Vegan🌱Iron-Packed Hijiki Tofu Hamburger Steak

【Vegan🌱Iron-Packed Hijiki Tofu Hamburger Steak】

Vegan Hijiki tofu Hamburger Steak by piggyinkitchen

Does anyone have these symptoms like being anemic or feeling exhusted recently? 😌
Probably you are lack of iron.
What I want to share with yyou today is Hijiki Tofu Hamburger Steak, especially for those who are anemic and need to increase their intake of iron!

This recipe is:

• Vegan
• Gluten Free
• Animal Cruelty Free
• Iron rich

I guess most of you have never heard of hijiki before. Hijiki is a seaweed high in fiber, calcium, magnesium and iron. It helps improve your digestive functions and prevent from anemia.

In this recipe, you'll find simmered hijiki that is cooked in advance, preferably the day before you make this hamburger steak to save your time and make tofu hamburger even more nutritiously delicious :) Need recipe for hijiki? Don't worry! I included it in the recipe card so you can try making!

While hijiki contains lots of micronutrients, tofu is high in protein and also rich in micronutrients, such as calcium that gives your bones strength and manganese that promotes metabolism of carbohydrates and fats. So eating them together makes the nutritional balance way better than eating one of those alone.
If you can't find hijiki in your area, amazon also sells dried hijiki :)
⚠You want to be careful with the amount of hijiki you eat because hijiki also contains inorganice arsenic which may cause cancer in a long term with high dose of hijiki, even though there's no evidence or no cases affected by hijiki consumption in Japan. So it'd be a better idea to eat a small amount of hijiki dish up to once a month/months.

As alternative to gluten for those who are allergic to gluten, use oat flour in this recipe, I used oat flour) instead of bread crumbs which is generally used in hamburger steak, and tamari sauce instead of regular soy sauce.

There's one important step for you to do:

• Press tofu to drain water out of tofu

Here is method I usually do for preparing for tofu:

1. Place a strainer on a bit smaller bowl than the strainer.
2. Put 2 pieces of cheese cloths or paper towels over the strainer.
3. Spread out tofu that is cut into 8 flat pieces, try not sticking each other.
4. Cover with another 2 pieces of cheese cloths or paper towels.
5. Pour water into the same size of pot as strainer, to fill.
6. Put the filled pot with water onto tofu.
7. Place into fridge for at least 5 hours to drain water.

By following this method, tofu becomes even more firm and easy to form flat balls. Also it prevents the balls from breaking apart when cooking.

In this recipe, I didn't mention about this method for tofu, but definitely this is a must to do! However, some tofu are already firm enough. In that case, you don't actually have to press tofu and you can use it right away. For example, tofu that I buy is premium medium firm from soyganic. This is pretty firm already. So I just drain water from the package and toss tofu into a bowl to smash.

This tofu is certified organic and tastes quite good unlike others! So if you live in Canada, I definitely recommend buying this product :)

Pan frying 😍

Mmmmm😍🍴

Vegan Hijiki tofu Hamburger Steak by piggyinkitchen

Mashed potato salad on the top right is also vegan, of course🌱But this is so tasty like you can't tell that it has no mayo or butter in it! So I will definitely post the recipe someday soon. Stay tuned!☺

Here is the recipe card for Hijiki Tofu Hamburger Steak :)
Enjoy!

Hijiki Tofu Hamburger Steak 

INGREDIENTS (5 Servings)
［HIJIKI］
1 cup dried hijiki seaweed, soaked, drained
Avocado oil
2 cups water
1 tablespoon sake
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons soy sauce

［HAMBURGER MIXTURE］
1 1/2 tofu
1/2 onion, minced
1 mushroom, minced
2 cups simmered hijiki
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup oat flour
Himalayan pink salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Avocado oil

［SAUCE］
1 cup water
1/2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon mirin
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon water (corn starch mixture)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. ［HIJIKI］
2. Put avocado oil in a pot to heat, then add in hijiki and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Pour water to cover hijiki.
4. Add in sake and mirin and bring it to a boil. Cook for 15 minutes.
5. Add in maple syrup and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Put soy sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. Taste. Adjust saltiness and sweetness with soy sauce and maple syrup.
8. Set aside. Let it cool.
9. ［HAMBURGER MIXTURE］
10. In a frying pan, heat avocado oil and put onion and mushroom over medium heat until onion become translucent.
11. Season wtih salt and pepper.
12. Transfer to a plate to let it cool.
13. In a large bowl, toss tofu and smash into pieces/paste.
14. Add in hijiki, onion and mushroom mix, salt, black pepper, cornstarch, and oat flour.
15. Combine well.
16. Store in fridge for about 30 minutes.
17. Form into flat balls.
18. heat a frying pan with oil over medium heat, then pan fry formed hamburger mixture.
19. Flip when the cooking side becomes golden brown.
20. Cook the other side as well.
21. ［SAUCE］
22. Put water, sake, mirin and soy sauce into a small pot.
23. Bring it to a boil.
24. Trun off heat. Add in corn starch mixture to thicken.
25. If too thick, add more water. If too watery, add more corn starch mixture.
26. Plate your hamburger steak and pour the thickened sauce over.
27. Enjoy!

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NOTES
◎Use pressed/drained tofu if your tofu is too soft.

I hope I could make it sound easy for you!
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or directly contact me anytime! I'm happy to hear your thoughts :)

-piggyinkitchen-