Vegan Layered Salad
The kitchen will rarely be used today because we're swapping wooden spoons and frying pans for tin openers and chopping boards. Probably, no one else on the team serves German classics as often as Lina and her family. Recently, however, Lina introduced us to a very unusual dish (even by her standards): the so-called layered salad. You can think of it as combining Hawaiian toast and egg salad. Sounds strange? We felt so, too, at first. But after we veganized and tried Lina's aunt's recipe, we were proven wrong. Although we did cheat a little when making it. For example, we replaced the (whole!) jar of Miracle Whip with vegan yogurt and the sausage with tofu. However, the principle of the dish remains the same:
In a large bowl, we layer celery salad from the jar, followed by corn, smoked tofu, a can of pineapple, raw leek, cheese and vegan eggs. We then disguise the whole thing as a salad with lettuce, shredded carrot and diced bell pepper. This time, we use plain tofu to substitute eggs and color yogurt with kala namak to imitate an egg yolk. The eggs in the salad taste pretty authentic. If you have more time, you can also use our recipe for vegan eggs made from silken tofu. The look is then, of course, much more authentic.
We replaced the mayo in the sauce with vegan yogurt, but otherwise, we stayed true to Lina's recipe: Water from the can of pineapple, drained celery salad and fresh chives. You can find the carrot and celery salad in the canning section of larger supermarkets.
Vegan Layered Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1 romaine lettuce
- 1 leek
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 jar of celery salad (320 g / 0.75 lb oz)
- 1 tin of pineapple (490 g / 1 lb)
- 1 tin of carrot salad (190 g / 6.66 oz)
- 1 tin of sweetcorn (330 g / 0.75 lb)
- vegan shredded cheese (to taste)
For the dressing:
- 400 g (1 lb) vegan yogurt
- juice from a can of pineapple
- juice from a jar of celery salad
- 3 tbsp mustard
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 20 g (0.75 oz) chives
- salt
- pepper
For the vegan eggs:
- 1 large block of tofu (200 g / 7 oz)
- 1 tbsp yogurt
- 1 pinch of kala namak
- yellow food coloring
Instructions
Wash lettuce, leek and peppers thoroughly. Then, cut the lettuce and leek into fine strips and dice the peppers. Cut the smoked tofu into cubes about one centimeter thick. Drain the celery salad and pineapple and collect the juice. This will be used later for the dressing. Drain the corn.
For the dressing, mix vegan yogurt (set aside two tablespoons for the egg yolk), pineapple juice, celery juice, mustard, garlic powder, and finely chopped chives; season with salt and pepper.
In a large bowl, layer the lettuce, smoked tofu, carrot salad, leek, bell pepper, celery salad, pineapple and corn in succession. Pour the dressing over the salad and sprinkle the vegan cheese on top.
Mix the remaining yogurt with kala namak for the vegan eggs and dye it with yellow food coloring. Cut four „egg halves” from the tofu block and make a small indentation in the middle for the „yolk.” Place the „yolk” in the indentation and serve the vegan eggs with the salad.
