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Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles

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Crispy tofu is tossed with a flavor-packed (and deceptively simple) sweet and savory five spice sauce and served over my favorite sesame noodles. Perfect for a weeknight dinner or easy meal prep!

Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles

Winner winner tofu dinner!

I’ve been on a bit of a five-spice kick lately, adding it to many of our everyday stir-frys, roasted veggies, and marinades. But these five spice tofu noodle bowls that we whipped up for dinner a few weeks ago were such a hit that I had to write down the recipe to share with you guys!

The components here are super simple. I just whipped up a batch of my favorite sesame noodles and sautéed some tofu until it was nice and crispy. Then I tossed the tofu with a quick 3-ingredient sauce (made from hoisin, five spice and rice vinegar), served the tofu over the hot sesame noodles (yum), and topped the bowls off with some roasted broccoli (or whatever veggie you prefer). And wow, all of the sweet and savory layers of flavor just worked here. So, so good.

We also learned the next day that the leftovers arguably tasted even better, served either hot or cold. So we’ve been making and enjoying these noodle bowls for meal prep for our weekday lunches ever since. If tofu isn’t your thing, feel free to make them with chicken, pork, steak, shrimp, salmon, tempeh, or whatever protein you love best. And if you feel like adding some spice, I highly recommend serving with a drizzle of sriracha too.

Here’s how to make them!

Crispy Tofu in a Sauté Pan with Five Spice Hoisin Sauce

Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles Ingredients:

To make these five spice tofu sesame noodle bowls, you will need the following ingredients (full recipe detailed below):

Five Spice Tofu Bowls with Sesame Noodles

How To Make This Recipe:

I highly recommend doing some multitasking while making this recipe if you would like it to move quickly. And as I mentioned above, this recipe also tastes great using hot or cold sesame noodles, so feel free to prep those in advance if you would like to save yourself some time on a busy weeknight. Here’s a quick overview of how to make these tofu noodle bowls (full details included in the recipe below):

  1. Press the tofu. Slice the block of tofu into 1/2-inch slabs. Lay some paper towels or a clean tea towel on a flat surface, and place the slabs side by side on top of the paper towels. Cover with another layer of paper towels, then place a cutting board on top of the tofu, and stack a bunch of heavy cans or pots or whatever you can safely balance on the cutting board. Let the tofu drain for at least 15-30 minutes.
  2. Make the five spice sauce. Whisk together the hoisin, rice vinegar and five spice powder until combined. Set aside.
  3. Make the sesame noodles. Make the sesame noodles according to recipe instructions here.
  4. Cook the tofu. Remove the paper towels and slice the tofu into 1/2-inch cubes. Heat the oil in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and sauté for 8-10 minutes, flipping and tossing the tofu every 2 or so minutes, until it is crispy and browned. Remove pan from heat, add hoisin sauce, and toss until combined.
  5. Serve. Serve the sesame noodles topped with the tofu (plus any extra veggies you might like to add), sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and thinly-sliced green onions for garnish. Enjoy!!

Crispy Tofu Sesame Noodle Bowls in Meal Prep Containers

Possible Variations:

Want to customize these five spice tofu noodles a bit? Feel free to…

  • Add veggies: I made some roasted broccoli to go with this recipe, but any mix of veggies that you love (such as asparagus, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, cauliflower, snap peas, etc) would be delicious!
  • Make it spicy: Feel free to mix some sriracha or a pinch of cayenne into the five-spice sauce if you would like to add some extra heat.
  • Make it gluten-free: Use gluten-free noodles (whatever type you prefer) and gluten-free hoisin sauce.
  • Use baked (instead of sautéed) tofu: If you don’t have a non-stick pan, it would probably be easier to bake the tofu.
  • Use a different protein: In place of tofu, feel free to use chicken, pork, steak, shrimp, salmon, tempeh, or whatever other protein you prefer.
  • Use rice: If you want to make this recipe even easier, you could serve it with rice instead of the sesame noodles, which would still be delicious.

Five Spice Tofu Sesame Noodle Bowls with Roasted Broccoli in Meal Prep Containers

More Favorite Noodle Bowls:

Love noodle bowls as much as we do? Here are a few more favorite recipes to try….

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Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles

Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 7 reviews
  • Author: Ali
  • Prep Time: 35 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 45 mins
  • Yield: 6 to 8 servings 1x

Description

Crispy tofu is tossed with a flavor-packed (and deceptively simple) sweet and savory five spice sauce and served over my favorite sesame noodles.  Perfect for a weeknight dinner or easy meal prep!


Ingredients

Scale

Five Spice Tofu Ingredients:

Sesame Noodles Ingredients:


Instructions

  1. Press the tofu. Slice the block of tofu into 1/2-inch slabs.  Lay some paper towels or a clean tea towel on a flat surface, and place the slabs side by side on top of the paper towels.  Cover with another layer of paper towels, then place a cutting board on top of the tofu, and stack a bunch of heavy cans or pots or whatever you can safely balance on the cutting board.  Let the tofu drain for at least 15-30 minutes.
  2. Make the five spice sauce. Whisk together the hoisin, rice vinegar and five spice powder until combined.  Set aside.
  3. Make the sesame noodles. Make the sesame noodles according to recipe instructions here.
  4. Cook the tofu. Remove the paper towels and slice the tofu into 1/2-inch cubes.  Heat the oil in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Add the tofu and sauté for 8-10 minutes, flipping and tossing the tofu every 2 or so minutes, until it is crispy and browned.  Remove pan from heat, add hoisin sauce, and toss until combined.
  5. Serve. Serve the sesame noodles topped with the tofu (plus any extra veggies you might like to add), sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and thinly-sliced green onions for garnish.  Enjoy!!


Notes

Storage instructions: Leftovers can be refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

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10 comments on “Five Spice Tofu with Sesame Noodles”

  1. What food storage / meal prep containers do you love?

  2. Hi Ali
    How is your little sprout ! Pregnancy going well? How many weeks are you pregnant? Hope everything is well and God bless you! You are going to be parents one day soon!

  3. Ali…it just so happened I had all the ingredients to make this…..followed your recipe and it turned out delicious and I have lunch for the next several days…yum???????? Thank you?

  4. This turned out great!! Made exactly as written and the whole family loved it. (I did have to rinse the sauce off of the tofu for our 2YO, but we LOVED the 5 spice sauce!)

    Thank you :)






  5. I love the flavor of this dish but I want to comment on the amount of the sauce. The first time I made this I followed the recipe exactly and the sauce was extremely overpowering for us. I made it a second time with half of the amount of sauce and it was much better. I don’t know if you have ever found that to be the case. Another thought I had was to dilute the sauce a bit and I may try that next time. Thanks!






  6. Made everything as written including the broccoli. Will definitely be making again. My husband loved it, and it was on the table in 20 minutes. Great recipes!






  7. I couldn’t get hoisin sauce so I substituted general Tso’s. This was so delicious! Crispy, crunchy, spicy, sweet, umami. I served it with steamed sugar snap peas. The perfect meal for Meatless Monday, or any day!






  8. Very tasty. I marinated and air fried the tofu and served with roasted broccoli. Looking forward to my meal prep this week.






  9. Me with the pasta: “Maybe could use a bit more sauce”
    Me with the tofu: “Way too much sauce!”
    Next time, I’ll probably try 1.5x the sauce for the pasta and 0.5x the sauce for the tofu. Of course this means there will be a next time, because the flavors were really good together. Thank you for being a part of my journey toward understanding how to cook tofu.