vegan fish recipes – The Spicy Spatula

I don’t know about you, my fellow vegans, but when I first went vegan I found it easier to just stick to a whole food, plant based diet. I was worried that eating too many vegan alternatives would make it harder to stick to this new way of life. It helped that 4 years ago there were not as many options as there are in 2021. Back then, there was tofu, vegan sausages and various breaded vegan chicken options and if we’re being honest, they were nothing to write home about.

In short, they were easy to pass on in favor of big fat veggie filled Buddha bowls.

These days? Not so much

Okay well, there are much better options. Beyond Burger, I’m talking to you! But, as a lover of food, I knew that I would have to venture outside of my comfort zone to test out all the vegan food options for loyal readers and foodies like you.

So when I happened upon this vegan salmon by Lord of Tofu, I knew I had to try it. Well, the truth is that I knew my husband would want to try it because he loved the vegan lox we got from the same maker.

Anyhoo…here we are.

Since we’ve been going pretty steadily on our Midnight Tokyo Diner thing, the hubs requested this meal. Lemon broccoli pasta with vegan salmon and that’s what I gave him.

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Before I tell you about these vegan fish sticks, I want to share something. My British friends find it hilarious that Americans call it chicken fingers instead of chicken strips because, duh, chickens don’t have fingers. Which we all know and that’s probably what makes them so palatable. But my American friends (me too, when I first heard it) think it’s funny–for the exact same reason–that they call it fish fingers instead of fish sticks.

But when I point it out, I’m the nerd.

Anyway on to these delicious vegan fish sticks we tried out recently by Vantastic. I’m not getting paid by them, by the way. This was just the brand we chose to try because we were familiar with them from our time in Germany.

These were good for what they were, which is fried fish-scented tofu. Because I knew this would be a one and done (but if you’re interested it’s calorie friendly at 62 calories per stick), I was able to enjoy it with the nostalgia of my seven year old self, who loved fish sticks and fries with lots and lots of ketchup.

But we’re grown ups now so we fancy it up…sort of. Mostly, we had baked sweet potato fries.

The sticks were seasoned as much as you really can season something that’s pre-cooked but since we popped them in the oven, they were tossed with salt, pepper, garlic granules and smoky paprika. It helped, but not as much as the ketchup! The fries were also tossed in a spice blend with a little bit of oil and put in the oven for about 30 minutes, which I loved about this meal, it was super low key.

No muss.

No fuss.

This isn’t meant to be gourmet vegan food and that’s all right, it was a reminder of how much I loved them as a kid. I almost certainly wouldn’t buy these again but if you’re interested they are calorie and wallet friendly.

It’s not pictured but I’m pretty sure I ‘paired’ this with an ice cold dark beer.

My husband convinced me not to take any photos after I “slathered” it with ketchup, which I totally didn’t do. I created a little pile of my hot ketchup & Sriracha blend to one side and dipped the fries & sticks into it. Respectfully. Not at all like a feral child.