One of the most popular Chinese American dishes, we’re making vegan! This absolutely delicious and full of flavor vegan general tso’s tofu is incredible!
If you love Chinese food, you will love this vegan General Tso’s tofu!
General Tso’s is typically a sweet and spicy fried chicken dish at North American Chinese restaurants. Despite being served so widely, there is no record of any connection to General Tso Tsung-t’ang, the leader the dish is named after.
While there are some slight variations depending on cultures and region, the basis of the dish is the sauce, batter, and the main – which is usually chicken. Broccoli is also usually served along side it.
The sauce is the main component and made up of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, dried whole red chili peppers and garlic.
We are taking the same base sauce and pairing it with tofu for a vegan General Tso’s tofu that is simply amazing.
We don’t claim that this is an authentic recipe, however, we will show you how to make a delicious recipe that is easy and accessible to all!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy – Once you have your tofu ready, this recipe will be ready in minutes! It’s so easy to throw together for a perfect meal.
- Flavorful – There is so much flavor to this recipe. Plus you can easily adjust the spice level up or down for your comfort!
- Cheaper At Home – Takeout is expensive! Especially for a family. This vegan General Tso’s tofu dish is so much cheaper to make at home!
Recipe Ingredients:
Gather your ingredients!
- Tofu – The star of the show! You want to use an extra firm block of tofu for this recipe
- Brown sugar – Beyond adding just a little bit of sweetness to the marinade, sugar helps to neutralize spice as the sugar crystals absorb some of the capsaicin oils and balance the flavors well
- Garlic and Ginger – the aromatics for this dish.
- Red Chili Flakes – many places use actual red chilies, but they can be hard to locate, so we are using red chili flakes instead
- Soy sauce, Hoisin, Rice Wine Vinegar and Chili Paste – These are like the seasonings for this recipe. We recommend adding each and not making many changes besides a swap for the soy sauce if you need a soy free or gluten free variety
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Substitutions and Variations:
- Tofu – obviously this whole dish is based around tofu, but you could also use seitan, jackfruit, oyster mushrooms, chickpeas, cauliflower and more with this recipe
- Red Pepper Flakes – you can use red chilis if desired or omit entirely if you don’t want this to be spicy
- Brown sugar – swap with coconut sugar if needed
- Cornstarch – Can be swapped with arrowroot powder, potato starch or flour. If using flour, you will need a wet binder like flax egg to coat properly.
- Soy sauce- Tamari, coconut aminos, or no soy soy sauce are good swaps
Frequently Asked Questions:
It has a kick, but not too hot. If you would like a more mild flavor, you can reduce the amount of red pepper flakes.
If you already made this and just finding out it’s spicy to you, you can add avocado or vegan sour cream to your dish to help level out the spice.
For even spicier flavor, add more!
Yes! Make sure the sauce is at room temperature, then place into a freezer safe container or bag. We recommend using within 6 months of freezing.
This dish is tofu based so soy is in the main ingredient but you could swap the tofu for something else like mushrooms, jackfruit, or cauliflower.
For the soy sauce, swap with coconut aminos, tamari sauce or a no soy soy sauce depending on your allergens.
General Tso’s is traditionally served with broccoli and rice! Enjoy!
Tips for making the perfect tofu:
- Best type of tofu to use – We prefer extra firm tofu for this recipe. It’s easy to freeze and thaw for a more “meaty” texture, plus easy to find. Firm tofu will also work. Super firm tofu will also work, but doesn’t need to be pressed first. DO NOT use silk or soft tofu for this recipe.
- Freezing Tofu First – Freezing tofu gives it a more meat-like texture. While this isn’t a requirement, we highly recommend doing it this way. Freeze the tofu in the store packaging. Then remove and let thaw completely before adding it to a tofu press to drain.
- Pressing Tofu – 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.
Other Vegan Takeout Dishes To Consider:
Vegan General Tso’s Tofu
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup soy sauce (80g)
- 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon rice wine vinegar (sub with white wine vinegar)
- 2 teaspoon chili paste
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 14-16oz block extra firm tofu, frozen, then thawed, pressed, and cubed*
- 3 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely grated, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- 2-3 tablespoon cornstarch (more if needed to coat evenly)
- 3 tablespoon brown sugar (can sub lime juice)
- ¾ cup vegetable stock (180g)
- 3 tbsp neutral oil
- ½ teaspoon red chili flakes, optional
Optional to Serve With
- 1 head broccoli, steamed (edamame, bok choy, snap peas are other good alternatives)
- rice, quinoa, or noodles, cooked
- sliced green onions, for garnish
- sesame seeds, for garnish
Instructions
- For marinade: In a small bowl, add soy sauce, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, chili paste and sesame oil. Stir together well.
- Add tofu cubes into a shallow dish with a lid or a sealable bag. Add 3 tablespoon of the marinade over tofu. Add 1 teaspoon ginger and 1 clove garlic, stir carefully, and then let marinate for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add cornstarch to the tofu and toss to coat. Shake off any excess.
- To the remaining marinade, brown sugar, and vegetable stock. Whisk together.
- Add oil over medium heat to a large skillet. Cook the tofu for about 8-9 minutes, turning every 2 minutes or so to ensure all sides are crispy and golden. Remove the tofu.
- In the same skillet, add more oil if needed. Add in remaining 2 teaspoon grated ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic, and red chili flakes if adding. Saute for 30 seconds. Add remaining marinade sauce and bring to a simmer. Stir occasionally until it begins to thicken.
- Add tofu and toss to coat. Immediately remove and transfer as soon as it's coated to remain crispy.
- Serve over rice, quinoa, noodles etc. with steamed broccoli as a side. Top with green onions and sesame seeds if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Post updated on 1/27/2024, originally written 9/29/2021.
BlueDog
This was the absolute best sauce ever. I added sautéed mushrooms and OMG!!
Larisha Bernard
yay!
Tamara
Yum yum yum 😋. Made this tonight and it was another hit. Y’all have been all up in my kitchen with all the meals I have been creating thanks to you guys. Makes me excited about food again.
LarishaBernard
So glad to hear this Tamara!
Carrie
I made this last night, and it was so good! Will definitely make again.
LarishaBernard
So glad that you liked it!
Barbara Jean Parland
This was delicious and I’m already looking forward to making it again. I decided to add an extra tsp of chili paste…just the perfect amount of tingly spice!
Allyson Lewis
Hi, Love your YT videos. I saw the video where you taste tested Pumfu (Tof) Would love to make this using it but can’t find it. Please share again where you purchased it. I live in Philly and would drive across the bridge to purchase it…..Thx
LarishaBernard
Try using their store locator here: https://foodiesvegan.com/product-locator
We got at Natural Health, in Blackwood, NJ
Brooke
This dish is amazing! My children and I all loved it. DO NOT SKIP THE FREEZING PROCESS! The texture of the tofu is so nice after doing this. Next time I will be using two blocks of tofu 🙂 Thanks for this recipe (and all your recipes)!
LarishaBernard
We’re so happy to hear that you like this! Thanks for taking time to leave a review, we appreciate that!
Sean
Hello! Just had this recipe for lunch and it was amazing, but I was curious about how the calories were calculated. Was it calculated including a big bowl of rice and broccoli, or does the tofu on it’s own have 527 calories per serving? I was hoping to get an approximate calorie count for just the tofu tossed in sauce. Thanks!
LarishaBernard
Hi! Optional ingredients are not supposed to be included in count, but it looks like broccoli was. We’ve updated and it only accounts for the tofu and sauce