I have begun to document the substitutions I make in some popular recipes, and how I recreate non-vegetarian flavours. This list will grow over time, so bookmark or pin and check back.
Vegetarian Substitutions
Item | Substitution |
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fish sauce |
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oyster sauce |
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Worcestershire Sauce |
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shrimp paste |
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anchovies |
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Eggs | Substitution |
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fried or poached eggs topping a dish | Burrata |
egg used as a thickener or binder |
Often chickpea flour will work well. I use per egg: 1 Tblspn chickpea flour, 1 Tblspn cream, 0.25 tspn eno. |
egg based batters or dipping for deep frying | A batter from chickpea flour with a little eno or baking soda to aerate it works well. Mix with cream or milk. It is excellent for French Toast too. |
egg custard | Besan Payasam |
rice pudding with eggs | Greek Rice Pudding |
mayonnaise | Condensed Milk Mayonnaise or Creamy Dressing or Yoghurt Dressing |
Meats and Stocks | Substitution |
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meat in some dishes with a gravy or sauce |
Add a small amount of cumin seed or powder with these replacements. A little dark soy (eg Kepak Asin) can be added to the gravy or sauce. |
meat stocks | What you want to add to dishes that use meat stocks (rather than chicken or fish stock) is the deep earthy flavours of meat. I use a selection of cumin, black cardamom, bay leaf, Indian bay leaf, juniper berries, allspice berries, a few black peppercorns, Kepak Asin, and dried shiitake mushrooms. You can add a little dark miso as well.
This deeply flavoured coconut stock will work for SE Asian and some other dishes. |
chicken stocks | Often plain water will do, but I also use a light vegetable stock. This Indian one is simple and very good. Here is an Asian Flavoured stock. Add a little umaboshi plum or a dash of umaboshi vinegar to the stock as well if you like – just a small dash.
Light miso makes a great stock. It is surprising how well a stock made from left over sweet corn kernels and cobs substitutes for chicken stock. I keep vegetable stocks in the freezer (here is one made from peelings), but if I have run out I add some herbs and spices directly into the dish to create the stock flavour while the dish is cooking. The point with veg stocks is that you don’t want the stock flavours to be punchy and overwhelm the dish or alter the flavours of the dish. It needs to highlight and lift a dish with background flavours. Subtle and unassertive. A turnip added to a vegetable stock when making it lifts it to the next level. A little acid is good too – a wedge of lemon or a dash of umaboshi, red or black vinegar. |
dashi stock | Use this seaweed based vegetarian dashi. |
prosciutto | when used for flavour in cooked dishes use bay leaves, cumin and black cardamom instead. |
chicken | cauliflower florets |
Substitutions when the Cupboards are Bare
Ingredient | Substitution |
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dry white wine |
A mix of verjuice and mirin |
marsala (port wine) | prunes, chopped and soaked. They can be pureed. |
rice vinegar | I sometimes use a palm vinegar for rice vinegar or wine vinegar, as I love the taste |
harissa | chilli paste |
reshteh noodles | udon, soba or chinese flat noodles |
sushi rice | south Indian short grained rice like Pooni rice |
tomato paste | tomatoes pureed in the blender |
yellow lentils | channa dal or toor dal, depending on the recipe |
yellow split peas | these are mator dal – the dried peeled and split seeds of Pisum sativum. There are yellow and green varieties which are mechanically split so that they will cook faster. They are very different from toor dal or chana dal although they look similar. Mator dal is relatively common in Bengal.
If it is difficult to find mator dal, use chana dal. |
yuzu juice | lime + cumquat juice |
yuzu powder | citrus rind |
Fruits and Vegetables | Substitution |
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alphonso mangoes | mixture of papaya and other mangoes |
broad beans | edamame |
edamame | broad beans |
jicama (yam bean) | kohlrabi |
kohlrabi | jicama (yam bean) |
pomegranate kernels | barberries from the Afghan shop |
prunes | marsala (a port wine) |
shimeji mushrooms | pearl mushrooms (baby) |
sorrel | watercress, purslane |
dried sour cherries | barberries from Afghan shop, goji berries |
tomato paste | tomatoes pureed in the blender |
watercress | sorrel, purslane, nasturtium leaves |