Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu
This vegan sheet pan cashew tofu is inspired by some of my favorite takeout meals. Includes a mix of tofu, cashews, vegetables baked along with a light and flavorful sauce. Comes together in just 20 minutes for the perfect dinner meal.
Take Out Inspiration
Before going vegan, one meal I remember fondly ordering regularly from my favorite China Town restaurant in Philadelphia was Cashew Chicken. Cashew Chicken is a Chinese American dish that traditionally is stir fried in a wok. It normally includes chicken, roasted cashews and vegetables combined with a light sauce that includes a mix of soy sauce, hoisin sauce (Chinese BBQ sauce) and garlic. Similarly, you will see similar combinations of ingredients and variations throughout different types of cuisine including Thai and even Haitian dishes.
I love supporting my local Asian restaurants by ordering vegan versions of my favorite dishes, but this dish in particular isn’t available by me, and I have missed it a lot. So drawing from inspiration from this dish, I thought to share this Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu to hopefully help anyone that might be missing their favorite meals at the moment. As you will note in the recipe notes and method of preparation, this will not be an authentic preparation of this dish, but still comes out delicious. On that note, you also might be interested in my Garlic Chili Tofu with Peanut Sauce or my Sweet & Sour Chickpeas.
Why you’ll love this sheet pan recipe
- This meal is both quick and easy to put together and uses minimal ingredients to help amp up the flavor of the vegetables and tofu.
- In total, this dish takes only 15 minutes to bake on a sheet pan.
- This is vegan and can be made gluten free.
Key Ingredients
- Tofu: We’re using extra firm and make sure to press out as much water as you can
- Vegetables of Choice: I chose broccoli, red bell pepper and some red onion as my base
- Cashews: They add such a good texture to the dish and taste amazing when roasted
- Soy Sauce: You can make this gluten free by opting for gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos
- Hoisin Sauce: Provides a salty and slight sweet flavor to the dish
- Garlic & Ginger: Fresh is best for both
How to make this sheet pan recipe
Start by making your sauce. Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat and stir well, allowing to thicken. Once prepared, remove from heat and set your oven to 400F.
In a bowl, break off small pieces of tofu from the block you pressed (feel free to also just cube your tofu) and add 1-2 tablespoons of the sauce over the tofu cubes. Toss the tofu and sauce together to coat.
On a lined sheet pan sprayed with oil, spread out your tofu, cashews and chopped vegetables. Season generously and add an extra spray of oil to coat well, then place the sheet pan in the oven to cook for 15 minutes.
Once cooked, pour over your remaining sauce and toss to combine with the sheet pan ingredients then serve.
What does hoisin sauce taste like?
Hoisin sauce is a Chinese condiment made from fermented soy beans. It is thick and has a salty component that is balanced out with a little sweetness. The closest comparison to taste and texture would be comparing it to barbecue sauce except much saltier. It is a very unique taste, so I do recommend not making substitutions to this if you can. You can use it in other recipes and also as a dipping sauce.
Swaps and Add Ins
You can make this sheet pan recipe with a lot of different modifications. If you are not a fan of tofu, try making this dish with chickpeas. Make this gluten free by replacing the soy sauce with coconut aminos or gluten free soy sauce. I do recommend if you can get your hands on the hoisin sauce, to use that and not replace it. If you can’t find hoisin sauce, you can try omitting it or you can replace it with barbecue sauce or even molasses. It won’t taste exactly the same, but should work in a pinch.
What to pair with your sheet pan cashew tofu
You can pair the tofu and vegetables along with some rice or quinoa and garnish with some extra sesame seeds, red pepper flakes and sliced scallions.
How to store leftovers
If you are planning to meal prep this recipe, feel free to divide into 4 portioned airtight containers along with sides as desired. You can store leftovers for up to 4 days and reheat as desired.
More one pan recipes to try
Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This vegan cashew tofu sheet pan is inspired by some of my favorite takeout meals. Includes a mix of tofu, cashews, vegetables baked along with a light and flavorful sauce. Comes together in just 20 minutes for the perfect dinner meal.
Ingredients
Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu
- 1 (450g) block extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
- 1 head broccoli, cut into thumb sized florets
- 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- 1/4 medium red onion, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup raw cashews
Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup or agave syrup
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
- 1 scallion, sliced
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add your sauce ingredients and whisk until it simmers and thickens slightly, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a bowl, break off tofu into bite sized chunks and pour over two tablespoons of sauce and toss to coat.
- On a lined baking sheet sprayed with oil, add your tofu, broccoli, pepper, cashews and onion and spread out evenly allowing enough space for everything to roast evenly.
- Sprinkle with some pepper and salt and spray the top of the veggies with a small amount of oil.
- Place the sheet pan in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with remaining sauce.
Notes
Press your tofu to make sure as much water is drawn out of it as possible. This will impact the texture and whether the tofu crisps up in the oven as it bakes.
I don’t recommend replacing the hoisin sauce, but if you can’t find it, you can either omit or replace with barbecue sauce or a little molasses.
Feel free to sub out vegetables based on your preference. You can also sub out soy sauce for gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos. Also, feel free to sub tofu for chickpeas if preferred.
Did You Try This Recipe?
Then let me know what you thought! Share your creations by tagging me on Instagram with the hashtag #plantbasedrdeats
★ Catherine
So simple and yet so much flavor! This will be a recipe I keep for a busy weeknight. Love your well-balanced meals!
That makes my day Cassidy! 🙂 Thank you for giving this sheet pan a try and so happy you enjoyed it.
This recipe is going into my regular rotation for meal planning. The flavor is outstanding! Every pantry is apt to have the items on hand. Thank you!
This made me so happy Judi! Thank you so much and so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
this is a weekly staple in my house. the whole family loves it and my neighbors HAD to have the recipe after i shared with them 🙂
Literally made my day reading this. Thank you so much Andrea and so glad that this was able to be shared with the neighbors too. 🙂
Just made this tonight – LOVED it. Subbed zucchini for the broccoli (over some Jasmine rice) when I realized I didn’t have any :-(, but it turned out great anyway. My thirteen year old said it was his favorite so far, so I will definitely be making it regularly- next time with broccoli ;-). Thank you Catherine!
Awww! Thank you Angelica! So glad you enjoyed it even with the substitution! Hope you love it more with the broccoli next time. 🙂
I’m a bit confused – you only end up using 2 tbsp of the sauce? I what flavors the veggies?
Hi Christina! You use just a small amount of sauce in the beginning to initially roast the veggies. At the end when you take them out of the oven you toss them with the remainder of the sauce. If you put all the sauce on them in the beginning, they won’t roast properly. So just enough to coat in the beginning and then you use the rest of the sauce like the last step indicates. Hope that clarifies. 🙂
Just made this for dinner! So easy and super tasty! Thanks for the recipe! This will definitely be in regular rotation.
How much is a head of broccoli? Seems like what the grocery store considers a unit of broccoli is too much for this recipe? My sheet pan was so full that this turned out wet and underdone. Thank you!
Hi Ruth, I’m sorry you had that experience, it sounds like the pan was overcrowded. My general broccoli heads tend to give about 1 1/2 cups of broccoli florets. If you do end up with more broccoli then that, I would recommend using an extra baking tray so you can spread out the vegetables and tofu more. You just don’t want them laying on top of each other as this leads to everything steaming instead of roasting. I have plans to update this post very soon to make sure this detail is more clear, but for now, the pictures in the “How To…” section of this post shares a picture of the baking tray to demonstrate how the veggies and tofu should be spread out on the pan. Hope this helps and thank you for sharing your experience.
Thank you so much! I plan on making it again this weekend!