So, I've been cooking for some vegan friends who are staying with me

[jpgray]

I cook virtually everthing I eat, and I have made a couple of my staple dishes vegan for them without too much trouble. The problem is, I need a substitute for fish and poultry, both as protein providers and as tasty objects when seared in a pan with olive oil. The main importance of this isn't the taste so much as it is the balance and weight the resulting oil and cooked meat give to a sauce. For example I have a three-hour-reduced tomato sauce that will be too acidic and garlicy without something to balance it. I've heard of various soy/tofu products, etc., and tempeh--what would you recommend I give a try?

[Kenneth ken]

1. there is

a favorite meat substitute thread around here somewhere (maybe page 2) - I'll go kick it for you.

My choice would be to use portabella mushrooms, added kind of late for tatse and texture, though they're not much for protein. Myself, when I want protein, I go for a bean dish (making red beans and rice sometime Saturday), or tofu, but I don't think tofu cooks very well, so I pretty much only use it in breakfast burritos, where it gets kind of scrambled eggy.

Here's a tomato sauce I like:

1/4 C Olive oil
1 med onion minced
½ bell pepper minced
10 cloves garlic minced
½ lb mushrooms minced
3 x 28 oz blended plum tomatoes
3 x 6 oz tomato paste
½ C dry wine
1 t basil
1 t parsley
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
1 t sage
1 t rosemary
1 t crushed red pepper
2 T sugar
3 bay leaves
1 t salt
½ t pepper

Heat the olive oil
Add onion, green pepper, garlic, mushrooms saute until tender
Add all other ingredients, Bring to boil
Reduce heat, simmer for 4+ hours.

hope that helps. You could also, always ask your friends, they'd probably have ideas of their own.

:hi:

[Robeson]

2. Hope you don't mind....

...I just copied and posted your recipe for tomato sauce on the recipe thread, of course, giving you full credit.....



:hi:

[jpgray]

5. Thanks for the advice

I think portabellos are a little too earthy for what I'm looking for, but unless you were a mind-reader you wouldn't know that. :D

These people are philistines when it comes to cooking--black bean dip is about as far as they've taken it.

[CrispyQ]

3. A suggestion: seitain.

It's texture is more meat like than tofu & tempeh. You can find it by the tofu. Check the label! Some varieties have honey. It comes in a kind of big chunk & you can cut it into smaller chunks.

[jpgray]

6. Thanks

I've been experimenting with a mix of broccoli and onion browned in oil--this gets some of the "animal fat" balancing power I'm looking for in a way vegetable stock (or even chicken stock) can't. I'll definitely try adding the seitan to those flavors and see what I come up with. It's been a fun challenge so far. :)

[prolesunited]

4. Not sure

But I when are you inviting me over for dinner. :hi:

[jpgray]

7. Next time you feel like doing four centuries in a row?

:D