

Blood Orange Glazed Tofu. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)

I can’t say I miss ham. But there’s one aspect of holiday ham, in all its retro glory, that I do miss: that sticky-sweet glaze. Just the thought of it makes me want to put on an ugly Christmas sweater and turn on the Bing Crosby.

[Make the recipe: Blood Orange Glazed Tofu]

Thankfully, there are plenty of vegetarian items to which you can apply such a glaze just as festively, but the most hamlike would have to be tofu. Specifically, extra-firm tofu, which turns extra-extra-firm when you bake it in a marinade that becomes a glaze.

That’s what Isa Chandra Moskowitz calls for in her wonderful new book, “The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook” (Little Brown, 2016). Moskowitz is the OG vegan author behind the Post Punk Kitchen blog and such books as “Isa Does It, “Veganomicon,” “Vegan With a Vengeance” and more (some of them with co-author Terry Hope Romero). She takes to the holidays with gusto, organizing her book from New Year’s through Valentine’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving and Christmas, with many more in between.

She presents Blood Orange Glazed Tofu in the Christmas chapter, promising “Technicolor” drama and sweet, “zingy” flavor. Sold. The marinade/glaze is a cinch to make — the most time-consuming part is peeling and mincing 3 tablespoons’ worth of ginger — and then into the oven the planks of tofu go. I don’t know if it was because the blood oranges I used weren’t as ruby-red inside as they often are, but the color of my finished dish was significantly more muted than Technicolor.

The flavor, on the other hand, was as bright — and holiday-appropriate — as could be.