Have you ever seen an easy, delicious vegan meatball recipe that doesn’t require special ingredients? If your answer is no, then this easy vegan tofu balls can be the one you might want to try! These tofu balls are free from nuts, seeds and mushrooms. The ginger and soy sauce in them give it an Asian style flavour so they go really well with stir fried veggie with rice or noodles. They are great for a side dish and a snack as well.
I usually use the baking method for something like this but when I tasted the mixture before cooking the balls I knew that I should deep fry them. The flavour reminded me of some Japanese deep fried food that my mum used to cook at home. The Asian flavour comes from the vegetables, garlic, ginger and soy sauce in crushed tofu, and the soy mince gives somewhat a porky kind of taste to it.
What you need to make the easy vegan tofu balls
- firm tofu
- onion
- carrot
- ginger
- dry soy mince
- garlic puree
- soy sauce
- bread crumbs
- salt and black pepper
- corn starch
- oil for deep frying
As you can see these are pretty basic ingredients that many of you probably already have in your kitchen. If you want to make them a little bit spicy add some chilli powder or curry powder☺
making guide
Making these tofu balls is very easy. Before you start cooking, put the block of tofu on a plate with a flat plate on top. Place a weight such as a can of beans on top of that and let it sit for about 1 hour until moisture comes out from the tofu and the tofu gets firmer. If you are using extra frim tofu you could skip this step. Cook the onion, carrot and ginger in a frying pan until soft and add in the rehydrated soy mince, continue cooking for a minute. Put in the garlic puree and soy sauce and keep cooking for another minute. Take off from the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl with the firm tofu, bread crumbs, salt and black pepper and mix with your hand until you get a soft but firm texture that you can easily form the ball shapes with. Coat each ball with the corn starch and deep fry in a wok for 3-5 minutes or until golden all round.
You can serve these tofu balls with sauce but they are delicious without as well☺ I added these to my stir fry vegetable with rice dinner. I coat the tofu calls with the teriyaki style sauce that went really well of the flavour.
I kept the leftovers in a covered container and reheat thoroughly and made a sandwich with them that was yummy as well☻
Please follow the full instructions if you are trying this recipe. I’m sure you will be happy with the result!
Easy vegan tofu balls
Ingredients
- 200 g firm tofu
- oil for cooking the vegetables
- 1 small onion diced small
- 1 medium carrot grated
- 1 tsp fresh ginger grated
- 30 g dry soy mince rehydrated in warm water and drained
- 1 tsp garlic puree
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 5 tsp bread crumbs you might need more
- black pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3-4 tbsp corn starch for coating
- oil for deep drying
Use the link below for ingredient unit conversion ↓
Instructions
- Put the block of tofu on a plate with a flat plate on top. Place a weight such as a can of beans on top of that. Let it sit for about 1 hour. Discard water came out from the tofu sometimes. Your tofu will be firmer.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion, carrot and ginger until soft and slightly caramelised. Add in the rehydrated soy mince, stir and cook for a minute.
- Add in the garlic puree and soy sauce and continue cooking for a minute. Take off the heat.
- With your hand, mash and crush the tofu in a mixing bowl. Add in the cooked mixture (careful it's not too hot), bread crumbs, salt and black pepper to taste. Continue mixing with your hand until the mixture feels soft but firm so that you can form meatball shapes easily. If your mixture is too wet, add more bread crumbs.
- Make 15 balls with the mixture. Prepare the corn starch in a bowl and coat each ball.
- Heat enough oil to deep fry the tofu balls in a wok. I used about 400ml oil which is about a little less than 2 cups. Gently drop half of the tofu balls into the hot oil and fry for about 3-5 minutes on a medium heat. Don't forget to turn over halfway through the cooking.
- After the first lot is done, get them out from the oil and place on paper towel to let it absorb the excess oil. Fry the second lot and repeat the step.
- Serve with your favourite sauce as a side dish or a snack or add to your main meal.
- Store the leftovers in a covered container up to 2 days.
