Are you vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, or do you just not feel like eating meat? No problem, but today is a day for barbecuing with family or friends and you're going to have to answer the age-old question: 'so what are you going to eat then?'. It's high time to put an end to preconceived ideas and show all the meat eaters that you can also enjoy a vegetarian barbecue. Demonstration with 4 typical BBQ dishes that will give you the impression of (almost) all eating the same thing!
1 - Jacket potato
After having cleaned, brushed and rinsed them well with water, the potatoes are cooked with their skins on, wrapped in aluminum foil, right in the embers of the barbecue. This cooking method gives flavour to the potato, which cooks in a sealed environment, and takes on a slightly smoky flavour. Allow approximately 30 minutes of cooking time before removing them from the embers, crushing them, cutting them in half, hollowing them out and garnishing them with a knob of salted butter, olive oil, fresh cream and chives.
As always, everyone interprets and revisits the recipe in their own way. For our part, we've replaced the potatoes with sweet potatoes that we've stuffed with cheese. Discover our recipe for sweet potatoes baked in foil with Cancoillotte cheese.
In a vegan version, the sweet potato can be garnished with grated vegan cheese, smoked or with herbs, and mixed with a little vegan cream to obtain a smooth result. You can also add a few slices of vegan mozzarella made from rice.
2 - Ribs
This popular American BBQ recipe is always a hit. Good news! We've found a vegetarian ribs recipe that's so similar to the real thing, it might fool even the biggest barbecue enthusiasts. Made from seitan, a wheat-flour-based plant substitute rich in protein with a texture similar to meat, this very comprehensive recipe guides you through making the dish from start to finish, including making your own seitan. However, you can easily find it in organic stores. There are even special grilling varieties, thicker and vacuum-packed like a real butcher's cut – it's easy to get confused!
As with pork ribs, it all comes down to the marinade! Whether you follow the recipe to the letter or already have your own for the meat version, you can use it to coat the seitan. Check out our recipe for 5-spice pork ribs. In any case, the longer the ribs are marinated, the better. Ideally, prepare them the day before and let them rest overnight.
3 - Hamburger
Easy to prepare, convivial and practical when hosting a lot of people at your BBQ. After preparing the basic ingredients to garnish the hamburgers: tomato slices, lettuce leaves, fried onions, slices of grilled or marinated vegetables, etc., all that's missing is the grilled steak. And when it comes to plant-based substitutes, there's something for everyone: soy, wheat, lentil, seitan, lupin steaks, with spices, with herbs: you're spoiled for choice.
Here are some original burger ideas for meat lovers that can easily be adapted into vegetarian versions by replacing the meat with a veggie steak:
You'll see, once they're on the grill, you won't even be able to tell the difference between meat and veggie steaks.
4 - Sausages, merguez, chipolatas
Here again, plant-based products are a great substitute. They come in all sorts of varieties: spicy, smoked, merguez... They are without a doubt the easiest products to cook since they require no preparation, whether they are meat-based or not. Simply grill them – the plant-based versions are a little more fragile, though, and require a slightly shorter cooking time – before slipping them into bread and serving with a little mustard, ketchup, or mayonnaise!
If you'd like to smoke your sausages in the Kokko to give them a little extra flavour, check out our Kokko smoking instructions. In this case, opt for sausages with a fairly neutral taste: plain Toulouse sausages or chipolatas on the meat side, plain soy or oat sausages on the vegetable side, so that the smoke perfumes the meat.
Now, there's no reason not to get together for a BBQ party, and why not for a lovely winter evening around the Kokko!
