Crisp Tofu Katsu With Lemon-Tahini Sauce Recipe (2025)

So the cauliflower goes into the dish raw?

▫️Roast the cauliflower until golden and crisped on the edges. ▫️Fry the pads of tofu after breading until golden and crunchy▫️sauté mushrooms until golden and fragrant ▫️1/2 water for sauce is plenty▫️little extra lemon and tahini, watch- garlic is potent

Certainly the nutrition information is not correct? 66 grams fat?

I made this tonight. Roasted the cauliflower with the mushrooms. I did not have anchovy paste and couldn't find shiitakes, so used regular mushrooms. Even, so, it was so delicious. The lemon and soy with garlic really gave the whole thing a bright flavor, and the panko crumbs added texture.I can't wait to try it with the anchovy paste and shiitakes !

Easy to veganize this recipe by replacing the egg with a dip made with 1/2 cup Soy combined with a teaspoon of mustard. The mustard will curdle the soy milk, yielding a buttermilk-textured liquid for dipping the tofu.

We’re gluten free as well. Our go to substitute for pinko is crushed white corn tortilla chips.

I was shocked at the nutritional value of this vegan recipe...for 1000 calories I’d just as soon eat pork tonkatsu. But the recipe looked interesting so I used cooking spray to roast the mushrooms, cauliflower (seemed strange to keep it raw), cut back the bread crumbs to 1/2 cup, used the recommended amount of tahini but just 1 T of oil for the dressing. It’s delicious! Tofu is wonderfully flavored and I could stick to my healthy eating plan.

Are the cauliflower florets to be used raw?

Perhaps a little more information will help people make up their own minds about canola oil:https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oil-of-oleacute/

Canola oil is just fine for you in the amounts you would use it for cooking. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oil-of-oleacute/

Instead of calling the tofu 'slabs', can we call it 'fillets'?

You've ruined the recipe by using canola oil. This oil has no place in the new healthy recipe lexicon

The serving size appears to be "four servings," which implies that the nutritional info is for the entire dish. Per serving, it would be 16.5 grams of fat.

Would it be better to blot the sliced tofu with paper towels? I often do this to get rid of excess water. Haven't made the dish yet, but will soon!

Made as instructed. The quinoa salad is very tasty. The sauce/dressing does not really need as much of the oil as called for. And next time I would increase the tahini and reduce the dijon a couple of teaspoons each. Be careful with the tofu, as it can (and did) dry out in the oven; I will fry it next time.

This is a good method for tofu katsu, and it’s quick. I seasoned the tofu with s&p and garlic powder before all of the dipping steps and added some soy sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil to the eggs, because I had a feeling it would need something extra. I made the tonkatsu sauce from the nytimes chicken katsu recipe.

We weren't big fans of the sauce...I was hoping for more of a sweet sesame dressing taste and it is definitely lemon forward, kind of bitter and tangy. But the texture of the crispy tofu was amazing, will be adapting to abetter sauce. Also I roasted the cauli really quick after a toss in olive oil and garlic salt.

Made this with a few tweaks (roasted the cauliflower, pan-fried the tofu so it didn’t dry out, and served the sauce and tahini separately) and it was delicious! And for everybody worried about the calories or fat: leave out the tahini.

What could I use instead of eggs? I'm vegan.

Has anyone made just the quinoa without mushrooms and cauliflower? I am looking for an easy quinoa dish that is flavorful but not much prep work.

One of my all time favorites. I love using pearl couscous instead of quinoa and always cook the cauliflower.

Is there a viable substitute for cornstarch, such as flour or something else? Thanks.

Can we make an effort to reduce the jargon in cookery?, like oddly naming this dish a variant katsu, which is simply the shortened Japanese term for cutlet (full form katsuretsu, カツレツ) from the French côtelette, which in any case is always meat and deep-fried. This dish is just slices of tofu prepared and served in an interesting but totally non-Japanese way.

If you toast that panko (after tossing it with the oil) on the stove for a couple of minutes, your resulting tofu katsu will have more of the toasty flavor of deep-fried. This trick comes from Nami, the mastermind behind "Just One Cook." Also, if you bake the breaded tofu on a baking rack, both sides will get toasty with no effort and no flipping.

About to make this for the first time and the recipe doesn't say anything about pressing the tofu first - i'd love some guidance for next time!

Excellent! Family said it was a nice change of pace. As recommended, I roasted the mushrooms and cauliflower together. I used a mix of of three types of mushrooms and pressed the water out of the tofu. To the dressing I added about two tablespoons of white miso. Sesame oil would be a nice touch. Start cooking the quinoa about 10 minutes before everything goes in the oven. Lemon juice is a must. This is time-consuming to make but worth the effort. Next time I may do the veggie prep a day ahead.

The sauce feels unbalanced, overly sour, too much water.

I made 2 modifications and had enjoyable recipe. First I substituted the Just Egg vegan product (egg allergy). I also had the plain off-white quinoa so I balanced the colors in this recipe by using steamed baby carrots instead of cauliflower. I think it add a nice sweetness to the dish.

I left out the cauliflower and definitely didn’t miss it. Used baby-Bella’s ‘regular’ quinoa that’s what we had and it was fantastic. I freeze my tofu (buy it in bulk) which makes it much spongier and it worked beautifully in this recipe- very crispy. We even copied the tofu method for another dish the same week.

Does it really take only 15 minutes to make the tofu? Tofu has always taken me 25-30 in the oven at 425