Inspired by a pit-stop on my recent road trip to the Pacific Northwest I bring you Vegan Southern Fried Tofu. The wife-unit were pretty amazed by the food cart phenomenon going on in Oregon. And by amazed I mean insanely jealous and confused as to why this hasn’t taken off in Southern California. WTF?! Portland of course seemed like the epicenter of Food-cart-opia, but this recipe was inspired by a stop at a food cart in Eugene, OR that was selling vegan soul food. I was impressed and, ‘lettuce be cereal’ (‘let us be serious’ for the unhip amongst us)….Why not make MORE fried vegan happy hour deliciousness inspired by soul food?! And so began my foray into Southern Fried Tofu.
I’ve seen plenty of vegan fried “chicken” recipes out there including a lot of takes on that KFC Double-Down miracle so it seems like this vegan recipe topic may have been done to death. I had to do it though. If for nothing else to prove that I could. And do it…I did. Based off of feedback from wife-unit, two things became immediately clear about this recipe; 1. It is wife-unit’s favorite Vegan Happy Hour recipe to date, and 2. I would be getting lucky for having such success with it.
Vegan Southern Fried Tofu
- 16 oz block of super firm tofu (I used a garden vegetable seasoned block for some extra flavor)
- 3 eggs worth of egg replacer
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 cup of Texas Pete hot sauce (basically an entire small bottle)
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- Extra salt, pepper, and some garlic powder for seasoning
- Vegetable oil for frying
Heat the oil to 350 degrees.
Cut the tofu block into 1/4-1/3 inch wide slices (cut along the long side of the block) and season lightly with the extra salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Mix the egg replacer, water and Texas Pete into a small/medium sized bowl.
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper into a shallow baking dish. Stir these well!
Dip the tofu slices into the liquid mixture then move into the flour mixture and coat well. Fry the tofu slices after they have been battered for about 5-7 minutes or until they are golden brown and crispy (we all love crispy).
Enjoy by themselves or with baked beans, corn bread, slaw and BBQ sauce. MMMMMMMmmmmmmm.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Manuela Durson and Lisa Chan-Simms, veganhappyhour. veganhappyhour said: New Post! Southern fried tofu done right! http://fb.me/G1njcV9J [...]
That is some crispy looking tofu! Yummmers!
AMAZING! Saving this for later.
Delicious! I made this tonight, thanks
One of our customers posted this on our facebook fan page (this is his favorite blog). So fun to read and see the picture of your beautiful southern fried tofu! So glad we could inspire!! Cheers! And thanks for giving us a try during your visit to Eugene!! – Sheree/Owner
Thanks for the inspiration and when are you guys gonna open up a cart down here?!
try it on some ciabatta sandwich rolls with caramelized onions, sweet chili sauce and vegenaise!
That looks crazy good.
This is delicious. I love tofu very much and it is really healthy. It is a nice substitute for meat.
i miss your happy hour goodness.
Miss learning new recipes..I hope you and your family are doing well.
Your website is great. What a fantastic idea, I love the idea of veganized bar food – alas vegans can not live on lettuce wraps alone. The vegan fried tofu looks awesome. I was recently in OR for Christmas and I too had vegan fried tofu – or phish at this great all vegan diner in Eugene – thecornbreadcafe.com!
[...] suggest some Southern Fried Tofu! You can find the recipe here! Pair it with some Mashed Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, Green Beans, etc like I do… it's [...]
Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I went to the Cornbread Cafe in Eugene twice in 2 days to have my fill of this stuff, but we don’t live in town and I have been craving it.
You are awesome! 
Loved the recipe. A couple of suggestions:
The amount of dipping (the egg replacement etc.) and the flour mixture is more than twice what you’ll need for a pound of tofu. When I figured this out, I dipped and fried another pound of tofu and froze the result for later. Still, I had left over flour mixture (in the plastic bag that I use for this purpose) so…as long as it had baking powder in it, I made hush puppies from the remainder.
I poured the flour mixture and all it’s clumps into a bowl, added enough of the dipping mixture to create a pasty dough. (Next time I’m going to add some defrosted frozen corn and maybe minced chives.) I dropped clumps of this paste (one by one) into a small bowl of corn meal and rolled the clump into 1.5 inch balls and fried them up at the end. What a score!
Hope this helps.