Vietnamese Tofu in tomato sauce-an easy under 30 minutes vegan recipe (2024)

Published: May 3, 2020 · Modified: Sep 19, 2023 by Vandana Chauhan. This post may contain affiliate links.

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This simple, tangy Vietnamese tofu in tomato sauce is a comforting vegan dish that's very easy to make. It's made by adding fried or baked tofu in a simple onion-tomato gravy which can be served with any rice or noodle dish.

Vietnamese Tofu in tomato sauce-an easy under 30 minutes vegan recipe (1)

Life is so unpredictable, you never know what will happen to you the very next moment. Last year, this time we were busy finalizing our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia, not having the slightest hint of how different the following year would be.

To avoid feeling gloomy and depressed during the quarantine, I thought of re-living our time in Vietnam by cooking a simple dish on which we survived a lot of days during our two-week meat-free trip to Vietnam last year.

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Vegetarian/ Vegan food in Vietnam
How to serve?
Type of Tofu to use
More easy tofu recipes
More easy vegan and vegetarian tomato recipes
Step by step photo instructions
Recipe

Vegetarian/ Vegan food in Vietnam

Finding Vegan or Vegetarian food in Vietnam is not very tough as there are quite a few restaurants providing the options.

Because of Buddhism, most people understand the meaning of Vegetarian food. You just need to remember the word 'Chay' with the correct tone (the Vietnamese language has 6 tones, more than Mandarin which has 4 tones), to communicate your vegetarian food preference.

However, there are only a few main ingredients that will be served to you in different forms if you want to have a meat-free meal in Vietnam. These ingredients were tofu, eggplant, pumpkin, and Vietnamese morning glory.

Of all these ingredients, my favorite was morning glory and I will share its recipe once we get free from this Pandemic and can go out shopping.

Today I am sharing a very simple Tofu recipe which is made by cooking tofu in a simple onion and tomato sauce. We had this dish at least once every day during our trip.

How to serve?

In Vietnam, we were always served this dish with some steamed jasmine rice and I think it tastes the best with it. Just serve some finely chopped chili peppers, calamansi/ lime wedges, salt, and ground black pepper on the side.

Just the thought of those simple Vegan Vietnamese meals makes me hungry.

You can also have it with stir-fried noodles if you want.

Vietnamese Tofu in tomato sauce-an easy under 30 minutes vegan recipe (2)

Type of Tofu to use

Use firm tofu for this recipe. In Vietnam, we always found this dish with deep-fried tofu cubes but when I make it at home, I prefer baking the tofu. You can choose whichever way you like.

More easy tofu recipes

Tofu is one of my favorite things to eat so I keep on making it in different ways. If you are looking for ideas to start adding tofu to your diet, don't miss to check out the following recipes:

Peanut butter tofu
Orange tofu
Tofu Fried rice
Chili garlic tofu
Pineapple tofu

More easy vegan and vegetarian tomato recipes

Tomato puff pastry tart
Roasted bell pepper and tomato soup
Bengali style tomato chutney
Cherry tomato pasta

Step by step photo instructions

Vietnamese Tofu in tomato sauce-an easy under 30 minutes vegan recipe (3)

Recipe

Vietnamese tofu in tomato sauce

4.87 from 61 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Vietnamese

Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian

Equipment

Oven
baking tray
1 large wok or pan with a lid
1 Spatula
Knife and chopping board

Ingredients

Ingredients for baked tofu

1 cup firm tofu cubes around 200 grams
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder optional
1 teaspoon cooking oil
Salt to taste

Other ingredients

3 cups chopped tomatoes around 400 grams, 4 medium tomatoes
1 medium red onion sliced
3 stalks spring onion keep white and green part separated
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 large garlic cloves finely chopped
1 Thai red chili finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon palm sugar
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup water or, as required to get the desired consistency

Instructions

Put tofu cubes, oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Gently toss until all the cubes get evenly coated with the seasonings and oil.
Spread tofu cubes on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C (or, 400℉) for 12-15 minutes or until tofu starts turning brown.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan. Add chopped garlic and saute until it starts turning brown. Add chopped red chili and the white part of spring onion. Saute for a few seconds.
Next, add sliced onion and cook until it turns translucent.
Add chopped tomatoes, salt, sugar, soy sauce, and pepper. Mix and cook on medium heat for around 7-8 minutes or until the tomatoes turn mushy. You may cover the pan to fasten this step.
Pour 1 cup of water into the pan and cook for another 3-4 minutes on medium heat.
Finally add baked tofu cubes, spring onion greens, and cilantro. Mix and cook for about a minute.
Cover the pan and turn off the heat. Don't remove the lid for 5 minutes.
Serve hot with steamed Jasmine or sticky rice.

Video

Notes

Instead of baking, you can also shallow or deep-fry the tofu cubes.
Don't overcook tofu, it will turn chewy.
Mix tofu with the seasonings and oil gently otherwise, the cubes will break.
Fresh tomatoes are the best for this recipe but if you don't have that canned diced tomatoes can be used too.
Use juicy red tomatoes otherwise the sauce won't get the right consistency.
Adding sugar is optional, if your tomatoes are already sweet you can skip it.
More recipe tips, tricks, and variation suggestions are shared in the post above. Please follow them to make this recipe.

Nutrition

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