Vegan Fish Cakes

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Vegan Fish Cakes are super tender, delicious, and really easy to make! This recipe uses soy curls to make a mixture that is flakey and fish-like, which turns out to be the perfect recipe for fish replacements. They're great as a savory snack, appetizer or main dish when served with your favorite side dish.

Hey Internet, since we've started ZardyPlants, we've developed a lot of vegan recipes that act as meat and dairy substitutes. From our Instant Pot Seitan, to our Vegan Brie, to our Vegan Pepperoni, and so many more, we've really tried to make sure people have replacements for the meals and ingredients that they had enjoyed before becoming vegans. 

While we had a lot of success with using tofu, seitan, and soy curls making replacements for meat and cheese, fish had been something a bit more elusive to us. Making a vegan version of seafood is a bit tricky because you need to get that flaky texture and salty, umami taste. 

We got there with our Watermelon Tuna, however watermelon is very seasonal. So while it tastes great, we needed a more year-round solution.

It took us a while, but after many tests in our kitchen, we are pleased to bring you our new recipe for vegan fishcakes! What we found is that soy curls work for the fish replacement, but not straight out of the bag. 

After several tests, we decided to try adding some soaked soy curls into our food processor. The result was small pieces of soy curls that were flaky, not crumbly. The moment we saw the pieces, we know we had the start of a great recipe. After that, it was just a matter of finding the right liquids to soak the soy curls in to get the flavors of fish.

And these vegan fish cakes are only just the start. We have a whole backlog of vegan fish recipes we want to try using this method. Vegan crab cakes might be next, though the thought of some golden brown vegan fish and chips is a bit mouthwatering. The possibilities are limitless!

Oh and if you like using soy curls, you should check out our list of soy curls recipes!

Let's do a deep dive on these vegan fish cakes.

Why You'll Love These Vegan Fish Cakes

• Easy Ingredients: Many of the ingredients we used to make this fish substitute are non-perishable and easy to find. The only one that might cause you some trouble is soy curls, but they're usually easy to order. They last for a long time (about 6 months in a dark cabinet), and even longer in a freezer, so you can order a big batch if you really like them!
• Dippable Delights: These vegan fishcakes are fun to dunk into a bowl of the right sauce. We actually made a Vegan Tartar Sauce Recipe to go along with it, but a vegan aioli (like our vegan garlic aioli!), sweet chili sauce, or a simple vegan mayo dipping sauce would work great as well. Or use the sauce of your choice.
• Taste of the Sea; Without the Fish: This recipe has a fish taste that is spot on. You won't have to miss eating seafood ever again!
• Customizable: There are a lot of other great things you can bring to this recipe to kick it up a notch. Add a little black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes for a "bite." You could add lemon juice or soy sauce for a different flavor. Maybe add green onions as a garnish or add more herbs to the mix before baking it, such as fresh dill or parsley. You could even batter the vegan fish cakes in panko or regular breadcrumbs if you want to be even more decadent.

Ingredients

See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full recipe with ingredients, instructions, and accurate nutritional information (to the best of my ability; please consult your physician or healthcare professional if you have specific dietary needs). I give substitutions for the ingredients in the section below this one, so most people can still make this recipe!

• 1 Cup Soy Curls: Frankly, soy curls have been the best vegan meat substitute that we've ever used. They've been versatile in so many of our other recipes, like our Vegan BBQ Chicken or our Soy Curl Bacon. In this recipe, they give the fish cakes their texture and protein.
• 0.75 Cup Olive Brine: If you love olives, you can use the olive brine that comes in the containers (we used manzanilla olive juice for this recipe). But, if you don't want to have that many olives (although check out our olive pesto, coming soon!), olive brine is sold in bottles and packages. They are typically used to make drinks, but we'll be using it to give our soy curls a fish flavor.
• 0.25 Cup White Wine Vinegar: This will also help give us a seafood-like flavor.
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Hot Water
• 1.5 Flax Eggs: To make a flax egg, grind up flaxseed and then add it to water. You'll need one part flax, three parts water. For this recipe, that comes to 1.5 tablespoons flaxseed and 4.5 tablespoons water.
• 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
• 1 Tablespoon Dulse Flakes: Dulse flakes are made of dried seaweed. They'll add more sea flavors in our vegan seafood dishes.
• 0.5 Teaspoon Dried Dill: You can always use fresh dill, but dried is almost always on hand in our household.
• 0.5 Teaspoon Dried Parsley: You can also make these vegan fish cakes with fresh parsley.

Substitutions

• Soy Curls: TVP could be used as a good replacement for the soy curls. You could also try mashed chickpeas or white beans, canned young green jackfruit, artichoke hearts, or hearts of palm, but that would be greatly changing a key ingredient and you should only do so if you feel comfortable making this type of dish (it's the same as making vegan meatballs or lentil loaf, you just want a good balance of wet to dry ingredients).
• Olive Brine: If you don't have this, simply double the water, vinegar, and salt measurements.
• Flax Egg: You can also make a chia seed egg to replace the flax egg. Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer will also work.
• Dulse Flakes: Seaweed flakes or nori flakes (or crumbled nori seaweed) are almost the same thing as dulse flakes and will act the same. You can also cut up nori sheets and add them to the mixing bowl. Fish seasoning is another option (just like poultry seasoning, it's vegan, just not typically used for vegan purposes).

How to Make Vegan Fish Cakes

1. Soak the Soy Curls: Place the olive brine, vinegar, water and salt in a large bowl. Add the soy curls and let them soak for about 10 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Make the flax eggs now too and set aside.
2. Food Process the Soy Curls: Squeeze out the liquids of the soy curls by hand until they are lightly wet or damp. Then add them to a food processor. Pulse them for about 20 to 30 seconds, or until they are flaky bits.
3. Add to Bowl and Mix Together: Add soy curls into a dry bowl and add the flax eggs, nutritional yeast, and other seasonings. Mix until they are well combined. The mixture should easily stick together when it is formed into balls, but not be very wet. Adjust as needed (if it's too wet, add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast; if it's too dry, add a tablespoon of the liquid you soaked the soy curls in).
4. Scoop the Mixture: With a large cookie scoop, make balls out of the mixture.
5. Press the Fish Cakes: Lightly press each ball until they are a disc shaped cake.
6. Cook the Fish Cakes: To a lightly oiled large pan, add the fish cakes and cook them on medium heat for about 6 to 10 minutes. Make sure to flip them every 3 minutes to keep an eye on the browning.
7. Serve: Remove the vegan fish cakes from your large skillet and then plate. Serve them with some of our Vegan Tartar Sauce or another dipping sauce.

Expert Tips

• Make it More Decadent: A little olive oil in the soy curl blend before mixing in the flax eggs can make for a more juicy and greasy cake, if that's your style.
• More Ways to Cook: This recipe can be easy made with more that just a frying pan. A deep fry, air fry or baking on a baking sheet in a preheated oven should work with these if you don't want to pan fry them.
• Even More Spices: If you want tons of flavor in your vegan fishcakes, try adding garlic and onion powders. Fresh thyme also works great.
• Add Garnishes: A lemon slice or wedge is great to serve with these so you can squeeze fresh lemon juice all over the cakes. You can also top them with spring onions as well.

Storage Instructions

Let your vegan fish cakes cool to room temperature before storing. Add them to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Make sure you store any sauce you used separate from the cakes to ensure that their freshness and texture lasts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Use This Recipe as the Base of Another Vegan Fish Recipe?

Yes! We see this being useful in so many other things! With the right flavorings, it can match almost any other type of fish. Soy curls are amazing like that.

Why do I Need To Use Hot Water For the Soy Curls?

It speeds up how quickly the soy curls absorb the liquids. It can easily shave off 5 to 10 minutes, so we recommend hot water for them whenever possible.

How Should I Serve These Vegan Fish Cakes?

Fish cakes are usually served on a plate or platter with a dipping sauce, such as our vegan tartar sauce, to either spoon on or dunk the cakes in.

More Vegan Seafood Recipes

• Vegan Ceviche
• Vegan Fish Tacos
• Watermelon Tuna
• Vegan Lobster Roll
• Vegan Tuna Casserole
• Easy Vegan Scallops
• Vegan Salmon
• Vegan Tuna Melts

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