I want to marry this panini!
You all know I love messy, handheld, comfort food at it’s finest. We’re talking hot sandwiches. This vegan steak panini with horseradish aioli is at the top of my list for best sandwiches of all time. Thinly sliced tofu, marinated in a magical marinade. Baked until nice and firm. Put these amazing tofu steak slices on some crusty bread with a quick and easy vegan horseradish aioli and arugula. Then press the sandwich in a super hot pan to make it all crunchy and hot and melty.
Somehow when the tofu and this sauce are pressed in the hot pan, the sandwich takes on an almost cheese like quality. It feels gooey and delicious, and like I said, messy. Messy in the perfect way! I can’t think of a better compliment to this vegan steak panini than this horseradish aioli. They belong together!
This is a really quick meal once you marinate the tofu. I like to marinate it for a few hours, so you can always marinate it either in the morning before you make it, or in the early evening if that’s when you get home, and then make dinner a little later in the evening. Then all you need to do is bake the tofu, whisk the sauce real fast. Put it all together and press.
This vegan steak panini with horseradish aioli will make you question everything you knew. You will wonder “if vegans eat this good, why would anyone eat meat?” With food like this, who wouldn’t be able to eat vegan?
Vegan Steak Panini with Horseradish Aioli
Ingredients
Tofu Steak Slices
- 1 Block(15oz.) Extra firm tofu, pressed
- 1 Cup Vegetable broth
- 1 Tablespoon Liquid smoke
- 1 Tablespoon Agave syrup
- 1/3 Cup Soy sauce or liquid aminos
- 1 Teaspoon Steak seasoning( onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt)
Horseradish Aioli
- 1/2 Cup Vegan mayo, I used Hellman's
- 2 Tablespoons Prepared horseradish, vegan (not creamed, just plain horseradish)
- 1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- Pinch of Pepper
For the Paninis
- 4 Ciabatta rolls, vegan
- Olive oil for browning
- Arugula
Instructions
- First, you need to press and marinate your tofu. Place your block of tofu on a plate, and place something heavy on top. Press for about 30 minutes or so to try to release as much liquid as possible.(I will link to my tofu guide below)
- Now, slice the block of tofu in pretty thin slices. Then place the slices as flat as possible in a large bowl or baking dish.
- Then in a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable broth, liquid smoke, agave, soy sauce or aminos, and the steak seasoning. Pour the marinade over the tofu, Trying to make sure the tofu is all submerged in the marinade.
- Marinate the tofu slices for at least an hour, but a few hours is better.
- Once you are ready to make your paninis, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the slices of tofu, and place them on a sheet pan sprayed with non stick spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway through baking. Bake until nice and firm and brown.
- While the tofu is baking, make the horseradish aioli. Add all of the aioli ingredients to a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- When the tofu is done, take a sliced ciabatta roll, spread the bottom with the horseradish aioli, then put some arugula on top, then several slices of the tofu "steak", then a little more aioli, then the top of the roll.
- Heat a few teaspoons of olive oil in a large non stick skillet on medium high. Then place the sandwich in the pan. Place something heavy on, I use a cast iron skillet, then press down on the sandwich.
- Brown on one side for a minute, flip the sandwich and press the other side down. Brown on that side for a few minutes. Repeat with all the paninis. Serve immediately with your favorite side dish.
Notes
I feel like there was a tziki (spelling?) sauce pasta salad I saved not long ago that would go well with this as a side. I think that recipe came from you (most of the things I make do!) but I could be wrong.
Yes! My Tzatziki pasta salad! That would be awesome! https://www.rabbitandwolves.com/tzatziki-pasta-salad-vegan/
Wife: “What’s for dinner?”
Me: *checks Laurens site to see if theres a new recipe for the day on a day there isn’t*
Me: “Chipotle”
This literally made me lol. You made my day!!
Absolutely delicious!
This was really good! My husband loved it too! I used my homemade pheasant bread instead of ciabatta and I browned them in my cast iron grill pan. I have the cast iron weight and it pushed the sandwiches together perfectly and left those oooooh/aaaaaah grill marks that made it look so pretty on the plate! The flavors were great! I would maybe bake the tofu a tad longer so it browned a bit more, but nothing else! Thank you!!!
Made these for the first time tonight and my husband and I loved them! These will be a staple in our meal rotation. Thank you so much for the amazing recipe!!
I WANT THIS SOOOOO BAAAAAAD I absolutely love all your recipes but I am such a sucker for a tofu sandwich!!!! P.S. When are you coming out with a cookbook!?
My husband made this for me last night. I literally danced as I ate it. It was that good! This recipe is on my “go-to” list for sure. Thank you!
Hi there, I just wondered how liquid the marinade should be? As there’s quite a lot of broth which seems weird after you’ve pressed the tofu to get the liquid out? Thanks!
Do you mean since you are pressing the liquid out first, why would you put more liquid in by marinating it? The liquid in the tofu is just water, so it has no flavor. By pressing the water out, then marinating it, you are imparting flavor. The more marinade it can absorb, the more flavor it will have.
You squeeze the liquid out so the tofu has more space to soak in the marinade. And the thinner you cut the tofu the less soggy it will be when you bake it.
I’ve made these weekly for the last couple of weeks. They REALLY hit the spot as a hearty, meaty, flavorful sandwich and make a quick lunch when you’ve got all the components sitting in the fridge. We don’t do a true “panini” but toast some ciabatta rolls and add Chao tomato cayenne slices for extra creaminess and zing. More like this please! 🙂
I love this recipe! I actually took it one step further and made philly cheesesteaks with it. Keeping the horseradish sauce and tofu the same Ii added sauteed mushrooms, onions and peppers and topped it off with a vegan cheese sauce.
It was soooooo delicious. I’ve been searching for a marinated tofu I could use for cheesesteaks and yours is perfect! Thanks a bunch for sharing your recipes. The horseradish sauce added so much extra flavor too. Yummy
Thank you so much, Kristin!!! Tried your version and it rocks!
One of my favorite dishes! Soo so good!
Fantastic! One of those sandwiches that once you pick it up, you don’t put down til done; partly cuz it’s so messy, but mainly cuz it’s so good!
I didn’t have horseradish for the Aioli, so I stirred together a 1/2 cup vegan mayo with 1 tablespoon of horseradish mustard, delish.
I also didn’t know proportions of spices to use in steak seasonings mentioned in the recipe, so I found this recipe for “steak seasoning”: 1 Tbsp kosher salt, 1 Tbsp black pepper, 1 Tbsp garlic powder, 1 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried rosemary, 1 tsp dried thyme. Then used 1 tsp of this mixture as called for in recipe.
Next time I’ll try cooking tofu in my air fryer oven.
Thanks R&W!!!
Just made this (with some tweaks since I didn’t have all of the ingredientes) and it was DELISHHHHH! I cut the tofu suuuper thin so it wouldn’t be soggy and baked it for 35 mins. Thanks for the recipe 💖
Excellent will be a regular,thank you
This is one of our favorite recipes. My omni husband and vegan daughter LOVE these paninis. I did cook the tofu on a higher temp for longer because the first batch fell apart. Other than that we’re obsessed and have these in our weekly rotation. I put this recipe on Facebook and a family friend adding more plant based recipes into rotation made it for her brood of 5 and they also loved it. All the kids are 5-10 years old. That’s a win in my book!
Love these! Make them all the time
Delicious, added vegan provolone, red onions, tomatoes and mashed avocado.
Great suggestion Roxanne! Tried it, loved it!
We have a horseradish allergy. Can I use a basic lemon aioli with this?
Sure! I think that would be delicious!
OMG yum.
I had to stop eating my sandwich to write a review about how AMAZING these sandwiches are! The tofu smelled so good baking I could hardly wait to try it. I was out of horseradish so made a garlic aioli instead but will do the horseradish next time. You knocked it out of the park with this one. So good! Definitely will make again and again.
What can I use instead of horseradish?
Garlic aioli would be great! just replace the horseradish with some chopped garlic!
Made this for dinner tonight. Yum! Didn’t have horseradish so did a garlic Mayo instead. My husband loved it as well!
We loved this so much! Didn’t have liquid smoke, cooked the tofu a little longer & added tomatoes. Made extra aoili for crackers! Delish!
This recipe is delicious! We are even feeding it to our omni friends and they love it. I make extra marinade and use it as an au jus to dip the sandwiches in. I have also tried it on a kimmelweck roll to make it like a Buffalo staple “beef” on weck! Thank you for all of your amazing recipes!
I made this twice in a row! Just ate it cold for lunch and still really goo.
I’ve been making this for years but I’ve alway used p0rtabella mushrooms instead of tofu. It has always been a favourite!