Easy Tofu Tacos Recipe
This Tofu Taco recipe is one of my family's favourite vegan recipes. I love it, my kids love it, and even my meat-loving kiwi husband loves it, no one even notices the lack of ground beef!
Why This Recipe Works
- Quick and Easy to make, you can have these tofu tacos on the table in under 30 minutes!
- A plant-based meal that everyone loves even children and those not used to vegan or vegetarian meals.
- It's a TACO and tacos are such a great family meal because you can build your own with your own favourite fillings.
Ingredients you will need
To make these tofu tacos you will need:
- Firm tofu
- Canned black beans
- Tinned tomatoes
- Tomato paste
- Soy sauce
- Herbs and spices (cumin, paprika, dried coriander leaves, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and chili flakes).
- and my secret ingredient, cocoa.
My secret tofu crumble ingredients
The cocoa powder, tomato-based ingredients, soy sauce provide umami flavour to this dish. Umami flavours are known to have a 'meaty' quality.
Substitutions
- Firm tofu: No subs for this ingredient you will need firm or extra firm tofu for this recipe to work.
- Black beans: These can be substituted for another canned or cooked bean, kidney beans work very well. You can also skip them entirely and increase the quantity of tofu to make up for them.
- Cocoa: This can be substituted for cacao powder.
- Soy sauce: This can be substituted for Tamari or a yeast extract spread such as marmite or vegemite.
- Crushed & sieved tomatoes: These are essentially tomato purée, another substitute would be passata.
- Herbs and Spices: Instead of using my combination of Mexican-inspired spices you can use your own preferred Mexican spice mix, taco seasoning or Mexican paste.
- Garlic and Onion powder: These can be substituted for 2 cloves of fresh crushed garlic and a small finely diced onion, however, I prefer the flavour the dried onion and garlic give to this dish which is why I recommend them.
How to make Tofu Tacos
You will find photos of the key steps below, check them out as sometimes visually seeing a step can really help. For a printable version of the tofu taco recipe please see the recipe card below.
Step one: In a large mixing bowl add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, Tomato paste, soy sauce, cumin, paprika, coriander leaves, onion powder/granules, oregano leaves, garlic powder, chilli flakes (optional: refer to notes), and cocoa powder
Step two: Whisk all these ingredients together until they form a paste.
Step three: Dry the tofu using either a paper towel or tea towel to remove the excess water. Pressing the tofu is not necessary.
Step four: Use your hands to crumble the tofu into the Mexican flavoured paste.
Step five: Mix the crumbled tofu through the Mexican paste until the tofu crumbles are covered evenly with the spices.
Step six: Heat a large frypan/ skillet and the second Tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the Mexican tofu crumbles. Fry the tofu for 10 -15 minutes stirring occasionally. You want the liquid to cook off and the tofu to brown.
Step seven: While the tofu mixture is cooking, drain the black beans and rinse under the tap, I do this in a colander.
Step eight: Add the drained black beans and crushed tomatoes to the tofu, cook over medium-high heat until the beans are heated through and the tomato liquid has been absorbed.
Season your Mexican tofu mixture and beans with salt and pepper to taste. I typically add ½ a teaspoon of salt.
Serve your tofu tacos with soft or crunchy tortillas and your favourite fillings.
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How to serve my Mexican Tofu Crumbles
My favourite way to serve this recipe is as Tofu Tacos. I like to use a soft flour tortilla or corn tortilla, shredded iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, avocado, corn, cilantro/coriander leaves, and a little mayo, my sriracha aioli is lovely drizzled on these tacos. I let my kids build their own tacos, with as few or as little fillings as they desire.
You can use this same recipe but serve it as Nachos, Burritos, Burito bowl or loaded sweet potato fries.
If you are on the hunt for other kid-friendly tofu recipe my Satay Tofu Skewers are a great family friendly meal.
Top Tips
Here is how you can make these tofu crumbles perfectly every time!
- If you know your entire family loves chili in their tacos, then add the chili flakes into the spice paste at the start, if not you can add them at the end, or perhaps only to some of the crumbles so that there are both spicy and nonspicy tofu tacos for your family to enjoy together.
- When you crumble the tofu don't crumble it too far, ie keep the crumbles a little chunky and not super fine, I find this gives the crumbles a better texture.
- Cook the tofu taco fillings until it is very dry, the moisture has absorbed and it is well browned.
- Once cooked taste your tofu taco meat and season it well, add salt and chili as needed for your tastes. Tofu is great but I find it needs to be well seasoned.
FAQs
Cook your tofu crumbles over medium-high heat until all the liquid has evaporated, then continue to cook until the tofu is well browned. Do not continuously stir the tofu crumbles while cooking, just stir occasionally this will also help them crisp.
You can store any left over tofu taco meat in an airtight refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can freeze any leftovers for up to 3 months, allow to defrost before reheating to piping hot in a frypan/skillet.
In short, no you don't. Because you crumble the tofu and then cook the tofu crumbles over a medium-high heat the moisture in the tofu evaporates without the need to press the tofu first.
My kids really enjoy tofu-based meals, these tofu recipes for kids are some of their favourites, my favourite are my satay tofu skewers.
Tofu Tacos
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Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoon Tomato paste 50g
- 2 Tablespoon olive oil 30ml
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon corriander leaves
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon oregano leaves
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoons chili flakes
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 450 g firm tofu
- 400 g canned black beans
- ½ cup crushed tomatoes 125 ml
- salt
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl add: 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, Tomato paste, soy sauce, cumin, paprika, coriander leaves, onion powder/granuals, oregano leaves, garlic powder, chili flakes (optional: refer to notes) and cocoa powder.
- Whisk all these ingredients together until they form a paste
- Dry the tofu using either a paper towel or tea towel to remove the excess surface water. You do not need to press the tofu for any lenght of time.
- Use your hands to crumble the tofu into the mexican flavoured paste.
- Mix the crumbled tofu through the mexican paste until the tofu crumbles are covered evenly with the spices.
- Heat a large frypan/ skillet and the second Tablespoon of olive oil over a medium high heat.
- Add the Mexican tofu crumble. Fry the tofu for 10 -15 minutes stiring occasionally. You want the liquid to cook off and the tofu to brown.
- While the tofu is cooking, drain the black beans and rinse under the tap, I do this in a colander.
- Add the drained black beans and crushed tomatoes to the tofu, cook over a medium-high heat until the beans are heated through and the tomato liquid has been absorbed.
- Season your tofu and beans with salt and pepper to taste. I typically add ½ a teaspoon of salt.
- Serve your tofu tacos with soft or crunchy tortillas and your favourite fillings (my fav combo for tofu tacos can be found in the recipe notes)
Video
Notes
My Tips
- If you know your entire family loves chili in their tacos, then add the chili flakes into the spice paste at the start, if not you can add them at the end, or perhaps only to some of the crumbles so that there are both spicy and nonspicy tofu tacos for your family to enjoy together.
- When you crumble the tofu don't crumble it too far, ie keep the crumbles a little chunky and not super fine, I find this gives the crumbles a better texture.
- Cook the tofu taco fillings until it is very dry, the moisture has absorbed and it is well browned.
- Once cooked taste your tofu taco meat and season it well, add salt and chili as needed for your tastes. Tofu is great but I find it needs to be well seasoned.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Firm tofu or Extra Firm Tofu: No subs for this ingredient
- Black beans: These can be substituted for another canned or cooked bean, kidney beans work very well. You can also skip them entirely and increase the quantity of tofu to make up for them.
- Cocoa: This can be substituted for cacao powder.
- Soy sauce: This can be substituted for Tamari or a yeast extract spread such as marmite or vegemite.
- Crushed & sieved tomatoes: These are essentially tomato purée, another substitute would be passata.
- Herbs and Spices: Instead of using my combination of Mexican-inspired spices you can use your own preferred Mexican spice mix, Taco Seasoning or Mexican paste.
- Garlic and Onion powder: These can be substituted for 2 cloves of fresh crushed garlic and a small finely diced onion, however, I prefer the flavour the dried onion and garlic give to this dish which is why I recommend them.
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