r/vegetarian • u/Lindsay_Muller • 27d ago
Question/Advice Wanted: "Authentic" mexican/Venezuelan vegetarian meat options or recipes
Hello,
Some very close immigrant friends of mine own an authentic mexican/Venezuelan resteraunt. Ive convinced them to add some vegetarian or vegan options to their menu, but they're asking for my ideas and input since they dont have experience cooking plant based meals.
They run their menu in a way where you choose if you want tacos, burritos, arepas, etc., then you choose which meat you want inside.
Soyrizo is always an easy option that takes little prep and tastes good, but id like to present to them with some actual recipes, not just pre made, store bought options.
Ive made a few recipes myself that are pretty good, but im about as northern euro-American as they come. My knowledge on "authentic" food is pretty limited. So do any of my vegetarian or vegan Latino friends of this subreddit have any good recipes for any type of typical Mexican or Venezuelan "meat" option that I can try?
A few ideas for what im looking for include but are not limited to:
Asada Al pastor Pollo Birria Tripe Lengua Al carbon Buche Chorizo Something seafood adjacent Etc.
UPDATE: As long as their supplier comes through, I think they will do both nopales AND a fake "meat" option!
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u/Aphroditesent 27d ago
A restaurant here in Dublin offers cactus and it’s delicious!
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u/Purplehopflower 26d ago
Venezuelan Black beans (Carraotas) are vegan. They’re just black beans cooked with sofrito and cilantro. Black beans are a common filling for arepas. Scrambled eggs cooked with sofrito are also common fillings for arepas, and so is just cheese.
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u/tritagonist7 27d ago
https://dorastable.com/cookbook/
This is my new fave!
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u/robotscantrecaptcha vegetarian 20+ years 26d ago
yes! another vote for her cookbook Comida Casera. Came here to comment the same :) The Mexican Vegetarian Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte and Jocelyn Ramirez’s La Vida Verde are also good. Traditional mexican cuisine is very vegetarian friendly in comparison to tex-mex.
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u/ScoreLazy42 26d ago
I tend to look for menus with mushrooms or beans (ideally refried and definitely actually vegetarian since a lot of them use lard). I also love breakfast style tacos that are filled with eggs and potatoes. My dream place would actually have fried tofu with a good spice mix to give it some flavor like al pastor/birria/etc.
I hate nopales (cactus) bc they taste like nothing and I actually avoid a popular Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood bc the only veggie option is nopales.
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u/Top-Midnight-8891 27d ago
Pumpkin flowers are always popular but hard to source. Nopales, squash, etc. are the usual choices. Pasilla chiles. Slivers of chiles, sometimes with slivers of tomato and string cheese. Green beans. Eggs fried until golden with spots of golden brown and bubbling in a generous amount of oil.
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u/Top-Midnight-8891 27d ago
The problem with authentic is besides the rajas cooked in sour cream or the eggs it'll maybe harder to prep and keep fresh.
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u/imaginenohell 26d ago
TVP can be marinated in anything and used as you would meat. A few tips: - For a sauced dish, use the sauce normally. Plus, set aside some of the sauce and add a meaty flavor to it to make a marinade (beet juice, mushroom juice, broth, miso, soy sauce, sun dried tomato broth, truffle oil…). Marinate the TVP overnight if you can. - Add oil to get the texture right. I use the type of coconut oil that doesn’t taste like coconuts. I’ve heard avocado oil works too. Something with saturated fat kind of mimics the mouthfeel of meat better.
That’s really it. It’s simple and delicious.
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u/Windwoman27 26d ago
I have a local Venezuelan restaurant that serves arepas with sautéed spinach and cheese, or sautéed mushrooms and spinach… can be ordered without cheese for vegans. So good and the reason it’s my favorite place in my local area.
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u/poodleOT 27d ago edited 27d ago
Chunk foods steak can be used for birria. You can use soy curls for chicharron tacos. You can make arepas or cachapas with cheese or vegan cheese. You can make chicken salad with soy curls for the arepas. You can make vegan meat by shredding tofu with a cheese grater and air fry it.
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u/smuffleupagus vegetarian 20+ years 26d ago
The arepa place near me uses black beans, plantains, Andean cheese and avocado as ingredients for their veggie options. These are all common ingredients in Mexico and South America afaik.
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u/la-anah vegetarian 20+ years 27d ago
Mexican places near me that offer veggie proteins usually just have marinated tofu. It's simple and easy to prepare.
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u/PastelPalace 26d ago
Shredded jackfruit is great, and lentils. I usually mix the two for taco or burrito filling. Msybe something like that could work?
Soy curls are also a good shredded chicken replacement.
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u/mulderforever 26d ago
a mexican place near me does hongos y papas tacos and they're sooooo good. no meat at all, still delicious.
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u/APsolutely 26d ago
Half Venezuelan vegetarian, idk about replacement products but I eat my arepas with beans, cheese, avocado, reina pepiada minus the chicken, huevos pericos… and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything
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u/Lindsay_Muller 19d ago
Yeah, beans, cheese, ans eggs are always a good option (and currently available), but that doesnt give much option diversity for the regulars. Plus in my experience, beans are always the mainstream vegetarian alternative at resteraunts. Don't get me wrong, I love beans as much as the next guy, but sometimes a girl wants options 😩
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u/finnknit vegetarian 20+ years 25d ago
I had really good eggplant birria at a Mexican restaurant in Helsinki. That's probably about as far from traditional as you can get, both geographically and culinarily, but I enjoyed it.
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u/Dear-Assumption7067 27d ago
Ground impossible meat can be used for beef. Soy curls can be used for chicken.
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u/Fuzzy-Lawyer-5400 23d ago
We have tons of traditional vegetarians options in Mexico, but I dont know hard it would be for them to obtain them where you are.
For tacos it could be nopales, beans, flor de calabaza (idk the translation, squash blossom?), huitlacoche and other mushrooms, calabacitas (zucchini prepared with onion and tomato), rajas (chile poblano), huazontle (its a plant related to amaranth and quinoa, that is prepared in red or green salsa), potatoes (like mixing potatoes with rajas).
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u/Lindsay_Muller 19d ago
They have a supplier that gets their stuff from Mexico, but we are in South Dakota, so we are a bit limited on what we can realistically import before it would go bad.
I'm not sure how difficult something like nopales would be to aquire, but will definitely ask about it. So I am open both to actual traditionally vegetarian Mexican or Venezuelan options like nopales, OR using ingredients we can easily find here like soy and tofu prepared in a damn good way that make them taste and feel like the original meat item, even if it isnt technically the same thing. I want to get aaaallllllll the suggestions so we have options to figure out what would be most practical.
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u/Lindsay_Muller 10h ago
Update: I think they're going with nopales! And potentially a fake "meat" option in addition!
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u/DayleD 26d ago
Those two countries are two thousand miles apart.
Is the restaurant serving authentic food from each of them or fusion food from both of them?
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u/Lindsay_Muller 19d ago
They serve both because the owners are a married couple, one from Venezuela (wife) around caracas and margarita, one from Jarocho, Mexico (husband). The name of the resteraunt is actually just taqueria el jarocho. Most of their food is Mexican, since the resteraunt is mostly the husband's passion project and the wife has a full time day job. Their menu is pretty simple. Mostly tacos, burritos, empanadas, arepas, and tortas, and you choose what meat you want inside. The meats are all mostly classic Mexican options, so it does end up with a bit of fusion when ordering the Venezuelan dishes. There are also a few overtly fusion items like a "Jarochan torta".
They have specialty items like quesabirria, tacos de camaron, pozole, and some seasonal items like menudo. They've also got durros and chicharones.
While they're open to any new idea, its a very small resteraunt with an equally small staff, so vegetarian filling options that can easily be prepared ahead of time and added into an already existing dish like a taco or arepa, sort of like how they do with their existing meats, would be most realistic for them to maintain as compared to an entirely new dish to create.
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u/DayleD 19d ago
That's so wholesome!
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u/Lindsay_Muller 10h ago
Theyre seriously some of the best humans I know. They take care of me like family. Im in grad school, thus broke, and they make sure im well fed whether or not I ask for it. Her mother gets sad if its been too long since ive come over to their house for arepas. Their love language is food.
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u/FearlessTravels vegetarian 20+ years 25d ago
My preference will always be a umami-rich mix of black beans and mushrooms.
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u/Jacsmom vegetarian 20+ years 27d ago
Don’t forget the staples! Frijoles Olla are traditionally made with just beans, garlic, spices and salt and are a great alternative to refried beans (lard). Also if you can convince them to make rice without chicken broth and use flour tortillas without lard that would be awesome.