Every so often I crave Japanese food. I spent 2 years living and working in Japan, which was an amazing and life-changing experience. Nowadays I’m vegan though. which often makes buying Japanese food a challenge.
One of the main things I’ve been craving over the past year has been Takoyaki – Fried octopus balls.
I looked online and found a few recipes with vegan substitutes, which would make this doable, but wasn’t sure how those substitutes would affect the overall end result – appearance, textures and taste.
I decided to go with Konnyaku as my octopus substitute. I was also able to get plant-based kewpie brand mayonnaise, which massively helped to give an authentic flavour, and mixed up some takoyaki sauce using a combination of vegan oyster sauce, ketchup and soy sauce. I bought a takoyaki tray to make them in on my gas hob, which as a bonus should also double up as a poffertje tray.
The final touch was a sprinkling of vegan furikake seasoning.
They tasted excellent! ^_^