Grit Tofu Recipe

In 2009, I took a trip to Athens, Georgia to visit my friend Alyson while she was doing work at the University of Georgia. We ate at this delicious called the Grit where we devoured this delicious tofu. I asked the guy what they used - he said they were double fried in soy sauce and oil then sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Easy enough, I thought. I spent time emulating the recipe, and actually did not find nutritional yeast and at first used something completely different that a clueless guy at Whole Foods led me too. I eventually found the recipe online here and it is also available in their amazing cookbook, but I think a step by step may help a lot of people. All of the recipes never give amounts for the soy sauce, oil, or nutritional yeast, or really any guidelines, and there is a fine line that is easy to cross. Too much soy sauce and it's a salty soggy mess and too much nutritional yeast and they burn easily or become a strange texture. Too little of either and you have some dry, flavorless cubes. Here's how we do it.


What You'll Need
14 ounce block of extra firm tofu (found in refrigerator section, I prefer Whole Food's 360 brand)
Sesame or olive oil 
Soy Sauce (read on for measurements)
Nutritional Yeast (Hard to find, Amazon has it for pretty cheap and a lot of it - and it's good stuff)
Assorted Veggies (Totally optional! I rarely put them in because of the husband)


First, get a nice skillet or frying pan and turn your heat to medium heat. Drizzle in about 2 Tablespoons of oil and allow to heat throughly and evenly distribute though the pan.

Cut your tofu into small cubes. I cut 4 cubes on the short side (width), about 8 on the long side (height) and once through (depth)

Once the oil if heated, toss the tofu in the pan and try and evenly distribute in the pan. Get your soy sauce and quickly draw a smiley face (a circle around, a smile and two dots) in the tofu. This evens about to be about 3 seconds of pouring, and the pattern helps to get the soy sauce distributed. Then use your spatula to toss and evenly coat the cubes.

Allow the tofu to sizzle on medium or medium high heat (depending on your stove, my husband needs a medium low now!) just make sure that there is a constant sizzle. There will be water that should be evaporating - you can press down on the tofu with your spatula to try and get some of the water out. Cook them until they are a light medium brown like shown.

If you like, toss in some vegetables while the tofu is cooking and let them cook with the tofu! This is optional - I like zucchini, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower the best.

Once the tofu is browned like shown, sprinkle with more soy sauce (do the same smiley face pattern) and toss evenly. Then get our your nutritional yeast.

I sprinkle on two tablespoons like shown - not totally heaping - then toss to coat. Cook until a golden brown and nice and crispy.

And serve! The recipe I linked to at the beginning also shows you how to make nutritional yeast gravy, which goes wonderfully with the tofu and some brown rice. My husband and I are obsessed with it and it's a great vegan recipe - oh and we aren't even vegan! (We do make ours with legit butter because we aren't, so I guess we don't make it vegan - but you can!) 

MM!!! Served with nutritional yeast gravy, brown rice, and sake!

PS. The photos I used are from mixed periods of time - some were taken in Cincinnati!

Also - if you make this and love it - which you will - you should really pick up their cookbook - it has more amazing recipes that are vegan and vegetarian - their cakes are to die for!