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Can you really do vegetarian BBQ? Ideas?

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syndicate559

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I searched through the few threads that kind of covered this and found mostly side ideas that were truly vegetarian and mostly grilled at that. I have some very good friends who are veggies, though, and they really want me to do some BBQ for an end-of-season bicycle racing team party. They're considering letting me do turkey for it, but I need to come up with a couple of good veggie options too. I feel confident that I can convert my existing mac 'n cheese and bean recipes to vegetarian and make them taste good. Considering trying ABTs with fake bacon and seeing how that goes. I'd like to come up with something that is actually really good and doesn't use any meat that I can actually smoke and not just grill. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
 
As a former vegetarian, I can tell you that the reason veggies are usually grilled and rarely smoked is that the flavoring and tenderizing that smoking does to meat is not the same as what it does to vegetables.

But, a couple ideas:

Smoked stuffed mushroom caps - stuff cheese, spinach, and sautéed onions in mushroom cap and smoke until cheese is melted.

Smoked guacamole - Smoke all ingredients for an hour and then prepare as normal.

These are just off the top of my head. If I think of more, I'll add them to the list!
 
Nice, I appreciate it. And if you think of anything else, I'd absolutely love to hear. Did you ever try to smoke any of the meat substitutes?
 
baked pasta. Do up a pasta dish so that the pasta is slightly undercooked. Put everything(sauce, pasta and whatever else) in a foil pan/dish/casserole pan...etc. if using cheese, spread on top. Now grill/smoke until pasta is done. Easy/quick vegetarian meal if you don't add meat. Now, if they're, vegan, that's a horse of a different color.
 
You can compress and smoke tofu, it works well. You can smoke seitan 'sausage' and it will take a light smoking well. Almost all meat substitutes will not take a long cook, as they have a lot of moisture and once that is gone, they are hard to enjoy.
 
syndicate559 said:
Nice, I appreciate it. And if you think of anything else, I'd absolutely love to hear. Did you ever try to smoke any of the meat substitutes?
Click to expand...

It's not grilling or barbecue, but the best stir-fry is outdoors, using a 60k+ BTU propane burner ($50 on Amazon) and a good carbon steel wok ($30 on Amazon).

Indoor "stir-fry" isn't really stir-fry--more like stir-braise; the 10-15k BTU gas burners just aren't strong enough.

You could impress your vegetarian guests with this powerful wok/burner while you barbecue meats for the rest, at the same time, outdoors.

This is the propane burner I went with off of Amazon:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000291GBQ"]Amazon.com: Bayou Classic SP10 High-Pressure Outdoor Gas Cooker, Propane: Patio, Lawn & Garden[/ame]
 
I smoke eggplant, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, onions all the time! It is one way I will eat veggies when surrounded with great smoked meat. I use garlic canola oil and lemon pepper. To make the oil I start with a pan full of garlic cloves, cover with canola oil and simmer about 25 mins till the gloves are butter soft. Put those into a jar and in the fridge for cooking later, put the canola oil into a squeeze bottle and in the fridge, it stays liquid form, doing this with olive oil is great too, just know the olive oil turns into a paste like butter once in the fridge. Makes great garlic toast! You could probably do that to most any veggy, and make quite a spread for them along with the garlic bread. Just a thought.
 
mrbill said:
baked pasta. Do up a pasta dish so that the pasta is slightly undercooked. Put everything(sauce, pasta and whatever else) in a foil pan/dish/casserole pan...etc. if using cheese, spread on top. Now grill/smoke until pasta is done. Easy/quick vegetarian meal if you don't add meat. Now, if they're, vegan, that's a horse of a different color.
Click to expand...

thankfully, they're not vegan. That would make it virtually impossible. I don't know how those people survive!
 
Do they eat eggs? I have smoked hard boiled eggs and they make awesome egg salad, deviled eggs and so on. I used cherry wood. Peel them first, of course.

Not true BBQ but still really good.
 
misterrachel said:
You can make a very good fake pulled pork out of jackfruit. I've done this myself for visiting vegans/vegetarians and they loved it.

For an example, check out this one:

http://chowvegan.com/2008/05/28/bbq-pulled-jackfruit-sandwich/

and

http://archives.quarrygirl.com/2011/10/24/bbq-jackfruit-sandwich-recipe-from-the-sexy-vegan/
Click to expand...

Now THAT is the kind of stuff I'm looking for. While I find the thought of eating vegan or even vegetarian somewhat insane, this actually made me want to try cooking this and see for myself. The second link with the video is really helpful and I think I have some ideas of how to pull this off with my own rubs and sauces. Bottom line is I love my friends and I'd be really excited to make something that sufficiently imitated real BBQ and made them really happy.
 
syndicate559 said:
Now THAT is the kind of stuff I'm looking for. While I find the thought of eating vegan or even vegetarian somewhat insane, this actually made me want to try cooking this and see for myself. The second link with the video is really helpful and I think I have some ideas of how to pull this off with my own rubs and sauces. Bottom line is I love my friends and I'd be really excited to make something that sufficiently imitated real BBQ and made them really happy.
Click to expand...

:)

I think it comes out pretty darn tasty. It's very filling too. Another variation is to make "carnitas" for tacos, which I've also done with great success. Here's the link for it:

http://cleangreensimple.com/2011/06/jackfruit-carnitas/

Oh, and I know those posts mention it, but make sure you get the canned jackfruit in brine, NOT in syrup (that'd be a nasty surprise).
 
Ive been wanting to put a spaghetti squash on the smoker to try and get a vegan "pulled pork". Ive smoked onions for a smoked barley risotto with gouda cheese. Can also do some stuffed peppers and put them on the smoker rather than in an oven, same with vegetables enchiladas, or smoke the tomatoes, onions, garlic and jalapenos for the enchilada sauce; smoked instead of fried chili rellenos; smoked seitan or tempeh sloppy joes.
 
Stuffed bell peppers that are stuffed with some sort of vegan junk.. beans, rice, veggies. Go easy on the smoke though.
 
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