I’m Obsessed With Air-Fried Buffalo Tofu Puffs
My good friend (and regular Lifehacker contributor) A.A. Newton completely changed my relationship with tofu when she introduced me to pre-fried puff tofu. If you’ve never had them, they’re well worth heading to your local Asian market. ( Get some miso while you’re there.)
Puffy tofu chunks are essentially slightly oily sauce sponges that become crispy with little effort on your part. This particular combination of qualities makes them ideal candidates for a good buffalo. Cut them in half to expose their honeycomb-like innards, quickly air-fry them to get their fat moving and striated, toss with the sauce, then return the puffs to the fryer for a final crisp. This whole process takes about seven minutes from start to finish, and that’s if you procrastinate.
The result is a Buffalo bite that is chewy and crunchy, fully soaked in buttery hot sauce. (If you replace butter with margarine, they also become completely vegan.) Their vegetarian nature, however, is almost entirely irrelevant. Buffalo tofu puffs are fun to eat and everyone loves to have fun.
Buffalo puffs with tofu
Ingredients:
- 1 pound puff tofu
- 1/3 cup butter (or margarine)
- 1/2 cup Frank’s hot sauce (or other hot sauce of your choice)
- blue cheese sauce or dipping ranch
- Carrot sticks, perhaps? (No celery!)
Cut your puffs in half to expose their spongy insides.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it melts, take it off the stove and add the hot sauce.
Heat the fryer to 350℉. Place the tofu halves in a basket to form a single layer (you may need to work in batches) and air-fry for 3 minutes until crispy on the outside. Place the puffs in a large bowl and drizzle with the sauce until the puffs are completely coated, stirring and letting the sauce soak into the puffs after each addition.
Heat the fryer to 400℉ and return the sauce puffs to the basket. Air fry for 2 minutes, then toss in a bowl with a couple more drops of sauce. Serve immediately with ranch, blue cheese, or both.