Vegan Butter Tofu
Today we are making a Vegan Butter Tofu recipe! Today’s Tofu Butter Chicken was inspired by a dish you’ll see at most Indian restaurants – Butter Chicken! You may hear this as “murgh makhani” or “tofu makhani,” which translates directly to “butter chicken” or “butter tofu.” For those who aren’t familiar, Butter Chicken is a classic Indian food dish in which there are pieces of chicken in a creamy tomato sauce.
I’ve been trying to make my desserts or meals in about a half hour or less, and many of the recipes I’m making now don’t even require turning on the oven. It’s also a turn-off to make a new recipe if there are a ton of new ingredients to buy. I cut down this work – many of the ingredients are common, maybe save for the garam masala which you may have to buy if you don’t cook Indian dishes often.
Coconut milk is often an ingredient in curries to thicken them up, and both canned coconut milk and tofu are usually widely available in supermarkets. For the sauce base, I used a base of ginger, garlic, garam masala and onion. Then the coconut milk and pasta sauce are there for some tomato-infused creaminess but without the dairy.
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Butter Tofu Recipe
Indian Spice Mix: A rich flavor comes from cooking food in the traditional Indian way. Gravy dishes are usually stir-fried with a base of garlic, ginger, onions and tomato in oil.
Then the vegetables or main food in the dish is added in, along with an array of Indian spices. If there is any gravy required, then heavy cream is usually added for restaurant-style dishes.
Substitutions
Pasta Sauce: Some pasta sauces may have meat or dairy ingredients. Check the ingredient label to confirm that it is vegan. To keep this recipe refined sugar-free, make sure there is no added sugar into the pasta sauce.
Coconut Milk: Full-fat, canned coconut milk is the creamiest. This is just water and coconut cream, which can be seen if you refrigerate a can of coconut milk and open it up the next day. The cream rises to the top and separates from the water on the bottom! This works great as a replacement for a dairy cream, such as heavy cream, in the butter sauce.
You can also use cashew cream, which you may order online – it consists of raw cashews made into a cream. Both coconut and cashew based creams can be great replacements to the dairy alternative.
Pasta Sauce: If using tomato paste, tomato purée or another tomato sauce that isn’t pasta sauce, it will lack a lot of the flavor. This is because pasta sauce already has all the seasonings added in, so I don’t recommend to substitute this.
Milk: Use sugar-free almond milk, cashew milk or another nutty milk. If using oat milk, then the sweet flavor of oats may throw off the taste of the recipe. Check the ingredient label to buy a brand of milk that does not contain any added sugar.
Vegan Butter: Substitute olive oil, avocado oil or refined coconut oil (not the virgin or extra-virgin coconut oil that smells like coconut). Olive oil does not have a high smoke point, but avocado oil does and would be better for cooking.
Garam Masala: This is an Indian spice blend that you can buy in an Asian grocery store.
Serve This Recipe With
Serve this butter chicken with vegan naan or Basmati rice! You can find dry Basmati rice at Indian grocers, or in the Asian food aisle of larger grocery stores. It’s very easy to add a cup of rice with double the water, a tablespoon of oil and 1-2 teaspoons of cumin seeds, all mixed in a rice cooker and set to cook for one cycle. This makes jeera rice (cumin seed rice) ready in less than an hour.
Vegan Butter Tofu Notes
- Make sure to squeeze all the extra water out of the block of tofu by keeping a heavy object and a towel on it! This ensures it stays crispy. You can also air fry it before using.
More Savory Recipes You’ll Love
Ginger Coconut Eggplant & Sweet Potatoes
If you make this Vegan Butter Tofu, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Vegan Butter Tofu
Equipment
- Large Pan
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp unsalted vegan butter
- 3 small garlic cloves finely grated
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger finely grated
- ½ cup vegan pasta sauce
- 1 large white onion diced
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tsp pink salt
- 1 extra firm tofu block drained of excess water and cut into squares
Instructions
- Add the butter or oil to a saucepan on the stove over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger, and diced onion.
- Sautee these ingredients on the stove until the mixture is browning, then add in the garam masala, salt and pasta sauce.
- Mix these in thoroughly, then add in the coconut milk and salt. The color should change to be closer to orange.
- Let the mixture simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes, and it should begin bubbling as well.
- For the tofu, wrap it in a towel and put a heavy book on it in order to drain the water out. Leave this for a couple minutes before you cut up the tofu into medium-sized chunks.
- Now the tofu chunks can either be air fried to be crispier, sauteed until crispy with a teaspoon of oil in a saucepan, or just added in as it is (I usually put it in the air fryer or add it in raw).
- Once the tofu is added, simmer the mixture for another couple minutes.
- Serve it warm with naan or rice!
Notes
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Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
