Dominican Style Vegan Ground “Meat”

I haven't eaten meat in over a year, and while I don't miss it, I do miss some of the dishes that are dear to me. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some delectable mushroom Pastelitos that I posted. I'd love to give you that recipe, but my SD card had other ideas and deleted all of my photos. Needless to say, the star of that recipe is this mushroom dish, which can be used in almost any recipe that calls for ground beef.

Lets start with what you will need!

5 cups of minced mushrooms!

1 whole onion (Chopped)

1/2 Green Bell Pepper (Chopped)

1/2 Jalapeno Pepper (Chopped)

2 tsp. All Purpose Seasoning of choice

1 tbsp. Sofrito

1 tbsp. Garlic Paste

1 tsp. Tomato Paste

2 tbsp. Olive Oil

As much Cayenne Pepper as your heart desires :-)

Now let’s cook!

As someone new to not eating meat, it took me some time to figure out not every mushroom is the same. For you to get the best texture I recommend a medley of minced Shitake, Oyster and Baby Bell mushrooms. I throw mine in a food processor to mince into bite sized pieces that replicate ground meat. Now, please do not go into this thinking this will identical in texture to ground meat. Meat is meat. These are Mushrooms, but it gets pretty close and tastes AMAZING.

Once your mushrooms are prepped, you can set them aside, and to a hot skillet, add your olive oil, onions and peppers. You want to cook this on medium to high heat until your onions are translucent and start to slightly caramelize.

Follow with your tomato paste and mix well.

Now for fun part! Add your mushrooms, sofrito, your all purpose seasoning of choice and garlic paste. Blend well and let simmer for about 20 min. or until all of the water is released and evaporated. I love to cook this down until I start to see some crispy bits. It creates major flavor and texture.

The result is a versatile mushroom ground “meat” substitute. Easy enough to make, you can pair this with rice or leverage as a meat substitute in many recipes.

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think and how you’ve used it!

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Meatless Pasteles En Hoja

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Sofrito