An Easy Vegan Shish Taouk Recipe - Broiled Tofu for Donairs!
Good vegan donairs are the best! One Lebanese item I used to love was donairs with grilled shish tawook (grilled chicken skewers). The way it was marinated in those flavors and slightly charred on the grill was absolutely mouth-watering.
Finally, I decided to recreate Lebanese grilled chicken shish tawook using tofu to make it vegan! My goal is to create the best possible vegan donairs!
Now my number one tip when creating any chicken substitute using tofu is to follow these 3 key steps:
Buy Firm Tofu
Freeze and thaw your tofu and least once.
Marinate your tofu chunks in pineapple and soy marinade beforehand.
All the tips I discussed above are explained in further depth in this video below by Edgy Veg.
Definitely check it out for some life-changing tofu chicken tips!
After preparing your tofu according to the video above, it’s time to marinate your tofu chicken in the shish tawook spices.
I found a regular chicken shish tawook marinade and veganized it!
How to make vegan shish tawook (taouk) with tofu.
Here is the list of ingredients for shish tawook marinade:
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
4-5 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup plain vegan yogurt (I found Daiya’s Plain Greek Yogurt Perfect for this)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
a dash of cinnamon
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions for cooking vegan shish tawook (taouk) with tofu:
Mix all the sauce ingredients very well.
Take your previously frozen, thawed, marinated, and drained medium-firm and mix the tofu chunks very well into the sauce.
Allow the tofu to marinate for at least 4 hours. Overnight is best!
Set your oven to broil mode and cook the tofu for 5-7 minutes. Definitely check in on your tofu around 4-5 minutes to see how much broiled/burnt goodness is showing up along your tofu shish tawook.
Enjoy!
If you’re wondering how to make a killer vegan donair with your grilled shish tawook, here is what I recommend:
Use a large pita, whole wheat, or regular.
Add shredded romaine or iceberg lettuce.
Chopped tomato slices
Finely chopped parsley
Finely sliced red onion
Drizzle olive oil over all your veggies
Add in your grilled vegan chicken shish taouk (tawook)
Top with either vegan garlic mayonnaise, hummus, or tahini sauce.
Optionally, add in some crunchy pickle slices and hot sauce!
Can you broil tofu?
I especially love this dish because of the charred texture the tofu has. It reminds me of freshly grilled chicken shish tawook kebabs! So yes, it turns out broiled tofu is delicious and possible!
With tofu, as it doesn’t actually need to ‘cook’ the same as meat or vegetables do, you want to make the tofu pieces are warm enough for you and have the correct texture you are aiming for. The only real risk with trying to broil tofu would be over-broiling them.
This is why when you broil tofu; I’d recommend not having your oven temperature as high as it usually is recommended for broiling meat. I kept my broil at about 450 F.
So how do you broil tofu?
Each oven works a bit differently. For me, I turned the settings to broil and just put the heat to over 450 F. I made sure the wrack was right below my broiler.
I put all the marinated shish tawook tofu on a parchment paper-lined baking tray, as it would be quite messy to clean otherwise!
Once the oven was fully pre-heated, I popped my tofu shish tawook in and checked on it for 4 minutes.
I wanted a bit more char on the corners of my tofu shish tawook pieces, so I kept them in there for another 2 minutes, minutes total.
They turned out perfectly! Not too burnt/charred at all, just the right amount to give it that extra ‘grilled’ flavor.
What does shish tawook mean?
‘Shish’, means skewers, while ‘tawook’ means chicken! Therefore it means skewered chicken! For this recipe, I was feeling lazy and did not feel like skewering my tofu chunks. If you are up to it, definitely go for it!
Is Vegan shish tawook healthy?
Shish tawook made with tofu is so healthy! I love this recipe because nothing is fried, and it uses a plethora of spices.
This vegan version is also dairy-free, so anyone can enjoy it without getting an upset stomach.
Tofu is high in protein and very low in fat. Tofu shish tawook is an incredible chicken substitute for people needing to lower their fat intake.
Where is shish tawook from?
This dish is Lebanese, so it is from Lebanon. However, other middle eastern countries have it, such as Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, and Israel! The more you know.
