Vegan Indonesian Satay, grilled tofu skewers in a sweet, spiced marinade served with a peanut sauce. Perfect vegan satay.
Satay or Sate is one of Indonesia’s national dishes. Traditionally made with meat. Our fully vegan satay uses tofu and shows you don’t need meat to have a tasty Satay.
As with our other Indonesian recipes, kecap manis is a key ingredient and in this recipe, shouldn’t be substituted. Kecap Manis is a sweet syrupy soy sauce made with palm sugar. It gives the marinade a delicious savoury sweetness.
The tofu satay skewers are served with a peanut sauce. We use the same peanut sauce that we served with our Gado Gado recipe.
Cooking Tofu Satay
We find the easiest way for a quick meal is to cook Satay under a grill (broiler) indoors. Cooking them outdoors on a BBQ or outdoor grill is also great when you have a bit more time. Cooking them over charcoals gives the tofu a wonderful smokiness that’s delicious. If cooking outdoors the recipe remains the same make sure to turn the skewers regularly and keep brushing on the marinade to get a better flavour.
When using skewers under a grill (broiler) or on a BBQ it’s best to use metal ones. If you only have wooden skewers make sure to soak them in water for at least an hour beforehand. This will help to make sure that they don’t burn.
Vegan Indonesian Satay
Ingredients
- 600 g tofu pressed
- 4 tablespoons kecap manis
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ cucumber thinly sliced
- ½ red onion thinly sliced
- 1 red chilli finely diced
- 1 spring onion finely slices
- 1 lime
- 1 portion of Gado Gado sauce
Instructions
- Prepare the tofu. Make sure it has been pressed for at least 10 minutes to remove excess water. Once pressed, cut into large cubes about 2cm in size.
- In a flat bottomed container, big enough to hold all the tofu, mix all the ingredients for the marinade. 4 tablespoons kecap manis, 1 teaspoon grated ginger, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon white pepper, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. If the marinade is too thick to cover the tofu it can be thinned out with a splash of water.
- Place the tofu in the marinade and coat all sides. Put in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes, turning halfway.
- Preheat a grill (broiler) to medium-high temperature.
- Using metal skewers, divide the tofu between 4 of them. Don’t discard any remaining marinade.
- Place the skewers on a baking tray lined with a wire rack and place them under the grill to cook.
- Every 3 to 5 minutes remove them and brush over some of the remaining marinade, turning them each time.
- Keep doing this until they are crispy and charred at the edges.
- Remove from the grill and serve with the sliced vegetables and a generous portion of Gado Gado sauce from our Gado Gado recipe.
