Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers is the one dish meal you need! It’s packed with flavor, easy to prepare, and requires minimal hands on time, leaving you time to catch up on the rest of your day! {{ PIN IT NOW! }}
This post contains affiliate links.
Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers
We’re winding down on winter break—just a few more days to go. We’ve fully shifted our schedules, with the boys going to bed after 10, and the grown ups staying up way too late to binge watch episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel(obsessed). But a few more days and we will be back to the harsh reality of the school schedule—early mornings, long days, after school sports, and a rushed dinner time. I do my best to keep things relatively easy for dinner—either cooking dinner in the morning while both of the boys are in school, or making easy one dish meals that require minimal hands on time so I can tend to the dishes, homework help, and my favorite—laundry.
This easy Baked Tofu dish fits all of the requirements. One dish? Check. Ingredients my family loves? Check. Lots of hands off time? Check. I throw everything into a big baking dish, pop it in the oven, and go about the rest of my business while the smell fills the air! Today while this was cooking the boys declared “Mom, it smells like pizza!” Well, pizza tofu is another meal, but they’re right—the tomatoes, olives, and oregano definitely give it a pizza flair! This is pizza tofu’s more sophisticated cousin.
Veganuary
January is a time of fresh starts. A time of renewal and goal setting. It was in January nine years ago was when I gradually transitioned to a vegetarian diet, and then two years later, seemingly overnight, I adopted a vegan way of eating (click here to learn How to Become a Vegan!!!). Now Veganuary is an actual movement, as people around the globe try a vegan diet for the month. I love the concept, as I think it shows how easy veganism really is. And every good vegan knows you’ve gotta have a great tofu recipe! THIS is the one! (And be sure to use a tofu press to squeeze out the excess water—it’s my fave kitchen gadget!)
More Tofu Recipes You Will Love
- Teriyaki Tofu
- Sweet and Sour Tofu
- Pizza Tofu
- Fajita Tofu Scramble
- Vegan Chocolate Mousse (made with tofu—oh yes!)
Meal Prep
This meal is a great one to prep earlier in the day! You can just pop your tofu into a dish with all of the seasonings, let it marinate and soak up the flavors, and then pop it in the oven an hour before you’d like to eat. As Jonny always says… “Easy Peasy!”
Tofu Piccata
A traditional piccata refers to a cut of meat topped with lemons and capers. This meal is about 50% there. It’s got lemon juice and capers, giving it tons of flavor, but it also has stewed tomatoes and green olives, and of course, no meat. I dice the tofu up into bite sized pieces for easier eating and serving, and bake it in the oven to save on hands on time. Just a few stirs during the cooking process and you’re all set!
One Dish
This is a true one dish meal. It’s almost a sheet pan dinner, as I suppose you could dump it all out onto a big sheet pan and bake it, but that might be a little messy with the tomatoes. A large glass baking dish will do the trick nicely. Add your ingredients directly into the dish, give it a gentle stir (don’t break up the tofu!), and pop it in the oven!
Make it a Meal!
I love to make this dish a full meal by serving it with some polenta! Polenta is an unsung hero in the carb world, and I don’t turn to it nearly enough. But the polenta is a perfect backdrop for this Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers. This dish is also delicious when served atop some angel hair pasta, or even served with a slice of crusty bakery bread. I could even see making a sub sandwich, using the tofu as a filling a la a meatball sub.
I hope you love this dish as much as my family does! Tonight Jonny, age 4, has 3 servings! It’s a total hit with both kids and adults. If you have a chance to try it, please take a picture and share it on social media! Or better yet, leave a comment below, letting me know how it turned out!
Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers
Baked Tofu with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Capers is the one dish meal you need! It's packed with flavor, easy to prepare, and requires minimal hands on time, leaving you time to catch up on the rest of your day!
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time1 hour hr
Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins
Course: Entree
Cuisine: American, Italian, vegan
Keyword: Christmas, main course, protein, tofu, vegan
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 2 14 ounce blocks tofu
- 1 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes (see notes)
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1/4 cup capers chopped
- 1 cup green olives with pimentos sliced
- handful of parsley
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°.
Press the tofu in a tofu press, or wrap in paper towels and press between two plates, removing as much water as possible.
While the tofu is pressing, place ALL of the remaining ingredients into the baking dish (crushed tomatoes, lemon juice, capers, olives, parsley, garlic, oregano, and salt).
Chop the tofu into small 1 inch cubes.
Place the tofu in the baking dish with the tomato sauce mixture and give it a gentle stir to coat the tofu.
Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
While the tofu is baking, prepare any side dishes, such as polenta or pasta.
Once it has finished baking, remove the tofu from the oven and serve over polenta or pasta.
Notes
I like to use crushed tomatoes in this recipe. You can also used canned diced tomatoes (I often blitz them in the blender to make crushed tomatoes, as my Costco sells cans of diced tomatoes, but not crushed), or tomato sauce (but don't confuse this with pasta sauce—that's different). DO NOT use tomato paste or pasta sauce—they are the wrong consistency.
