We demonstrated this recipe for feelgood vegan ‘fishcakes’ at Vegan Life Live earlier this month and it went down a storm.
Everyone absolutely loved the salty taste of the sea which comes from our secret ingredient, nori. Nori is dried seaweed which you can pick up at specialist supermarkets.
But be careful as not all nori is vegan. In the UK, Clearspring offer a vegan-friendly nori and you can pick this up at most health food stores.
We also love dill so we couldn’t resist including it in this recipe, but if you’re not so keen you can either reduce the amount or exclude altogether. It’s all about applying your own twist!
We hope you enjoy,
Roxy & Ben

Servings: 6 'fishcakes' |
|
- 1 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 2x 400g tinned chickpeas
- 1 red onion (finely chopped)
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 2 large handfuls of parsley (finely chopped)
- 4 sheets of nori
- 1 lemon
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp dried dill
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
- 200 g soft silken tofu
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp English mustard
- pinch of salt
- pinch of pepper
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
Ingredients
For the homemade mayonnaise
|
![]() |
- To make the flax egg, add the flax seeds to a small bowl with 2 tbsp of tap water and stir to combine. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Open the two tins of chickpeas, drain and rinse, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Mash with a potato masher until all the chickpeas have broken down.
- To the mixing bowl, add the finely chopped red onion, minced garlic and finely chopped parsley. Then use scissors to finely cut the nori sheets into small pieces directly into the bowl. Next, add the juice from the one lemon, dill, paprika, salt and pepper, and finally the flax egg from before.
- Use your hands to combine the ingredients until everything is well mixed together. Then take a handful of the mixture and shape it into a patty. Repeat until all of the mixture has been used up and you’re left with 6 evenly shaped ‘fishcakes’.
- Heat a little oil in a frying pan on a medium - high heat. Once hot, add in 3 or 4 cakes at a time and fry for 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
- Meanwhile, prepare the homemade mayonnaise by placing the silken tofu, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend for around 10 seconds. Then add half of the vegetable oil and blend, then add the remaining vegetable oil and blend until the mayonnaise is smooth. Transfer the mayonnaise to serving dish.
- Remove the cakes from the heat and serve with the mayonnaise and a salad of your choice.
13 comments
Hi,
What exactly is ‘mixed herbs’? should i go to the store and ask for ‘mixed herbs spice’?
Hi Oz. We use Herbs de Provence. Hope that helps! Thanks, Ben.
What size are the Nori sheets? THX!
Hey Kat! The nori sheets are roughly 25cm x 20cm. Thanks!
How much should I use if I have kelp powder instead of the nori sheets?
These were very tasty but fell apart super easy. The flax egg just did not bind it well enough. The family gobbled them up though.
If i make these again, i think I’m going to leave out the dill. I think they would be just as “fishy”, without being overpowered by dill flavor. The only time i remember ever having liked dill in a recipe was in Great Eastern Sun’s Creamy Dill Dip, and i have stopped eating tofu since then.
Hi Hope, sounds like a good plan if you’re not keen on dill. We love dill in our household so we tend to use quite a lot of it. All the best, Roxy
I found that throwing in some hemp seeds and also overnight refrigeration helped bind these together.
Sounds great! 🙂
Tried these out with Dulse instead of nori because it is what I had on hand, used white beans instead of chickpeas, and it turned out great! Couldn’t get my flax seeds to grind enough using pestle and mortar so ended up with more flax and then added chia to get the egg effect- again, super forgiving recipe, really satisfying meal.
No regrets, they turned out delicious. Thank you!
Mmmm, these were delicious! As a new vegetarian, I am still skeptical of recipes that try to mimic meat taste or texture but I was pleasantly surprised! While they are easily recognizable as a vegetarian riff, the smell is surprisingly fishy! (I did add finely diced and cooked oyster mushrooms to it for a little more aroma) My only tweak in the future would be to add a binding ingredient as these did not hold their form well. In all, it took me an hour to make these bad boys. I would definitely make them again. 🙂
Are you using a prepared English mustard or the powder English mustard?