Filipino Tofu Tapa – The Foodie Takes Flight

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This Filipino Tofu Tapa is a vegan take on the Filipino Beef Tapa, but using tofu! Filipino tapa is traditionally made by curing beef with salt and cooking it until dry and crispy. It is usually paired with seasoned vinegar and fried garlic rice and a fried egg that we call tapsilog.

For this tofu version, I thinly slice or peel my extra firm tofu and marinate the thin slices of tofu overnight in a sweet, tangy and savory marinade.

After marinating, I fry them in oil in a non-stick pan until crispy around the edges. The sauce also reduces and is better absorbed by the pieces of tofu. I serve mine with fried garlic rice, diced tomatoes and vinegar seasoned with red onion and chile.

This is tofu tapa

• Inspired by the Filipino Beef Tapa
• Marinated in a sweet-savory sauce with the tanginess of calamansi or Philippine lime juice.
• Easy to prepare
• Full of flavor
• Great for making large batches!

Ingredients you will need

tofu

• 23 oz extra firm tofu or tokwa

MARINADE

for cooking

to serve

How to make this Tofu Tapa

Prepare the tofu

• Drain the tofu from the water and pat-dry or press. See notes for tips on choosing extra firm tofu.
• Thinly slice the tofu using a peeler or shred with a knife. Small broken pieces are perfectly fine for different textures!
• Note that some tofu can crumble easily so if this is the case it may be best to thinly slice the tofu instead of peeling it.

Marinade/Sauce

• Add all marinade/sauce ingredients to a small bowl or measuring cup. Mix until all the sugar is dissolved. Feel free to adjust the marinade to your desired taste.

Marinate the tofu

• In a large bowl, place several layers of thin slices of tofu. Pour some of the marinade over the tofu.
• Put a few more layers of tofu and then pour some marinade again. Repeat this until all the tofu is submerged in the marinade. I like to pour the excess marinade from the container back into a measuring cup and use that to pour over the tofu to make sure everything is submerged.
• Leave the tofu to marinate in the refrigerator at least overnight for best flavor.

Cook the tofu

• You can cook the marinated tofu in batches and marinate the rest in a container for up to 5 days, as long as it’s refrigerated.

Pan-frying

• Check out the air-frying option below.
• Heat a large non-stick pan or wok over medium heat. Add plenty of oil to prevent the tofu from drying out.
• Once hot, lay out a few strips of tofu. Cook the tofu for 3 minutes on each side or until it begins to crisp around the edges and start to dry out. Flip the tofu and repeat on the other side.
• Pour some of the remaining marinade over the tofu and allow the sauce to evaporate.
• Be sure to keep an eye on the tofu as it burns easily from the sugars in the sauce.
• When the tofu is cooked to your liking, remove it from the pan.

Air-frying

• If air-frying, you can line the air fryer basket with some parchment paper to prevent sticking.
• Place a few strips of tofu in the air fryer basket. Pour some of the marinade over the tofu. Spray the tofu with some oil.
• Leave the tofu to air fry for 11-13 minutes or until the edges start to crisp and excess marinade has evaporated. Flip halfway through cooking.

Which is better: air-frying or pan-frying?

• Personally I prefer pan-fried ones because they are less dry than air-fried ones. The advantage of air-frying is that it uses less oil and is an easier cooking method.

For the vinegar

• For the vinegar, I just mix the distilled while mixing the vinegar with the red onion and diced red onion. You can season the vinegar with some sugar to counteract the acidity, as well as some black pepper. Soaking onions in vinegar will turn the vinegar pink.

Serve and enjoy!

• Serve with fried garlic rice, seasoned vinegar, tomatoes and fried garlic.
• I like to dip the tofu tapa pieces in the vinegar and also get some bits of chopped onion before scooping it up with the rice. Enjoy!

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