Hi folks! On Friday, some friends are coming over to play Unfathomable, a board game set on a boat in the Cthulhu mythos, so I thought it would be fun to cook something with a bit of a seafood / ocean taste. Only catch: I’m vegetarian, so no fish.
I’m looking for inspiration for something that might have this sort of flavor. So far, I’ve thought about something using wakame or nori sheets, but although I do have experience cooking Chinese and Japanese dishes, I couldn’t think of any sort of full dish that might have the right taste.
I’m aware that there are vegan “fake salmon” or “fake tuna” things that you can buy, but I haven’t been too impressed with those so far.
Any thoughts?
My first thought is that making a vegan dashi should be easy. Put some dried kombu and shitake in water in the fridge overnight, then boil the mixture, strain the solids and skim any foam/particulates off the top and now you’ve got an seafood broth you can use for soups/pastas/etc
I’ve never made a vegan dashi, but that certainly sounds like an option, and relatively straightforward. I’m then thinking what I could make with it…when I think of a fishy dashi, I’d likely end up with some sort of noodle soup. Any other thoughts?
I also would lean towards noodle soups. I like a Korean soup called Sundubu-jjigae that uses tofu and veggies. You could also use the dashi broth to make rice and now you’ve got seafood rice without animal products