This is one well balanced salad! For every creamy component, there’s a light one, where there’s heat, there’s the chipotle ranch dressing to provide cooling relief and for every smoothie bite there’s some crunch. It’s uncomplicated yet totally crave-worthy and something I’m always in the mood for. The chipotle ranch dressing is fast to whip up and there is such a wide variety of commercial vegan mayo options these days with every one I’ve tried tasting pretty damn identical to traditional mayonnaise.

If you landed on this recipe from my first week vegan meal plan, I definitely recommend adding the avocado like pictured below. If you’ve been vegan for a while, try the tofu mayo version (what’s pictured here) of the chipotle ranch dressing in the recipes below to make this completely oil free!

If you’re having some of the salad as leftovers (the recipe makes 3 large salads), store all the ingredients separately and make sure the buffalo tofu has cooled before you put it in a tupperware. The buffalo tofu doesn’t need to be reheated, it’s really good completely cold too, but if you want to reheat it, I do think it’s *slightly* better.

Buffalo Tofu Salad

makes 3 servings

Buffalo Tofu Salad

ingredients

1 large head of romaine

buffalo tofu (recipe below)

1/2 cup sliced red onion

~4-6 tbsp chipotle ranch dressing (recipe below)

1 large avocado, peeled pitted and sliced into thin strips

Chop the romaine, then layer it along with a handful of the buffalo tofu, some avocado slices, red onion and drizzle with the chipotle ranch dressing.

Buffalo Tofu

1 block of firm tofu, pressed

1/2 cup panko (I used Ian’s gluten free in the pictures)

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

a few tbsp of aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas

buffalo sauce – 1/2 cup hot sauce + 2 tbsp melted vegan butter or tahini

Preheat oven to 425

After pressing the tofu, cut it into small cubes. In a medium sized bowl, add the aquafaba. In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. Toss the tofu in the aquafaba, stirring or shaking gently to coat, then dredge in the dry mixture.

Bake at 425 for 20 mins, then flip and bake for 20 more.

Toss in the buffalo sauce mix, then serve.

Vegan Chipotle Ranch Dressing

makes ~1 cup

1 cup vegan mayo of choice (to make tofu mayo, blend 1 block firm tofu with 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp nutritional yeast, a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp of dijon mustard. stays good for up to one month)

~3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp dill

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2-1 tsp chipotle powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

Slowly whisk the almond milk into the mayo, you may not need all 3 tbsp to get it the consistency you want. Then stir in the apple cider vinegar and spices.