These Vegan Beer-Battered Fish Tacos with Avocado Sauce are simply incredible! They are a perfect blend of textures – cool crunchy slaw, crisp tofu, and tangy, creamy avocado sauce. Your family will request these tacos over and over again.
Recipe Tips
Flavoring the tofu
I first found this recipe in an old issue of Bon Appetit magazine. The original was not vegan, and made with mahi-mahi, which of course, we want to replace. To recreate the texture for the “fish”, I use a block of firm tofu cut into 16 strips. To give the tofu that fresh from the ocean taste, cover each piece with a strip of nori. You can use scissors to easily can the nori in whatever size you need.
Old Bay is a great seasoning to add to the batter, because it’s so reminiscent of seafood.
How to get the lightest batter
The batter is made with beer, but if you would prefer not to use alcohol, you can swap it for some sparkling water. Although beer definitely adds flavor, the more important factor for the lightest, airiest batter are the bubbles. Bubbles create air pockets that expand when heated and create a light batter.
Using rice flour will make the batter extra crispy. If you don’t have it though, using just all-purpose flour will work perfectly well.
Enjoy…you’ll never miss the fish!
Beer-Battered Vegan Fish Tacos with Avocado Sauce
Ingredients
Coleslaw
- 4 cups red or green cabbage finely shredded
- ½ cup onion thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons cilantro
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- salt & pepper to taste
Avocado Sauce
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 large avocado
- 1 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 small garlic clove
- hot sauce to taste
- salt & pepper to taste
Beer-Battered "Fish"
- 16 oz firm tofu
- 1 nori sheet
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup rice flour if you don't have rice flour, use 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 oz beer or sparkling water
- additional all-purpose flour for dipping the tofu
- oil for frying
- 8 6-inch corn tortillas
- cilantro for garnish
- lime wedges for serving with the tacos
Instructions
Cabbage Slaw
- Combine the shredded cabbage, onions, lime juice, cilantro, and oregano in a bowl.
- Season with salt & pepper, to taste.
- Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.
Avocado Sauce
- Place the avocado, mayonnaise, lime juice, and garlic clove in a food processor. Blend until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a bit of water to get the consistency you like.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, and hot sauce.
- Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.
Tofu Fish
- Cut tofu into 8 slices, and then cut each slice in half for a total of 16 tofu strips.
- Cut the nori into similar size strips and place a piece of nori on top of each slice of tofu. Set aside.
- Combine the all-purpose flour, rice flour, Old Bay and salt in a large bowl. If you don't have rice flour use 1 cup all-purpose flour. Gradually pour in the beer, or sparkling water, and mix.
- Add some all-purpose flour in a shallow dish. Coat the tofu pieces in the flour, then dip in the beer batter.
- Pour about ½ inch of oil into a medium pan. Heat the oil over medium-high heat and carefully place the battered tofu into the hot oil. Fry until crisp and golden, about 1-2 minutes on each side.
- Transfer to a paper towel to drain.
- Heat tortillas in a medium skillet until warm and pliable, about 30 seconds per side.
- Place some slaw in the middle of each tortilla. Top each with 2 pieces of tofu, avocado sauce, and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.
Nutrition
