Blackened Tofu

I didn't exactly have a plan for tonight, but being that it's Friday, and we didn't have to rush around like crazy trying to get the kids to bed for school the next day, I knew I wanted to cook something "special". Well, with no plan, I had to come up with something that I already had the ingredients for, which isn't really all that hard, as I generally tend to have a pretty well stocked pantry. I had some tofu that needed using up, so I knew I was going to make a tofu dish. We've been doing stir-fry a lot with all of the CSA veggies, so I didn't want to do that again. That's when I recalled seeing a recipe for Blackened Tofu in Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. I haven't cooked anything from ED&BV for awhile, so this seemed the perfect opportunity. I had almost everything that was required for the spice blend. The recipe calls for 1 Tbs of paprika, and I only had about 1/2 Tbs left. Since this kind of reminded me of a seafood dish, I decided to fill that 1/2 Tbs void with some Old Bay Seasoning. I also left out the fennel seeds, as the flavor of fennel always reminds me of sausage, and I was going for seafood here.

This tofu was incredible, I will definitely be making it again, and soon!! It was very similar to a blackened fish (without the fishy flavor of course). The only thing I'd do different is to cut the tofu into fillets before I press it so that the thin slices of tofu have less liquid in them (this time I pressed the tofu as one large block). We just ate them as is, but I think they'd be great on a toasted bun with some vegan tartar sauce, red onion slices, tomato slices and a romaine leaf.