Tofu and Avocado Vegan Rissoles Recipe

Tasty vegan picnic pastries the whole family will love

These delicious vegan rissoles are proof positive that great food doesn’t need complicated recipes with hundreds of ingredients. Just flaky shortcrust pastry with a simple vegan filling, you can whip up a batch in minutes. Tofu and Avocado rissoles are sooooo irresistibly tasty and are far easier to make than to share, but they do make great party finger-food. Make these vegan nibbles for your New Year and get Veganuary started with a bang!

I’ve often felt sad that my vegetarian and vegan friends can’t enjoy the delights of a good Mauritian beef rissole, so I have tried to find a vegetarian filling that was just as good. There was no point trying to replicate the non-vegetarian beef and thyme combo; without meat, it’s just not the same. So instead, I went for something completely different and came up with this super-tasty vegan recipe.

My vegan rissoles are inspired by the gyoza served at my favourite London restaurant – Abeno, on Museum Street in Bloomsbury. They do an amazing tofu and avocado gyoza there that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Want to give these vegan tofu and avocado rissoles a go? Here’s what you’ll need.
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Not got much time or just want the bullet points on how to make these? Click here for the Quick Read Recipe.

Vegan tofu and avocado rissoles recipe

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Eating time: 2 seconds (on average)

Before beginning, set your oven to preheat – 220°C, 425°F, Gas Mark 7 (good pastry needs a hot oven).

Ingredients

1 tbs sesame oil

1 or 2 spring onions, finely chopped.

2 garlic cloves – peeled and finely chopped.

2 (ripe) avocados

Silken tofu
If you can’t find silken tofu, the firm stuff sold in most supermarkets also works (but I do prefer the silken tofu for this if you can get it!).

Soy sauce

salt and pepper

Shortcrust pastry
I use ‘ready rolled’ (this Jus-Rol brand is suitable for vegetarians and vegans) for a really quick cook, and that’s what the cooking times here are based on. However, if you want to make your own, you’ll find the vegetarian recipe for shortcrust that I use when making it from scratch at the end of this article, or you could try this vegan shortcrust recipe I found online.

Alternatively, you can use this filling in premade gyosa skins like these (I love that these particular ones are called ‘Happy Belly’!). These ones are described as vegetarian, so you would need to check you are making this as a vegan recipe.

Directions

The Filling…

1. Dice your tofu and avocado into small cubes, and finely chop 2 – 3 spring onions and a couple of cloves of garlic.

Toss the tofu, advocado, garlic and spring onion together in a little sesame oil (or soy sauce) Don’t use too much – a teaspoon will be enough.

Season with a little salt and pepper. The filling is done!

Set aside while you prepare the pastry.

The pastry…

3. Grease or line a baking tray.

4. Take your pastry (‘ready rolled’ or home-made) and roll out on a floured surface. Roll as thin as you can – 3 or 4mm is perfect for a nice, crisp, flaky result.

5. Using either a circle cutter or a ravioli/dumpling press (around 7-8cm is a good size), cut circles from your pastry.

6. Brush the edge of a circle with a little bit of water, using a pastry brush.

7. Put a teaspoon or two (at most) of filling on to one side of each circle, then fold the pastry in half over the filling to make a semi-circle.

8. Use the tip of a fork to press down around the curved edge, where you wetted the pastry. This should help the two sides stick together and leave a pattern around the edge. Alternatively, a ravioli press will make exactly the right size and shape (use a big one though). Congratulations – you’ve made a tofu and avocado rissole! Don’t eat it yet though… it still needs to be cooked.

9. Optional and for vegetarians only: brush your rissoles with a little bit of egg yolk or milk for a golden finish to your pastry.

Baking time…

10. Place the tofu and avocado rissoles on your baking tray and cook in the oven for around ten minutes, until that pastry is golden brown.

Note: if you’re using gyosa skins instead, either pan fry or steam them rather than cook in the oven.

11. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Or scoff your vegan rissoles while they’re hot if you really can’t wait. But don’t blame me if you burn your tongue! They’ll keep for a good few days in the fridge, so you can make them ahead of time if you want. I like mine piping hot from the oven, but it’s all good!

These little vegan rissoles are perfect the perfect nibbles to share with friends, but they also make a great starter or lunchtime snack too. Aaand they’re rather wonderful as evening snack or as vegan picnic finger food. Any excuse will do!

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Shortcrust Pastry Recipe

This shortcrust recipe is adapted from the one in my mum’s old BeRo flour cookbook that we’ve been using my whole life. I’ve substituted out the lard and just doubled the butter instead. Shortcrust pastry is pretty simple to make – the secret is not to handle it too much, make sure that everything stays cold, and cook it in a hot oven.

Shortcrust pastry ingredients

1. 220g / 8oz plain flour

2. 60g /4oz margarine
Use the solid margarine sold in foil-wrapped blocks, or alternatively hard butter; not the soft stuff that comes in tubs. This is because the soft stuff contains too much water and salt for baking well.

The total weight of the fat (the butter/marg) should be half the weight of the flour; so if you’re scaling up or down, make sure to keep to this ratio.

4. a pinch of salt

5. 2 tbs really cold water

Shortcrust pastry directions

1. In a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt to the flour.

2. Dice the butter or margarine into small cubes, and add to the mixing bowl as well. Using your fingers, rub the fat into the flour until it reaches a breadcrumb consistency. Make sure your hands are cool and try not to handle too much. Let lots of air into the mix by rubbing bits of fat and flour above the bowl and letting it fall down into it.

3. Add the water a little bit at a time until the mix forms a stiff dough. Use a butter knife to mix with – it works better than a spoon.

4. Now knead the dough lightly on a floured surface. Again, don’t overdo it – too much handling makes for tough pastry.

5. Dust your rolling pin with a bit of flour, and then lightly roll out your dough. You should roll dough away from you, always in the same direction (it’s just like uncorking wine – turn the pastry, not the rolling pin…).

And that’s it! Keep your dough cool until you need it – I cover and pop mine in the fridge if not using straight away.

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Love these vegan rissoles and looking for more delicious recipes? Try these!

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Vegan Avocado and Tofu Rissole Recipe

Quick-Read Recipe
For when you just want to get right to the point…

(Any links are Amazon affiliate links – see my ‘About Affiliate links‘ page for more information)

Ingredients: 

● Sesame oil
● 2 Spring onions, finely chopped
● 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped.
● 1 or 2 ripe avocado – chopped.
● silken tofu – chopped.
● soy sauce
● salt & pepper
● shortcrust pastry (or alternatively gyoza skins).

Method:

Before beginning, set your oven to preheat – 220°C, 425°F, Gas Mark 7 (good pastry needs a hot oven).

1. To make the filling, toss the tofu, advocado, garlic and spring onion together in a little sesame oil (or soy sauce) Don’t use too much – a teaspoon will be enough.
2. Season with salt & pepper, and set to one side.
3. Grease or line a baking tray.
4. Take your pastry (‘ready rolled’ or home-made) and roll out on a floured surface. Roll as thin as you can – 3 or 4mm is perfect for a nice, crisp, flaky result.
5. Using either a circle cutter or a ravioli/dumpling press (around 7-8cm is a good size), cut circles from your pastry.
6. Put a teaspoon or two (at most) of filling on to one side of each circle, then fold the pastry in half over the filling to make a semi-circle.
7. Use the tip of a fork to press down around the curved edge, where you wetted the pastry, to stick the two sides stick together and leave a pattern around the edge.
8. Optional and for vegetarians only: brush your rissoles with a little bit of egg yolk or milk for a golden finish to your pastry.
9. Place the tofu and avocado rissoles on your baking tray and cook in the oven for around ten minutes, until that pastry is golden brown.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. These rissoles can be enjoyed warm or cold, just be careful straight out of the oven, as the filling can get very hot!

Hints and Tips:
● Use gyoza skins instead of pastry, and pan-fry on your hob for tasty vegan gyozas!
● Don’t put too much water to seal around the pastry edges – get them too wet, and they won’t stick closed.