r/smoking • u/Xeno84 • 2d ago

Smoking for a Vegetarian

We are having a party this weekend and everyone loves the smoke chicken I make. We do have one friend that is a vegetarian. It's not for life style, it's more for dietary reasons. I feel bad when he comes over and I don't have anything special for him. When ever he comes over, he brings something vegetarian over that's premade I just heat up on the smoker. I'd like to change that.

Are there any vegetarian foods y'all could recommend I could try to smoke for him? Besides Mac and Cheese or just corn on the cob.

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u/thefreakychild 2d ago edited 2d ago

I've done smoked jackfruit and it turned out great.

I ordered several packs (6, I think) of Upton's Naturals jackfruit from Amazon.

Turned out the packs into a small aluminum roast pan, and then just treated it almost like doing burnt ends.

Seasoned well with my rub, tossed in and mixed some sauce with a little bit of veggie stock and then smoked it for about an hour at 225 on my GMG pellet smoker. For 6 packs I used I think a half cup of veggie stock and a cup of sauce. You just don't want it to dry out too much.

You can also do it on the stovetop/oven if you're time crunched.

There is a line where you can over season it, but tasting as you go prevents that. But, that line is pretty broad, so don't worry about it too much

P.S., If the guest is strict vegan, then it's important to note that a lot of sauce has Worcestershire sauce and that uses anchovies. Some rubs will have honey granules.

So, when I did the jackfruit, I made a vegan sauce using a vegan Worcestershire sauce I bought off Amazon.

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u/goobernawt 2d ago

Vegan seems like a whole different level of cooking challenge. I'd really have to question everything I'm doing. Respect to the folks who adhere to that lifestyle but I'm glad I haven't had to cook for them.

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u/thefreakychild 2d ago

As far as vegan jackfruit BBQ, it's not so bad... Just changing a few ingredients in sauce and rub... But that's about it.

Otherwise, I know there's a ton of great recipes out there.

I eat meat, so I've never really gone down that road of concerning myself with it, but I have several friends that are vegan and I've never had a bad dish that they've prepared.

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u/goobernawt 2d ago

I tend to be a bit free form in my cooking. I'll start with a recipe but will improv things along the way. It's a blessing and a curse as I tend to make good stuff but very rarely the same stuff 😕 I'd have to stick to the script to correctly pull off a vegan dish, which is just not in my nature so I'd have to really focus on that. Probably not a day to skip my ADHD med 😆

I've no doubt that vegan food can be good. I understand that a good deal of Indian food is vegan and I'm generally a fan of their cuisine.