These tofu banh mi vegan sliders are packed with flavour and a fun twist on the classic banh mi sandwich. They’re great as finger food or appetizers for a party, or as a delicious dinner served with fries or a salad.
It might seem like a pain in the ass to make sliders. I mean, for every regular-sized veggie burger, you have to make two or three sliders. Seems like a waste of time. These vegan sliders, however, are surprisingly easy to put together. Although they take a bit of time to prep, it’s mostly hands off as you marinate the tofu and pickle the vegetables.
There’s a reason why banh mi are so popular – they’re the perfect combination of savoury, sweet, spicy, sour and fresh. They’ve got it all and it all works together in perfect harmony. They’re also super adaptable and lend themselves well to any sort of “meat” element that you prefer.
For the meaty element of my vegan banh mi I chose tofu marinated similarly to a simple tofu bacon with soy sauce, maple syrup, tomato paste and a touch of liquid smoke. Then a quick pan fry crisped the tofu slices up nicely and added a delicious char to the outside.
You can probably bake them as well if you want to reduce the amount of oil in this recipe but pan frying is quicker. Furthermore, since these tofu banh mi are served with a sriracha mayo, there’s not much point in worrying too much about the amount of oil in the recipe.
I included a recipe for making vegan mayonnaise from scratch, it’s really easy and much cheaper than buying a prepared vegan mayo. My preferred method for making vegan mayo is to use aquafaba, which is the cooking water leftover from boiling chickpeas (or other types of beans). Since I’m a proponent of cooking beans from dry to save money, you’ll have quite a bit of aquafaba to use as a vegan egg replacer in some sauces and desserts (it doesn’t work for everything).
Finally you need some veg. Cucumber, cilantro and pickled carrot and daikon radish are the typical tofu banh mi fillers. If you can’t find daikon radish, any type of radish will do. I actually used a couple of big, fat winter radishes from my garden (free, yay!). Whichever type you use, you’ll want to have equal proportions of carrot and radish to make the pickle so eyeball more or less how much radish you’ll need to equal two large carrots.
I served these tofu banh mi vegan sliders for dinner with fries but they’d also be great served with a salad inspired by Vietnamese flavours like this raw vegan noodles salad, which you can quickly prepare while the veggies are pickling.
Got leftovers? Use them in these recipes:
Tofu, carrot and cilantro: Thai Buddha bowl with peanut red curry sauce
Cucumber and radish: Baked beet falafel vegan quinoa bowl
Carrots, cucumber and sriracha: Raw vegan noodles salad
Wanna see how to make these tofu banh mi vegan sliders? watch the video! If you like it, share it on Facebook!
Tofu Banh Mi Vegan Sliders
Ingredients
- 450 grams (16 oz) extra-firm tofu drained and pressed - $1.75
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce - $0.20
- 3 tablespoons water - $0.00
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup - $0.67
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste - $0.17
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar - $0.09
- 2 cloves of garlic grated or finely minced - $0.16
- 1 teaspoon ginger grated or finely minced - $0.02
- ⅛ teaspoon liquid smoke - $0.02
- 2 large carrots peeled and julienned – $0.22
- 250 grams (4 oz) daikon radish peeled and julienned (can sub winter radish or red radishes) - $0.00 (free from my garden)
- 1 cup (240 ml) apple cider or rice vinegar - $0.96
- ½ cup water - $0.00
- 1 tablespoon sea salt - $0.09
- 2 tablespoons white sugar - $0.12
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba* garbanzo cooking liquid - $0.00
- ½ cup (120 ml) neutral-tasting oil – $0.40
- 1 ½ tablespoons sriracha or sambal oelek adjust to taste - $0.20
- 2 tablespoons oil for frying – $0.10
- 10 vegan slider buns - $1.45
- 1 small cucumber sliced - $0.38
- 4 green onions very thinly sliced - $0.40
- 2 long green chili peppers sliced - $0.96
- A handful of cilantro - $0.10
Instructions
- Slice the tofu into squares to fit the size of your slider buns. You might not be able to get perfect squares for each slider, but that’s ok, you can put a couple of leftover ends together into one slider.
- Combine the soy sauce, 3 tablespoons water, maple syrup, tomato paste, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and liquid smoke in a ziplock bag. Taste the marinade and adjust the balance of salty and sweet if necessary. Add the tofu slices and massage it in a bit. Leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes, flipping the bag from time to time.
- In a bowl combine the vinegar, ½ cup water, salt and sugar. Add the carrots and radish and leave to pickle for at least 15 minutes (the longer the better).
- Put the aquafaba in a tall container and insert an immersion blender. With the blender running, slowly add the neutral oil to make a mayo. Mix in the sriracha and a pinch of salt. Refrigerate until ready to make the sliders.
- Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil for frying in a pan over medium-high heat. Remove the tofu from the bag and fry for a couple of minutes on each side until golden and crispy. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Toast the slider buns and slather some sriracha mayo on each side. Top with cucumber slices, fried tofu, pickled veggies, green onion slices, chili pepper slices and fresh cilantro.
Notes
Nutrition
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Amy says
Oh my goodness. These look amazing!
Barti says
Great recipe. Fam loved it!
Bonnie says
This looks amazing!
Chelsea says
Dear other commenters/readers: YOU NEED TO DROP EVERYTHING AND MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!! My husband and I just made it for dinner and it was amazing! It is a lot of steps, so it's not a bad thing to have two pairs of hands, but also totally doable for one...seriously the best vegan Bahn Mi I've ever had, and I live in Seattle, where there a lot of options!!!
Melissa says
You're my hero!
Paul says
These were amazing -- Thank you
Katie says
I want to be sure the veggies and tofu get all the flavor possible. Would you recommend marinating each for longer than 15 minutes and what is the max time you would recommend? I was thinking about marinating both the veggie and the tofu for half a day while I was at work. So probably a 5 hour marinade time. Is that too long? Probably OK for the veggies as I usually pickle red onion over night and it works great. But I don't have a lot of experience marinating tofu. Does it get mushy or fall apart if marinating too long?
Melissa says
It doesn´t get mushy and fall apart so you can go ahead and marinate it for as long as you like.
Georgia says
Wondering which brand slider buns you used my daughter's would love this recipe
Melissa says
I use a local Spanish brand. Use any kind that look good, just read the ingredients for hidden milk.
Tanya says
These are AMAZING! Thank you so much! We will definitely make again and again!
Julie says
Served these to a group of 10 non-vegan friends - HUGE hit! Easy and delicious! Will make these next for my family (the ones who say they won’t ever eat tofu).
pranita says
Amazing recipe.
Kathleen Sibbing-Dunn says
Hi, Looking forward to trying this...I'd like to grill the tofu. Think that would work?
Melissa says
I think grilling would work fine!
Tori says
This is one of my favorite recipes! Seriously amazing !
Art says
Quick party hit! Best recipe. I usually just buy vegan mayo to save some trouble 😉
Beth Wombacher says
I was having Christmas Eve dinner for my family and it was informal-soups and Hawaiian sliders but I needed a vegetarian option for my brother-in-law and niece and happened upon this recipe so I thought I’d give it a try. I have never worked with tofu so something new to add to my not particularly impressive culinary resume and learn that it has lots of possibilities. Well I made enough for about a dozen sliders because I anticipated only two people eating them but it turned into a “ free for all “ and they were gone very quickly-I don’t know if it was the tofu, the pickled veggies or the sriracha mayonnaise- everyone exclaimed over at least one of those! I am making them again very soon