BBQ Tofu Sandwiches with Slaw and Beer-Battered Onion Rings

Friday, November 15

BBQ Tofu Sandwiches with Slaw and Onion Rings

Rating: 4

Let the weekend of unhealthy eating begin! I had some cabbage in the fridge and needed to use it. Despite my best efforts with meal planning, sometimes our plans change at the last minute and I end up postponing meals or changing out side dishes. That’s what happened with the cabbage. Thankfully, it keeps for a pretty long time in the fridge. We used to love the Gardein BBQ shreds, but for some reason, no stores around here carry it anymore, so now when we want BBQ & slaw, we generally use tofu. Sometimes I make my own BBQ sauce, it’s pretty easy, but I had some Organicville in the fridge, so I went that route instead. This is one of the easiest ways to make tofu in the world. We like it sliced thin for sandwiches like this, so I cut it in half across the width of it, and then cut each half into eight, thin slices. They never come out exactly even, but close enough. I laid them out on a large baking sheet, poured the BBQ sauce on them (generously) and then flipped them over to coat both sides, and poured more sauce on top. I let them sit for a little bit while the oven heated up, then cooked them for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees, flipping them over after about 20 minutes. I made the slaw ahead of time and I don’t really use a recipe anymore, I just sort of eyeball it. The recipe my free-form version is based on is from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. I like a little snap to my slaw, so I thinly slice some onion and toss that in, too. I use a mandolin to slice the cabbage and onion super thin and it’s perfect for slaw. Also, it’s cheaper than buying the pre-shredded mix. For the sandwiches, we had some homemade buns in the freezer, so we thawed and toasted a couple of those, then put about 3-4 slices of tofu on each and topped them with some slaw. Seth made the onion rings, because he is the master of beer batter. I didn’t feel like making the baked ones we usually have and Seth got weirded out by the unhealthy ingredients list in the frozen ones he found at the grocery store, so he decided to just buy an onion and make his own. We don’t like to deep fry much at home because it makes an unholy mess, and it’s not really the best thing for you, right? But, we did it anyway. He made the batter out of flour, beer, paprika, salt, pepper & Italian seasoning. We kept them warm in the toaster oven and fried them in batches, so they all got nice and crispy. I had some chipotle aioli in the fridge for dipping them in, which was really good.