How to make the perfect vegan stew – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to Make the Perfect...
There are many great Italian plant-based recipes - pasta alla norma, mushroom risotto, pasta e fagioli (sometimes) - but none, it must be said, has all the tasty punch of a classic ragù alla Bolognese. If you think vegans deserve as much pleasure in this brief, brutal life as everyone else, then trying to reverse engineer them (and anyone else trying to cut down on their meat intake) sounds a lot like a worthwhile mission. boring for some purists.
The challenge, it turned out, was less about recreating the experience without using animal products - there are plenty of umami-packed ingredients that suit the bill – that determine what to call it. "Vegan ragu" seems like an oxymoron, given that the word literally means "meat sauce," but "bolognese," implying the use of dairy products as it does, is also open to nitpicking. But let the pedants argue with each other, we have pasta to eat.
The "meat"Or rather, the meat substitute. Traditionally, these stews are made from ground beef, not too lean, and often in combination with salted and/or ground pork and sweet, earthy chicken livers – a combination that doesn't immediately suggest plant-based alternatives. . Ideally, whatever is used should have similar oily, earthy, and umami-rich qualities, and a similar chewy yet juicy texture. (Note that I haven't delved into the world of vegan hash here; if you're a fan, however, you might want to use it here instead.)
Mushrooms, which Daniel Gritzer of Serious Eat says "are an obvious choice, thanks to their deeply savory flavor" are popular, with Gritzer and Alexa Weibel for The New York Times using chestnut, Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage shiitake in their Flavor book, and Gizzi Erskine chestnut, shiitake and portobello. Erskine and Ottolenghi/Belfrage also add dried mushrooms, the former rehydrated and finely chopped, the latter powdered and rolled out as a surprisingly umami-rich seasoning that I definitely steal. With s...
There are many great Italian plant-based recipes - pasta alla norma, mushroom risotto, pasta e fagioli (sometimes) - but none, it must be said, has all the tasty punch of a classic ragù alla Bolognese. If you think vegans deserve as much pleasure in this brief, brutal life as everyone else, then trying to reverse engineer them (and anyone else trying to cut down on their meat intake) sounds a lot like a worthwhile mission. boring for some purists.
The challenge, it turned out, was less about recreating the experience without using animal products - there are plenty of umami-packed ingredients that suit the bill – that determine what to call it. "Vegan ragu" seems like an oxymoron, given that the word literally means "meat sauce," but "bolognese," implying the use of dairy products as it does, is also open to nitpicking. But let the pedants argue with each other, we have pasta to eat.
The "meat"Or rather, the meat substitute. Traditionally, these stews are made from ground beef, not too lean, and often in combination with salted and/or ground pork and sweet, earthy chicken livers – a combination that doesn't immediately suggest plant-based alternatives. . Ideally, whatever is used should have similar oily, earthy, and umami-rich qualities, and a similar chewy yet juicy texture. (Note that I haven't delved into the world of vegan hash here; if you're a fan, however, you might want to use it here instead.)
Mushrooms, which Daniel Gritzer of Serious Eat says "are an obvious choice, thanks to their deeply savory flavor" are popular, with Gritzer and Alexa Weibel for The New York Times using chestnut, Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage shiitake in their Flavor book, and Gizzi Erskine chestnut, shiitake and portobello. Erskine and Ottolenghi/Belfrage also add dried mushrooms, the former rehydrated and finely chopped, the latter powdered and rolled out as a surprisingly umami-rich seasoning that I definitely steal. With s...
What's Your Reaction?
