Vegan salmon ♥
Today we will prepare a delicious vegan salmon made with tofu and a delicious marinade that will help us achieve a pretty fishy taste.
This same marinade could be used to make other vegan fishy preparations, just omit the beets and turmeric if you don’t want it to be pinkish.
What is miso paste?
Miso paste derives from fermenting soybeans with salt and koji mold. It has many nutritional and also healing properties. The taste is quite peculiar and when it is combined with certain ingredients, such as nori seaweed, the smell and taste is very similar to fish or seafood.
What kind of tofu do I need to make this vegan salmon?
It is extremely important that the tofu is extra firm and that it actually is really very firm. Make sure the package doesn’t say “silken extra firm” because that one is pretty soft and mushy.
If you want to prepare your own extra firm tofu, here on the blog we have a post on how to make homemade tofu step by step with only 2 ingredients. It’s really good!
Let’s prepare this delicious Vegan Salmon ♥
Vegan Salmon
Ingredients
- 2 extra firm tofu blocks (900 g)
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 sheet of nori seaweed
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 15 g beets, raw
- 1 tbsp miso paste
- ½ small garlic clove
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 3 nori sheets to simulate salmon skin
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Blend the vegetable broth, 1 sheet of nori seaweed, apple cider vinegar, beets, miso paste, garlic, salt and turmeric. Reserve.
- Pat-dry the tofu blocks (you can cover them with a kitchen towel and place a wooden board to drain as much water as possible). Cut a block into 4 equal parts (lengthwise). Take one of the 4 parts (lengthwise) and make small cuts with an angle (45 °) to simulate a flaky texture, but without touching the base (you can place a chopstick next to the piece of tofu to keep you from cutting all the way through). Repeat the same process with the rest of the tofu.
- Marinate the tofu in the previous sauce overnight or even 24 hours (make sure to shake it a couple of times so that it is completely impregnated with the sauce).
- Take the marinated tofu and optionally place a strip of seaweed on the uncut side of the tofu (slightly soak the seaweed in the marinade so that it sticks better to the tofu).
- If you want your vegan salmon fillet to be slightly crispy, sprinkle a little cornstarch on all sides.
- Heat up some olive oil and fry the salmon fillets evenly on all sides.
It tastes just like salmon too! I didn’t want to buy a small amount of beet when I halved the recipe so I just used some pink food coloring. I think in the future I’ll skip the seaweed in the marinade and use just kelp powder, as the seaweed was difficult to blend into tiny flakes. I also added Cajun seasoning to the side without skin because that’s how my mom always made real salmon. I’ll definitely make this again.
Hi Halle! Omg yes!!! Using kelp powder is such a brilliant idea!! I’ll for sure do that next time too just to see if even the fishy flavor is more intense. Thanks for the suggestion! In case you want to use seaweed again, let it soak in the mix for a little bit so it gets mushier and easier to blend after ;D So happy you liked it! Cajun sounds lovely!