This Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu answered all my cravings for the crunch of KFC chicken, the spiced marinade, and the urgent need for creamy, tangy, and punchy Caesar dressing on a fresh salad. Super satisfying, packed with protein from the tofu with a cashew based sauce, adding all the nutrition you could possibly want for dinner in one delicious plate.
Why You Will Love This
Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu
Did you ever feel you really wanted the crunch and flavour of KFC chicken, but in Tofu? Or anything other than meat really, but Tofu really offers itself due to the structure and tenderness you get, when you first press then marinate it. In this case in a marinade made from almond milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a spice mix from Joshua Weissman that is very similar to KFCs.
This infuses the tofu with lovely tang and lots of flavour, getting it ready to be coated in crushed cornflakes. You can bake it in the oven or pan fry, but I found it bakes best in the air fryer, giving you perfectly crunchy and golden pieces, that are rather addictive when dipped into the Caesar Cashew dressing.
The all-important Caesar Dressing made vegan
While typical Caesar dressing is made with mayonnaise and anchovies, I’m using a base of cashews, which are blended into a super creamy dressing with capers, to give the salty, briny umami notes you’d usually get from anchovies and Worcester sauce. Nutritional yeast replaces the parmesan, making the dressing vegan.
While you could of course use a vegan mayonnaise, I prefer the nutritional benefits of cashews, adding protein and minerals. Plus the more natural taste they give to any salad dressing. And I use them for many different ones like my Cashew Ranch Dressing.
Thyme Lemon Garlic Croutons
Another defining and rather addictive element of the Caesar salad are the croutons. They are also an ideal use for any stale bread you might have. I used homemade sourdough bread, but any reasonably good bread will do. A few days old is perfect, as it will crisp up in the oven or air fryer. I added fresh thyme from my garden, grated lemon zest from the lemon I used for the dressing, some garlic powder, salt, and olive oil, to give it a lovely herby and fresh flavour.
Making them in the air fryer is fantastic, as you only need to shake them once and it’s hands off apart from that. They come out perfectly golden and crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.
Mixed Salad
While the classic Caesar Salad would be Romaine, I always like different veggies in my dinner, so I added shredded carrot, thinly sliced white cabbage, sweetcorn, red onions that are being quick pickled in some lemon juice.
I’ve also added black grapes, but if you are not a fan of fruit in your salads, you could swap them for black olives, which would go really well with the vegan Caesar dressing.
You could just leave out or swap around any of the veggies I added here. Cucumber and tomatoes would be nice too, radishes, different types of greens, kale in particular or even added asparagus.
The Ingredients
I’m just mentioning a few key ingredients here and why I’m using them. For the full list, please check the recipe card.
Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu
For the Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu I’m using firm tofu. In Ireland I find the best one of those I tried is from “The Tofuu Co.” https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/en-IE/products/294476706
You can use any brand, as long as it’s very firm, so it doesn’t fall apart when marinating and then breading.
Since I wanted to get as close as I could to buttermilk fried chicken, similar to KFC, but without the chicken and huge amount of fat, I used almond milk mixed lemon juice and spices. Don’t be put off by the fairly long list. You will likely have them in your spice collection already, as they are very common.
The Joshua Weissman recipe for the spice mix I adapted had celery powder in it, which I couldn’t find here, so I used celery salt. This made also up for the fact that Tofu is a bit more neutral than chicken on its own, so it can take more salt.
I left out the MSG though. Not last because I didn’t have any, but also due to its rather questionable reputation. Personally I admit I haven’t looked into it much, as I rarely eat out, let alone buy convenience food, so it wasn’t much of a topic for me to focus on.
If you are a fan, feel free to include some. I think the marinade does a fantastic job as it is though.
Seasoned Flour and Cornflakes are then used for “breading”. And because I’m not working with raw meat, the marinade does double duty instead of eggs, to attach the two dry coatings to the tofu.
The Cashew Caesar Dressing
Using cashews as base has become my favourite way to create super creamy, delicious, and nutritious salad dressings. I honestly wouldn’t go back to mayonnaise based, even without the calorie and nutrition consideration. I tried one recently again and simply didn’t like the greasy texture and taste anymore. The cashews are neutral enough to add any flavourings you like and with even a small highspeed blender like the Nutribullet you get an extremely smooth base.
While the original Caesar dressing didn’t have anchovies, they have become a rather classic way to add umami and saltiness to this tangy sauce. Brined capers, even though I’m not a fan of them on their own (wouldn’t eat anchovies on their own either) have a very similar effect when blended and add a hint of their briny flavour, which goes really well with the tangy punch of mustard and lemon juice that give the dressing its characteristic taste.
Often parmesan is used to add more saltiness and a cheesy background flavour. So you can use either grated parmesan or, like me, nutritional yeast for a very similar effect.
The Process
Salad
Prepare your salad ingredients:
Roughly chop the Romaine Lettuce, grate the carrots, finely shred the cabbage, drain and wash the sweetcorn, wash the grapes (or drain olives if you prefer salty to sweet) and keep all in separate containers.
Peel and thinly slice the onions. In a small bowl mix with ¼ tsp salt and 2-3 tbsp lemon juice. Cover and leave to marinade until ready to use.
All the veggies will keep well for 3-4 days, if you keep them separate.
Cashew Caesar Dressing
Drain the soaked cashews. Add all ingredients to a high speed blender. You can use a normal blender or food processor, but it won’t get as lovely smooth and creamy.
Blend until creamy.
Have a taste and add more salt, mustard, or lemon juice to balance the flavours to your liking.
Croutons
In a small bowl, mix your olive oil, chopped thyme (or any other hardy herb you might have on hand. Rosemary works very well too), garlic powder and salt.
Add your bread cubes to a larger bowl. Drizzle over your olive oil mix, turning the cubes over after half over it, so they are all coated evenly. Stir carefully to distribute the oil mix and let them sit for a few minutes so the oil can absorb.
Bake in your air fryer at 400°F/200°C for 4 minutes, toss and turn once, then bake for another 2 minutes. Transfer the croutons to a paper towel lined plate until ready to serve. Nibble a few, you know you want to.
The Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu
Similar to chicken, that improves dramatically with brining, tofu needs a bit of help to come to its full potential. So this needs a bit of planning ahead. Start about 2h before you plan to fry the tofu or the day before.
First remove your tofu from its package, drain the fluid and press it. You can either wrap it into a clean kitchen towel between 2 wooden boards and put something heavy on top. Or, if you want a much easier and less precarious solution, get a tofu press like this one and put it in the fridge for an hour or longer.
Once your tofu has given up some of its liquid, it’s time to marinade it. Cut into about ½ in / 1cm thick slices and halve them diagonal. You could just leave them in one piece, but I think more corners mean more crunch and more crunch is always better.
Mix your plant milk with a tbsp of lemon juice and let it stand while you get your spice mix together. Add the marinade spice mix to the now curdled milk and whisk well. In a container that is large enough to hold all tofu pieces in one layer or a freezer bag, add first your tofu then pour the tangy, spicy milk mix over it. Now let this marinade in the fridge for at least 1h, better even overnight.
Meanwhile, mix the flour with the spices and herbs for the dredge mix. This will season the tofu even more and give it that characteristic crust you’d get on fried chicken.
Now obviously we are not deep frying this, so the incredible crunchy crust that develops when the marinade-flour (and usually egg) mixture hits the hot fat, will come from crushed cornflakes.
In a firmly closed freezer bag, crush your cornflakes either by hand or, carefully, so you don’t pop the bag and scatter the crumbs across your kitchen (never happened to me…ahem…) with a rolling pin or bottom of a cooking pot. You want relatively rough crumbs, not fine as panko. Check the picture for the texture we are aiming for.
When you are ready to fry your tofu, set up a breading station with 3 rimmed containers or deep plates. Into one add your flour-spice dredge, the second will hold all the remaining marinade that wasn’t absorbed by the tofu, the third has the crushed cornflakes.
Using one hand for dry and one for wet, to avoid the dreaded dough fingers, firmly press your tofu first into the flour, coating it very well, pushing it in, so it sticks. Then into the marinade, turning once until coated- Last into the cornflakes, again, pressing firmly, covering it with the crumbs and pushing down until every last bit is well coated.
Spray both your air fryer basket and the tofu pieces with a bit of vegetable or avocado oil.
The crunchy tofu will take about 15 minutes in your air fryer at 400°F/200°C, turning it once very carefully after 10minutes, the fry for another 5 until golden and crunchy.
I you are making them in the oven, this will take about 25-30minutes at 450°F/225°C, turning them after 15 minutes.
To Serve
First drape a bed of romaine lettuce on a plate, followed by the carrots, cabbage, sweetcorn, onions and grapes or olives. Drizzle everything with a bit of the Vegan Cashew Caesar Dressing. Top with croutons and crispy tofu and serve with more dressing on the side, to drizzle over or dip your tofu pieces into.
Meal Prep
I prepared this Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu on my weekend, to have a fresh salad during my workdays. Keeping everything separate in containers, the tofu in a paper towel lined box, means you can assemble freshly, and everything remains crunchy.
I re-heated the tofu pieces in the air fryer before serving, so they were just as crispy as freshly made.
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu
This Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu answered all my cravings for the crunch of KFC chicken, the spiced marinade, and the urgent need for creamy, tangy, and punchy Caesar dressing on a fresh salad. Super satisfying, packed with protein from the tofu with a cashew based sauce, adding all the nutrition you could possibly want for dinner in one delicious plate.
½cupraw cashewssoaked for 30min in just boiled water
½cupwater
¼cuplemon juice
2tbspnutritional yeast
2tspDijon mustard
2tspcapers
2clovesgarlic
Homemade Croutons
4slicessourdough breadcubed into bite sized pieces
1tspfresh thymechopped
½tspgarlic powder
1tspkosher salt
3tbspolive oil
Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu
1Blocktofupressed
1cupplant milk with lemon juice
1.5tspKosher salt
1tspground white pepper
2tspsmoked paprika
2tspgarlic powder
1.5cupscrushed cornflakes
11 Herbs and Spices Dredge
1.5cupsall-purpose flour
1tspfreshly ground black pepper
1.5tbspKosher salt
2tspground white pepper
1tspginger powder
1tspcelery powder or celery salt
2tspgarlic powder
1tspsmoked paprika
1tspdried oreganocrushed
1tspdried thymecrushed
2tspmustard powder
Instructions
Salad:
Prepare all salad ingredients as mentioned. Marinate sliced onions in salt and lemon juice. Keep all ingredients separate.
Vegan Cashew Caesar Dressing:
Drain soaked cashews.
In a blender, combine soaked cashews, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, capers, and garlic cloves.
Blend until creamy. Adjust salt, mustard, or lemon juice to taste.
Homemade Croutons:
Preheat air fryer to 400°F/200°C.
In a small bowl, mix olive oil, chopped thyme, garlic powder, and kosher salt.
Toss cubed bread in the olive oil mixture until evenly coated.
Air fry for 4 minutes, toss, then fry for another 2 minutes until golden and crisp.
Set aside on a paper towel-lined plate.
Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu:
Press tofu to remove excess liquid.
Cut tofu into slices about ½ inch thick, then half diagonal.
Mix plant milk with lemon juice and let it curdle.
Combine the plant “buttermilk” with salt, white pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Marinate tofu in this mixture for at least 1 hour in the fridge. Overnight is better.
Crush cornflakes into coarse crumbs.
Mix flour with spices for dredge.
Set up a breading station with flour-spice dredge, remaining marinade, and crushed cornflakes.
Coat tofu slices in flour mixture, then marinade, and last crushed cornflakes.
Spray air fryer basket and tofu slices with oil.
Air fry tofu at 400°F/200°C for 15 minutes, flipping once after 10 minutes.
To Serve:
Arrange romaine lettuce on plates.
Top with grated carrots, sliced cabbage, sweetcorn, marinated onions, grapes (or olives), and croutons.
Drizzle with Vegan Cashew Caesar Dressing.
Add crispy air-fried tofu on top.
Serve additional dressing on the side for dipping or drizzling.
Enjoy your Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu!
Notes
Meal PrepI prepared this Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Crunchy Air Fryer Tofu on my weekend, to have a fresh salad during my workdays. Keeping everything separate in containers, the tofu in a paper towel lined box, means you can assemble freshly, and everything remains crunchy.I re-heated the tofu pieces in the air fryer before serving, so they were just as crispy as freshly made.
All the flavour of a delicious and refreshing Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake on a coconut crust, but without the cheese. Instead 15g protein per slice, about one third less sugar and fat and easier to digest for those of us with lactose intolerance. Giving you the tropical island feeling in the middle of winter. This is what I call a dessert worth eating!
It’s winter here in Ireland. And that means…well…we have weather. As all year round essentially. Just a lot wetter and a bit colder. My garden is one big mudslide, all green removed by huge dog paws racing happily around in the mud. Wookie, with his giant fluffy paws, absolutely loves splashing the mud by jumping up and down with his front. Or simply splashing the water from his bowl, causing a huge muddy mess.
Until recently I just wiped his and Lilly’s paws dry when they came in, but the amount of mud in my living room (which goes out to the garden) has become plain unmanageable. So I started washing their paws with the shower head of my garden hose.
Now you’d think they’d hate that, but Lilly grew up going to the beach every day and happily jumping into the little river flowing into the sea, swimming upstream, mouth open, to drink.
She discovered very quickly that the shower head can be used in the same way and Wookie learns fast. He often sticks his whole head under the water, lapping it while he is getting dripping wet.
Recently he found out, that me turning on the flat stream with more pressure means, he can simply open his mouth and get all the water he wants directly delivered into it. And now he constantly demands to be let out to drink, waiting until I get them in, to drink from the hose. I have created a monster!
Where was I before digressing? Ah yes, wet, cold winter. And that means I need either a nice bowl of hot soup (Like my Vegan Tom Kha Soup https://forthepleasureofeating.com/vegan-tom-kha-soup/ ) or something sweet, tasting like summer. Which is how this Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein was created.
Why You Will Love This
Being uhm…selectively lactose intolerant (is that a thing?) means I feel queasy after eating cheesecake made with cream cheese but can happily eat yoghurt. Now I’m not a scientist, but I suspect the yoghurt cultures help with the digestion. Oddly enough I can also eat other cheeses, but apparently the sheer amount of the fresh stuff in one slice is more than my tummy tolerates.
On top of that it tends to be pretty high in fat and calories and I have yet to find a “light” one that I enjoy. Meaning, once more, I had to create my own.
Lower fat and sugar, higher protein
This recipe, while tasting utterly indulgent and like proper creamy cheesecake, has only about 310cal per slice (assuming 12 slices) just 18g fat and sugar, but about 10g protein. Compared to the about 550cal, 40g fat and sugar and only 6g protein of an average Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake.
The tropical tasting coconut crust instead of the more typical crushed biscuits with butter doubles the amount of fibre and replaces the butter with the slightly healthier coconut oil.
Easier to digest for people with lactose intolerance
By using yoghurt and coconut milk instead of cream cheese for the filling, you can probably eat this even if you are lactose intolerant as me.
Mango and White Chocolate for a taste of Summer
Mangos are readily available in winter, but really taste like summer, don’t they? This cake (or rather pie I suppose) transports you right onto a tropical island with its flavours of mango, coconut, and lime, so you can forget the cold and grey outside for a while.
Of course it’s equally enjoyable in summer, but that seems just so far away right now!
The Ingredients
I’m listing just a few key ingredients here and why I’m using them, to not bore you to death with the whole list.
I’m using shredded, toasted coconut and coconut oil together with maple syrup, to get a crunchy crust that compliments the White Chocolate Mango filling.
White Chocolate Mango Filling
For the filling, try to get really ripe mango, as they will cook down into a coulis much easier. I had rather unripe mangoes, which was all I could find, and not the patience to let them ripen. Also, is it just me or are mangoes very much like Avocados, with their about 5 minutes of perfect ripeness?
Anyway, if you, like me, can only find relatively hard mangoes, you can still puree them reasonably fine in a food processor, then cook, to soften as much as possible and throw into a blender. Ideally high speed like a Nutribullet. The result won’t be perfect, but still delicious.
The creamy cheesecake-ness comes from 0% fat Greek yoghurt combined with a can of full fat coconut milk and protein powder. The whole mix will be fairly liquid, so we firm it up with gelatine.
When I was making it the first time, I honestly thought it would just remain liquid and I had completely miscalculated. But it simply needs a few hours in the fridge, ideally overnight, so you aren’t getting impatient (like me) and checking every 20 minutes.
For the protein powder, use one you really enjoy. I’ve tried several vegan ones in the past and absolutely could not stand the flavour, and after trying then multiple whey based ones, I landed on MyProtein and absolutely love it! For this recipe I used their Buttered Popcorn flavour, but any nice vanilla flavoured one will do fine.
This is neither affiliated nor sponsored. Just what I enjoy in my food.
The fact that the protein powder provides a lot of sweetness and the mango and white chocolate add to that means, I got away with adding just one tablespoon of honey.
White chocolate wise, I used Lindt. A good alternative would be Green&Blacks or any reasonably good quality white chocolate.
The Process
The Mango Coulis
Start by making the Mango Coulis. This can be done up to 2 days before making the cake, as it keeps well in the fridge.
Simply peel the mango, cut it off the stone by slicing down on both sides of it, then cube the flesh.
Add it to a cooking pot with the sugar and lime juice and cook until very soft and starting to fall apart, stirring occasionally. The time this takes depends on how ripe your mangoes were to begin with.
Once the fruit is soft, either tip into a blender (if you are using a Nutribullet or similar closed blender, please let it cool first, or the heat from blending could lead to it exploding) and blend until smooth. You could also use an immersion hand blender for this.
Pass through a sieve for smoother consistency.
Leave to cool either in the fridge, if making the day before, or room temperature, if you plan to use it on the same day.
Divide your Mango Coulis into 2 portions. Keep half in the fridge for topping the cake once firmed up later or the next day. It will thicken a bit, which is what we want.
The Crust
Now prepare the coconut crust. You can do this up to 2 days in advance as well. If you do, wrap it well into clingfilm, ideally still in the springform, until ready to use.
Start by pre-heating your oven to 300°F/150°C.
Spread the shredded coconut on a parchment lined baking tray and toast for about 4 minutes, stir and toast for another 2-3 minutes, until golden and fragrant.
Take out of the oven and divide into 2 portions.
Line a springform bottom with parchment paper and lightly grease the sides.
Raise the oven temperature to 350°F/175°C.
Add one portion of the toasted shredded coconut to a food processor together with the oats, salt and flour. Process until finely ground.
Add remaining coconut, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup and pulse until combined. Don’t overprocess, to keep some structure to the mix.
Tip into a bowl and mix with a spoon or your hands until it comes together. Add a little more oil or maple syrup if it feels too dry. You should be able to form clumps, but also crumble them apart easily.
Transfer the mix into your prepared springform and push flat using your hands, all the way to the sides, but not up. It should form one even layer.
Prick with a fork a few times all over.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, turning around once, if your oven bakes unevenly, until golden brown and smelling delicious.
Leave to cool, but still in the springform, while you prepare the filling.
The Filling
Gently melt your white chocolate either over a water bath or in the microwave. If using a microwave, set it to 600 watt and melt in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until nearly melted, then stir a bit longer and see if it comes together. If not continue in 10 second bursts until you can stir it creamy.
Tip: White chocolate melts much faster than dark, due to the high cocoa butter content. Unfortunately it also seizes up much faster, so proceed with care, to avoid it getting crumbly due to overheating. I’m afraid if it does, there is no coming back from it. You might still be able to use it, but it will likely impact the texture of your filling.
White chocolate won’t get as liquid as dark either. It rather remains at the creamy stage and goes straight to crumbly after.
In a large bowl (I used the Tupperware mixing bowl with a lid that has an opening in the middle here, to avoid splattering) and a hand mixer or in a blender blend together half the Mango Coulis, melted white chocolate, yoghurt, coconut milk, lime juice, honey, vanilla and protein powder.
Have a taste and add more honey or lime juice if you think it needs it.
In a small microwave proof bowl or cup mix your gelatine powder with 2 tbsp of water. Microwave for 10 seconds until liquid. Add to the rest of the filling and mix again until slightly foamy.
Pour your filling onto the crust in the springform and transfer to the fridge carefully, to firm up. At this stage I would not cover it, as any clingfilm has the tendency to attach to the filling and leave marks we don’t want. Once it is firm to the touch you can cover the form with clingfilm.
I usually leave my cake overnight, so I’m not entirely sure how many hours it will take to firm up exactly. It’s definitely more than one though. My estimation would be 3-4.
Once your Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein is firm to the touch and set, spread the remaining Mango Coulis evenly over the top.
Chill while you prepare your optional toppings.
Slice your last Mango and lime thinly. Whip your Oatly cream (chilled ideally, or it won’t be firm enough. Have a wild guess how I know…) and toast some coconut flakes if you like.
Decorate your pie with the whipped cream, mango, lime, and coconut. I pulled the cream out into the mango coulis for a star-like pattern, using a toothpick.
Then run a sharp knife briefly under hot water and dry. Slide around the insides of the springform, to loosen the pie. Remove the ring by opening the clasp and pulling it off carefully.
You can now either leave the pie on the springform bottom or carefully slide onto a plate. The transfer can be a bit nerve wracking but should work out fine if you are gentle.
Serve your Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein with a nice cup of tea or coffee and feel like you have gone on vacation on a tropical island, even on the coldest winter day.
Storing
This Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein keeps well in the fridge for up to 4 days. Though the crust might soften a bit. Personally I quite like it that way.
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein
All the flavour of a delicious and refreshing Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake on a coconut crust, but without the cheese. Instead 13g protein per slice, about one third less sugar and fat and easier to digest for those of us with lactose intolerance. Giving you the tropical island feeling in the middle of winter. This is what I call a dessert worth eating!
Food Processor, Blender or Immersion blender, springform
Ingredients
Crust
1.5cupsshredded coconuttoasted, divided
1/3cupoats
1cupwholegrain spelt flour
3tbspcoconut flouror more spelt
¼cupcoconut oil
¼cup+ 2tbsp maple syrup
1tbspvanilla extract
1/8tspkosher salt
Mango Coulis
2mangosripe, chopped
1tbsplime juice
1.5tbspsugar
“Cream Cheese” filling
2cups0% fat Greek yoghurt
1cancoconut milkfull fat
1tbsplime juice
1tbsphoney
1tspvanilla extract
3.5oz/100gwhite chocolatemelted
2scoops protein powderI used MyProtein “Buttered Popcorn”, but vanilla works well.
2tbsp1 pack powdered gelatine
To Garnish (Optional)
1Mangosliced
1limesliced
1pack Oatly whipping cream
A few coconut flakes or shaved white chocolate
Instructions
Mango Coulis:
Peel and cube the mango flesh.
In a pot, combine mango cubes, sugar, and lime juice.
Cook until very soft and starting to fall apart, stirring occasionally.
Blend until smooth using a blender or immersion hand blender.
Pass through a sieve to get a smoother consistency
Allow cooling to room temperature or refrigerate if making in advance.
Crust:
Preheat oven to 300°F/150°C.
Toast shredded coconut on a parchment-lined baking tray for 4-6 minutes until golden and fragrant.
Divide toasted coconut into two portions.
Raise your oven temperature to 350°F/175°C
In a food processor, combine one portion of toasted coconut with oats, salt, and flour. Process until finely ground.
Add remaining coconut, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. Pulse until just combined.
Transfer mixture into a bowl and mix until it comes together, adding a little more maple syrup or coconut oil if it feels too dry.
Press mixture into the bottom of a parchment-lined springform pan to form an even layer.
Bake for 16-18 minutes until golden brown.
Allow to cool while preparing the filling.
Filling:
Gently melt white chocolate using a double boiler or microwave on low in short bursts, stirring frequently.
In a large bowl or blender, mix half of the Mango Coulis, melted white chocolate, Greek yogurt, coconut milk, lime juice, honey, vanilla extract, and protein powder until smooth.
Taste and adjust sweetness or acidity if necessary.
In a small microwave-proof bowl, mix gelatin powder with 2 tbsp water and microwave for 10 seconds until liquid.
Add the gelatin mixture to the filling and mix until slightly foamy.
Pour the filling over the cooled crust in the springform pan.
Refrigerate until firm, preferably overnight.
Assembly:
Spread the remaining Mango Coulis evenly over the top of the set cheesecake.
Optional: Whip the Oatly cream until soft peaks form.
Decorate the cheesecake with whipped cream, sliced mango, lime, and coconut flakes or shaved white chocolate.
Run a sharp knife briefly under hot water, dry, and then slide around the edges of the springform pan to loosen the cheesecake.
Carefully remove the springform ring.
Transfer the cheesecake to a serving plate if desired.
Slice and serve chilled.
Enjoy your Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein!
Notes
StoringThis Mango White Chocolate Cheesecake with Protein keeps well in the fridge for up to 4 days. Though the crust might soften a bit. Personally I quite like it that way.
Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein have everything you could possibly want in a muffin: Crunchy, nutty pistachios, a soft and fluffy inside, studded with sweet-tart dried apricots and a crunchy brown sugar sprinkled top. All that with 7g protein per muffin and just 280cal. So you can have a yummy snack with your coffee and feel good about it!
Why You Want to Make Them
Are you going nuts for Pistachios too?
I’m honestly hooked recently. I got a big jar of pistachio butter from Bulk and it’s utterly delicious on pretty much everything. I spread it on some rice cakes, topped with blueberries as my evening sweet snack, stirred it in oatmeal with cherries, made Pistachio-Protein Crème Brulee and now these Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein.
Of course Pistachios aren’t technically nuts, but rather the stone of a fruit, very similar to almonds, which explains their affinity for very similar foods almonds go with. I added some almond essence to these muffins, which underlines the Pistachio flavour rather perfectly.
Speaking of Protein
If you read a few of the sweet recipes on my blog, you probably noticed that I’m adding protein to many of them. Considering I’m not eating much meat and am not the biggest fan of legumes, so I don’t want to include them into every single meal. Yet, have an acute need to add more protein to my diet, to meet the target for muscle building and/or maintenance, which is at least around 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, I keep looking for ways to increase my intake, without drinking shakes. Why not shakes you ask? They simply bore me.
I feel if I’m not eating or drinking something that is worth the calories, I’m wasting my time.
Is it a weird way to see food? Maybe.
But having lost 70lb taught me, that I’m working on an energy budget per day. Loving food and eating means, I want to spend it well. This does not include the same boring protein shake every day, but rather finding recipes to excite me and have me look forward to eating them.
That’s where Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein come in: Something I really enjoy eating and am looking forward to, which also adds a nice portion of protein to my day.
Easy to Make
If you ever made muffins, you probably loved how easy they are. I know I do. The batter comes together in 10-15 minutes and that includes getting the ingredients out.
Well…unless your store cupboards are way too full, like mine, and you have to rummage around in them to find stuff. I knew I had dried apricots somewhere! *Empties half her pantry before finding the bag*
Lower calories than your average Muffin
Eating an average muffin, according to Google, you are looking at 340-424 calories. That is a fairly big chunk out of your daily budget, if you are watching your weight like I do.
Having gained a few pounds over Christmas (because I can’t be trusted around sweets), I’m currently trying to get rid of them again. But I really don’t want to go without a sweet treat per day! That would just leave me grumpy and missing something, which in turn means, once I lost the weight I’d go even more for sweets again. Not a good cycle.
So my solution is, to develop recipes that are sweet, not compromising in flavour, yet lower in calories than the standard versions. This is one of them.
Oh and I want them to have nutritional value too. High standards for sure.
These Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein have only 280 calories per muffin, which is a nice bit of saving for one satisfying snack. Or even breakfast if you like.
The Ingredients
Looking at the typical Pistachio Muffin recipe, I noticed that most are using rather artificial pudding mix to accomplish taste and texture of them. I wanted natural taste though and not use some mix with barely any real pistachio in it.
That means my muffins aren’t bright green, since they have no colouring either, but instead mostly natural and nutritious ingredients.
Except the protein powder. Let’s be honest, it isn’t natural, but I feel the benefits outweigh that downside.
Note, these are just some of the ingredients and why I use them, not all, as most are still those of a classic muffin.
Let’s start with the obvious bit: Pistachio butter. I only replaced half of the butter with it, as nut butter has less fat than butter, which would have meant I needed to add more other fat back in, which wasn’t the idea.
Keeping half and adding a mix of sour cream and 0% fat Greek yoghurt gave me the moisture content I lost, by swapping part of the butter into Pistachio butter.
I also reduced both the flour and sugar by adding protein powder. Buttered Popcornflavoured in this case, though you can easily use vanilla.
I particularly love MyProtein (not sponsored or affiliated, though I wish it would be, I use it so much!), which adds lovely flavour and sweetness to my recipes, without any weird aftertaste.
You can safely replace about ¼ of the flour in a recipe with it, without any negative impact. Use more, and the results might be drier than intended.
I’m still using a mix of white and brown sugar, but less than usual, to keep the structure needed. The sugar mixed with the sweetener from the protein powder also means it still tastes just naturally sweet.
While looking into the secrets of Pistachio muffins, I found the pudding powder not only adds flavour and sweetness, but also a bit of cornflour, which will thicken the pudding, but add a lovely softness to muffin batter. So I replaced some of the flour with cornflour to achieve the same effect.
Nutrition and flavour wise, I prefer a mix of white flour for lightness and the typical muffin feel and whole wheat flour for some nutty flavour. If you can find it, use fine whole wheat flour, which is great for lighter pastry.
For even more flavour, I’m using a bit of almond extract, which is in the same flavour family as pistachio, making it a natural choice. Unless you have natural pistachio extract, which would be a fantastic replacement. But I couldn’t find any in my local supermarkets and wasn’t keen on ordering just for this recipe. Though…it’s in my head now, I still might. Has anyone tried it? What were your thoughts?
To reduce the sugar and up the fruit content, I swapped out 2 eggs for 2 bananas. You can choose to use just eggs for more protein but add a little more sugar.
For the add-ins I’m using dried apricots, as they are not adding a lot of additional water, which I’d have to account for if I’d be using fresh ones. But, since I found some fresh apricots at Tesco, I decided to add half a fruit on top of each muffin, which gave them an amazing fruity-fresh kick I loved.
They are purely optional though.
Also some chopped pistachios for extra crunch and more pistachio flavour.
Each muffin got a little sprinkling of demerara sugar on top, adding some sparkle, crunch, and sweetness, making the muffins extra special.
The Process
The one thing that makes all baking easier is, to have all the ingredients at room temperature. If you have fridge cold butter, it’s much harder to mix it with the sugar. Just melted however, will give you a greasy result.
Similar for the eggs, which, when cold, can lead to a curdled result while mixing into the soft butter.
So plan a little bit ahead by taking everything out of the fridge an hour or so before you plan to make your muffins.
Preheat your oven to 425°F/220°C and line a muffin tin with muffin cases. Or grease it thoroughly if you prefer. Personally I find muffin cases much easier to remove and they leave less to clean, which is always a plus in my book.
If you have 2 muffin tins, you’ll need both. Otherwise you might bake in 2 batches, as this recipe makes about 16 large muffins.
From there on it’s as easy as mixing the butter with the sugar until fluffy and white. Then, one by one, whisk the eggs and mashed bananas in until well incorporated.
Add the protein powder with the remaining wet ingredients, to make sure you have no protein lumps in your Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein.
Now mix your dry ingredients, keeping back about 1-2 tbsp of the chopped pistachios for sprinkling on top, and add most of them to your batter. But not all. Keep a few tablespoons of the flour mix back, to coat the chopped apricots in. This is to prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
Gently fold your dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. A few lumps are fine. Don’t overmix, or your muffins will be tough from the gluten you developed.
Then add the flour coated apricots and fold them in too.
Divide the batter between the muffin molds, filling them all the way, so you get nice and high tops. I use an ice cream scoop for this, to make it very easy. Two tablespoons work too.
Sprinkle with the remaining chopped pistachios, lay a sliced fresh apricot half on top, if using, then sprinkle lightly with demerara sugar.
Now you might have looked at the high oven temperature and thought it might be a typo. It’s not. The high initial temperature is what gives you the beautiful high muffin tops, but it will be lowered after 5-7 minutes of baking, to the classic 350°F/175°C, to bake for another 15-17 minutes, depending on your oven.
Just don’t open the oven door, except once, around half of the baking time, to turn your muffin tin, should your oven bake unevenly.
Your Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein are ready when the top is golden brown and toothpick comes out mostly clean, a few crumbs are ok.
Let them cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then take them out onto a wire rack.
Enjoy your fluffy, tangy, and crunchy Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein with a nice cup of coffee or tea. They are also really good for breakfast.
Storing your Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein
The muffins keep well in a tin or box for about 3 days.
They also freeze very well. I usually place most in freezer proof containers or small freezer bags and just air fry them for about 7 minutes when I want one. They taste like fresh!
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein
Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein have everything could possibly want in a muffin: Crunchy, nutty pistachios, a soft and fluffy inside, studded with sweet-tart dried apricots and a crunchy brown sugar sprinkled top. All that with 7g protein per muffin and just 280cal.
So you can have a yummy snack with your coffee and feel good about it!
½cupchopped pistachios1-2 tbsp kept for sprinkling on top
1tbspdemerara sugar for sprinkling
8fresh apricots for toppingoptional but delicious
Instructions
Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature for easier mixing. Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Line a muffin tin with cases or grease it.
In a large bowl, cream together ½ cup + 2tbsp softened butter, pistachio butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy and white.
Whisk in the eggs and mashed bananas, one at a time, until well incorporated. Add sour cream, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until smooth.
Combine the protein powder with the remaining wet ingredients to avoid lumps. Mix until well incorporated.
In a separate bowl, mix the white flour, whole wheat flour, cornflour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Reserve 1-2 tbsp of the flour mix to coat the chopped dried apricots and 1-2 tbsp chopped pistachios for topping the muffins.
Add most of the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and gently fold until just combined.
Toss the chopped dried apricots in the reserved flour mixture to prevent sinking. Fold them into the batter.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cases, filling them to the top. Use an ice cream scoop or two tablespoons for ease. Sprinkle the remaining chopped pistachios on top. Optionally, place a fresh apricot half, cut in slices on each muffin and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven for 5-7 minutes at 425°F/220°C, then reduce the temperature to 350°F/175°C and bake for an additional 15-17 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve and enjoy your fluffy, tangy, and crunchy Pistachio Muffins with Apricots and Protein with a cup of coffee or tea. They make a lovely breakfast treat too.
It’s Veganuary, time for vegan comfort food, which is exactly the right time for Vegan Taco Casserole. All the flavour of an amazing Taco Casserole, none of the meat. Instead an alternative made from mushrooms to bring all the umami flavour, lentils and walnuts for protein and texture and a super creamy vegan queso topping you’ll want to pour over everything after making it the first time. Fantastic for meal prep for the whole week too, so you have less stress on workdays.
The recipe makes a very large casserole with about 8-10 portions and freezes great. So you can make a large batch and freeze some for busy weeks. Or cook it for a crowd.
Not sure about you, but I just could not resist the Christmas sweets, they are always my downfall. So, of course I gained a few pounds that I’d like to shed again. Recipes like this one, heavy on veggies, light on calories and super satisfying, help me to very easily get rid of the few extra pounds, without feeling I’m on a diet.
Why You Want to Make This
Vegan. Taco. Casserole.
I mean, need I really say more? I do? Ok then:
While I’m not a vegan as such, I do enjoy vegan food. Weird you think? Not after you try this Vegan Taco Casserole. I often find minced meat a bit odd texturally and am plain not a big fan of it. But making it vegan adds for me flavour and texture wise. The mushrooms together with lentils, walnuts and a few “secret” ingredients give you tons of very satisfying meatiness while sneakily adding all of their benefits to your favourite comfort food.
Essentially we have a layer of soft tortillas as a base, topped with a mix of the vegan mince meat mix together with beans, which of course belong into any Taco and also add more protein. Sweetcorn goes in too for me, as I love it in pretty much everything and it adds more veggie content. If you can’t stand it, just leave it out or add more beans. This mix is flavoured with your favourite Salsa and a few spices, then fried for even more flavour.
Really Good for You
All the deliciousness of it will give you 4 different legumes plus mushrooms in one go, which makes it incredibly good for you. The toppings of lettuce and cherry tomato add not just juiciness and crunch, but also to your daily veggie intake.
Vegan Queso
The fantastic Vegan Queso recipe is from “Rainbow Plant Life” and her incredible Crunchwrap Supreme video.
I made it a little less spicy but add as much spice as you like. It’s utterly addictive and dare I say better than dairy queso? I honestly prefer the taste of the creamy blended cashews with all the spices and flavours to the texture of typical Queso any day.
I have topped the casserole with vegan grated cheese too, but I think you could even leave it out and be more than satisfied.
Optional but delicious Toppings
For me, the toppings are the best thing about Tacos, so of course it’s the same for Vegan Taco Casserole.
I top mine with homemade Guacamole https://forthepleasureofeating.com/easy-guacamole/, Vegan Greek Style Yoghurt mixed with some lime juice, zest and salt, making it similar to the crema you usually get with Tacos.
For extra crunch I added some chopped romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, and, of course, tortilla chips. Most of them are incidentally vegan, but some have dairy in the seasoning. So if you are strictly vegan, check the ingredient list to be sure.
The Ingredients
Most of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry or fridge. Just a few fresh veggies and you have the Vegan Taco Casserole of your dreams ready.
The Taco Mix
Mushrooms
Mushrooms have a list of powerful health benefits according to studies. Decreasing the risk of cancer, lowering sodium intake and promoting lower cholesterol are just a few of them.
To me, their amazing umami flavour is enough to add them. I hear some complaints from the backrow there about texture, to which I say: Fry them until browned and crispy and see how you feel about them like that.
I quite enjoy the brown inexpensive button mushrooms I get at any supermarket here. But any will do. You can try a mix with Shiitake if you find it.
Legumes
Legumes, with again impressive health benefits containing B vitamins, folate and iron, and a great vegan source for protein, I’m adding them here for texture and flavour. Together with mushrooms and walnuts, they make a fantastic meat alternative. The colour doesn’t matter much. I just used the green ones I had in my store cupboard and cooked them according to packet instructions. You could use brown or black too, canned if you like. They will all be delicious.
Add Kidney and Black beans to the filling gives even more protein and keeps you full until the next meal. For ease of preparation I’m using them from cans.
Walnuts
Walnuts add that slightly nubbly texture you usually find in ground meat to our Taco Casserole plus a range of health benefits and healthy fats. Anti-inflammatory benefits and improvement of cholesterol levels being just two of the impressive ones. You could use pecans instead if you prefer.
Onion and garlic for flavour are the basics.
But here are what makes this taste “meaty”: Miso paste. I used brown for its intense umami notes.
Tomato puree and sundried tomatoes together with nutritional yeast and some coconut aminos give the mushroom-legume-walnut mix incredible depth of satisfying meat like flavour.
Of course typical Taco spices like smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, chili, onion powder for extra punch and oregano.
The Queso
For the Queso I’m using soaked cashews, some vegan Greek yoghurt for tang. A bit of salsa (use your favourite, the rest will go into the mushroom-legume mix), nutritional yeast for cheesiness, salt, smoked paprika, chili powder and a bit of cumin. To add that original queso tang and a bit of fiery chili background, some pickled red jalapenos (are they still Jalapenos when red? Please correct me if that’s wrong…I’m just a German living in Ireland.) and a bit of the pickling liquid.
The Guacamole is of course made from avocados, lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper and a hint of chilli powder. If you don’t feel like making your own, you can use shop bought here. But honestly, it’s made so quickly and tastes so much better, I don’t feel it’s worth saving the few minutes.
Topping wise: fresh cherry tomatoes, spring onions, and crunchy romaine lettuce add that real taco feeling for me. They are optional though.
And any tortilla chips you like, to use for dipping, crumbling over, eating on the side, however you enjoy your casserole.
The Process
While this looks like a lot of ingredients, the process is surprisingly simple.
The Taco Mix
Lentils
First pre-cook your lentils according to package instructions if using dried as I did. They should have a tiny bit of bite left for that ground meat texture. I usually add some vegetable stock powder to my cooking water and maybe some herbs and garlic, to start flavouring them. Use whatever you have on hand. Bay leaf, thyme, rosemary or oregano all work well.
Walnuts
While your lentils are cooking, briefly toast your walnuts in a dry pan until fragrant. Set aside.
Mushrooms
Fry your finely chopped mushrooms in batches in a large pan with a bit of oil. Only stir occasionally, so they can brown beautifully for that lovely meaty flavour we are looking for. Season with salt and pepper and set aside too.
Seasoning
Gently fry onions and garlic until translucent in a bit more oil, then add all parts of the Mexican seasoning and toast until fragrant. Lastly the sundried tomatoes, tomato paste, miso paste, nutritional yeast and coconut aminos join the pan for a quick stir and heat through.
Process
Now add the garlic-onion-spice mix together with fried mushrooms, walnuts and cooked, drained lentils to your food processor and pulse until it resembles minced meat. It should stick together mostly, but fall apart when you try to crumble it, much like meat would.
Taste it. It should be delicious. Add more salt to taste.
Mix with beans and sweetcorn
Tip the whole mix back into the pan and fry on medium-high heat until you have a bit of browning everywhere and it smells delicious. Tip in the drained and rinsed canned beans and sweetcorn, canned tomatoes, 1 1 ½ cups of your favourite salsa (the last ½ cup will be used for the queso), stir and heat through.
Taste and add salt or any other spices you feel it might need. I don’t like mine very hot, but you might of course.
Casserole assembly
Lightly grease your casserole form. Cut the tortillas into quarters and lay them across the bottom with a little overlap, so you have one layer.
Top with the mushroom-bean mix.
Queso
To make your queso, add all the ingredients for it into a high speed blender like the Nutribullet and blend until super smooth and creamy. Taste and add more salt or chili if needed.
Bake
Top your Vegan Taco Casserole with the vegan queso, sprinkle over some grated vegan cheese (or dairy if you are not vegan). Cover the casserole with kitchen foil and bake at 375°F/190°C for 15min, remove the foil and bake for another 15min uncovered until it is hot throughout and the cheese has melted.#
Toppings
While the casserole is in the oven, prepare your toppings. Mash the Avocados with lime juice, minced garlic, salt, pepper and chili.
Mix the remaining vegan yoghurt with some lime juice, zest and salt to taste.
Chop romaine, spring onions and cherry tomatoes and put in separate containers. Tip tortilla chips into a bowl.
Serve
To serve, add a piece of your Vegan Taco Casserole to the plate and let everyone pick their own favourite toppings. Enjoy the satisfied munching sounds.
Meal Prep
You can make everything the day before, but I would add the queso on top just before baking, so it doesn’t soak into the taco filling layer, but remains as cream, cheesy layer on top.
After baking, the Vegan Taco Casserole stays fresh in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat either in the microwave until piping hot or in oven or air fryer.
The casserole also freezes really well. I always keep a few pieces in the freezer for emergency taco cravings.
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Vegan Taco Casserole
It’s Veganuary, time for vegan comfort food, which is exactly the right time for Vegan Taco Casserole. All the flavour of an amazing Taco Casserole, none of the meat. Instead an alternative made from mushrooms to bring all the umami flavour, lentils and walnuts for protein and texture and a super creamy vegan queso topping you’ll want to pour over everything after making it the first time. Fantastic for meal prep for the whole week too, so you have less stress on workdays.
Food Processor, High speed blender like Nutribullet
Ingredients
Taco Mix:
3clovesgarlicminced
1onionchopped
2cupslentils, cooked. About 1 cup dried. You can use cans instead.
2packs mushroomsfinely chopped
½cupwalnuts
1tbsptomato puree
5sundried tomatoes
2tbspcoconut aminos
1-2tbspbrown miso pasteuse any colour, but brown has the most meat-like flavour
1tbspnutritional yeast
1cantomatoes
1canblack beans drained and rinsed
1cankidney beansdrained and rinsed
1cansweetcorndrained and rinsed
2cupssalsause your favourite. Set ½ cup aside for the queso
Seasoning:
2tbspsmoked paprika
1tspcumin
2tspground coriander
1tsponion powder
2tsporegano
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4corn or flour tortillasto cover the bottom of your casserole
1cupvegan shredded cheese of choice
Queso:
1cupcashewssoaked for 30min in hot water or overnight in cold
½cupvegan yoghurt I used Greek
2tbspnutritional yeast
2tbspwater
½cupsalsa
¼ -1/2tspchili powderI like ancho chili, but use whatever you have and enjoy
½tspcumin
1tspsmoked paprika
1tbsppickled jalapenos
2tbsppickled jalapeno brine
1tspkosher salt
Toppings (Optional):
GuacamoleReady made or, to make yourself:
5avocadosmashed
2clovesgarlicminced
3limesjuice
1/2-1tspChili powder
Salt and pepperto taste
1cupVegan sour cream or Greek yoghurt
1Limezested and juiced
1headRomaine lettucechopped
2cupsCherry tomatoeshalved
3tbspCilantrochopped
1bunchSpring onionschopped
1bagtortilla chips
Instructions
Pre-cook lentils according to package instructions, leaving a bit of bite for texture.
Toast walnuts in a dry pan until fragrant. Set aside.
Fry mushrooms in batches until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Sauté onions and garlic until translucent. Add Mexican seasoning, sundried tomatoes, tomato paste, miso paste, nutritional yeast, and coconut aminos. Stir and heat through.
Combine garlic-onion-spice mix, fried mushrooms, walnuts, and cooked lentils in a food processor. Pulse until minced meat-like texture.
Transfer mix back to the pan and fry until browned. Add drained beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes from the can and 1 ½ cups salsa. Stir and heat through.
Lightly grease a casserole dish. Place quartered tortillas on the bottom, slightly overlapping.
Top with mushroom-bean mix.
For queso, blend all queso ingredients until smooth. Adjust seasoning.
Top casserole with vegan queso, sprinkle vegan cheese. Cover with foil, bake at 375°F/190°C for 15min, then uncover and bake for an additional 15min.
While baking, prepare toppings: guacamole, lime yogurt, romaine, spring onions, cherry tomatoes, and tortilla chips.
Serve casserole pieces with desired toppings. Enjoy the flavorsome vegan taco casserole!
Notes
Total for the Dish (excluding optional toppings) assuming 8 portions:Calories: Approximately 580 kcal
Protein: Around 22g
Carbohydrates: Roughly 73g
Fat: About 25g
Fiber: Around 17g
Sugar: Approximately 11g
Please note that these values are approximate and may vary based on the specific brands and types of ingredients you use. The queso portion is a rough estimate, and the optional toppings are not included in the total dish values.
Nutrition
Calories: 580kcal
Nutrition Facts
Vegan Taco Casserole
Amount per Serving
Calories
580
% Daily Value*
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Keyword For Guests, Healthy, High Fibre, Low Calorie, meal prep, vegan, vegetables, Vegetarian
The Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu is a great start for the Veganuary. Lots of colourful crunchy veggies in a flavourful fruity-hot Asian sauce topped with crispy air fried cauliflower and tofu. Meal prep a large batch and you are all set for your work week with a seriously delicious and nutritious meal.
Why You Want to Make This
All the Nutrition in One Bowl
I’m often aiming to get all my veggies for the day in my main meal and this Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu is no exception. If you use the same vegetables as I do, you get a phenomenal 7 portions of veg, protein from the tofu and healthy carbs from the rice.
Versatile
Of course you could swap the vegetables out for any you might enjoy. Courgettes, broccoli, asparagus, sugar snaps or kale would all fit nicely into this dish.
Protein wise, if you are not a fan of tofu, you could use any meat you enjoy or even some fish. Though do try this way of preparing tofu. It’s super flavourful from the marinade, which doubles as sauce and crispy with tempura batter!
The Sauce
The Sauce is made with a delicious mix of Asian and Middle Eastern flavours, which may sound odd, but work wonderfully. It is both used to marinade the tofu and coat the vegetables, quick pickling the red cabbage in the process, making for a seriously flavourful bowl that you’ll want to keep eating.
The Ingredients
Vegetables
Cauliflower – I found a rather pretty orange cauliflower at my local Tesco and just couldn’t resist. You could just steam or roast it as is, after cutting into small florets, but I opted for coating it in crispy tempura batter and air frying it. If you are using a whole head, you can either fry it in batches or simply put it in the oven. I tried both and found the air fried pieces to be a bit crisper, so that would be my favourite method.
For the remaining veggies, you could use anything in your veg drawer. I had spinach, carrots, mushrooms, red cabbage, mini sweetcorn, and a bag of soy sprouts for a nice Asian inspired mix.
To top the bowl with bright green accents and more flavour, I used a bunch of spring onions and cilantro.
Protein – I’m using tofu here, which gets marinated in part of the sauce, then dipped into tempura batter, same as the cauliflower, and air fried/oven roasted. The sauce imparts lots of flavour here, so no need to worry about bland tofu.
The Sauce
A mix of low sodium soy sauce, orange juice, balsamic and rice vinegar, honey, pomegranate molasses, gochujang paste (or any chili sauce of your choice), nutty sesame oil, garlic and ginger make this a very more-ish dressing that you’ll want to drizzle on anything from salads to stir fry.
The pomegranate molasses has a distinct fruity sweet and sour taste. Most healthfood shops have it these days. If you can’t find it, use a little more balsamic vinegar and a bit more honey.
The Tempura Batter
While you could roast both cauliflower and tofu just covered with the sauce and they will be delicious, the batter adds that extra crispy shell and makes this bowl irresistible. You only need flour (gluten free works too), cornstarch, baking powder, salt, garlic powder, pepper and ice cold sparkling water.
Carbohydrates – I had rice as carb with this bowl, but you could use noodles or any other grain you enjoy. Frekkeh would be particularly good here due to its nutty flavour.
The Process
Pressing the tofu
Start by pressing the tofu, so it’s easier to fry to that perfect chewie texture and can soak up the marinade. If you don’t have a tofu press as mine in the picture, you could wrap it in a clean kitchen towel, then top with something heavy, like a cast iron skillet, to push out the moisture. Be careful though, I had a heavy cast iron pot slide off it once and drop to the floor, leaving a chip in my tiles. Hence my tofu press. I figured it’s less expensive than having to get tiles re-done or buy a new cast iron pot. About 30 minutes should be enough, but you can leave it for longer if you have time.
Once it has given up a good bit of moisture, cut it into bite sized cubes.
Vegetable Preparation
While the tofu is left to its devices, prepare the veggies. Cut the cauliflower into florets, half or quarter the mushrooms, depending on size, julienne or slice the carrots, shred the cabbage thinly, slice the mini sweetcorn in half lengthwise and wash and roughly chop your spinach. Slice the spring onions and roughly chop the cilantro if using.
The Sauce
Peel your ginger. This is easiest done by scraping the skin off with a teaspoon. Sounds weird, I know. But give it a try. I promise you won’t look back.
Peel and mince your garlic.
Mix all the sauce ingredients in a jar and shake well.
Marinate
Use ¼ of the sauce to marinate your tofu cubes. Keep in the fridge for at least 30minutes, so they can soak up all the delicious flavour.
In a large bowl, coat the shredded cabbage with about 3-4 tbsp of the sauce and mix well. Let it marinate until ready to serve.
Line either your air fryer basket with some baking parchment (after pre-heating, as the empty air fryer will pull the paper up and might cause burning) or 2 baking trays. If using the air fryer, you might have to fry in batches, but the results will be a little crispier.
The Tempura Batter
To mix the batter add all dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly add the water, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth batter that will coat tofu and cauliflower. Add the water slowly, you might not need it all.
Bake
Pre-heat your air fryer or oven to 400°F/200°C.
Dredge your tofu and cauliflower pieces through the batter, shaking each lightly, to let excess batter drip off. Distribute between the trays or add to your hot air fryer basket. Spray lightly with some oil or cooking spray. Air fry for about 17-20min until golden brown and crispy, flipping the pieces halfway through.
In the oven, they will need about 30-35 minutes.
Cook rice, fry vegetables
Cook your rice according to packet instructions and drain when done.
Meanwhile, heat 2 frying pans. Coat both with some oil or cooking spray. Add the mushrooms to one pan and fry until nicely browned, stirring only occasionally, to not disturb the browning process.
In the second pan, stir fry the mini sweetcorn, followed by the julienned carrots, then soy sprouts and lastly the spinach until wilted. Add the remaining sauce to the pan and let it bubble up briefly, to take the raw edge off the garlic and ginger.
Serve
Start by adding rice to your bowl, then top with the remaining ingredients, finishing with the crispy cauliflower and tofu. Drizzle some sauce over. Sprinkle with some spring onions, cilantro and sesame if you like. Enjoy your colourful and healthy Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu.
Meal Prep
I made the ingredients for the Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu on my weekend and stored them in separate containers, to keep them fresh. While I fried each vegetable on its own to show them in the bowl, it makes more sense from a flavour perspective to stir fry them all in one pan and also store them that way. No need to go through all the trouble I did. Though if you want to keep them separate, you can just microwave them with the rice later, to heat them.
For the tempura battered tofu and cauliflower, I lined a large container with kitchen towels, and stored them in layers, to stop them from sticking. I then re-heated them in portions in the air fryer for a few minutes, to crisp them up.
The ingredients keep stored as above for about 4 days in the fridge. I wouldn’t necessarily advise to freeze them, especially the tofu and cauliflower, as they will go soggy.
Looking for more ideas for Veganuary? Here are some of my favourites: Vegan Tom Kha Soup
Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please share and comment. It helps me a lot.
Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu
The Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu is a great start for the Veganuary. Lots of colourful crunchy veggies in a flavourful fruity-hot Asian sauce topped with crispy air fried cauliflower and tofu. Meal prep a large batch and you are all set for your work week with a seriously delicious and nutritious meal.
Press the tofu for about 30 minutes to remove excess moisture, then cut it into bite-sized cubes.
Vegetable Preparation:
Cut cauliflower into florets, mushrooms into halves or quarters, carrots into julienne strips, shred the cabbage thinly, slice mini sweetcorn in half lengthwise, and wash and roughly chop the spinach.
Slice spring onions and chop cilantro if using.
The Sauce:
Peel and mince the garlic, and peel and grate the ginger.
Mix all sauce ingredients in a jar and shake well.
Marinate:
Use ¼ of the sauce to marinate tofu cubes. Keep in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
In a large bowl, coat shredded cabbage with 3-4 tbsp of the sauce and let it marinate.
The Tempura Batter:
Mix all dry tempura batter ingredients in a bowl. Slowly add sparkling water, whisking until a smooth batter forms.
Bake:
Preheat air fryer or oven to 400°F/200°C.
Dredge tofu and cauliflower through the batter, shaking off excess. Air fry for 17-20 minutes or bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and crispy, flipping halfway.
Cook Rice, Fry Vegetables:
Cook rice according to package instructions.
In separate pans, fry mushrooms until browned in one pan. Stir-fry mini sweetcorn, carrots, bean sprouts, and spinach in the second pan. Add remaining sauce to the stir fry and let it bubble briefly.
Serve:
In a bowl, layer rice, vegetables, and crispy tofu and cauliflower. Drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with spring onions, cilantro, and sesame seeds if desired.
Meal Prep:
Prepare ingredients and store separately for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave and crisp up tempura battered pieces in the air fryer.
Enjoy your colourful and healthy Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu!
Notes
Total for the Dish (including rice, excluding optional toppings):Calories: Approximately 750 kcal
Protein: Around 19g
Carbohydrates: Roughly 110g
Fat: About 26g
Fiber: Around 15g
Sugar: Approximately 26g
Nutrition
Calories: 750kcal
Nutrition Facts
Asian Bowl with Cauliflower and Tofu
Amount per Serving
Calories
750
% Daily Value*
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Keyword Healthy, High Fibre, Protein, vegan, vegetables, Vegetarian
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