Like most vegans, I’m often asked what I foods I “miss” the most – and to be frank with you, it’s a hard question to answer purely because I genuinely don’t find the taste of most animal products appealing. I’ve even been known to stop eating mock meat products like sausages or chick’n strips halfway through a meal because it reminded me too much of the “real” thing.
That said if push came to shove I guess I could identify two things that I kind of maybe sort of miss recall fondly; the first is the flavour sensation of seafood. This makes a fair amount of sense since prior to going vegan, seafood was the one form of animal protein I still consumed semi-regularly and enjoyed having. Nowadays, however, I have no desire to dig into a fillet of grilled fish – but surprisingly I do miss that “fishy” flavour from time to time. Luckily for me, that is easily remedied by a seaweed salad, a miso soup, nori rolls (and a host of other menu items from my favourite Japanese restaurant).
The second thing would have to be Halloumi cheese – hands down. For those of you not in the know, Halloumi is a dense, salty, chewy white cheese usually made from sheep’s or goat’s milk. Usually served grilled or fried as a mezze or appetiser, it features heavily in Levantine cuisine and is also widely popular in countries like Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. It’s also delicious.
Halloumi was really my one weakness – even when I was dairy free for a year before going vegan, I still caved and bought the occasional block every now and again. I have of course tried to recreate a vegan version with varying rates of success over the years – but something was always off, the texture and consistency were never quite right. That is, until I discovered the wonder that is waffle-iron tofu.
Vegan Tofu Halloumi
Ingredients
- Half a block of extra firm tofu organic and non-GMO is best
- 1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1-2 tsp of sea salt adjust to your preference as needed
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp dried mint
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Start by draining and pressing your tofu – wrap it in a clean cloth and place a heavy book on top for about 15 minutes. When done, slice your half block into strips 6-8 strips, not too thin and not too thick – somewhere in the middle. Set aside.
- Mix up your magical marinade by combining the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Note that you want the marinade to be a thicker consistency rather than watery – so adjust liquid amounts accordingly.
- Now we rub! In a shallow dish, lay out the tofu strips and pour over a little marinade on each strip before using your fingers to rub it in on both sides. This is the trick to really infusing the flavour in a short amount of time. Pour on any additional marinade left over and leave the tofu to rest for 30 minutes. For best results, I'd suggest marinating overnight.
- In the interim heat up your waffle iron – if you don’t have one you can substitute a panini-style or George Foreman grill.
- Grill tofu for 5 minutes or so in your waffle iron/grill until golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside.
- Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, chopped fresh mint, olives and tomatoes.
If you find yourself without a waffle iron or grill, you can of course, use a regular pan with a sturdy spatula and some elbow grease. If you’re using a pan you may have to grease it with some olive oil to avoid sticking – use a spatula to press down the tofu as it’s grilling on both sides to achieve the desired texture.
That said, this really works best if you have some sort of grill apparatus that closes on itself. I mean, just look at those crisped edges.
Tofumi? Hallofu? Whatever you want to call it, it is a life changing, salty, chewy and mint infused cheesy waffle-ironed wonder. Not to mention full of protein, and of course cruelty-free to boot.
Enjoy dear readers, until next time!
i can’t wait to try this! halloumi is near the top of my listfo things i “miss” most!
Can’t wait to try this! Halloumi is delicious and sometimes I do order it even though I don’t eat dairy. Thanks Nada!
I am so making this. Thank you from a trying-to-be-completely dairy free fellow Muslim sister : )
This turned out very well, great texture and flavor. Your recipe, however would be well-served to specify the slice thickness in millimeters or inches. For us left brainers!
Hi Steve! Thanks for the feedback I will measure and update the recipe accordingly.
Steve… cut the half block in half, you now have 2 pieces, then cut each half in half, you now have 4 pieces, then cut each of these in half, you now have 8 pieces as suggested. Or you could cut each half into thirds and you’d have 6 pieces.
Hi, your recipe sounds very good but I don’t know how large a block of tofu is where you live. Here in Sweden we have different size blocks.
I came across your website and this looks SO GOOD!! Can’t wait to try it. It also looks pretty easy to make. Thanks for sharing!
Totally gonna try this.
Don’t suppose it squeaks too..??
It actually kind of does! Not as much as the real deal though.
I have never understood why anyone can enjoy halloumi, plus, when, over the years Events I have cooked for have had this on the menu it is a bugger to cook en masse when it is on a canape. To my horror my wife is now lactose intolerant due to an illness. I have to be careful what and how I cook food, unfortunately she is also intolerant to Soya so I won’t have to concoct the above. I admire your want to create food that resembles things that you liked before you became vegans But you should be designing new foods for Vegans rather than lingering on food items that you abhor., No! Or am I missing something here?
To Nada’s credit, she has said previously that she doesn’t really go for copycat vegan food but this item is the one exception. She is I think incredibly inventive on the whole. Whilst I agree with you in principle unless you’re born vegan, there is always going to be some taste that you miss
I became vegan 6 years ago not because I abhor the taste of meat, cheese or eggs. But because I abhor avoidable cruelty and exploitation.
Mock-cheese is no different to faux fur (all the beauty and warmth of an animal pelt, without any of the suffering. Likewise, all the flavour and protein of halloumi without any of the artificial insemination, infant removal, captivity, manipulation and slaughter).
P.S. for what’s it’s worth, I wouldn’t consider this a cheese substitute, in any case, because it stands alone as an excellent way to prepare tofu. Semantics aside, really great recipe, very delicious and moreish. Thank you for sharing the idea, Nada xxx
Exactly, very well said
I think the magic of going plant-based is discovering new tastes and experimenting, so you are absolutely right on that count. That being said, we all have our comfort foods and, while we can’t necessarily replace them exactly, getting close can really help make the lifestyle more sustainable and enjoyable. Judging from the comments, Halloumi counts as a comfort food for other people besides me, so I join them in saying Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words Karoline!
“I am so making this”
Please explain what that means?
And also “ Totally gonna try this” ?
Yay, I have a waffle iron (Northern European style, with lots of fairly small texture)! And a sandwich grill too.
I’m also struggling with the size of a “block” – in Europe tofu is usually sold in large blocks of about 500 g or 1 lb, and in smaller ones of about 250-320 g. Maybe I’ll just try something.
You are honestly persuading me to get a waffle iron and I’ve always been against getting more kitchen implements post-Vitamix, (in the UK here everyone had a Breville for decades.. collecting dust!). Brilliant recipes, Nada, thanks!
Hello! I’m across the sea in Qatar and finding it virtually impossible to find Nutritional Yeast. My question is do you have the same issue over in Bahrain? Do you order in your nutritional yeast? Any help / tips are much appreciated 🙂
Hi Nicola! We have Nutritional Yeast readily available in Bahrain actually. You can order it in Qatar from a website called Desert Vegan – have a look http://www.desertvegan.com. Hope that helps!
Hi Nada
Thanks for this recipe. I just tried it and turned out pretty well. I will be making more 🙂 I’m wondering if there’s a way to prepare and reheat these later. It’d be really handy for me to be able to make a block or twos worth, to eat over a period of a week or two. Have you any experience or advice in this respect?
Hello Sam! Thanks for updating me, I’m glad you liked the recipe. With regards to making it in advance and re-heating, I have not had experience with doing so, I can’t imagine it would be especially disastrous but I’m sure making it fresh would taste better. If you do try it out let me know!
Oh wow! I have been meaning for ages to look for a vegan halloumi substitute – glad to see I’m not the only one who finds that their one weak spot!! Very excited to give this a try, thanks Nada
You are so welcome Nadine! Hope you love it as much as I do.
Hi Nada, I’m new to your site and I’m happy I stumbled upon it. I made this tonight and it was very tasty. Wonderful texture, too. Thank you for the recipe.
This is brilliant, thank you so much – I love halloumi and definitely something I miss too!! I LOVE LOVE your blog by the way, so happy I came across it!! 🙂
Hi Sunny! Thank you for the sweet words, hope you enjoy the Halloumi 🙂
Thanks for the recipe….it turned out very tasty…but made a mess of my waffle press. It has a no stick finish, nut the nooch seemed to stick. Next time I will spray with cooking oil
Hello Mims, yes it does stick a little bit but I’ve found that cleaning straight away with some warm water and a soft sponge does the trick.
Hah 😀
I would love to hear a comment from a Japanese person, – making cheese out of tofu! Not the most traditional way of using tofu…
Anyway, heck, I will be trying this anyway. Looks amazing.
I’m frying this right now, but I realized that I used tbsp everywhere and no tsp at all, because I didn’t read the recipe properly (and English is not my native language)… So, I have too much mint and salt now. I really hope it will work anyway! But it smells mint in the whole apartment xD Wish me luck!
Well, it tasted awful. Tasted like mint with salt. Don’t repeat my mistake! Now I’ve put the tofu in some water and hoping for it to be edible…
Hi Katarina – oh no! I hope you try it again with the adjusted amounts. Don’t worry, it happens to me all the time too.
I will absolutely try it again! But I wonder now, hos much is “half a block tofu” in grams? I’m not sure we have the same tofu block sizes here in Sweden as where you are. Because now when I think of the right amounts of mint and salt even that sounds much compared to how awful it tasted with three times as much (1 tbsp is 3 tsp, if I’m not mistaken). So how many grams tofu is this marinade for?
The tofu blocks I use are 12oz which means 340 grams – so half of that would be 170 I believe. Hope that helps!
I am so excited to have found this recipe! I use to eat Halloumi all the time while living in London, but then when I moved back to Mexico I was faced with the horrible reality of not eating it anymore 🙁 needless to say as I transition into veganism, this is definitely going to be on my “favorite recipes” list.
What kind of waffel iron did you use?
This looks great by the way 🙂
So excited to try this recipe! I happen to be pretty fond of tofu, so this should be perfect 🙂
Thanks, Nada. I’m loving your blog!
I’m new to vegan cooking and usually get things wrong when I trail something new.. But I must say this was gorgeous! So simple to make and so much like the real thing in terms of texture, and I love the flavour! It’s so disheartening to make something that you are about to serve up to someone who has reservations about vegan food when it doesn’t turn out very well. but this was perfect I’ll be making it again VERY soon! 🙂
I made this tonight and it was good, as someone who struggles to find tofu recipes that actually taste of anything, I’ll definitely make this again, thank you.
You’re a Goddess and the waffle iron – Halloumi is amazing! Thank you!
What do you think about using a sandwich press for this?
I think a sandwich press could definitely work!
This is brilliant! No squeak, but tasty!
Between this and your pumpkin kibbeh, I’m in heaven! Two foods I have missed so much! Thank you, and so thrilled to discover your awesome site!!
Thanks for the fabulous recipe! I will be making this one on the regular!!
I just tried this recipe, and the texture was amazing! So, then I tried it with an Asian-inspired marinade, and it was equally awesome. Thank you for giving me another way to make tofu that is so easy! Now, it is just a matter of trying different marinades for different nuanced flavors. My husband loved this.
Thank you Inga! So glad to hear you enjoyed it.Tofu is really great once you learn how to flavour and cook it.
This!!! Thank you for the wonderful recipe! I also miss halloumi and am excited to try this.
Trying this recipe, currently have tofu marinating overnight and aroma of the rub is magnificent.
Hope you loved it, Cher!
Thank you SO MUCH for this amazing recipe. I have been missing halloumi so much and I made this today on an otherwise rarely used panini grill and it was fantastic! I doubled the recipe so I would have leftovers and am looking forward to eating it tomorrow with some tomatoes and baba ganoush.
Thank you! This is really good! I don’t have a waffle iron or sandwich press, so I put it in my grill pan and then pressed down on the tofu with a heavy cast iron pan. Shortly, I am posting a non-vegan salad with Halloumi in it on my own site but I will refer vegan readers to your site for this vegan version!
Thanks for the inspiration Nada! We tried it this evening and love it! 🙂
You’re a fantastic cook.
This tofu halloumi recipe is a staple in our household now. Just fantastic! Thanks for bringing the flavours of hallooumi back into my life!
oh my girl! Genius ness! and heavenly thank you <3
Hi Nada, Thanks for sharing your recipe! I’m super excited to try this (and I love the creative use of the waffle iron 🙂 ). I’m thinking this could be an awesome side with butternut squash and dukkah for virtual American Thanksgiving in a couple weeks. I want to make sure though, that I understand the measurements. I see tsp, tbs, and tbsp. Tsp = teaspoon? Are the other two (tbs and tbsp) both tablespoon?
Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth – yes that’s correct! TSP is teaspoon, and TBSP is tablespoon – hope you enjoy the recipe!
Thanks so much for the reply! Is Tbs also tablespoon? Just want to make sure I”m not over-minting 🙂
Uncanny! This was incredible. I never once thought I would taste a great vegan halloumi, but here I am licking my fingers.
This was excellent! I used fresh mint in the marinade and sprayed my waffle maker with spray oil and cleanup was easy. The technique provides inspiration for other types of marinated tofu and I’m betting the marinade in the recipe could be made into a really good dressing.
Incredible! 250 grams block of firm tofu and two tablespoons (were indicated 1-2 tbsp) was just right.. Used a grill pan and a press to help with the searing. Will definitely make this again
I just made this & it’s awesome! I cooked it in my mini waffle maker & it turned out perfectly. A slight crunch on the outside & smooth on the inside.
This is going to be one of my regular recipes
I’m so glad to hear that Donna! This is definitely one of my personal favourite ways to make tofu.
I made this and am blown away! Exactly as I remember haloumi from my pre-vegan days many years ago. I don’t have a waffle maker so used a ridged griddle pan and it came out really well without having to press down on it. Salty and squeaky! Delicious with a blob of caramelised red onion relish. Thank you X