9 mouthwatering vegan seafood recipes (2024)

Published: · Modified: by Cadry Nelson
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Dig in to vegan seafood recipes for plant-based versions of fried shrimp, crab cakes, fish tacos, tuna salad sandwiches, and more.

If you crave something sprinkled with malt vinegar, dipped in co*cktail sauce, or squeezed with lemon, enjoy this wealth of options.

Vegans don’t eat fish or other sea life. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the flavors and textures of foods that are flaky, briny, and salty.

There are so many ways to make vegan seafood. Options include hearts of palm, jackfruit, chickpeas, artichokes, or store-bought plant-based alternatives.

Here’s a round-up of 9 vegan seafood recipes to satisfy your every craving.

In this post:

Jump to:
  • Fried shrimp
  • Crab cakes
  • Fish tacos
  • Tuna salad sandwich
  • Crab rangoon
  • Carrot lox
  • Ceviche
  • Vegan caviar
  • Crab dip

Fried shrimp

Make this recipe

Before going vegan, one of my favorite fancy date night dinners was fried shrimp. With a crisp & airy panko breadcrumb coating plus a swish of co*cktail sauce, it was a mainstay for birthdays and special events.

Luckily, all of those flavors are still possible thanks to hearts of palm.

This briny and toothsome vegetable takes the place of shrimp beautifully. Bread and fry it, and get ready for dipping with homemade co*cktail sauce.

Crab cakes

Make this recipe

Artichokes and chickpeas take over the starring role in vegan crab cakes.

Artichokes have a wonderful flakiness to them, while chickpeas add substance and protein.

The cakes have layered flavors of Old Bay seasoning, lemon zest, lemon juice, hot sauce, and stoneground mustard for zing. They’re finished with a dollop of lemon dill aioli.

Serve as an appetizer or entrée. Plus, they can be baked, fried, or air fried.

Fish tacos

Make this recipe

You’ll feel like you’re living that SoCal lifestyle all over again with these vegan fish tacos.

Gardein fishless filets are a quick, weeknight staple that makes this dinner a breeze to prepare.

After warming corn tortillas, fill them with shredded cabbage, avocado, onion, and cilantro. Then drizzle spicy chipotle cashew crema on top of the battered filets.

Just before serving, add a squeeze of lime.

Tuna salad sandwich

Make this recipe

As a kid, one of the first things I ever learned to prepare was a tuna salad sandwich. And one of the first things I ever learned to prepare as a vegan was a vegan chickpea tuna salad sandwich.

Making them is basically the same process, you just use chickpeas in place of tuna.

Chickpeas are quickly broken up in a food processor. Then they’re whipped up in a bowl with diced celery, pickles, eggless mayo, dill, and celery seed.

It’s great on a sandwich, piled on crackers, stuffed into a tomato or lettuce leaf.

The pickle adds salt and crunch, while the chickpeas keep it satiating.

It’s a true winner for your plant-based lunchbox or whenever you need a meal in minutes.

Crab rangoon

Make this recipe

Crab rangoon got its start at San Francisco restaurant, Trader Vic’s. Since then it’s been popping up on Chinese restaurant menus across America.

I first came across them back in the 90’s. I was taken with them right away.

They’re usually filled with cream cheese, crab or mock crab, and green onions. Then they’re stuffed inside of won ton wrappers and fried.

My vegan crab rangoon takes a number of shortcuts.

Instead of won ton wrappers, it uses pre-made phyllo cups as a timesaving measure.

Non-dairy cream cheese replaces the dairy version. And store-bought vegan crab cakes are chopped into the filling.

The end result is a pretty little appetizer that’s worthy of any gathering. It never fails to elicit ooh’s and ah’s.

Carrot lox

Make this recipe

Who knew long strips of carrots could morph into carrot lox?

Put smoky, salty, briny carrot ribbons onto toasted bagels with vegan cream cheese, fresh dill, and capers.

It makes an excellent vegan brunch that’s sure to impress.

This mouthwatering recipe comes from The Herbivorous Butcher cookbook by Aubry & Kale Walch.

Ceviche

Make this recipe

You can almost feel the sun on your skin and sand under your toes when you dip into vegan ceviche.

Unlike the non-vegan counterpart made with raw fish, this one uses the briny magic of hearts of palm.

It’s rounded out with avocado, cherry tomatoes, chopped onion, jalapeño, and cilantro.

No cooking is required.

This easy appetizer is ready to eat in 10 minutes. Get those tortilla chips ready!

Vegan caviar

Make this recipe

Woo your sweetheart with vegan caviar on crackers. This appetizer is surprisingly easy to make, but looks elegant.

Israeli couscous is colored with beets. Then it’s flavored with garlic and lemon.

Great with crackers and a swish of almond cheese!

Crab dip

9 mouthwatering vegan seafood recipes (10)

Make this recipe

If a creamy dip is what you desire, look no further than this vegan crab dip.

It is made with shredded young jackfruit, Dijon mustard, and Old Bay seasoning. A full-bodied cashew base gives this dip some oomph.

Serve it with crackers, corn chips, or piled on toasted crostini.

More Date night

  • Roasted fennel with vegan parmesan cheese
  • Air fryer radishes with vegan parmesan
  • Simple olive oil bread dip

About Cadry Nelson

Cadry Nelson is the writer, recipe creator, and photographer behind Cadry’s Kitchen. She's also the author of Living Vegan For Dummies, 2nd edition. Cadry loves sharing vegan comfort food classics that come together quickly. Her work has been featured on NBC News, Mashable, Yahoo, Buzzfeed, Parade, Huffington Post, VegNews, and Vegan Food & Living.

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  1. Mary Finelli

    Wonderful! It’s remarkable how creative people are in replicating flavors and textures, and these recipes all look to be so quick and easy. Will be adding the links to the Vegan Seafood page of the Fish Feel website, and sharing on our Facebook page. Thank you!

    Reply

  2. Bianca N Phillips

    So many creative options!! I never liked seafood, but all of these vegan versions sound great. It was the fishy taste I didn’t like, so this solves that! Cream cheese wontons were my fave growing up! I don’t know if I ever had an actual crab rangoon, but they look amazing.

    Reply

9 mouthwatering vegan seafood recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to make vegan food taste like seafood? ›

Make vegan seafood with king oyster mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. Also consider using canned hearts of palm, banana blossoms, jackfruit and artichoke hearts. To mimic the taste and texture of seafood dishes, use chickpeas, watermelon, tomato and carrots.

What do vegans eat instead of seafood? ›

These are the vegan seafood alternatives recommended by Vaknin and other top chefs.
  • Jackfruit. ...
  • Seaweed. ...
  • King Oyster Mushrooms. ...
  • Firm Tofu. ...
  • Artichoke Hearts. ...
  • Hearts of Palm and Chickpeas. ...
  • Vegan Fish Sauce. ...
  • Banana Blossoms.
May 24, 2021

What spice tastes like seafood? ›

If there was one spice that was synonymous with seafood, it's Old Bay. It's a must for any seafood boil and highlights the flavor in all shellfish. Shake it over the shells liberally and dig in.

What is vegan seafood made from? ›

What is plant based seafood made of? Plant-based seafood can be found in the form of tuna, salmon, caviar, scallops, squid, crab and shrimp – all these products have already entered the market. The most common ingredients in these products are soy, seaweed, yeast, legumes and various vegetable oils and starches.

What makes vegan fish taste fishy? ›

Seaweed-Nori, Kelp or Dulse flakes

They are often used as a salt substitute, but are a great way to add some fishy flavor. And, BONUS, seaweed gives your food added nutrients.

What seafood do some vegans eat? ›

You might be surprised to learn that there is a portion of vegans who believe that consuming oysters and mussels does not contradict their commitment to a completely animal-free diet. This somewhat controversial subset of veganism even has its own name – ostroveganism, from the latin word 'ostrea' meaning oyster.

What is a vegan that eats fish called? ›

By that definition, a pescatarian is someone who chooses to eat a vegetarian diet, but who also eats fish and other seafood. It's a largely plant-based diet of whole grains, nuts, legumes, produce and healthy fats, with seafood playing a key role as a main protein source. Many pescatarians also eat dairy and eggs.

What do vegans eat instead of tuna? ›

Vegan Tuna doesn't have the same texture as regular tuna, but it's pretty close. I use a combination of shredded hearts of palm and chickpeas to replicate the flaky fish texture and it works nicely. Plus, the chickpeas add a nice dose of protein.

How do you mimic fish taste? ›

Some popular alternatives include:
  1. **Tofu or tempeh:** These can be marinated and cooked to resemble fish in texture and taste.
  2. **Seaweed or nori:** Often used to impart a seafood-like flavor to dishes.
  3. **Heart of palm:** Its flaky texture can be used to simulate crab or lobster meat.
Feb 1, 2023

What smells like fish but isn't fish? ›

Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) is an uncommon condition that causes an unpleasant, fishy smell. It's also called "fish odour syndrome". Sometimes it's caused by faulty genes that a person inherits from their parents, but this isn't always the case. There's currently no cure, but there are things that can help.

What vegetable tastes like seafood? ›

Salsify is a root vegetable that has an oyster-like flavour when cooked. Discover when it is in season, plus how to store, prepare and cook with it.

Is seafood seasoning the same as Old Bay? ›

Old Bay differs a good deal from the classic blend spices for cajun seafood which are salt, cayenne (red pepper) and garlic. Old Bay majors on celery salt, bay leaves, red and black pepper, and adds cloves, allspice, ginger, mace, cardamon, cinnamon and paprika.

Can vegan drink alcohol? ›

Yes, they absolutely can. To be clear, alcohol itself is 100% vegan-friendly. It's what gets added to it that can cause issues for those on a plant-based diet. And, unfortunately, these additional animal-derived ingredients always escape the labels, making it difficult to know what you're actually consuming.

Are scallops vegan? ›

Simply put, no – scallops aren't suitable for vegans as they're a living part of the animal kingdom. Although there might be some arguments that their lack of a central nervous system stops them from feeling pain in the same way as mammals, this still doesn't mean that they're suitable for vegans.

What shellfish can vegans eat? ›

Many vegans don't consume or use anything derived from any animal under any circ*mstances, but others will eat honey or wear vintage leather. And there's a small but growing subset of people who are otherwise vegan that are opting to consume oysters and other bivalves (mussels, clams, and scallops).

How do you add seafood flavor? ›

Spices Most Commonly Used With Seafood:
  1. Garlic. Garlic powder is a good choice for enhancing the flavor of your seafood. ...
  2. Basil. Basil is great for fish or shrimp recipes. ...
  3. Bay Leaf. Its aroma is perfectly paired with a delicate tasting fish, like tilapia. ...
  4. Cayenne. ...
  5. Cumin. ...
  6. Parsley. ...
  7. Paprika. ...
  8. Rosemary.

How do they get vegan food to taste like meat? ›

Vegan meat flavour can be generated by thermally treating raw materials such as yeast extract or hydrolysed vegetable protein (Lin et al., 2014; Wu and Cadwallader, 2002a). Flavour is a crucial sensory attribute of food products, just like texture and aroma (Kumar et al., 2017).

How do you make plants taste like fish? ›

To add a more seafoody-flavor, consider seasoning with kelp flakes, which are harvested from sea plants and have a nice level of brininess or add some kelp pickles, nori, sea beans (which taste like the ocean!) or a spoonful of seafood salad to your finished plant-based tuna dish, like a sandwich.

How do you add Flavour to vegan food? ›

To heighten their flavour, enthusiastic seasoning may occur with salt or sugar, salty soy or other well-seasoned sauces, or perhaps cheese alternatives are added.

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