Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 2-Pub and Casual Foods
Published May 26th, 2008
For those of you who are just joining this series about vegetarian cooking, you can read Part 1-Introduction to get started.
To many people who are omnivorous, the discomfort around vegetarians usually has partly to do with the fact that they think that vegetarian cooking has to be drastically different that what they would normally eat. This fear needn’t be there and exists for a couple of reasons: 1) Some people aren’t used to seeing food in it’s true and unprocessed form, and 2) Some people aren’t sure what to make, or how to make it fit with what they were going to prepare or what they are used to. The whole point of this article is to give you some suggestions for traditional North American fare adapted to not include meat.
But first a bit of background into why vegetarians may be perceived as different…
Many people who are vegetarians to eat food that is different from a “meat and potatoes”, menu as they’ve chosen to explore some of the wonderful vegetarian dishes that other cultures and countries have to offer. There is more diversity of ingredients, textures, and flavours when say eating Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, or Thai food than say some of our more traditional North American or “continental” food. So, to some, it may be strange, but really it’s just a different take on the same groups of foods that are often available, just prepared in a different way. For more on this idea, feel free to check out my post on Food Around the World.
Back to the topic at hand though, if traditional “ethnic” food isn’t your thing, no problem, I’ve thought up some dishes that have a distinctively North American spin on them, that will make it easier to incorporate a vegetarian in to your next dinner party or barbecue.
Grilled portobello burgers
Of course soy hot dogs or burgers are always available in your grocer’s freezer, but the taste of these products can really vary in from company to company (some can taste VERY bad). An alternative to these soy products, if you’re not familiar with them, is to grill or barbecue up a medium sized portobello mushroom instead or a burger and throw it in a bun–just like everybody else’s burger! If you wanted to go all out, putting some goat cheese (or any other kind of cheese) on the mushroom while it’s grilling is a great idea. Also, you could just marinate the mushroom with a bit of canola or light olive oil and some herbs before barbecuing, or use just plain barbecue sauce. Whatever you choose to do is fine, and your guests can all dress their burgers however they like.
Mushroom ball subs
I came up with this idea in university, when money was often too tight to eat meat. Make up a tomato/pasta sauce just as you normally would, but instead of adding meatballs in, add in meatball-sized mushrooms! Proceed to prepare the “mushroom ball subs” just as you would a regular meatball sub–gooey mozzarella cheese (or vegan cheese) and all.
Greek Pizza
Use any pizza dough you like, I just use giant whole wheat pitas as a base for ease and good nutrition. Put some pizza or pasta sauce down over the bread and at some thinly sliced red onion, red pepper, kalamata (or other olives), oregano, top evenly with some crumbled goat cheese, and bake until everything’s ready. If using pitas, you can bake at 350 degrees, if using fresh dough you’ll have to follow the specific instructions that come with the dough.
Barbecue mushroom pizza
This is my alternative solution to barbecue chicken pizza, and it’s sooo easy. Instead of pizza sauce, spread a very thin even layer of barbecue sauce over the dough or pita. Slice up green peppers and red or white onion as thinly as you can, and cut in halves or quarters and spread on sauce. Thinly slice any kind of mushroom you like (white mushrooms work great for this) and then top with what ever cheese you like (I like marble or sharp cheddar for this)–or no cheese at all!
Barbecue cheese shish kabobs
This is another very, very, delicious barbecue idea. I’m sure you have other brands of barbecue cheese in the U.S., but here in Canada, most of the Loblaws brands of store will have the President’s Choice (PC) Halloom barbecue cheese. I L-O-V-E this stuff! It is a cheese that doesn’t turn into a puddle in the barbecue. You have to cook it for a much shorter time than meat, but it cooks quite nicely. You can marinate this cheese anyway you like, cut it into cubes, and carefully thread it onto the skewers alongside the other shish kabob ingredients (red onion, red, green, and yellow pepper, mushrooms, and yellow zucchini are just some of the options you have available to you). Just be careful to put the skewer right through the middle of the cheese cube so it doesn’t crack and break off while cooking.
Veggie Poutine
This is a Canadian favourite that nobody can really go wrong with. Make up homemade or commercial oven fries how you normally would (or use your home deep fryer if you’re being really bad!), and just top the fries and squeaky cheese curd with a heated store bought mushroom or other vegetable gravy.
This post is making me very hungry…stay tuned for the next post in the series, next week around this time…part three will be about veggie appetizers everyone will love.
Read the rest in this series:
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 1-Intro
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 3-Appetizers and First Courses
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 4-Main Course Options
Vegetarian Cooking Series-Part 5-The Holiday Feast
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