Smoked BBQ Tofu Bowls will please vegans and meat lovers alike. This is an easy, delicious, and healthy(!) vegan and gluten-free recipe for the smoker or grill that everyone will love!
Smoked BBQ Tofu for Meat Lovers, Vegetarians, and Vegans
My husband lives and breathes for meat. But he married a woman who, during the first few years of us dating, was a pseudo vegetarian (meaning I tried my best to follow the rules but cheated from time to time with seafood and occasionally poultry). It took a long time (around 10 years) for me to finally come around to trusting meat (read: we bought a smoker and started sourcing great and trustworthy meat and cooked it like a boss!). And, while we do cook a lot of meat around these parts, we also eat our veggies. It’s all about balance, folks!
We also have several friends and neighbors who are vegan or vegetarian, yet still wish to partake in the magic of smoked foods. So to be inclusive of all of our foodie friends (regardless of their dietary restrictions) while satisfying the die-hard carnivores, we have Smoked BBQ Tofu.
Seriously, the colors! The flavors! Plus it’s smoked! And HEALTHY!
Smoked Tofu
We’ve been smoking a lot of tofu here lately trying to come up with more vegan and vegetarian recipes, and so far this is one of our favorite methods. We’ve done a few “burnt end” style tofu recipes to serve along traditional BBQ side dishes, and they’re great (and likely to be making an appearance here soon), but I loved the combination of the BBQ sauce with the grilled (or smoked) pineapple, veggies, and coconut rice.
That’s right, coconut rice. That’s just a fancy way of saying I used coconut water in place of regular water (or stock) to cook the rice in. It gives it a great (yet mild) tropical flavor to go with the fruit and sweet BBQ sauce.
How to Prepare Tofu for Smoking
- So any tofu lover knows that we start by pressing the tofu. If you’re unfamiliar with this process, it just means that we need to press out the excess water. Tofu comes packed in water, and you need to get out that bland liquid so that you can introduce good flavors (like a marinade, or BBQ sauce). Think of it like a sponge that you need to gently ring out the liquid before introducing new flavors, or otherwise when you cook it, it’s mushy and bland.
- Take your tofu and discard the water from the packaging. Then slice it down the middle, lengthwise, creating two pieces 1-inch thick. Lay out a baking sheet or large flat plate and line it with a few paper towels. Place the tofu on the paper towels, then layer with some more paper towels. Place another plate or baking sheet over the top, then place something heavy on top of that plate/tray (like heavy books or like here, a cast iron pan). Leave it for overnight or at the minimum an hour.
- Uncover, then cut into 1” cubes, then place those pieces in your marinade.
BBQ Tofu Marinade
Next we add flavor to our BBQ tofu by marinating it in some Miso or BBQ sauce. Our vegetarian neighbor gave us the Miso idea to add more savory/umami flavors. It totally works to add some savoriness and added flavor to the tofu. But if you don’t feel like buying this extra ingredient, then you can marinade it in your favorite BBQ sauce.
Place the tofu in the marinade in a bag and let it sit in the fridge for 30 min to an hour.
Then it’s time to smoke those bad boys!
How to Smoke Tofu
- Prepare smoker to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. We like fruit wood for this (like cherry).
- Place the tofu directly on the smoker, or on a thin wired rack, for about two hours (up to three) or until you get a firm exterior with dark color. If you marinade in a sugary bbq sauce, it’ll firm up faster, so try to go light on sugar in your flavor early. Then touch to test for firmness.
- Next, dip the tofu cubes into the BBQ sauce and toss. Get them all nice and sauced up, and then place them back on the smoker to firm up. You can also brush the BBQ sauce on with a paintbrush, but you’ll have to rotate to get all 4 sides. The dipping method is super quick and easy.
- *Note that depending on the style of BBQ sauce you use, the tofu may caramelize sooner. We used a Carolina style sauce that isn’t too sweet. If you opt for a KC style, or sweeter style (tomato or ketchup based), then keep an eye on the tofu as it may caramelize sooner.
- During this final round you can add your pineapple chunks that have been skewered. You can also do this separately on a hot grill. Leave the pineapple chunks to cook about 3-5 minutes per side, depending on how hot the grill is. Just look for some grill marks and some mild caramelization on the fruit.
- After your tofu is done setting with the glaze (about 20 more minutes on the smoker), remove from the smoker and let them take one more happy dive into the BBQ sauce before serving, just for a nice sheen.
- Assemble your smoked tofu bowls, and you’re good to go!
Smoked Tofu is a BBQ dish that everyone can agree on! Feel free to add more BBQ sauce at the end for the tasty coconut rice to soak up.
*Note this tofu is also great in a sandwich, or served alongside your favorite BBQ side dishes. But seriously, look at these bowls? So nutritious AND deeeeelicious!
More Vegetarian BBQ Recipes
- Grilled Vegetables
- Shishito Peppers with Lemon Yogurt Dipping Sauce
- Grilled Green Beans
- Smoked Marinara Sauce
- Grilled Broccolini with Lemon and Parmesan
Smoked BBQ Tofu Bowls Recipe
Smoked BBQ Tofu Bowls (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 14-oz package extra firm tofu, pressed for about 1 hour and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon dry miso soup mix
- 8 oz warm water, for the marinade
- 1 cup BBQ sauce, we like a Carolina style sauce (see notes)
For the Tofu Bowls
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- 2 cups coconut water
- 2 cups pineapple, cut into cubes and skewered
- 1 avocado, thinly sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, shredded or thinly sliced
- Cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
To Prep the Smoked Tofu:
- Drain the tofu, and then press the liquid out of the tofu. You can do this with a tofu press or the old fashioned way, by layering a large flat dish with paper towels and place the tofu on the plate. Layer the top with more paper towels, then place a heavy object over the top (cast iron skillet, heavy pot, etc). Let sit at least 1 hour to press the liquid out.
For the Tofu Marinade:
- Prepare your miso. Place 1 tablespoon dry miso soup mix with 8 oz warm water. Place in a large freezer bag.
- After pressing, cut the tofu into 1” pieces and add to the miso marinade. Place in fridge for 30 minutes to marinate.
To Smoke the Tofu:
- Prep smoker to 250 degrees, using fruit wood (like cherry, apple, etc.).
- Drain the tofu from the marinade and place on smoker for up to 2-3 hours.
- Once the tofu starts to feel a bit firm to touch on the outside, remove from smoker and place in a bowl with the BBQ sauce to coat, then put back on smoker for 20 more minutes to let the glaze set and firm up.
- Once the glaze has set on the tofu remove from smoker and toss one more time in BBQ sauce for shine.
For the Tofu bowls:
- Cook rice according to package instructions, using coconut water instead of regular water. Slice and prepare your vegetables.
- To arrange the bowls: Add rice, smoked tofu, pineapple, avocado, and other vegetables. Garnish with cilantro. Drizzle with additional BBQ sauce if desired.
Notes
Wine Pairing for BBQ Tofu
We’ve got some fun flavors going on here, from the BBQ sauce, the sweet pineapple, the flavorful rice, crunchy veggies, and creamy avocado. We’re really focusing on the style of BBQ sauce you choose and something that will stand up to any sweetness of the sauce along with the tropical flavors from that pineapple.
While a fruity rosé is ever and always a good standby for these BBQ flavors, I also think it’s a great match for refreshing fruity whites like Riesling or a sweeter style Müller-Thurgau.
While I would avoid most reds because of those dominant pineapple flavors, I do think it would be pretty awesome with Lambrusco — The very mildly sparkling red from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region — but not the sticky-sweet kind you may be thinking of. I’m talking a dry or perhaps one with a touch of sweetness. Good fruit, good acidity, good potential with these awesome flavors. Yum.
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Nora B. says
I love-love the idea of adding miso + bbq sauce! I’m definitely going to try that, as well as using coconut water in my marinades. It all sounds so delicious that my dinner seems sort of sad in comparison… lol, oh well, I’m super happy to have found some really-different from my typical “one pan no plan” stuff that might look like garbage, but still tastes incredible… always happy to learn new stuff! I’ve been a little bit afraid of bbq sauce marinades since last summer when I completely ruined dinner (& all sorts of $#!+ hit the fan on the same day…but but but, when it comes to dinner, what fears are there, honestly? Dinner & general kitchen time is THE TIME for experiments, mistakes, utter ruinations…). There’s no such thing as “afraid of this or that…” in the kitchen! (& bc my kitchen I saw tiny, there’s just no room for any anxiety. So yeah, here’s a really good reason to try bbq sauce marinated tofu again, yay! Thx for the creative ideas!