Go to the Recipe: Three-Ingredient Plant-Based Ground “Meat”
In the video you said dehydrate to about 30% or so moisture but I don’t know what that looks like. Could you take a dehydrated piece of mushroom and one of the cauliflower and bend them or something to show how dry they are? The side-by-side of the raw vs dehydrated didn’t look that different to me (except the darker color). Or does it not really matter as long as you use the dehydrate setting on an oven.
Mushrooms and cauliflower are around 80% moisture so weighing the raw ingredients before baking will give you a final weight to aim for. For every 100g you want to bake out 70% of the moisture (0.7*80=56) if my maths are correct then the target would be 44% of original weight?
Anyone have an alternative for walnuts? This sounds great, but I have a partner with pecan and walnut allergies.
Brazil or macadamia nuts will work. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds usually hold no allergies across the board and work well as substitutes. You want a fatty seed or nut that has a bite to it when cooked to help with texture.
I only have a conventional oven, which is a bit on the cool side. How long would I spend dehydrating at not quite 170F, and should the convection setting be turned on?
For sure convection if you have it, and in a home oven and at that temp I would say you are done by about 3 hours. Just make sure to give it a stir every 30 minutes or so.
I’m thinking one could attempt this using dried mushrooms, which I’m always in abundance of because not being ready to make dashi is an unpardonable sin in my abode, but is the point of dehydrating fresh mushrooms yourself more of a cost consideration, dried mushrooms are expensive, or more of a control method, being able to ensure a uniform end result in the flavor profile each time?
Thanks for any reply.
It’s just a good general principle to get into the habit of weighing out your mise anytime you attempt a recipe you’ve never done before, or a recipe you’ve made a million times before. At home you don’t want to ruin your dinner by not being aware of how much of an ingredient is too much or too little and on the line you don’t want to incur the wrath of your chef by butchering the recipe they’ve entrusted you to cook properly.
Even more so if you’re experimenting with a recipe or trying to create your own.
Did I miss it, or is it specified for being raw or roasted walnut?
I appreciate that this recipe is minimally processed. Like it falls into NOVA group one where group four is the ultra-processed / refined junk food that's engineered for supermarkets etc. I also appreciate that this recipe works not just for vegans but is pretty suitable for a low carb or ketogenic diet as well. I know chefsteps is focussed on deliciousness and culinary wizardry rather than the latest health craze but.... It would be really epic if you could do a low carb theme for one newsletter / month (the diet is a good way to reverse type 2 diabetes, and various other issues related to inflammation and metabolic disorder) but despite the recent popularity of ketogenic diets and the tsunami of mediocre cookbooks; there aren't many culinary chef-level dishes around. It's all very home cook spin on the same pinterest idea. Like I ordered a book by michael silverstein that was meant to be chef-ish and it looks the same as every other book I have (dietdoctor.com has the ultimate collection of low carb knockoffs of old faves). Where's the textures/ tallow experiments/ savoury custards (ice cream?)/ bizarre salad dressings? If that's all too controversial for you guys then I would still love it if you guys would consider a minimal processing / whole food theme once. Keep well
We used raw, but any will work.
Studio Pass was a really good idea. I'm glad I signed up. Is there such a thing as a Chef steps cooking class? That would be my idea of a great vacation.
What is a good replacement for the walnuts? My wife is allergic to all nuts. A common issue with vegan or vegetarian recipes for us 😔
Can't wait to try this! Thanks, as always, Chefsteps. Is there a substitute/alternative for mushrooms here or in general?
Made this yesterday and used it for a shepherds pie, was delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
What about sun-dried tomatoes or beans/lentils?
Sweet mercy. That sounds delightful. Thank you!
Made this and used in a meat sauce. Great job! Couldn't be easier.
I wanted to do a double batch, was short on creminis, and realized I had some dried shiitakes in the pantry. They subbed in just fine--I cut them into smaller pieces to ease processing. Not precisely the answer you were looking for, I think, but definitely go for it.
Any indication on the nutritional values of the dehydrated mixture (e.g. calories, carbs and protein per ounce)?
Really love the plant based recipes. Thanks for this one
I really like to use edamam.com for this--they provide a service for recipe websites that automatically generates nutrition labels, but you can also just plug in your own recipe. It's really convenient for CS recipes, because the input accepts grams for everything I've tried so far.
If you use this recipe to make four 100-gram servings, Edamam calculates each serving to have 230 calories, with 20 g fat, 10 g carbs (of which 4 g are fiber), and 8 g protein.
How to store it and how long would be keep?
In a sealed container in your fridge. For 1 week, two max.
This vegan content is the reason I subscribed to Studio Pass. So glad I did!
used this in a meat sauce, and added some nutritional yeast and miso just to up the umami content, and it really did taste of ground meat, especially in a hearty tomatoes sauce.
Any reason to not store in the freezer?
No reason not too.
I signed up for studio pass for the plant based recipes. Wow, exceeded my expectations. I'm a home chef who does a lot of classic French and other techniques for cooking and baking, but thought it would be great to learn how to make classic - and new modern - recipes that are plant based. Thanks Chef Steps!
Can I replace the mushrooms with an alternative? I don't like or eat mushrooms.
There are a few comments and answers on that in the comments below. But there is not a replacement that we tested or developed.
You can try lettuce cores, artichokes, or burdock root. The mushroom flavor is not in your face and is balanced when combined with other seasonings. You may want to try it before swapping out, you never know. My wife hates cauliflower but will eat this.
