Buffalo Tofu Salad

Crispy bites of baked buffalo tofu top this delicious vegan salad recipe, tossed with THE BEST creamy vegan avocado ranch dressing! Use my tested and perfected method for baking crispy tofu every time, then toss the tofu with tangy buffalo sauce for the perfect vegan salad topper!

Buffalo sauce is one of my favorite low-calorie ingredients that I use to spice up bowls and salads. Whether it's a Keto Buffalo Chicken Bowl or Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower Salad, I love adding this spicy, tangy sauce to just about everything!

My new favorite way to eat the sauce is tossed with crispy baked tofu. It took me an entire month to perfect my baked tofu recipe, but I've got it down now and I can't stop making it!

Baked tofu is delicious tossed with a number of different sauces. It's a great addition to salads, bowls or stir fry's, and it's easy to make! Follow my tips below for making perfectly crispy baked tofu every time! While I enjoy this buffalo tofu on top of a salad, you could also eat it as a game day snack, dipped right into vegan ranch dressing!

Jump to:

• How to press tofu
• How to make buffalo tofu salad
• Tips and tricks
• Make it low carb
• Add a protein
• More vegan salads to try
• Recipe

How to press tofu

The key to making crispy baked tofu is making sure that you press all of the liquid out of the tofu before baking it in the oven. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Drain the block of tofu from the liquid it comes packaged in.
2. Dice the tofu into small cubes, then place the cubes of tofu on a stack of 2-3 paper towels on top of a cutting board.
3. Place another stack of 2-3 paper towels on top of the tofu, then place a baking sheet on top of the paper towels.
4. Place heavy cans of vegetables or a cast iron skillet on top of the baking sheet. (See image above.)
5. Press the tofu for at least 20 minutes, or up to 1 hour.
6. Remove the heavy cans and baking sheet from on top of the paper towels. Remove and discard the soaked paper towels.
7. Now your tofu is pressed and ready to be seasoned and baked!

How to make buffalo tofu salad

1. Season the pressed tofu. Toss the drained and pressed tofu cubes with olive oil, cornstarch, sea salt, garlic powder, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
2. Bake the tofu. Arrange the seasoned tofu in an even layer on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Place in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, flip the tofu and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.
3. Assemble the salad. Toss chopped romaine lettuce with vegan avocado ranch dressing. Divide the dressed lettuce between four bowls. Top each bowl with cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, red onions, green onions and sliced avocado.
4. Toss the tofu with the buffalo sauce. When the tofu comes out of the oven, add it to a bowl with buffalo sauce and toss to coat the tofu in the sauce. Add the buffalo tofu to the salad and serve immediately.

Tips and tricks

• Serve the tofu as soon as you toss it with the sauce. If the tofu sits in the sauce too long, it will become soggy and therefore defeat all of our efforts to get perfectly crispy tofu!
• You can use an air fryer or the convection setting on your oven to cook the tofu. I tried baking the tofu in a conventional oven and convection oven and the convection oven did provide slightly crispier tofu. But honestly, it's just a slight difference, and a conventional oven works just perfectly for this recipe!
• Be sure to purchase extra-firm tofu! You will not get crispy tofu with anything less than extra-firm. Trust me, I've tried this recipe with firm tofu and it's just not the same!
• Make sure to bake the tofu on a large enough baking sheet that each cube is not touching. If the tofu cubes are crammed together or overlapping, they will not bake evenly, or get crispy, on all sides.
• I do not recommend prepping this salad ahead of time. Unlike most of the bowls and salads on Bowls Are The New Plates, I do not recommend meal-prepping this salad. As I mentioned above, the tofu is best when it's eaten immediately after it comes out of the oven and is tossed with the buffalo sauce.
• Not all brands of buffalo sauce are vegan. Be sure to check the label before purchasing buffalo sauce to make this salad. Frank's Buffalo Sauce is my favorite and it is vegan. That's what is used in this recipe and pretty much all of my recipes with buffalo sauce!
• I love my homemade vegan avocado ranch dressing in this recipe! But if you don't have time to make the dressing, you can use a store bought vegan ranch dressing instead.

Make it low carb

• This salad is already low carb at just 14 net carbs per serving. To reduce the carbs further, omit the onions and carrots on top of the salad. This will reduce the total carbs to 15 grams per serving and the net carbs down to 9 grams per serving.

Add a protein

• Tofu is a good source of plant-based protein and each serving of this salad already contains 13 grams of protein. If you'd like to add more plant-based protein to the salad, add 1 tablespoon of hemp seeds to each salad. This will add 3 grams of additional protein per serving.

More vegan salads to try

• Kale Sweet Potato Salad
• Grilled Peach Salad
• Kale Beet Salad
• Greek Cauliflower Rice Salad
• Veggie Fajita Salad
• Vegan Cobb Salad

Recipe