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Vegan browned butter

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Vegan browned butter

Browned butter

There are very few things better than browned butter! The nutty toasty aroma is perfect in so many savory dishes, but also in chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, or simply smeared on a piece of plain toast. And just try dipping fresh radished to it – you’ll soon realize you’re hooked on radishes. Browned butter is magic.

Animal based butter “browns” due to the milk proteins and natural sugars of the butter caramelizing. But what about plant based butters? There are no milk proteins in them, obviously. Well, the solution is likely very nearby. Just open the door to your cupboard!

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Vegan browned butter

Vegan browned butter

As a big fan of browned butter, I’ve been contemplating on how to make vegan brown butter for a while. We’ve moved on to using mainly plant based butter and sandwich spreads in our household, I use animal based butter only very rarely! My favorite spreads and butters are made by Naturli’ and Violife. Both have the flavor on point, and that’s saying a lot from someone who used to only put a real butter spread on her toast! I’ve never gotten used to the taste of margarine, and after discovering these products I won’t even try anymore.

Recently a friend asked me how to make vegan browned butter, and that gave me the push to finally stop contemplating, and start experimenting! A short scroll through internet gave the answer I would likely have discovered on my own: plantbased butters often need a boost in both proteins and sugars in order to brown. Depending on where you live and what kinds of products you have availabe, the butter might or might not already have those, in the form of some kind of nut. So look through the list of ingredients, and supplement as needed with some extra nuts!

vegan brown butter

variations on Vegan brown butter

So I’m off to the store, and soon enough I got pots of both melted Naturli’ and Vioblock on the stove. Naturli’ actually includes a bit of almond, so it will lightly brown on its own. Vioblock on the other hand simply melts. So both need some nuts! But which nuts? I end up making batches with powdered hazelnuts, pecans and almonds. And just for the fun of it, I also add some dark sugar and a tiny pinch of vanilla in one batch.

Practical tips:

  • When you add the nut powder to the hot fat, you better start mixing non stop. You do NOT want any of the nuts to burn!
  • A light colored pot helps to keep track of how toasty the nuts get
  • Your nose will also help keep track with how toasty the nuts get 🙂
  • Pour the vegan browned butter out of the pot rather sooner than later – it will continue to get more toasted as it cools off.

And then all that’s left to do is to wait! Browned vegan butter is delicious hot, but as it cools off it solidifies and gets a lovely creamy, butterscotch sauce-y texture. The Vioblock batch got to the stage you see in the photos in room temperature in about an hour. The Naturli’ batches on the other hand took a lot longer, and eventually I had to put them in the fridge. They were solidified in the morning!

Vegan brown butter

Hazelnut butter for the win!

When it comes to flavor, each version was extremely delicious! It’s hard to belief any of these yummy butters is vegan. The batch with a pinch of sugar and vanilla was so good, I almost “sampled” it all in one go. If I were more of a baker, I’d definitely turn that batch into a frosting!

My favorite variation turned out to be both the hazelnut and the pecan Naturli’. The toasty flavor of hazelnut mimics the flavor or browned butter the best – no surprise there, after all it’s also referred to as “beurre noisette” aka hazelnut butter 🙂 Pecan on the other hand has a sweetness akin to maple syrup! The almond version was also delicious – tastewise it was just the one that was the least like browned butter, that’s all. So, my vegan brown butter will be made with a mixure of hazelnuts and pecans, with an added pinch of sugar and vanilla, when the intended use calls for it!

Vegan browned butter

Browned butter is heavenly - also when it's vegan! Vegan butter just needs some help to start browning. This can be achieved with some nuts! My favorite choice is a mixture of hazelnuts and pecans.
Course Condiment, dip
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword vegan, vegetarian
Author Juulia
Cook Time 10 mins
Cool off time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 10 mins
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Ingredients
 

  • 100 g vegan butter (Vioblock or Naturli')
  • 1 tbsp powdered hazelnut and/or pecan nuts (or almond, cashew...)

Optional:

  • ½-1 tsp demerera, coconut or muscavado sugar (in other words: dark sugar with some toasty notes!)
  • ⅛ tsp real vanilla
  • 1-2 tsp lemon juice
Notes:
Store the vegan browned butter air-tightly in the fridge. It store well, so you can easily do a double batch if you want to!

Instructions

  • Melt the vegan butter in small pot. Let it bubble and foam for about 5 minutes. Then add in the powdered nuts (and sugar, if using). Keep mixing well, scraping the bottom of the mixture with a spatula to prevent burning. The mixture foams and then starts to settle. Keep an eye (and nose) on the level of toastiness and as soon as you think the nuts have browned enough, pour the mixture to a heat proof dish.
  • Add in the vanilla and/or lemon juice, if using. Leave the butter to cool off to the desired temperature and texture. Vioblock solidifies to a soft custardy texture in about an hour, but Naturli' is best left in the fridge for longer. Both need a thorough mixing before serving, as the nuts settle to the bottom of the bowl.

If you make vegan browned butter, I’d love to hear which nuts are your favorite!

brown vegan butter

Homemade Tartex recipe

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Tartex recipe

Tartex!!!

I’ve been a big fan of Tartex, a German vegetarian pâtée made since 1942, for decades. I’ve been squeezing tubes of Tartex on my sourdough rye crackers since my teenage years, and even now an opened tube won’t last long in this household!

All these years I’ve been curious about how exactly is this addictive product made. Every once in awhile I search the web for a “Tartex recipe” … But always come out empty handed. Homemade Tartex seems like a distant dream…

… Until now! One day not too long ago, I accidentally created something very similar to Tartex! And that’s the end of my searching – the homemade Tartex recipe I’ve been waiting for is here, on this website! What a plot twist 😅

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Tartex classic

homemade tartex?

So how did I get there when seemingly very few have either tried or reported of their results online? Well it all starts with me testing out a recipe for sunflower seed tofu aka sunfu last year. The soft and creamy sunflower seed tofu turned out to be the perfect ingredient for a homemade Tartex! It’s incredibly creamy, fatty and rich, plus has a smooth and silky texture, similar of Tartex even on its own. All it needs is a boost of flavor!

The ingredient list of the classic “naturell” Tartex is as follows: Drinking water, nutritional yeast, coconut oil, potato starch, sunflower oil (9%), sea salt, tomato puree, yeast extract. So: mostly water and nutritional yeast, oil and seasonings. The potato starch is likely there to bulk up the consistency. Coconut oil likely adds both richness and thickness that won’t melt in room temperature.

Since sunfu is very rich in sunflower seed oil, it’s already very fatty to begin with. No need for added oils! As a bonus it needs no thickening – the sunflower seed proteins are taking care of that. So no need to add potato starch either!

homemade Tartex

Tartex recipe 2.0

The discovery of turning sunflower seed tofu into homemade Tartex happened rather accidentally. I was playing around with a batch of sunfu, trying to turn it into some kind of vegan spread. I first added in just salt and nutritional yeast, but once I added in also onion powder, something happended. “It tastes just like Tartex!” said my husband. And so it really did! To enhance the likeness, I added in some double concentrated tomato puree too. The resulting mixture turned out to be so similar to Tartex, that we ate the whole batch in one go on top of some rye crackers – just like we’d do with a tube of Tartex too…

Don’t get me wrong, this is not 1:1 copy of Tartex obviously. But both the flavor and the texture are pretty close to get me very excited with the result! And if you add in herbs, garlic powder and/or pan fried button mushrooms, you can mimic the other flavors of Tartex too.

Funny enough, Tartex Classic does NOT have onion in it. But somehow the onion powder was the key in transforming the sunfu-nutritional yeast mixure into “Tartex”. I don’t know what it is, but I’ll take it! Since the ingredient list includes yeast extract, I’ve been trying to find some Marmite to see if adding it in will give a significant boost to the result. So far no luck, but since yeast extract is the last one on the list = its amount is the smallest, it likely won’t have a massive impact. But I’ll know when I get to try it!

copycat Tartex

Quick sunflower seed spread in the style of tartex

My DIY homemade Tartex recipe is very yummy, but it does have one big disadvantage. It’s juuuuust a little bit more difficult to get on that cracker than the squeeze of a tube 🫣 Making sunflower seed tofu is a fun project but it definitely requires both time and effort. So, I’ve come up with a quick version!

If you skip turning soaked sunflower seeds into tofu and just puree them, you get a pretty similar result!

The consistency of this quick version is obviously different, since there’s fibers in the mixture. But taste wise the result isn’t all that different! The percentage of fat is lower too, so I prefer to add some olive oil in the mix to compensate. It might be more authentic to use coconut oil, but there’s no real need to add texture, just richness, so I suppose any oil will do!

If you’re a fan of Tartez like me, this is not going to be the perfect copy of the beloved tube. But it’s pretty dang close in my opinion! I really hope you like it as much as I do.

Homemade Tartex

This homemade "Tartex" gives you a taste of the classic German vegetarian paté with just sunflowerseeds, nutritional yeast and a few seasonings!
Course Appetizer, dip, Snack
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword tofu, vegan, vegetarian
Author Juulia
Prep Time 4 hrs 30 mins
Total Time 4 hrs 30 mins
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Equipment

  • Immersion blender

Ingredients
 

  • 150 g sunflower seed tofu OR soaked raw sunflower seeds (100g dry sunflower seeds are about 150g once soaked for 4 hours)
  • 1 dl nutritional yeast
  • ½-¾ tsp salt
  • 1-1½ tsp onion powder
  • 1½ tsp double concentrated tomato puree (or Mutti Verdurine, which mixes in soffritto veggies)
  • water (as needed)
  • 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (OPTIONAL, leave out if making the "Tartex" with sunflower seed tofu which is already very fatty and rich on its own)

Additional seasonings:

  • yeast extract (Marmite, Vegemite) (to taste, start with ¼ tsp)
  • ¼-½ tsp garlic powder
  • fresh or dry parsley, chives (to taste, start with ½ tsp)
  • 50 g button mushrooms, pan fried until most of the moisture evaporates (+ oil for pan frying)
Notes:
Store the homemade Tartex in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Some discoloration may occur if the mixture is exposed to air and starts to dry around the edges.

Instructions

Preparations:

  • If you are making the homemade Tartex with sunflower seeds, start by soaking them in plenty of fresh water for about 4 hours. Drain the soaking water and rinse the seeds. Put them in a blender or in a narrow bowl suitable for immersion blender, and patiently puree the seeds to as smooth a puree you can.
  • You'll need to add in some water, spoonful at a time, otherwise the mixture is likely too thick for the machine. I recommend also scraping the edges of the blender/bowl in to the mixture repeatedly to get as homogeneous result as possible.
  • If you are using sunflower seed tofu you'll either first make it (recipe linked in notes!) and if you have it ready to go, mash the sunflower seed tofu with a fork or puree it in a blender / with an immersion blender.

Seasoning:

  • Season the sunflower seed (tofu) puree with nutritional yeast, tomato puree, onion powder and salt. Thin out the mixture with a teaspoon of water at a time, if needed. If you're making the "Tartex" with soaked pureed sunflower seeds, add in some olive oil for extra richness. Mix well, taste and adjust the seasonings.
  • You can add also garlic powder, fresh or dry herbs, yeast extract and/or pan fried button mushrooms to the mixture, to mimic other Tartex flavors. When adding in the mushrooms, first pan fry them to as dry as possible. Chop the mushrooms up finely with a knife to help getting them blended in well to the thick mixture.

Afterthought:

As exciting as it is to have “cracked the code” (sort of, kind of), there’s no replacing of the original Tartex! I need to have a few tubes in my cupboard at all times. My recipe kind of feels like a raw food restaurant version – you know, a place that sprouts its own seeds, I love those places! But that kind of food is pretty far from what Tartex is. And that’s fine, there’s a time and a place for both! If you are a fan of Tartex and try this recipe (either version) I would really love to hear your thoughts!

homemade Tartex recipe

Rösti casserole!

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rösti casserole

Rösti casserole!

What’s better than crispy and golden mini rösti potatoes? Rösti casserole! Hidden beneath the layer of crispy rösti potates is a tomatoey plant-based mince and loads of garlicky mushrooms. And cheese. Because, cheese. But it might as well be something else, depending on what I’m in the mood for!

Frozen mini rösti potatoes are the main character here, everything else is a supporting role! If I’m being extra lazy, I’ll throw in what ever there is in the freezer, and just open a few jars and packages of store bought things from the pantry. Sometimes a recipe with lots of shortcuts is just what’s needed ♥

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rosti potato casserole

mini rosts

Mini rösti potatoes … and other frozen gems

If I were a super human, I’d obviously make my own rösti potatoes. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes I am that person! But rarely on an average Monday. Why bother, when the frozen aisle has perfectly good pre-made rösti potatoes I can buy?

I am all in for making everything from scratch. I love cooking and I often go to unnecessary lengths to do every possible step myself. But lately that kind of cooking has been a luxury I really can’t afford. It’s been all about quick and easy recipes, which hopefully feed me and my husband for several days in a row. And that’s when I turn to recipes, which come together with the twist of a lid and the opening of a bag – kind of like this kimchi & gnocchi casserole from last year!

My pantry is packed with easy to use ingredients like canned beans and tomato products. I always have oat cream and some kind of plant-based protein in the fridge! And, my freezer is stacked with frozen veggies! Green beans, kale, okra, spinach and corn are my favorites, but I also freeze tofu … and cheese! (Yeah it’s not a veg but it’s super handy to have around, I highly recommend!) You can add frozen grated cheese into dishes directly from the freezer and cheese obviously stores much longer frozen than in the fridge. And lately, I’ve also had frozen rösti potatoes in the fridge!

rosti casserole

wannabe Tater tot casserole

I discovered the mini rösti potatoes last year for a specific reason. I really wanted to make a variation on the American home cooking classic, Tater tot casserole! It’s one of those dishes I’ve never eaten, but have somehow been strangely fascinated with. It’s likely to do with the layer of crispy potatoes on top – or “tater tots” – cylinder shaped shredded potato pucks! I LOVE crispy potatotes! Tater tots actually sound to me a lot like rösti potatoes, or latke, just a different shape. But it’s hard to tell, since they are not available here in Finland. But hey, mini rösti potatoes are!

My research tells me that apart from the namesake potato product, a typical Tater tots casserole has canned cream of mushroom soup in it. And cheese, and meat, and sometimes canned green beans too. Since I’m not really a fan of canned mushrooms, I immediately swapped the cream of mushroom to lots of pan seared fresh button mushrooms instead. The cream is added in separately! I’m not a vegetarian, but I prefer to eat as little animal based products as possible. So, I’ve swapped the animal-based cream to oat cream, and the minced meat to a vegan mince. Most of the times I still use animal-based cheese, but I do sometimes go for the vegan alternative; my favorite is a cheddar style vegan cheese from Violife!

…wannabe…

I’ve typically kept the protein layer rather dense, with just a small tetra of tomato passata mixed in. I haven’t wanted the result to be super saucy and tomatoey, but more “meaty” instead. I suppose that’s how I imagine Tater tot casserole to be like too, but really I have no idea… 😀 If the protein I’ve used has come in a really small package size (some packeges are just so much smaller than others!), I’ve added in canned white beans to bulk up the dish. If I’m using green beans I do prefer the frozen ones!

After so many changes, I’m not sure how well my mini rösti casserole compares to a Tater tot casserole anymore. But the layer of crispy golden potatoes is still there, and in the middle of a busy week it’s all that matters to me!

rosti casserole

röstivuoka

rösti potato

Mini rösti casserole

In case you skipped to the recipe, here’s a recap: the whole point of this casserole is to use what you got. Essentially, you just cover up a layer of some sort of protein and veg with rösti potatoes and shove the thing in the oven! Whatever is underneath is going to taste wonderful, since it’s snuggled in nicely beneath a layer of crispy and golden mini rösti potatoes. My go to include a plant-based mince with some tomato passata, lots of pan seared mushrooms, some oat cream, and cheese. But feel free to experiment with the recipe, and find out what you enjoy the best!

Mini rösti casserole

What's not to love about crispy golden mini rösti potatoes? I love to add a layer of plant-based mince with tomato sauce and lots of garlicky mushrooms underneath - and CHEESE - but you can use any combination of protein, sauce and veg you like!
Course Lunch, Main Course
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword vegan, vegetarian
Servings 4 People
Author Juulia
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 45 mins
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Ingredients
 

First layer:

  • 300 g plant-based mince
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion (medium size)
  • 4 cloves garlic (or as much as you like!)
  • 1-2 tl smoked paprika
  • 1 tl dried thyme
  • salt + freshly cracked black pepper (to taste)
  • 150-200 g tomato passata (or store bought tomato sauce, in which case adjust the amount of seasonings)
  • + a can of white beans (optional!)

Second layer:

  • 300 g button mushrooms (or veg of your choice: spinach, green beans, corn... frozen or fresh it's up to you!)
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • salt + freshly cracked black pepper (+ chili flakes) (to taste)

Third layer:

  • 4 dl oat cream (or any plant-based cooking cream)
  • 150 g grated ( vegan) cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, anything you like, really! )
  • 600 g frozen (mini) rösti potatoes
Notes:
This "recipe" has a lot of wiggle room, and you can totally adjust the components and their amounts to fit your taste and the package sizes around where you live. The point is easy cooking AND crispy rösti potatoes, so feel free to adjust things, I do so too!
For example:
  • The amount of plant-based mince I use varies depending on which brand I've bought. If the package size is on the smaller side, I'll throw in a can of beans to bulk up the dish.
  • Instead of mushrooms, I sometimes use up all kinds of frozen veggies in this casserole: corn, green beans, kale, spinach... They work well in the dish and using frozen veggies obviously saves up some of the prep time, since you can just throw them into the casserole straight out of the freezer.
  • You can use any kind of "cooking cream" available to you, or even swap it to some bechamel sauce. For me it's easy and convenient to just drizzle in oat cream straight out of the package, since I always have it in the fridge. You can also use seasoned cream - something with onions or herbs would really work well here!
  • My preferred tomato product for this casserole is tomato passata, but you can of course also use crushed tomatoes. I've once made the sauce even with double concentrated tomato paste mixed with water! If you're using a seasoned store bought tomato sauce, you might not need to add any seasonings at all.

Instructions

First layer:

  • Pan sear the plant-based mince in olive oil. Chop up the onion and garlic and once the mince has browned, add them and continue to sautee the mixture, until onion turns translucent and soft. Season the mixture to taste with dried thyme, smoked paprika, salt and black pepper.
  • Add in the tomato passata (or tomato sauce) and mix. If you want to add even more protein to the mix, you can add in a can of white beans (or any canned beans, really, just rinse them fist). Spread the mixture at the bottom of a wide casserole.

Second layer:

  • Slice the mushrooms and and brown them well in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Once browned, grate in a few garlic cloves. Keep sauteeing for a few more minutes to cook the garlic - but be careful not to burn it! Season to taste with salt + black pepper, and some chili flakes if you like. Add the mushrooms to the casserole.

Third layer:

  • Drizzle the oat cream on top of the mushrooms and sprinkle on most of the (vegan) cheese. Arrange the rösti potatoes into the casserole.
  • Cook the mini rösti casserole in 225°C oven for about 20 minutes, or until the rösti potatoes are crispy and golden. Sprinkle on the rest of the cheese and return the casserole to the oven until the cheese gets crispy too!

 

What would you layer underneath all those crispy mini rosti potatoes?

tater tot casserole

potato rosti casserolePs. I would totally serve this with a nice green salad, but on the day of the shoot all I had was a handful of parsley. Oh well…

Sunflower seed tofu aka “Sunfu”

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sunflower seed tofu

Soft, softer, sunfu!

My January has been a full on “tofu moon”. First, with these smoked tofu “meatballs”, then with the pumpkin seed tofu aka “pumfu” … And now, with sunflower seed tofu aka “sunfu”!

Sunflower seed tofu is melt in your mouth soft, creamy and luxurious. I honestly have never had tofu this rich before (though not counting in the amazing tofu I’ve had in Japan). Due to the creamy mouthfeel and the soft consistency, I love to use sunflower seed tofu lightly seasoned as is – or served à la hiyayakko (pictured here). It is however also delicious in soups or pan seared untill crispy on the outside, yet velvety in the middle ♥

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soy free tofu recipe

sunflower seed tofu aka Sunfu

How did I end up experimenting with such a thing as sunflower seed tofu? Well, it’s all thanks to YouTube. Last Autumn a video by Mary’s Test Kitchen popped up in my recommended videos, with the topic of pumpkin seed tofu. I was instantly intrigued and finally went ahead and tried the recipe in December! The experiment was so rewarding that the very next day I was already trying out the sunflower seed tofu too.

Traditional tofu made from soy milk needs an added coagulant in order to curdle. For some reason pumpkin seed milk and sunflower seed milk don’t! Heated up to a certain temperature, they’ll curdle themselves, without any additional ingredients. It’s like magic!

I tried to dig up some info on why this happens, and so far no huge luck – except for this article I found on Science Direct. “Rheological and physico-chemical properties of milk gel using isolate of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) seeds: A new source of milk clotting peptidase”. I honestly didn’t read more than the abstract though, most of which flew straight over my head 😀 But, it seems certain peptides in pumpkin seeds are responsible for that wonderful magic trick!

homemade tofu

tofu making

If you already read my report on making pumpkin seed tofu, you’ll pretty much know how to make sunflower seed tofu too:

  1. Soak up the sunflower seeds, rinse and blend with fresh water.
  2. Separate the fibers from the sunflower seed milk, by straining through a cheese cloth or nut milk bag.
  3. Heat up the sunflower seed milk until it curdles. Ladle the curdles in a tofu mold, press… and voila! Sunfu is done.

There are a few little differences to pumfu making however. First of all, you don’t need to soak up the sunflower seeds for as long. 4-5 hours is enough! Secondly, you need to heat up the seed milk to a higher temperature for it to curdle. After reaching the boiling point, the milk will however separate into whey and tofu curds, just like with the pumpkin seed milk. And finally … the consistency is quite different!

sunflower seed tofu

Sunflower seed tofu aka sunfu

Sunflower seed tofu curds are delicate and soft, and they make for a delicate and soft tofu too. Regardless for how long you press it, it will be soft, fatty and creamy. It’s just a matter of how soft. I’m not the biggest fan of sunflower seeds (perhaps because I was eating them A LOT as a kid?), but I almost prefer the sunfu over pumfu, because of that decadent mouthfeel. It’s hard to compare it to something! Maybe a soft cream cheese – or even a ripe avocado?

Because sunfu is so soft, I’ve mainly used it very lightly seasoned and “raw”. I love to top off, garnish and complete other dishes with sunfu! It is wonderful also pan seared, and added into soups at the very last minute. I have tried marinating it too! Lately I’ve been experimenting with vegan spreads based on the sunflower seed tofu – but more on that later! 🙂

Note: The source for the recipe is the wonderful Mary’s Test Kitchen! I highly recommend checking both her website and her YouTube channel out!

Sunflower seed tofu aka "Sunfu"

Sunflower seed tofu aka "Sunfu" is a creamy, soft and delicate homemade one ingredient soy free tofu, which comes together without and added coagulant. It's like magic!
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword tofu, vegan, vegetarian
Prep Time 5 hrs
Resting time: 4 hrs
Total Time 9 hrs
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Equipment

  • blender
  • fine mesh strainer or two, or three
  • cheese cloth / nut milk bag or one of those reusable fruit bags made of the kind of fabric that has tiny holes in it - that's actually what I use!
  • tofupress / mold not obligatory but handy
  • cooking thermometer not obligatory but a nice thing to have if you're a control freak like me
  • slotted spoon

Ingredients
 

  • 300 g raw hulled sunflower seeds
  • water
Notes:
300g sunflower seeds yields about 230g sunfu!

Instructions

Preparations:

  • Soak the sunflower seeds in plenty of fresh water for 4 hours up to overnight. Our indoor temperature is about 19°C so I leave the seeds on the counter, but if you're living in a warmed climate it's best to soak the seeds in the fridge.
  • Rinse the seeds in a fine mesh strainer, letting the excess water to run out. Measure the volume of the soaked seeds and add them into a blender. Add in double of the volume in fresh water. (So: if you end up with 6 dl of soaked seeds, you need 1,2 liters of water)
  • Blend the seeds until you won't feel too much grittiness when you rub the mixture between your fingers. Really break down the seeds well - so when in doubt, keep on blitzing just to be on the safe side. It takes about 2-3 minutes for me! Depending on the size your blender you might need to do this in 2 batches.
  • Rinse and wring dry a cheese cloth or a nut milk bag (or whatever you're using) and set into a big colander/sieve over a large pot. Pour the seed mixture to the pot through the cloth. Once most of the liquid has run through to the pot, it's time to get a workout!
  • Gather the edges of the cheese cloth (or nut milk bag etc.) and start squeezing the fibers to extract all the sunflower seed milk. Keep squeezing until nothing really comes out anymore. The fibers that are left behind should feel sort of dry and kind of like play dough 🙂 Save the fibers, they can be used in bread dough, veggie patties and such.

Sunflower seed tofu:

  • Now you have a pot of sunflower seed milk - let's turn it into sunflower seed tofu!
  • Start heating the milk in a large pot, while calmly scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula to prevent anything from burning. If you own a cooking thermometer, you can use it to better keep track of the temperature. But even if you don't have one, you won't miss out on the moment when the milk suddenly separates into tofu curds and whey! This happens when the milk gets to a boiling point.
  • Keep simmering the milk, whilst very gently stirring the pot, until the whey is no longer milky and your pot is filled with delicate tofu curds. NOTE: be careful of breaking any of the tofu curds. You want them to be as big as possible!
  • Remove the pot from the heat. Line a tofu mold (or a sieve) with a cheese cloth (wash it and wring it dry first). When the tofu curds have cooled off a bit, you can start ladling the curds into the tofu mold / sieve with a slotted spoon. Try to spread them out evenly. In the end you can pour the whey through a fine mesh strainer to catch those remaining tofu curds. Save the whey!
  • Even out the curds a bit if necessary, then fold over the sides of the cheese cloth. If you're using a tofu press, put the lid on and start pressing. Collect the whey from the bottom of the press! It can be used in soups, broths and bread dough!
  • If you're using a sieve, put it in a pot to collect the whey. Add a plate / small chopping block over the tofu and add a weight on top. Leave to press for at least 3-4 hours, or over night in the fridge, depending on the consistency and moisture content you're looking for.
  • Once your tofu has been pressing enough, it's time to get cooking! When sunfu is pressed for a shorter time it stays super soft and moist and I love to add it into salads like this. When pressed for longer, it's easier to pan fry it. I also love to add it to soups, stews and such at the very end - submerged in a hot liquid it turns into this silky soft little treat!

Ps. Upon searching for more info on sunflower seed tofu and pumpkin seed tofu, I came across a recipe for sunflower seed tempeh! Very interesting. Maybe next month will be all about tempeh for me?

sunfu

Pumfu aka pumpkin seed tofu

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pumpkin seed tofu

Home made Pumpkin seed tofu

I’be been really into tofu lately. And not just any tofu, but home made tofu! Aaaaand not just any home made tofu… but pumpkin seed tofu aka pumfu! This pale green, creamy and luxurious one ingredient tofu is packed with protein, and comes together without any added coagulant. All you need to do is heat some homemade pumpkin seed milk, and suddenly you’ve got a pot full of pumpkin seed tofu curds + some delicious whey. It really is just like magic! If you’re as much into tofu and cooking experiments as I am, this is your recipe.

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pumpkin seed tofu

pumfu

Pumfu

I discovered pumpkin seed tofu (or “pumfu” – short for pumpkin seed tofu) thanks to something I usually consider an enemy: the algorithm! The recipe popped up in my list of suggested YouTube videos in Autumn, and I was instantly intrigued. The channel in question is Mary’s Test Kitchen, and the recipe can also be found on her website. It took me a while to finally try out homemade pumpkin seed tofu, but once I did it was literally love at first bite!

Pumpkin seed tofu is not only absolutely delicious, but also a source of protein for vegetarians and vegans who have soy or nut allergy. As far as I’m aware, pumpkin seed allergy is a super rare case 🙂 But I really would serve it to anyone, regardless of their dietary needs. There something about homemade tofu that just makes it so special! And when it comes to homemade tofu, pumfu is a relatively easy one. Dont’ get me wrong though, it does require multiple steps and some time – I would not make it a part of our everyday meal! And you’ll end up with a pile of dishes to clean, too…

Special occasion tofu

So: pumfu is very much a special occasion tofu in my books. There’s apparently a store bought version of pumfu in the US – but it seems to be a bit pricey, and I have no idea how widely available it is. Definitely more available than in Finland though, that’s for sure!

pumfu recipe Step 1: soak some pumpkin seeds and blend them well.

Our daily pumfu

My infatuation with the magical process of homemade pumpkin seed tofu has been so intense, that regardless of those piles of dishes and the time and effort required, at some point we were eating pumfu almost daily. The process is simple:

  1. Soak pumpkin seeds overnight
  2. Rinse, measure, and blend with double the volume of water.
  3. Extract the pumpkin seed milk by sieving the blended seeds through a nut milk bag
  4. Heat the pumpkin seed milk and watch the magic happen!
  5. Ladle the tofu curds into a tofu mold, press, and wait…
  6. …aaaaand a block of pumfu is ready for whatever cooking shenenigans you can think of!

Even though there’s no specific equipment needed to make pumfu, I eventually even ended up purchasing a tofu press / mold, to make my blocks of tofu actual blocks instead of blobs.

How to use pumpkin seed tofu?

I’ve been using pumpkin seed tofu mainly in dishes that aren’t too spicy or strong in flavor. I don’t want the delicate aroma of pumfu to be lost in the dish! Pumfu is yummy “raw” – simply seasoned with some salt and pepper, or lightly marinated. I like to add it to salads this way! But it’s also delicious pan seared – it crisps up well and has a wonderful contrast between the crispy edges and the soft interios. I also love to simmer it in sauces and soups. The creamy texture becomes super silky that way!

I’ve been storing my pumpkin seed tofu without submerging it in whey/water, as Mary suggests, and the longest it’s kept has been about four days. I suppose it might last longer too though? I have yet to try freezing pumfu, but I’d imagine there should be no problem in that. If you’ve got some experience on that, do let me know!

pumpkin seed tofu recipeStep 2: Squeeze out all the pumpkin seed milk! You’ll get an awesome forearm workout + a batch of pumpkin seed fibers, which can be used in breads, veggie patties and such.

pumpkin seed tofuStep 3: Heat the pumpkin seed milk and watch the magic happen! Suddenly you’ve got tofu curds, which you can then ladle in to a tofu press (or a sieve lined up with a cheese cloth).

pumfu tofuStep 4: Press the pumfu for a couple of hours or over night, then reveal the beauty! I mean LOOK AT THAT COLOUR!homemade tofu recipeStep 5: Get cooking! And don’t forget to also use the whey. It goes well into bread dough, soups, stews…

Project pumpkin seed tofu

Pumpkin seed tofu has been such a fun and rewarding process for me, that I warmly recommend it to everyone who’s into tofu and experimental cooking. Be warned though: the recipe is obviously a labor of love! You’ll have a pile of dishes to deal with in the end, and the workout you’ll get from squeezing out the pumpkin seed milk is real! But unless you’re doing it daily and in super large amounts, it’s kind of fun, too. And like it or not, it’s actually the part of the process that has to be done well. Otherwise, your milk won’t be thick and creamy enough to turn into pumfu!

For a project that can take up to 24 hours, pumfu will likely not become a permanent feature for our everyday meals. But the weather really is awful in Helsinki these days… So I might as well stay indoors and whip up a batch of pumfu after another, until it’s finally Spring 😀

Psssst! In case you skipped to the recipe, note that the source for it is Mary’s Test Kitchen! Below I’m explaining the process as I do it and in my own words. I highly recommend you to watch Mary’s video on YouTube for added visuals of the process however!

Pumpkin seed tofu aka pumfu

Pumpkin seed tofu is a pale green, creamy and yummy homemade one ingredient tofu, which comes together without and added coagulant. It's like magic!
Diet Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword tofu, vegan, vegetarian
Prep Time 12 hrs
4 hrs
Total Time 16 hrs
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Equipment

  • blender
  • fine mesh strainer or two, or three
  • cheese cloth / nut milk bag or one of those reusable fruit bags made of the kind of fabric that has tiny holes in it - that's actually what I use!
  • tofupress / mold not obligatory but handy
  • cooking thermometer not obligatory but a nice thing to have if you're a control freak like me
  • slotted spoon

Ingredients
 

  • 300 g raw hulled pumpkin seeds
  • water
Notes:
300g pumpkin seeds yields about 200g pumfu, plus a few dl of fibers and about 7-8 dl of whey.

Instructions

Prep:

  • Soak the pumpkin seeds in plenty of fresh water for 10 hours or overnight. Our indoor temperature is about 19°C so I leave the seeds on the counter, but if you're living in a warmed climate it's best to soak the seeds in the fridge.
  • Rinse the seeds in a fine mesh strainer, letting the excess water to run out. Measure the volume of the soaked seeds and add them into a blender. Add in double of the volume in fresh water. (So: if you end up with 5 dl of soaked seeds, you need a liter of water)
  • Blend the seeds until you won't feel too much grittiness between your fingers, if you rub the mixture between your fingers. It's super important to get really break down the seeds well so when in doubt, keep on blitzing just to be on the safe side. Depending on your blender you might need to do this in 2 batches. I do this in one batch and since my blender isn't super powerful it takes about 2-3 minutes to really break down the seeds.
  • Rinse and wring dry a cheese cloth or the nut milk bag (or whatever you're using) and set into a big colander/sieve, set over a large pot. Pour the seed mixture to the pot through the cloth. Once most of the liquid has run through to the pot, it's time to get a workout!
  • Gather the edges of the cheese cloth / nut milk bag etc and start squeezing the fibers to extract all the pumpkin seed milk out of them. Keep squeezing until nothing really comes out anymore. The fibers that are left behind should feel sort of dry and kind of like play dough 🙂 Save the fibers, they can be used in bread dough, veggie patties and such.

Pumpkin seed tofu:

  • Now you have a pot of pumpkin seed milk - let's turn it into pumpkin seed tofu!
  • Start heating the milk in a large pot, while constantly calmly scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula to prevent anything from burning. If you own a cooking thermometer, you can put it into the pot to better keep track of the temperature. But even if you don't have one, you won't miss out on the moment when the milk suddenly separates into tofu curds and whey! This happens when the temperature is about 65-70 °C (150-160°F).
  • Keep heating whilst very gently stirring the pot, until you reach 82°C (180°F) and the whey is turning kind of clear. NOTE: while you stir, be careful of breaking any of the tofu curds. You want them to be as big as possible!
  • Remove the pot from the heat and while you wait for it to cool off a bit, line a tofu mold (or a sieve) with a cheese cloth (wash it and wring it dry first). When the tofu curds and whey are not boiling hot anymore, you can start ladling the tofu curds into the tofu mold / sieve with a slotted spoon. Try to spread them out evenly. In the end you can pour the whey through a fine mesh strainer to catch those remaining tofu curds. Save the whey!
  • Even out the curds a bit if necessary, then fold over the sides of the cheese cloth. If you're using a tofu press, put the lid on and start pressing. Collect the whey from the bottom of the press! If you're using a sieve, put it in a pot to collect the whey. Put a plate / small chopping block over the tofu and add a weight on top. Leave to press for at least 3-4 hours, or over night in the fridge, depending on the consistency and moisture content you're looking for.
  • Once your tofu has been pressed enough, it's time to get cooking! When it's pressed for less time it stays moist and soft, and is wonderful in salads. You can season it with just some salt and pepper, or soak it in a marinade. When you press it for longer, you can crisp it up by pan searing it (or air frying, like Mary suggests). I also love to add it to soups, stews and such, where it gets this incredibly silky consistency.
By the way…

There’s a step In the original recipe by Mary’s Test Kitchen which I’ve left out. I haven’t removed the starches from the milk, like Mary suggests! Why? Because I forgot. When the result was so good the first time, I haven’t bothered with the step later either. I don’t know how it would change the result, but I’ll try it next time so I can fill you in, too! I do however have an experience with the starches in another context… Some were clearly mixed into the whey. After a few days in the fridge, the starches settled at the bottom of the why bottle, and they did NOT want to budge after that! So be warned! I had to actually throw that bottle out in the end…

soy free tofu

pumfu recipe

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