Maple-Barbecue Tofu Sandwiches
Armed with a maple barbecue sauce and paired rub for dressing up ribs, I wanted to use those two things on a vegetarian-friendly dish as well. My latest go-to for achieving this is using smoked jackfruit, which, when seasoned, smoked, and sauced, makes for a great stand-in for pulled pork. I had already done that though earlier in The Meatwave season with smoked mojo jackfruit, so turned to my next most common option, tofu. I had made barbecue tofu once before, and to be totally honest, this recipe isn't all the different than the original, but this one is more purpose built around that maple barbecue sauce, using a distinct rub and coleslaw designed to all work together harmoniously.
The rub and sauce are both covered territory on this site since they first showed up in the recipe for the ribs. What's is unique here is the coleslaw, and when thinking about the best flavoring to work with a primarily sweet, maple-based sauce, I thought a contrasting sharp and tart profile was called for. To start that out, I opted to add Granny Smith apples into the coleslaw mix that also included the standard cabbage and carrot. All of these were seasoned heavily with salt and sugar to help extract moisture before being washed and dried, leaving a ideally crisp-tender seasoned base to start the slaw off on the right foot.
Then for the dressing, I doubled down on mustard with both regular Dijon and whole grain. To that I added vinegar, mayo, brown sugar, honey, and celery seeds to hit all the additional sweet and tangy notes I thought would pair well with the barbecue sauce.
Moving on to that sauce and rub, I won't go too in depth on those since you can read all the details and thought that went into them in the ribs post, but there's a couple things worth reiterating. First, this sauce was designed to be mainly sweet, but still deliver on a full barbecue complexity. That's why there's multiple sugars, which includes syrup used in amount that gives a hint of maple flavor without it being dominating.
Second is that the rub is also designed to be primarily sweet too and is more or less complimentary to the sauce. So there's isn't a lot of contrast or heat to be had here, instead the rub is meant to boost the flavor of the sauce even more, which is exactly how it worked on the ribs, so I made a good assumption it would do the same with the tofu.
And for that tofu, from my experience, it's best to choose the extra-firm variety for optimal performance on the grill. It's also helpful to place the sliced tofu between paper towels and press down gently to extract extra moisture because this will allow the exterior of the tofu brown more effectively when cooking. Wanting to make my tofu stretch further, I had cut mine into half-inch slices lengthwise, which got me six pieces per block, but if I were to make these again, I'd cut the tofu once widthwise and once lengthwise to create four pieces that better fill up a bun.
I used a two-step cooking process to get the tofu well browned while still having a good amount of moisture inside. This began over indirect heat, with all of the coals arranged on side of the charcoal grate, and cooking for about fifteen minutes, brushing on sauce a couple times during this period.
Next, the tofu was brushed one more time with sauce before being moved directly over the coals. This is where the slices picked up the most of their color when the sauce caramelized in spots here and there.
Once the tofu was all done, I transferred the slices to a plate and used the now empty grill to toast the buns. This is a step I advocate for over and over again because I feel like that over-processed, grocery store bread gets new life once it's all nice and toasty
The finally assembly consisted of one slice of tofu on each bun, topped with a helping of coleslaw and couple pieces of bread and butter pickles. While this recipe isn't all that different from my last barbecue tofu one, I felt these sandwiches definitely tasted more thought out. Starting with the barbecue tofu, which delivered a really delicious layered sweetness that was helped out when contrasted by the more sharp and tart pickles and slaw. The mustard flavor was really key here, proving to be a great match to the maple in the sauce. The slaw and pickles also lent a needed crunch, and I especially loved the whole grain mustard that added a nice textural element to the slaw. In a way, these sandwiches were actually more in tune to my preferences than those ribs that used the same sauce and rub because I'm attracted to things that have a sharpness and/or heat to them, and I got all that in this recipe, while the ribs really just delivered on the sweetness without the benefits you got with the entire sandwich here.
