a similar effect — both act as a sweetener, but agave has a much more neutral flavor than maple syrup (which has a caramel-nutty flavor), so choose based on personal preference. Vora says, "This combo is tangy, sweet, and a little spicy, with the maple syrup or agave giving the tofu a caramelized finish while Dijon adds a zesty punch."

Finally, Vora also recommends a yogurt marinade, which is used frequently in Indian cooking for dishes such as chicken tikka masala or tandoori chicken. Vora says, "I use that same technique with tofu using a thick coconut-based yogurt, a homemade spice blend, and lemon juice in tofu Tikka Masala." For the spice blend, you may want to go with garam masala, an Indian mix of spices consisting of coriander, cardamom, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and nutmeg.