Tofu Burger with Satay Sauce and Tangy Lime Slaw

This Tofu Burger with satay sauce and a tangy lime slaw is perfect for weekend nights when you want a delicious plant based burger that’s high in protein but not full of heavily processed ingredients. The tofu has an amazingly crispy panko breadcrumb coating, which is complimented perfectly by the tangy lime slaw and peanut sauce. If you like tofu Katsu, you’ll love this burger.

Personalise the burger with whatever sauce you like, but for this recipe I’ve gone for asian inspired flavours with a satay sauce. You can make your own or use shop bought. The tangy lime slaw adds some acidity, and unlike shop-bought, my version is a little lighter on the mayo making this burger much healthier.

Ingredients for the Tofu Burger

The ingredients for the tofu burger are tofu, cornstarch, plant milk and panko bread crumbs. I recommend using a firm or extra firm tofu, I’ve tried this recipe using both and they’re both delicious!

Any plant milk will work as long as it’s unsweetened. I used soy milk.

You can use any burger bun you like, if you can find vegan brioche buns that would be my first choice. The burger bun is toasted before serving to give a little more structural strength to the burger but also to add a nice toasty flavour.

The ingredients for the slaw are red cabbage, onion, carrot, mayo and lime juice. The lime juice adds a delicious tang that almost gives the slaw a pickled cabbage flavour, it works really well on a burger and leftovers are great on salads.

I made my own satay sauce using this recipe but you can use any recipe you like, or use shop bought.

You can substitute the satay sauce for any sauce you like (e.g. hot sauce, mayo, ketchup, etc) if you’re not a peanut fan. If you still want an asian-inspired flavour you could use katsu curry sauce or teriyaki sauce!

Panko breadcrumbs are the best option for this burger because they provide a really great crunch, but you can use any breadcrumbs you have, or make your own with stale bread.

Red cabbage can be substituted for white cabbage if needed.

Start by making the tangy lime slaw, that way it can marinate for a few minutes when you make the burgers. Finely chop the cabbage, carrot and onion and add to a large bowl. Add the mayo, lime juice, salt and pepper and stir well to combine. Set aside for later.

Prepare the tofu by slicing it into large rectangles, around 1-2cm thick. Cut the tofu into the largest size you can given the block of tofu you’re starting with. You should be able to get 4 burgers from your block, so cut in half first, then in half again to make sure they’re even.

Next set up your dipping station. You need one plate for cornstarch, a small bowl for soy milk and then another plate for bread crumbs. Start by coating your burger in corn starch, dust off the excess then dip into the soy milk. Let the excess milk drip off before laying the burger flat in the breadcrumbs. Give the tofu burger a pat to make sure the breadcrumbs stick well, then flip it over and repeat for the other side. Remove the tofu burger and set it to the side while you repeat the process for the rest of your burgers.

Toast your burger buns in a non stick frying pan with no oil added.

Once your burger buns are all toasted, we can use this pan to cook the burgers. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan and use a medium heat to get the pan nice and hot. (Do not add your burgers to the pan before the oil is hot or it will soak up all that oil and become very greasy)

Once your oil is hot (you can check this by sprinkling a couple of breadcrumbs in – they should sizzle immediately on hitting the oil), you can add the tofu burgers. You may need to cook the burgers in batches or 2 at a time if your pan is not big enough. Fry each side of the burger for about 5 minutes, until it’s a deep golden brown. Keep checking the cooked side to make sure they don’t burn.

When cooked, place the burgers onto some kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil.

You can now assemble your burgers! Start with a generous helping of slaw on the bottom burger bun. Then add the tofu burger. Add your satay sauce to the top burger bun before placing it on top.

Serve immediately!

Notes

If you want to prepare this in advance, you can store the slaw in the fridge for a couple of days in an air-tight container.

You can also coat all of your tofu burgers in the breadcrumb mixture and wrap loosely in tin foil. These will store in the fridge for a day, although I haven’t tried storing them longer than that. Just remove from the fridge and fry when you want to serve them.