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Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, these vegan fried green tomatoes are super easy to whip up and deliciously addictive! Perfect as a snack or side dish!
I visited three different supermarkets this week. And that's pretty typical, with all the cooking I do, and never knowing who's going to be out of nutritional yeast and whatnot. But something awesome happened. Guys, I saw Halloween candy! And hay bales! And mums! And cinnamon scented pine cones!
Autumn is really coming. Woo-hoo!
I always thought of fried green tomatoes as an early summer recipe, but it's actually also a late summer recipe. When things start to cool off, lots of home gardeners find their green tomatoes on the vine and in danger of never actually ripening. So they look for creative ways to cook them up while they're green!
We're a bit of a ways away from that happening — I'm just starting to get a regular supply of red tomatoes from my garden. But you can never be too prepared for fall.
If you buy tomatoes for this recipe, make sure you're actually buying unripe tomatoes, and not heirloom tomatoes that just happen to be green. I almost made this mistake myself, thinking you were supposed to use green heirloom tomatoes for this kind of thing. But nope! The idea behind using unripe tomatoes is that they're nice and firm, so they fry up nicely. Fully ripe tomatoes are likely to turn to mush.
I've made a handful of variations of vegan fried green tomatoes, and done quite a bit of research on traditional (i.e., non-vegan) fried green tomatoes.
There are a bunch of different ways people make these things, some pretty complicated and involving three and four dips in different batters and dry mixtures, and some involving nothing more than eggs and cornmeal. I think I've found the perfect happy medium with my vegan version.
First, whip up a batter with some non-dairy milk, flax, flour, and nutritional yeast. The flax will mix with the liquid and form a gel. This is your egg substitute! The flour thickens the mixture up, and the nutritional yeast adds some savory flavor.
If you'd like, season up your batter with some black salt (also called kala namak). This salt has a high sulfur content and will actually make the batter taste eggy.
Dip a tomato slice in the batter, and then dredge it in some seasoned cornmeal.
Heat up a bit of oil in a skillet, add your tomato slice, and fry until crispy and golden.
Tips for Making Perfect Vegan Fried Green Tomatoes
- These are best served immediately, but if you have some leftovers, try placing them under the broiler for a few minutes on each side until they crisp back up.
- I like the texture of a 100% cornmeal coating, but if you prefer something more delicate, try using a mix of equal parts flour and cornmeal.
- Feel free to play around with the seasonings in your cornmeal mixture. Try some garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, Cajun seasoning, or chili powder.
- Not sure what to do with your fried green tomatoes? Serve them up with hot sauce, remoulade, your favorite aioli, put them on toast (with this hummus!), over grits, or stuff them into a sandwich (recipe to come!).
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3.8 from 5 votes
Vegan Fried Green Tomatoes
Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, these vegan fried green tomatoes are super easy to whip up and deliciously addictive! Perfect as a snack or side dish!
CourseSide Dish, Snack
CuisineAmerican
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 240 kcal
Author Alissa Saenz
Ingredients
For the Batter
- ½cupunflavored and unsweetened soy or almond milk
- 2tablespoonsall-purpose flour
- 2tablespoonsground flaxseed
- 1tablespoonnutritional yeast flakes
- ½teaspoonkala namak,or regular salt
For the Coating
- ½cupcornmeal
- ½teaspoonpaprika
- Pinchcaynne pepper
- ½teaspoonsalt
- ¼teaspoonblack pepper
For the Fried Green Tomatoes
- 2medium green (unripe) tomatoes,sliced ¼ to ½ inch thick
- About ¼cupcanola oil,or high heat oil of choice
Instructions
Whisk all of the batter ingredients together in a small bowl. Allow it to sit and thicken up for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
Stir the coating ingredients together in another small bowl.
Very generously coat the bottom of a medium nonstick (preferably cast iron) skillet with oil (you want it at least ⅛ inch thick deep). Place it over medium heat.
When the oil begins to shimmer, grab a tomato slice and dip both sides in the batter to coat.
Next, dredge both sides of the tomato slice in the cornmeal mixture.
Transfer the tomato slice to the skillet. Repeat for as many slices as you can fit in the skillet without overcrowding them.
Cook the tomato slices for about 4 minutes on each side, until crisp and golden.
Transfer the cooked slices to a paper towel-lined plate, and repeat the cooking process until all slices are cooked, adding oil to the skillet between batches as needed.
Serve.
Nutrition Facts
Vegan Fried Green Tomatoes
Amount Per Serving
Calories 240Calories from Fat 146
% Daily Value*
Fat 16.2g25%
Saturated Fat 1.3g7%
Sodium 637mg27%
Potassium 278mg8%
Carbohydrates 20.3g7%
Fiber 3.7g15%
Sugar 2.7g3%
Protein 4.5g9%
Calcium 100mg10%
Iron 2.7mg15%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
« Maple Dijon Portobello Mushroom Burgers
Vegan Potato Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing and (Optional!) Tempeh Bacon Bits »
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Reader Interactions
Comments
Jenna saysOOh, this looks so nice and simple and yummy! I must try it the next time I pick green tomatoes from the garden. I also love to pickle them. And sometimes pickle AND fry them. (Can't go wrong with a fried pickle, right?)
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- Alissa Saenz says
I've never picked them but was thinking of doing it this year. Now I'm definitely going to try frying some of them if I do!
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- Miranda says
Wow! These look so great! Would it be weird to use pickled green tomatoes?Reply
- Alissa Saenz says
I actually had another reader suggest that, and I think it would be delicious!
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- Amy Dykstra says
These were good but they were soggy and over cooked.. what did I do wrong? I cooked them on medium heat on stove top.Reply
- Alissa Saenz says
Hmmm...were they firm to start with? If they're getting close to ripening I could see how they might be a little too soft for frying. The only other thing I can think of is to turn the heat up a bit so they cook quicker - every stove top is different and yours might be on the cooler side.
Reply
- Chris says
The trick is to pat them dry before battering! I noticed it was the only step that was missing. These were delicious, we just made some with some remoulade! Also, we added a lot more seasoning in the dry mix (garlic powder, onion powder, extra paprika and pepper and bulgogi seasoning). If they're wet, the batter won't stick. :)
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- Jess says
How many slices per serving?
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- Alissa Saenz says
About 3, but it will vary depending on the size and how thick you slice your tomatoes.
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- Jennifer says
Can these be made in the air fryer?
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- Alissa Saenz says
I don't have an air fryer, but from what I've heard about them, I think they could. Unfortunately I can't be sure or offer any suggestions on how to make it work. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
Reply
- Travis Schaub says
I'm sorry I've never reviewed on a food blog before but these turned out soggy and the ground flaxseed was not a good addition at all in my opinion.Reply
- Alissa Saenz says
Sorry you didn't like them! The flax is in there as an egg substitute, so if you were to make them without it you'd need to figure out some other way of replacing the egg.
Reply
- marianne charbonneau says
if you are in the USA or near the border, JUSTEgg might work nicely. it isn't here in canada yet.
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- Alissa Saenz says
Great idea!
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- leannu says
I made your recipe, but I have this bag of GF flour blend that already has thickeners in it, so I just added some rice milk I had to the flour and used that as the first batter, and cornmeal-ricecrumb blend for the second coat.
(I had to use rice crumb because I was almost out of cornmel, i think straight corn meal tastes better).My batter didnt really want to stick, those green tomatoes are silky! but it worked and came out absolutely delicious.
I had 1 lb (~4 tomatoes) from the local co-op, and they were green and hard (maybe almost too underripe).My husband wouldn't eat them because of the alkaloid green tomatoes have - can cause some people reactions.
I enjoyed them in 2 portions, dinner and leftovers for brunch.
He ate 1 slice of the leftovers and did get a small headache - I had no reactions from my small portions but I do advise against overdoing these guys. Be esp careful if you know you are sensitive to nightshades.Reply
- Molly says
I made this and it worked out well.
Due to the other comments about the flax, I used half as much
I also used panic instead of cornmeal because it was what I had and it was fine.Things I would consider next time...
There was an excess of batter left over and maybe not quite enough of the coating... could adjust measurements...
Also I think I would add more herbs/spices for flavorI ate mine with hot sauce!
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- Adrianna says
Absolutely amazing recipe. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I just finished making these fried green tomatoes and they're awesome.
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- Adrianna says
Thank you for posting the recipe for these amazing vegan FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. They're awesome!
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- Amanda says
Dee-lish! I put some of these on a plant based biscuit with some vegan ranch. Incredible!Reply
