Smokey with a little bit of spice, shredded barbecue tofu is a perfect vegetarian substitution at the barbecue table if you are totally cutting meat from your diet or simply trying to eat less meat.

The barbecue tofu is marinated in my homemade barbecue sauce which is freezable, so make a second batch to have ready for a quick meal next time.

How to make barbecue tofu

Start by making your barbecue sauce, if you do not have a batch in the freezer already.

Mince garlic and fry in a pot for a few minutes in the oil until fragrant, then mix the rest of the ingredients and add to the pot.

Cook for ten minutes on low heat, don’t let it boil. Whisk occasionally until reached desired consistency.

Take the pot off heat and let the sauce cool before adding to your shredded tofu mix.

Press your tofu between some paper towels. For a quicker press, put a heavy pot on top of the paper towel. If the tofu break a bit, that is ok, you will shred it later anyway.

Shred your tofu and onion on the largest side of your shredder, mix with cooled barbecue sauce on a baking sheet, put it in the oven at 175 degrees C (350F) for thirty minutes. Stir every ten minutes to ensure even cooking of the tofu.

Serve it in a hamburger bun with all the toppings, and extra barbecue sauce on the side.

For more detailed steps and full ingredients list, see the recipe card below.

Substitutes

Do not have the time or ingredients to make your own barbecue sauce? Do not worry, you can use store bought, use about 200 ml.

Freezable

As mentioned above, the barbecue sauce is freezable so make a big batch and keep for later. For other variations you can use my barbecue sauce for, see below.

The shredded tofu is also freezable, perfect for big batch cooking. Freeze in an airtight container for up to three months. Leave the tofu in the fridge to defrost, before reheating in the oven for about five minutes.

As the tofu is shredded it is quite easy to separate straight on to a baking sheet if you forgot to take it out to defrost earlier. Usually it takes less than fifteen minute on my kitchen counter before I can loosen it enough to spread it on the baking sheet to reheat. Keep it in the oven for a bit longer than five minutes, and check that the food is piping hot before taking it out.

Variations

I use this barbecue sauce for hamburgers, meatballs, meatloaf, basically anything I make with mince meat (ground meat) in the summer time. It is that good.

For other shredded tofu variations, try my vegan shredded teriyaki tofu.

Print Recipe

Shredded barbecue tofu

Smokey with a little bit of spice, shredded barbecue tofu is a perfect vegetarian substitution at the barbecue table

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: barbecue, tofu

Servings: 8 portions

Ingredients

Barbecue sauce

• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tbs oil
• 100 ml ketchup
• 1 ½ tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar lightly packed
• 100 ml room temperature water
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp chili powder

Tofu

• 500 g firm tofu
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 batch BBQ sauce cooled down

Instructions

Barbecue Sauce

• Mince garlic and fry in a pot for a few minutes in the oil until fragrant.
• Mixed the rest of the ingredients and add to the pot.
• Cook for ten minutes on low heat, don’t let it boil. Whisk occasionally.
• Take off heat and let cool off before adding to your shredded tofu mix.

Tofu

• Press tofu between paper towels to get out as much water as possible.
• Shred tofu and onion on the largest side of your shredder.
• Mix tofu, onion and barbecue sauce. Let rest until your oven has heated up.
• Set oven to 175 °C (350 °F)
• Spread the mix on a baking sheet.
• Bake in oven for 30 mins. After every ten minutes, stir the mixture.
• Remove from oven.
• Serve in tortilla wraps or on hamburger buns with lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, or what ever toppings you like, and extra barbecue sauce on the side.

Notes

To make a smooth barbecue sauce, pour it through a sieve after it has cooked together and cooling down, to catch the small bits of garlic.