- Okay, at this point, we all know that I take things
and turn them into other things.
It's kind of my thing.
You know, taking wheat and turning it into a turkey,
taking hearts of palm, turning it into lobster.
Well, today I'm going to take tofu and turn it into ribs.
(upbeat music)
Hey guys, I'm Candice the Edgy Veg,
and welcome back to my channel.
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If you like these videos where I take something
and turn it into something else,
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So I'm super excited
because today's video is sponsored by TaoTronics.
They sent me this awesome air fryers.
You guys know how I feel about air fryers.
They are just, ah, perfect.
So I'm gonna show you how to take tofu
and turn it into vegan ribs in an air fryer.
So I am going to use tofu as the base.
I just figured that it was something
that everyone has access to.
It's really simple to use.
It kind of just takes the flavor
of whatever you cook it with,
so I thought that this was the perfect...
oh, and you could slice it the right way...
so I thought that this would be the perfect base.
We are going to make our own special rib barbecue sauce,
and everything I'm going to do
will be in my TaoTronics Air Fryer.
I'm also going to show you the quickest, easiest,
one-minute broccolini recipe
that I love to serve on the side with this.
All right, the first thing I'm going to do
is make my barbecue sauce, which also is the marinade.
So I guess, really, I'm making a marinade
that I'm going to turn into a barbecue sauce.
The reason I'm doing this is just, it's easier,
so we love that,
and you can just make it with pretty basic ingredients
that you're going to have at home.
So to that, I am going to add some ketchup.
You don't have to make your own barbecue sauce.
You can use store-bought barbecue sauce.
I just, I kind of flavored this in such a way
to give it more of that rib-like taste.
That was vegan, the Hoisin sauce,
soy sauce, vegan Worcestershire.
If you don't have vegan Worcestershire,
or access to vegan Worcestershire,
you can just leave that out.
It's fine.
Vinegar, and then our spices.
We have paprika, garlic powder, onion powder,
and poultry seasoning.
Oh, and mustard powder.
All right, whisk that until it's completely combined.
All right.
So we are doing this with two things of tofu.
I like to use extra firm.
You can also get away with firm,
but I would definitely not use medium or soft
because it's not going to work.
So the way that I like to slice these
is just in rib-like slices.
You want it to be thick enough that you can fit a skewer
in it to hold everything together,
so don't make it too thin.
Also, if you're looking at my hands right now,
going Candace, why are they so orange?
I got in a fight with some self-tanner,
so I'm aware that they are orange,
and I'm quite embarrassed about it, but here we are.
And this is why I mixed the sauce directly
in this container here,
because it has more of a flat surface area,
which makes it a lot easier to cover the tofu completely.
For your tofu, you wanna make sure that you press it.
You can use a tofu press. That's what I used.
Or you can put a cast-iron pan on top of it
and just let it sit there for about 15 minutes.
Definitely press it for 15 minutes, minimum.
What's going to happen
is it's going to push all that liquid out,
and then that turns the tofu almost into a sponge,
so that it sucks up the marinade.
Okay, so I've just transferred the tofu
into another pan here because I'm going to cook down this
into a nice barbecue sauce.
So that's still marinating here, one on top of the other,
and we're going to cook that with some brown sugar.
So I find using a rubber spatula is just the easiest way
to get all of that sauce out.
If you like your ribs super, super saucy,
you can always make more of this,
but I think this is actually
just the perfect amount of sauce.
Bring that to a simmer and add some brown sugar.
All right, so after you have marinated your tofu,
and obviously, with tofu,
the longer you've marinate it, the better.
I like to do it overnight,
so it's a good make-ahead recipe,
and then you just have to come and cook it.
And you're barely even cooking it
because you're using your TaoTronics Air Fryer.
Okay. So I have these skewers.
They're just your regular skewer.
Do make sure that the skewer is not too big
for your air fryer.
I mean, you can always cut it in half or whatever,
but what I'm going to do,
feed the skewer through the tofu and then repeat.
You can also do them both at the same time,
and then just spread them out accordingly.
All right.
So you'll have something that kind of looks like that.
So the other way that you can do it
is just by cutting the tofu in half like that,
and just make sure that it's covered,
and then skewering those.
It all depends on how big your air fryer is.
This one is so big. It's so handy.
And then you can go like this and do the exact same thing.
Now, I'm going to be cooking these ribs
in my TaoTronics Air Fryer.
This thing is amazing.
If you do not have an air fryer,
you definitely, definitely need to get one.
I find this has actually made my cooking speed up.
I can cook a lot faster. There's minimal cleanup.
You can cook with just a little to actually no oil at all,
so if that's something that you're concerned about,
this guy is awesome for that.
So it also takes the guesswork out of cooking.
There is this awesome settings system here,
so if you want to make french fries or vegetables,
you can just click on those.
You can select those,
and they have the different time settings
and temperature settings.
So that's all ready to go for you,
so you don't really have to think about it very much.
The other thing I love about this guy is how gigantic it is.
It's so big, so you can feed an entire family.
For me, sometimes, I just...
I'm lazy and I want to make french fries and veggie nuggets.
I can put the french fries and the veggie nuggets
right in the six-quart little tray here,
and I don't have to do it twice or wait for it.
Also, like I said earlier,
it really cuts down on the cleanup you have to do
when you are cooking.
You can easily wipe down the inside
or put it in the dishwasher 'cause it's dishwasher-safe.
Just snap it off.
Okay, I like to have a little bit of crispiness to my tofu,
so I'm just going to...
I mean, you can do this in like a flour sifter or whatever.
Just sprinkle it on with your fingers.
But I'm just adding a little bit of cornstarch.
And then if you do get too much, you can just,
with your finger, with your washed finger,
or with a pastry brush, just kind of work that in,
and then you got kind of this nice, uneven crispiness
that kind of mimics that barbecue texture.
Okay, now just add your skewers.
You want to cook these at 375 for eight minutes
and then take them out, flip them over,
and cook them again for eight minutes at 375.
While our tofu is cooking in the air fryer,
I'm going to prep our side.
It is a delicious Tajin.
Why am I saying it like it's tahini?
A delicious to Tajin broccolini.
You can also just do this with regular broccoli
if you want to, or really any vegetable.
But I'm only going to use one tablespoon of olive oil,
because this air fryer circulates it, which is great,
so you don't have to use as much oil in your recipes.
Some minced garlic, nutritional yeast.
It gives it a nice, crispy coating.
And then give that a little toss.
Add the rest of your nutritional yeast.
And then, of course, your Tajin.
(air fryer beeping)
And look at that.
It's all done, just in time for our broccolini.
So for our broccolini, you just toss it right in here.
I like to line the bottom.
And then with the broccolini, I do a little bit on this side
and a little bit on the other side
with the tree-looking side of it.
Because of the air and how it circulates,
you get even cooking every time,
which is more than I can say for my oven, so that's awesome.
And then I'm going to cook this in the air fryer
for three minutes.
These ones are done, and you can serve them just like this,
or brush them with more barbecue sauce,
which is what I like to do.
That barbecue sauce that you made
with the brown sugar on the stove.
And there you go.
You can pretty much do this exact recipe
with seitan, actually,
but this is the fast-track version,
which we love for weeknights or an easy lunch.
All right, so when your broccolini ready,
it will look like this.
So you have the nice, charred little bits
of the tree-looking part,
and then they'll be nice and tender.
It keeps them tender and still has that crunch
when you bite into a vegetable.
You know when you like overcook it in the oven,
or I don't know, if you steam it,
and it's just like kinda mushy?
You don't get that with the air fryer.
(upbeat music)
All right, so that's how you make ribs
out of tofu in your TaoTronics Air Fryer.
If you like more barbecue sauce, you can add more.
You can dip it. It's so good.
This is so good.
Okay.
You end up with that nice char,
and you got that with the cornstarch.
So you get that nice chart as if it was barbecued.
It's nice and crispy on the outside
and soft on the inside.
Mmm.
And the broccolini, it is just one of my favorite recipes.
This recipe took almost no time at all,
thanks to my TaoTronics Air Fryer,
and thank you so much to TaoTronics Air Fryer
for sponsoring this video today.
I'm going to leave more information about them
in the description box, so definitely check that out.
If you like these videos where I take something
and turn it into something else,
give this video a big thumbs-up,
and for new here, hit the Subscribe button.
I'll see you next time. Bye.