Peach BBQ Baked Tofu

For the Peach BBQ Sauce

1. Using a food processor (or your own superb knife skills), finely pulse onions until finely minced.
2. In a small pot over medium heat, cook the minced onions with ¼ cup grapeseed oil until lightly browned. This will take about 10-20 minutes depending on how patient you are and how caramelized you want them to be. The longer the better, but I cooked for maybe 15 min.
3. Add minced garlic and cook until garlic is lightly fragrant, about 5 minutes since the onion has quite a bit of moisture. Add tomato paste, cinnamon, and chili powder and stir to combine. Add cayenne powder if using.
4. Meanwhile, strain 1 large can of sliced California cling peaches and reserve ¼ cup of the syrup. Use a food processor or blender to puree peach slices then transfer to the pot, stirring to combine.
5. In a pourable glass/measuring cup, combine brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, ¼ cup of strained peach syrup, vegan Worcestershire sauce and gluten-free tamari (or soy sauce). Add to pot and stir to incorporate ingredients. (To save dishes you can just add this to the pot directly instead of mixing together first, but it ends up being the same either way).
6. Continue to cook over medium heat until slightly reduced, about 10 min, stirring frequently. The mixture will take on a deep, reddish caramel colour. Remove from heat, and use a stick blender (immersion blender) to fully blend until it’s smooth (you could also use a food processor or blender here, but I prefer to use the stick blender for piping hot mixtures).
7. Transfer the sauce to two clean 500 mL (2 cup) jars while it’s still hot. Put a lid on one of the jars to seal, and set the other aside for the tofu.

To make the Peach BBQ Baked Tofu:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Drain and lightly press 1 block of firm tofu. Cut into slabs then arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Lightly brush peach BBQ sauce on all sides of the tofu and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Flip then brush more peach BBQ sauce on the top side, then bake for another 20 minutes. Depending on your oven, cooking times may vary. My oven is a little on the cool side, so I baked for an additional 10 minutes, but in my old oven this would have been done in 35 minutes.
4. Serve with additional peach BBQ sauce and enjoy! I served this with rice and garlic sautéed kale :)