How to flavor without fat in vegetarian food?

I'm adjusting my tomato/meat sauce for a vegetarian friend and while I can keep all the other flavors (garlic, fresh herbs, etc) I need to replace the meat with Boca or something like that. Without the grease from the ground beef I usually use I know I'm going to lose some flavor as well as some texture. I don't like adding oil because it very rarely seems to mix in well without pooling, so I have no idea what to add. Thoughts?

I'm not sure you *have* to add anything. It certainly won't be flavorless without meat.

You can add any vegetable...I like mushrooms. Peppers and summer squashes (zucchini) work well.

Are you going to sautee the meat substitute in a little oil before adding it to the sauce? I've done it before with Boca and I think maybe some TVP in college, and it didn't pool badly in the sauce. In the case of the Boca, the sauteing brought out the flavor that was there.

I agree that it certainly won't be flavorless without the meat. Sometimes, simpler is better, too. That said, two things occur to me: good (as in not canned) olives or sun-dried tomatoes. Anything with a concentrated flavor, if that's your concern.

Yes, I would sautee it with probably some additional seasonings. I don't really like veggies in my tomato sauce except for maybe some mushrooms so I don't want to bulk it up with them and change the flavor that much. I'd like to keep the sauce as true to its natural form as possible, just without the meat. I think flavoring the fake meat is my main concern.

If you sautee veggies in olive oil, the oil should provide a good oily flavor-conveyor. I've not had problems with pooling, and it seems like if you cook the veggies in a little olive oil (rather than simply adding oil to the sauce), I doubt that pooling would be a problem.

Penny wrote:Yes, I would sautee it with probably some additional seasonings. I don't really like veggies in my tomato sauce except for maybe some mushrooms so I don't want to bulk it up with them and change the flavor that much. I'd like to keep the sauce as true to its natural form as possible, just without the meat. I think flavoring the fake meat is my main concern.

Well, honestly, I'm a little confused about what you are after. You want to replace the flavor lost from not including meat. But you also don't want to change the flavor or texture that much; you want to keep the sauce as true to its natural form as possible.

It sounds like your hoping someone suggests adding spice mixture XYZ, which will mimic the flavors of meat. There's nothing vegetarian that I'm aware of that can add a meaty flavor.

Like I wrote above, I think your best option is to leave out the meat and not worry about it. That will change the flavor as little as possible. The sauce will still have a good flavor from the tomatoes, garlic, and basil.

Here are some more ideas that boost flavor without changing the texture or the "natural" flavor you already have: (1) add some vinegar to the sauce (wine, balsamic, etc). (2) add some real wine to the sauce; (3) add a small amount of stronger alcohol, such as vodka, gin, etc. All three of these will boost the flavor of the sauce. The vinegar will give it a bit of tang. (4) You can add a little vegetable stock or mushroom stock to the sauce. (5) Be sure you add sufficient salt to bring out the flavors in the sauce. I also like to add a little sugar to help bring out the sweetness in the tomatoes.

Good luck and report back

Red wine is a great idea, and I considered marinating the mushrooms in balsamic to give it an extra kick as well. I'm familiar with Boca crumbles, but I know there are other brands out there - anyone have a thought on which they like better?

I agree, olive oil should not present a "pooling" problem. I often add a couple of drops of toasted sesame oil to non-meat dishes to give a hint of charred fat flavor. But there are enough other flavors in a red sauce, it should stand up on its own. Personally, I would forgo the meat substitute entirely. Just be sure to use lots of garlic and wine. A few drops of balsamic vinegar at the end also gives a nice deep flavor. If your friend eats cheese, serve it with a nice strong cheese. Incanestrato is currently my favorite cheese for pasta.

When I make vegetarian beans and rice or pea soup, I will throw in a tablespoon of sunflower oil, mixed with a few drops of sesame oil and some liquid sm*ke to simulate bacon or ham.

Try the pappardelle with vegetable bolognese sauce on the Epicurious website. It has a dried mushroom and red bell pepper base that has a surprisingly meaty texture and taste.

Here is the link. I think.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recip ... ews/236401

Are anchovies vegetarian? (No, really.)

unbeknowneth wrote:Are anchovies vegetarian? (No, really.)

No. (Although there are fish-eating "vegetarians" out there, if anyone identified themselves as a vegetarian to me, I would assume fish is absolutely out unless otherwise specified.)

Personally, I would not add that Boca fake meat crap. (Sorry, not a fan of Boca). I would just drop the meat, use a good olive oil (Frantoia is my favorite) for the fat, and not bother substituting or adding anything. I'm an avid meat eater, but my favorite pasta sauce is a spicy arrabiata which contains no meat. You certainly do not need meat to make tomato sauce taste good. You need good tomatoes. If you really, really want to keep the texture, then I'm not sure what you could add. Mushrooms wouldn't be too bad, but they would certainly alter the flavor of your sauce a bit.

I make meatless tomato sauce about once a week. I always start it off with onions sauteed in a couple tablespoons of Olive oil and never have a problem. In fact, Marcella Hazan specifies in most of her pasta sauce recipies that you can tell when the sauce is done when the oil/fats rise to the top.

I also read somewhere - maybe Howard McGee? - that some flavor compounds in tomatoes will only dissolve in fats, so you need some sort of fat (or oil) in any tomato based sauce to bring out the full flavor.

I use mushrooms frequently - sometimes mixing re-constituted dried porcinis for taste along with plain white mushrooms for substance. I always sautee them at the start along with the onions to evaporate some of the liquid and concentrate the flavor.

Another option could be a Puttenesca Sauce (olives, peppers, capers, tomatos, parsley, etc) sans the standard anchovies.

Shirley Corriher, who wrote Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking, found to taste something fully you need these elements present: water, fat and alcohol:

A Cook's tips for flavorful low-fat food by Shirley Corriher wrote:If you don't have a little fat in a dish to dissolve and carry fat-soluble flavors, they are lost. Some flavor components dissolve in water and some in fat. If we totally eliminate fat, we lose all these fat-soluble flavors. You might have noticed that some fat-free food is truly bland. �

Then there is the dry sherry. Remember that some flavors dissolve in water and some in fat. Alcohol dissolves both fat and water and some things that don't dissolve in either fat or water. Patricia Wells, the famous Paris restaurant critic, once asked me why a little vodka makes such a difference in the taste of a tomato sauce. Vodka doesn't have much taste, and the sauce was boiled for 20 minutes after the vodka was added, so a lot of it boiled off. There must be a flavor component in tomatoes that dissolves in alcohol. Once the alcohol has dissolved the flavor and pulled it out into the sauce, it doesn't matter what happens to the alcohol; it has done its job.

So it all works together.

Cathy2 wrote:Shirley Corriher, who wrote Cookwise...

That's it! Cookwise is a great resource.