Tofu Pizza 豆腐のピザ

TOFU PIZZA — Delicious melted mozzarella cheese, mushroom, ham, and basil leaves on slices of crispy pan-fried tofu. photo by Namiko Chen

Instead of pizza dough, this Japanese version of Tofu Pizza uses crispy pan-fried tofu as the “dough,” and is topped with melted mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, tomato slices and basil leaves for a delicious tofu dish.
When the words “Tofu Pizza” are used in the U.S., they often refer to the healthy pizza dough made out of tofu. However, in Japan, we have this quick and easy tofu dish called Tofu Pizza (豆腐のピザ) in which we use the tofu as the replacement for pizza dough.

Tofu plays a huge part in everyday Japanese food, and there are some creative and unique ways to enjoy tofu, including tofu dessert, Tofu Blancmange (https://www.justonecookbook.com/tofu-pudding-blancmange). Tofu Pizza was one of my favorite tofu dishes growing up, and if you like tofu, you’ll love this quick and easy meal!

Ingredients for Tofu Pizza
For this dish, we will use a “firm” tofu. The key to firm tofu is to drain it very well so the water doesn’t come out when the dish is being cooked or after it’s cooked. You wouldn’t want soggy pizza, right?

The ingredients for toppings are all up to you. If you want to make it vegetarian or vegan, you can choose ingredients that work for your diet. For today’s recipe, I made a Tofu Pizza with things we already had in the refrigerator; nothing fancy, just basic ingredients. Those of you who love bell pepper can cut it in rounds, and the color will make this dish look really pretty, but I can’t digest bell pepper well, so I skipped it for my recipe.

Since pizza sauce is not a common condiment that we usually have in Japan, most people use ketchup to season. You can definitely substitute the ketchup with homemade or canned pizza sauce. If you like it to be spicy, add hot sauce or Sriracha sauce! My recipe here is the kids-friendly recipe, as my family usually enjoys the food together right after we take photographs for the blog.

Enjoy Tofu Pizza Anytime!
Since this dish only takes a bit of prep time and you can be creative with ingredients you already have in the fridge, it’s a really simple dish that you can enjoy for lunch, snack time or dinner! I was surprised how much my family enjoyed it when I made it for them, especially my son, since tofu is his favorite food. This tofu dish might be a bit unusual for you, but I hope you will give it a try and enjoy it as much as we do!

Japanese Ingredient Substitution
If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, visit https://www.justonecookbook.com/ingredient-substitution-for-japanese-cooking/.

Tofu Pizza
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 30 mins

Instead of pizza dough, this Japanese version of Tofu Pizza uses crispy pan-fried tofu as the ‘dough’ and is topped with melted mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, tomato slices and basil leaves for a delicious tofu dish.

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: pizza, tofu steak
Servings: 2
Author: Nami

Ingredients
1 block firm tofu
3 slices ham (Skip for vegan/vegetarian)
2 mushrooms
1 tomato
1/4 cup potato starch/cornstarch (You can substitute it with flour)
1/2 tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
freshly ground black
pepper
2-3 Tbsp ketchup
2-4 leaves basil
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Parsley (for garnish, optional)

To read the recipe, visit the Just One Cookbook post here.