Homemade and sizzled to crispy, golden perfection, this vegan sesame prawn toast recipe is even better than its more traditional counterpart!

Prawn toast always used to be one of the first things we ordered when getting a Chinese takeaway.  Even though they could sometimes be very hit and miss – ranging from overly greasy to dull and tasteless – there was something about the promise of those crispy little triangles that kept us coming back for more.

And while there really are very very few things I miss as a vegan, sesame prawn toast was definitely one of them.  Not any more!  But I am going to have to ration when I make them because every time I have so far I pretty much inhale 10 triangles before I’ve even given it a thought!

They’re also not as difficult to make as you might imagine and they don’t require much time or effort at all.

How to veganise this Chinese takeout classic:

Firstly, I wanted to give the paste a bit of texture but make sure it had enough ‘body’ to it to actually make a paste and stick to the bread during frying.  I thought about just using tofu or just using mushrooms for the paste but decided that a combination of the two might work.  And boy does it work.  It spreads and sticks like a dream and doesn’t fall off the bread when you’re frying them.

Start by sauteeing the mushrooms and garlic in a little sesame oil then add to a food processor with the remaining ingredients.

Now you might be wondering how you get that fishy flavour without any actual fish – if you’ve not heard of them then welcome to the wonderful thing that is nori sheets.  They’re paper thin toasted sheets of seaweed and are most commonly used when making sushi.  They’re even made using a process that resembles papermaking!  But they give a lovely subtle fishy flavour and open up a whole new culinary world of possibility!

Once you’ve made the ‘prawn’ mix it will keep in the fridge for a few days in a sealed container.  Feel free to add more nori to the mix (I used just 2) for a stronger flavour.

Now for the unhealthy bit – there’s no getting round the fact that these are fried.  And I really recommend using white bread for that truly ‘authentic’ prawn toast chinese takeaway vibe!  😀

It’s also a great way to use up any leftover or starting to go stale bread.

Is there anything you miss as a vegan?   We live in a better time of it being so much more mainstream than even, say, 5 years ago.  Supermarkets have whole sections dedicated to the vegan hungries.  And I’ve genuinely not found anything that doesn’t actually taste better vegan.  I’m particularly looking at you here Vegan Jaffa Cakes.  And these prawn toasts can be added to that list.  Let me know if there’s anything you’ve found (or can’t actually find) that hasn’t yet been made or done better as vegan.

Meanwhile, I’ll just be over here gently sizzling then inhaling a few more prawn toast triangles.

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