This easy spicy maple glazed tofu rice bowl is packed with bold flavor! Delicious tofu with rice, and a fresh cucumber avocado salad.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & we'll send it to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week.
The secret to flavorful, crispy tofu that actually holds onto the glaze? Press it well and give it time to marinate.
As a long-time vegan and someone who’s cooked a lot of tofu over the years, and used to think I hated tofu, I can tell you—those two steps make all the difference.
Pressing removes excess water so the tofu crisps up nicely, and marinating lets every bite soak in that sweet heat from the maple glaze.
This spicy maple glazed tofu is one of those meals that looks a little fancy but is super approachable. It’s sweet, spicy, sticky, and perfect over rice, in bowls, or tucked into wraps.
We turn to it on busy nights when we still want something flavorful and satisfying.
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Dish
- Flavorful – There are so many flavors packed into one bowl with this dish that work so well together to have an incredibly delicious meal. The sweet and spicy of the tofu with the light and bright avocado cucumber salad is just perfection together.
- Take Out Inspo – This dish feels like it comes right out of your favorite take-out Asian spot without ever having to leave the house!
- Meal Prep Friendly – All the components of this dish are easily meal-prepped and then ready to toss together when you’re ready to eat it
Ingredients for this dish:
Gather your ingredients!
Tofu
We are using an extra firm tofu here for this dish. It’s perfect for holding it’s shape while cooking, but also allowing for the marinade to penetrate perfectly.
We also use soy sauce, cornstarch and spices for the rest of the tofu dish.
Substitute: If you don’t eat tofu, you can swap this with cauliflower, chickpeas, mushrooms, or vegan chicken pieces. For the cauliflower you can make the same way as the tofu. With the chickpeas or mushrooms, if would be best to just toast in a skillet, and then add the sauce in until heated through.
For soy sauce, you can swap with a no soy soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos depending on your needs. The cornstarch can be swapped with arrowroot powder.
Spicy Sauce
For the sauce, you’ll need butter beans, lime, sriracha, cumin, onion powder, smoked paprika, and maple syrup. The better beans make the sauce creamy and add protein, while the remaining ingredients help with flavor.
Substitute: For the beans, they can be subbed with cannellini or great northern beans. Raw cashews will also work.
Variation: If you don’t like spicy dishes, you can omit the sriracha, or add less. You could also just add some red pepper flakes to taste if you’d like less.
Cucumber Avocado Salad
This salad combines mini cucumbers, avocados, cilantro, lime, and maple syrup.
Substitute: It will change the taste, but if you aren’t a fan of cilantro, try using parsley.
Rice
We prefer using brown basmati rice for our recipes. However, since this is being made separately from the rest of the dish, you can use what you prefer for your rice bowls.
Substitute: You can also do this with noodles, quinoa, or other grains that you prefer using.
Other Vegan Tofu Ideas To Try:
Did you make and love this recipe?
Click the 5 stars in the recipe card above or below in the comment section! This is a great way to support us so we can continue to bring great recipes!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Spicy Maple Glazed Tofu Rice Bowl
Ingredients
For the Crispy Tofu:
- 1 14-16oz block extra firm tofu, pressed and drained, torn into pieces (397g)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons sriracha
- 2 cups rice, uncooked (400g)
For the Avocado Cucumber Salad:
- 2 mini cucumbers, finely diced
- 1 avocado, finely diced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 lime, zested and juiced
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
For the Spicy Sauce:
- 1 15oz butter beans, drained and rinsed (425g)
- 1 lime juiced
- ¼ cup sriracha (80g)
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- water, as needed to thin
Additional Ingredients, Optional
- Fresh mango, diced
- Black sesame seeds
Instructions
- Make Tofu: Preheat oven to 425˚F. Add tofu into to a large bowl. Add soy sauce and vinegar and gently stir together. After 15 mins, to the tofu, add cornstarch, garlic powder, paprika and oil. Gently toss to coat. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and put into oven. Cook for 25 minutes, flipping half way through.
- Maple Sriracha Sauce: Add maple sauce and sriracha to a small bowl and whisk together. Set aside until tofu is finished. When finished, drizzle across and toss to coat well.
- Rice: Cook 2 cups of your favorite rice according to the package instructions.
- Sauce: Add all sauce ingredients to blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. If needed, add a teaspoon of water at a time to desired consistency.
- Avocado cucumber salad: Add ingredients to a bowl and toss until the avocados and cucumbers are fully coated.
- Make your bowl: Add rice first, then desired about of tofu salad and sauce.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
The easiest way to press out tofu is to use a tofu press. We use this tofu press because it’s easy to use and works great.
However, if you don’t have a tofu press then you could wrap the block of tofu in a kitchen towel, place it on a plate, and then put something heavy on top like a cast iron skillet.
This recipe has tofu and soy sauce. You can use a no soy soy sauce and the tofu could also be done with chickpeas or cauliflower.
Once cooled, store each of these separate in air tight containers. Each part of the dish is good in the fridge for up to 3 days.
We do not recommend freezing this dish.
This dish was awesome my wife had me pick 10 of your recipes. and so far this has been my favorite food. I told her it might be the best thing I have ever eaten. We still have a good number of the 10 other recipes to go through. I am helping her with the breakfast quesadilla one now. I was talking about this tofu one and she pulled up your site for me to write this review. If the rest of your healthy recipes are this good I might change my diet forever!
Thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe! We are thrilled to hear that it has become your favorite so far and that you enjoyed it so much. It is wonderful to know that our recipes are making such a positive impact and that you are excited to explore the others.
Such a delicious recipe. Comes together quick and you can prep for different fsmily members to construct at their leisure. Vegan and GF family!
Thank you so much!
This was a pleasant surprise after a long, hard day at work. I actually expected something a bit different, but the flavors were incredible and the side salad was the perfect complement to the rest. I am really looking forward to the leftovers.
Thank you so much! We’re happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you for giving it a try!
This was delicious, thank you for this fantastic recipe! I have quite a bit of the butter bean sauce left over and think I might try the rest with sweet potatoes tomorrow for lunch.
Thank you so so much! We are so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe!
I am an absolute tofu lover. I’ve had it every way imaginable. I didn’t think it could get any better until I had this version. Epic is an understatement. While the rest of this dish was amazingly delicious, it’s the tofu that will go into my dinner rotation. This flavor combination can be paired with so many things. Thank you!
Wow, thanks Astrid. So happy to hear this
Everything in this recipe is DELICIOUS! I did make one change, I whisked all the tofu marinade ingredients together, making a slurry, and tossed the tofu in it, let it sit for about 25 minutes, then convection baked it. The flavor is incredible!
Awesome!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! Couldn’t find canned butter beans (we’re in Alaska), so soaked and cooked up some dried lima beans. May have used too many in the sauce… it was a bit thick, but still tasted great! Will definitely make again!
Great idea!