My Vegan Deviled “Eggs” (aka Tofu Devils!)

(*Note: This was yesterday’s post that wouldn’t go through, finally got it to work! Yay!)

My FAV part of holidays has almost always been deviled eggs. OMG. I was in charge of making them and generally managed to sneak down WAY more than my fair share too… I think there were more years than not where the tray didn’t even make it to dinnertime!

Sometime after becoming vegan, I distinctly remember telling my mom, “Ya know, I just might have to cave for devilled eggs!”  Keep in mind that I did not (have not!) even caved for Peanut M&M’s which were my F.A.V.!  The more familiarized I became with (and developed a serious love affair with too *giggle*) tofu, though, I thought there has to be a way to recreate these, in pretty close comparison… Right?

Oh yeah.

First you need to develop a relationship with Kala Namak, or, black salt.  “WhoosaWhat-sa” you say? Seriously. It’s for makin vegan eggs baby. I use it in my tofu scramble, to marinate tofu for my lil man (though he’s 2… he’ll actually just eat tofu straight from the box. That’s my hardcore lil vegan boy right there!) and always in my Tofu Devils There is one store in my relative area which sells it, but I’ve tried it against what I ordered from online and there was no comparison, so I’ll just order it thank you very much! The stuff is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. If you like(d) eggs that is, of course!

There are countless Google’s on this, but I’ve come up with my own, and I’m proud of them so here’s mine:

Tofu Devils (Vegan Deviled “Eggs”)

• 2 blocks firm or extra firm tofu (NOT silken)
• 1-2 c. water
• 2-3 tsp. black salt
• 1/2-1 tsp. curry powder
• 1/2-1 tsp turmeric (gives a nice yellow color, if you don’t care that they’re yellow you can omit)
• scant 1 tsp sweet pickle relish liquid only (I did 2 blocks of tofu and barely used a tsp relish liquid)
• 1/4-1/2 c. vegan mayo, depends on how creamy you like it! (I prefer the Vegenaise Reduced Fat, but my store didn’t have that so I got the Vegenaise Original which is also good.)

Note: ALL of my measurements are approximate and feel free to adjust for your tastes.  It also depends a lot on how many Devils you’re making at once.  I was doing enough for 2 14 oz. blocks of firm tofu, if you’re doing more or less adjust accordingly.  It’s a user-friendly recipe

First you hafta press the tofu. Now, there are plenty of ways to do this. You can set your tofu between two plates and then begin to stack heavy objects on top until the water begins to squish out of your tofu. OR, you can get all kinds of fancy and use Tofu Xpress *giggle. Yeah it’s like $40 but lemme just share with ya, I got mine almost a year ago and use it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. There is no time goes by there isn’t tofu pressin in my fridge. So it’ll be worth it, trust me.

Ok, so I was a dumba**, and tried to Xpress silken.. (they now have a 'lite' coil for that btw), but you get the idea, it perfectly squishes all the liquid out!

Ok, so back to the tofu-ing….You want to use at least firm tofu, perhaps even extra firm, because the med and soft wont’ hold up for this.  You’ll want to press the tofu for at least an hour, overnight if you can get away with it. (Another benefit to the Xpress, you can put the stuff back in the fridge and forget about it!)

Once it’s pressed, you’ll want to cut it in half  (long ways) and then into approx 1/2 inch slices.  Then you plunk them into the marinade. I use more black salt in my marinade for these just to make sure the ‘eggy’ flavor really comes through, about 2 tsp black salt to about 1 c. of water. Soak the tofu slices in it for at least an or however long you can manage.

Take the slices out of the eggy-smelling-water (you’ll be tripped out by it if you’ve never done it before – I still kinda am! The ‘salt’ is a light pinkish gray color, but when you toss 2 tsp into a cup of water it turns a very dark greenish gray color. So weird.) and pat them dry with a cloth. You can definitely do this with little rectangle ‘eggs’ but I since it only happens once or twice a year I get all fancy and shape them It’s really just rounding the edges, and then I go around the bottom and really shave it into a little half-egg-rounded shape. Yeah I’m a nerd I know it.

The edges I cut off and all the little bits I toss into a bowl for the filling (just like tossin the yolks out of the eggs!) Then I use a melon baller to scoop tiny circles out of the middle of each piece.

Next for the filling. Mash up all the cut off edges and balled out centers you’ve saved in a bowl and mix with the mayo and spices. Then it’s time to fill in the centers!  I find it easiest to use a cake frosting bag, but you can just use any old baggie with the corner cut out too.

Sprinkle with a bit of paprika for color (I’d prefer a nice smoked paprika here, but all I had was hot, so they were a bit spicier than I wanted but it’s a nice touch.)

VOILA! Look at those adorable edible lil dudes!

They were maybe half and half a hit at my potluck, there’s some folks without my kinda tofu love but that’s ok, more for me! (And my wee little man, who ate FIVE tonight! Lol… Um yeah, he’s really not so little Hahahaah!)

Do tell if you’ve had success with this – or any similar thing you’ve ‘veganized’! I love to hear other peoples ideas and get inspired!!!

Finally, I have to postpone talkin’ about my experiment on this … mine isn’t ready! I tried it this morning and decided to let it go one more day to see what (if anything) happens… so maybe tomorrow?

That’s all for now blog friends, I’m beat! Was up early with the little man so he’d go for a nap early so I could wake him from it early so I could take him to school early so I could be at work early for the potluck! *breathes* Lol… it’s been a long day

Goodnight all!! Good Day all!