January 31, 2013

Claire's Tofu Buffalo Poppers


I love watching football (American football and "soccer" football).  Actually, I love eating "football game food" while the TV's on.  I have been getting into the Super Bowl spirit lately (who's playing?) by testing out some new recipes in the kitchen.  Mikey and I are perfecting our Third Coast Kitchen vegan queso recipe and I just whipped up a giant batch of chipotle salsa.  But "game day food" to me means buffalo wings and since I have no interest in the "wing" part, I made these tasty buffalo tofu poppers!

vegan tofu buffalo poppers.  photo by Claire Harris
Ingredients:

-2 packages of firm tofu, frozen overnight, thawed with the water squeezed out
-2 cups flour
-1/2 cup nutritional yeast
-1 tbs salt
-1 tsp chili powder
-1/2 hot sauce (I like Franks for this. Use more or less to taste)
-1 cup vegan butter (if you're in America, use the good stuff.  Earth Balance is awesome)
-2 cups soymilk or any other non-dairy milk
-light oil for frying (canola, soybean etc)

cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes and dip into the soy milk.  In a separate bowl,  mix the flour, nutritional yeast, salt and chili powder together.  Remove the tofu from the soymilk and dredge in the flour mixture.  In a pan or small pot, heat the oil on medium-high until it starts to sizzle when you put something in it (try dropping a bit of flour in it to test).  How much oil you need will depend on the size of your pan, but it should be enough to come 1/3 of the way up the sides of the tofu.  Make sure your oil is hot enough so the tofu doesn't get greasy and soggy.  When your oil is ready, fry the tofu on all sides until crispy and golden brown (don't burn them like I did in the picture^^).  Drain the tofu on a paper town and heat the butter and hot sauce in a new pan on the stove.  Whisk until completely emulsified and then toss the tofu bits in the buffalo sauce. 

They are great on their own, dipped in some vegan ranch dressing or on top of salads.  I have even made some awesome sandwiches using this recipe and topped it with a simple cabbage slaw made with brown rice vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and chili powder. (again, don't burn the buns like I did^^)

vegan buffalo sandwich with cabbage slaw. photo by Claire Harris 
Put these out for the big game and I promise your friends and family will be "wowed".  And the chickens will be quite happy, too!

1 comment:

  1. Hey SVP
    Great recipe! The flavours were yummy. I did change a few of the spices to give the bites a chicken nugget feel. I added vegan chicken stock (2 tbps) to the spices and egg replacer to the milk. When I whisked the milk and egg replacer (follow directions on the packet) the mixture became sticker and held the spices to the tofu better than when I'd made similar dishes in the past. Thanks for the recipe!

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