July 9, 2024 Main Dishes

Indo-Chinese Crispy Sweet Chilli Tofu (Air Fry and Pan Fried)

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This Indo-Chinese crispy chilli tofu recipe will genuinely blow you away. It is such a great substitute for anyone who loves Indo-Chinese chilli paneer but wants to skip the cheese part and therefore of course, it is a winner for anyone who is lactose-free or vegan. This dish busts the myth that vegan or vegetarian dishes lack flavour.

Tofu covered in spicy sauce in a wok

Why this recipe is a winner?

One of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes is chilli paneer, and while it is a ten out of ten dish, this spicy Indian-style chilli tofu is a strong contender. The dish incorporates all of the elements of chilli paneer, but is of course dairy-free!

In this recipe, we incorporate cornstarch to create a super crispy and crunchy tofu batter so that when the tofu is coated in the sauce, it still retains a nice bite.

So, if you’re looking to give the chilli paneer or dragon prawns a miss, don’t worry because you won’t miss out on flavour just because this dish skips out on the meat and dairy.

Variations and Substitutes – Gravy or Dry?

A common variation among almost all indo-chinese foods is whether to have them in a gravy sauce or as a dry dish, but just to be clear, both are equally delicious.

This recipe will show you how to make both variations.

Gravy variation: If you want this chilli tofu with gravy, I would recommend adding all of the sauce, with about a quarter cup of water, and 2 tsps of cornflour slurry. That way, there will be a thicker sauce that accompanies the tofu.

Dry variation: If you would prefer this chilli tofu dry then I would recommend that you follow either of the two following instructions:

  1. Tossing your pan fried tofu in the aromatics (onions, garlic and peppers), allowing that to combine well, and then tossing in your sauce to coat the tofu and aromatics. Or, alternatively, you could:
  2. Follow the gravy variation, but leave the tofu to cook in the sauce until it has soaked it up, that way it still has a thin layer of sauce around the crunchy tofu!

How to make chilli tofu? A step-by-step guide.

Step-by-step for cutting and creating the tofu batter

knife cutting block of tofu

Cut the tofu up into medium-sized chunks. Ensure that they are a good size as you want the tofu to retain texture and essentially a bite, especially if you are aiming to get a meaty texture.

Tofu seasoned with salt, chilli powder and cornstarch

Season the tofu accordingly. I seasoned mine with salt, chilli powder and cornstarch, but you can chop and change this and add black pepper  or white pepper for example. Alot of the flavour is added with the sauce, so don’t worry if it  is too plain at this stage!

chunks of tofu in fry pan, fried with a golden crispy outer layer

In a pan, heat up some olive oil (around 2 tablespoons), and place your tofu in the pan on a low heat. Fry on both sides for around 5 minutes until golden and crispy on both sides.

Step by step for cooking and the sauce

chopped onions, chopped garlic and orange pepper on a chopping board

Finely chop up your peppers, garlic and onions. You could also roughly chop all of these up and a lot of classic indo-chinese dishes call for roughly chopping up your onions and peppers especially so that they are larger chunks. Check out my chilli paneer recipe, if you want to follow that style.

all sauces combined in a bowl

Combine all of your sauces really well. In this bowl I have soy sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, ketchup and sweet chilli sauce. You can skip out on the dark soy sauce or replace one of these with tamari instead if you’re looking to reduce the sodium intake.

onions, garlic and peppers frying together in wok

Add in your onions first, allow that to fry off well until translucent and then add in your garlic. Once your garlic is fragrant, add in your peppers and cook together for around 3 minutes on a medium heat.

Note: if you’re making the dry version, then once the onions, garlic and peppers have finished cooking, you should add in your tofu and let this combine well.

sauce added to onions, garlic and peppers

Add in your sauce and allow that to combine well, then add in a splash of water and your cornflour slurry.

Note: if you’re making the dry version of this, you would add in the sauce after you have added in the tofu and let that combine together well. You won’t need the cornflour slurry.

pan fried crispy tofu added to wok

Add in all of your crispy tofu and allow this to coat in the sauce really well on medium heat.

tofu coated in chilli sauce

Once coated, garnish with sesame seeds, parsley or coriander.

Ingredients?

  1. Extra firm tofu – I would highly recommend that you get an extra firm tofu for this recipe, especially if you’re looking to mimic the spongey flavour texture of paneer. When this is crispy and fried up, it has an almost meaty texture. I also used one whole block for this recipe. Just to note also, we pan fry the tofu in some olive oil.
  2. Half a tsp salt – To coat the tofu. The sauces below will add a lot of umami in either case, so we don’t necessarily need to add lots of salt to our tofu batter.
  3. One tsp red chilli powder – This adds an extra layer of spice to the tofu, once fried.
  4. One small red or white onion – These should be diced up very finely and you can use either a red or white variation.
  5. Garlic – I used about three cloves of garlic, but you can totally use less or more, if you would prefer.
  6. Peppers – You can use either red, green or orange peppers and a mixture or one of these will work fine in this recipe.
  7. Soy Sauce (normal, dark and light) – I used around a tbsp of normal and light soy sauce and a tsp of dark soy sauce. The dark soy sauce is totally optional as it is mainly for colour, but I would highly recommend
  8. Sesame oil – This is just added to the sauce for an extra dimension of flavour, but if you don’t like the taste of sesame oil, then skip this.
  9. Ketchup – This adds a tangy flavour and also colour. If you want to skip this, you could also replace with a fresh tomato sauce.
  10. One tbsp sweet chilli sauce – Any brand will do, I use the maggi brand.
  11. Cornflour slurry – This is just water and around two tsps. of cornflour added. We use this to thicken the sauce, but you won’t need this if you are following the dry recipe.
  12. Cornflour – For both the slurry and to coat the tofu. We coat the tofu in this as it will make it super crispy and delicious.
  13. Honey – We use honey in this recipe for sweetness and I would highly recommend that you do add a sweetener as it is kind of essential to balance out the tartness of the soy sauce and other sauces.
  14. For garnish, you can use sesame seeds or coriander / parsley etc.

Making this chilli tofu in the air fryer?

If you would prefer to make this in the air fryer, then I would follow the same instructions to create the tofu batter and then place it in the air fryer on 160°C for around 10 minutes and then at 200°C for a further 5 – 10 minutes to get the tofu crispy and delicious!

chunks of tofu in air fryer

FAQ

What to serve with chilli tofu?

What to serve with chilli tofu?

Just like chilli paneer, I would suggest serving this with either rice or noodles and either one will work really great. Alternatively, you could also serve with naan, roti or paratha!

rice and chilli tofu in bowl

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