MY HOMEMADE VEGGIE MEAT

FOOD & TRAVEL

MY HOMEMADE VEGGIE MEAT

One Batch, So Many Possibilities

By Teresa Davis | Travel & Lifestyle Explorer

The veggie mixture cooking down into a hearty, crumble-like texture.

I’ve been experimenting with more vegetarian recipes lately, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to make my own veggie meat. What I liked most about it was that one big batch could become the starting point for several completely different meals.

My mixture starts with portobello mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, cauliflower and walnuts. Each ingredient is processed until it reaches a small, crumble-like texture, then everything is combined and cooked down together. Tomato paste and a savory blend of seasonings bring the mixture together.

What I Used

• Portobello mushrooms - about 2 large mushrooms, or a package of baby bellas if large portobellos are not available

• Carrots

• Onion

• Garlic

• Walnuts - 1/2 cup

• Frozen riced cauliflower

• Tomato paste

• About 1 tablespoon liquid aminos or soy sauce

• Italian seasoning

• Thyme

• Ground sage

• Oregano

• Paprika

• Garlic seasoning or garlic powder

• Ground cumin

• Onion powder, to taste

For this first batch, I seasoned as I went rather than measuring every spice precisely, so I’m keeping the seasoning amounts flexible in this review draft instead of pretending I used exact measurements I didn’t record.

My Time-Saving Cauliflower Shortcut

Instead of buying a whole head of cauliflower and processing it myself, I used a bag of frozen riced cauliflower. I microwaved it for about five minutes, transferred it to a colander, let it cool a little and drained out the excess water. That saved me an extra round of chopping and processing.

Building the Crumble

The processed vegetables before the mixture was fully seasoned and cooked down.

I processed the carrots, mushrooms, onion, garlic and 1/2 cup of walnuts separately in the food processor, taking each one down to a small crumble before adding it to the bowl. Then I mixed in the drained riced cauliflower. Processing the ingredients separately gave me more control over the texture and helped keep any one ingredient from becoming too finely blended.

Seasoning the Veggie Meat

The seasonings I used for this batch: Italian seasoning, thyme, sage, oregano, paprika, garlic seasoning and cumin.

Tomato paste was another important part of the mixture.

Once the vegetables had cooked down in my wok-style pan, I added tomato paste, liquid aminos and my seasonings. I used liquid aminos in this batch, although soy sauce can also be used. This is where the mixture really started taking on the deep, savory flavor I was looking for.

The tomato paste mixed with the walnuts before I added it into the rest of the veggie-meat mixture.

I kept cooking and turning the mixture until the excess moisture had cooked away and the texture looked more like hamburger crumbles. The mushrooms, walnuts and vegetables all contribute something different, but together they create a substantial base that can hold up in recipes where I would normally use ground meat.

The finished veggie meat cooked down to the crumble-like consistency I was looking for.

One Batch, Several Meals

This made a large batch, which was exactly what I wanted. I used part of it for vegetarian Sloppy Joes and another portion for my vegetarian Hamburger Helper-style dish. I separated the rest into smaller bags so I could use it later in other meals, including ideas such as a vegetarian Philly Cheesesteak.

Teresa’s Take

What I liked most about making veggie meat was having one mixture that I could turn into several completely different meals. There is some prep work at the beginning, but once the batch is cooked, portioning it out makes the next meal much easier. And using frozen riced cauliflower is a shortcut I would absolutely use again.

Coming Next

Next in this vegetarian mini-series: how I turned this homemade veggie meat into Vegetarian Sloppy Joes, followed by my Vegetarian Hamburger Helper-style dish.

About Teresa

Hi, I’m Teresa Davis, a Florida travel and lifestyle writer sharing memorable destinations, food experiences and discoveries from my travels.

Every destination has a story. Thanks for exploring this one with me.