ramyaramesh3007This vegan “honey” baked tofu ham is infused with fresh orange juice, festive spices & a maple glaze for the perfect centrepiece during your holiday meal.
Don’t eat meat? Try this vegan centrepiece (or even as a side) for melt-in-your-mouth sweet and spicy flavours. Eat meat? You can still include this at your dinner table as the perfect tofu dish.
This juicy and succulent baked tofu ham is crispy and sticky on the edges, making it the perfect dish to be on your Christmas dinner table. Simple ingredients and an easy three-step process makes this tofu recipe very easy and convenient to prepare – the spiced maple glaze is just OUT of this world!
Easy 3-step process
Marinate: Marinating is key to infusing the flavours into tofu. Tofu itself is a neutral vessel of an ingredient that sometimes can have a strong “soy” flavour. In my experience, the more fresh the tofu, the lesser of that taste and the more soft and juicy it is too. Store bought tofu blocks work just as fine but I would suggest getting those with less preservatives and added ingredients other than non-GMO soy beans if you can.
I marinated this tofu for 5 hours and it was already packed with flavour so it is phenomenal if you marinate this overnight. The fresh flavours infuse perfectly.
Bake: Baking is the best way to infuse those flavours even further and to get that brown, crispy edges without it getting too messy. You also can choose not to any oil (just cover with an aluminium foil when baking instead). I just drizzled some olive oil and baked it for about 20 minutes.
Glaze: The glaze is the most important step for this recipe as it provides a nice coating for the tofu and adding an additional layer of sweetness. I’ve balanced out the sweetness with some spice by using ground cloves but you can use fresh ones to infuse the flavours as well.
What Do I Need?
- extra firm tofu – extra firm tofu works best for this recipe. You’re not required to freeze the tofu but do remember to drain the excess water.
- fresh orange juice – juiced fresh from an orange
- soy sauce – we need the saltiness to infuse the flavours fully into the tofu block
- chili paste – I used harissa paste but you can also use chili flakes
- ground cloves – to spice up the glaze
- maple syrup & coconut sugar – the main condiments of the glaze
- vegan butter – this is optional, you can also substitute it with oil
Orange Honey Baked Tofu Ham
Ingredients
- 1 block tofu (200g)
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp harissa paste sub 2 tsp chili flakes
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp dairy-free butter
Instructions
- Drain excess water from your tofu and score it like how you would do ham, in a criss cross pattern.
- Combine your marinade ingredients: soy sauce, orange juice and harissa paste in a container.
- Place your tofu in the container and spoon over the marinade so it's completely coated in the sauce. Refrigerate for 3 hours to overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C.
- Place the tofu on a baking tray and spoon over some sauce over the tofu to fully coat it. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the glaze by adding vegan butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup and ground cloves to a pan. Mix until well combined and the mixture thickens.
- Take out from the oven, and immediately brush the glaze on the tofu. Grill or broil for 5-15 minutes depending on the strength of your oven. Save some glaze for the final touch.
- Take out from the oven, and brush more glaze on the tofu. Serve with orange slices and herbs. Slice and enjoy!