What a delight to finally have created a vegan bourguignon recipe which I am really pleased with. It all started with a request from one of my Instagram followers.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
🥘 Main ingredients
- dried mushrooms or miso paste
- onion
- garlic
- carrot
- aubergine
- button mushrooms
- pearl onions
- potatoes
- flour
- cognac
- fresh thyme
- red wine
- vegetable stock
- kidney beans
- nutritional yeast
- parsley
💬 How the challenge began
The request / challenge was;
'I am a flexi-veggie but trying to eat more and more veggie/vegan food. However, when it comes to this time of year, I start craving meat pies and hearty casseroles. The thing that gets my taste buds dribbling the most at this time of year is a good beef bourguignon simmering away in the oven. So my challenge for you is to come up with a vegan, or even veggie substitute for this rich and deeply satisfying French winter dish. Can't wait to see what you come up with'
She had told me in another message that she does not like mushrooms, in any shape or form.
So, I started experimenting. Living in France where the classic beef bourguignon is a dish taken very seriously by the locals and French cuisine lovers. So I had to put all my efforts in to try and recreate the deep, rich, and complex flavours of a true bourguignon.
Mushrooms are known for their deep umami flavours. But as there are many people who have a dislike for mushrooms I wanted to come up with a bourguignon without the use of mushrooms. So I went for aubergine. 🙂 They have a beautiful, tender (almost meaty) texture, and aubergines soaks up all the flavours in which they are cooked.
So two times a winner.
I made some trials and ended up with two different bourguignons, one with mushrooms, and one completely without the use of mushrooms. I was very happy with the outcome of both of them. But the recipe in this post is actually a combination of the two of them. I took the best of both, while creating this recipe. But for those who don't like mushrooms, it is very easy to leave them out, with the use of a little bit of miso paste.
Traditionally this dish is served with potato, but feel free to substitute them with rice or pasta. Dishes change as time changes, ... and in my opinion that is okay! As long as you leave the red wine in. 🙂
🍷 Wine pairing
Red goes with red. This dish would beautifully pair with a nice deep, powerful red. Even though the dish traditionally comes from Burgundy. I wouldn't necessarily pair it with a Burgundy wine. More so with a deep Rhone-blend (Syrah, grenache, mouvedre) full of black fruit flavours. A good bordeaux or a characterful red from Faugeres would also match nicely.
Other hearty winter dishes are the famous Mini mushroom wellingtons or try some of the amazing winter soups.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. I love to see your creations, please make sure to add @haricoco1 to your instagram post of this recipe. Vive la France! Sante!
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 dried mushrooms or ½ teaspoon of miso paste1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1 large carrot peeled and sliced
- 1 aubergine peeled and diced
- 12 button mushrooms cleaned
- 12 pearl onions peeled
- 3 - 4 small potatoes cut in halves
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 50 ml ¼ cup olive oil
- 75 ml ⅓ cup cognac
- 11/2 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 250 ml 1 cup red wine
- 125 ml ½ cup vegetable stock
- 30 g ½ cup cooked kidney beans, mashed with a hand-blender
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- salt
- pepper
- handful of chopped parsley
Instructions
- Re-hydrate the dried mushrooms in a little bit of water, and set aside. (Only the liquid will be used).
- Coat a heavy based pot with olive oil and fry the mushroom for approx. 5 minutes, take the mushrooms out and set aside.
- Add some more olive oil to the pot and saute the onion, carrot and aubergine for about 10 minutes until the onion and aubergine are softened.
- Add the garlic and stir for another minute.
- Put the mushrooms back in the pot, and add the flour evenly over all the vegetables, stir well so all vegetables are coated.
- Pour in the cognac, thyme and bayleaf and let the liquid reduce till almost gone.
- Pour in the wine, stock, bean mush, and the liquid from the dried mushroom (or ½ teaspoon miso paste) bring everything to the boil, and let it simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered.
- Meanwhile steam your potatoes ready in approx. 20 minutes, drizzle them with some olive oil and salt after steaming.
- After 30 minutes add a spoonful of nutritional yeast to your bourguignon, and season to liking with salt and pepper (if you use miso paste, you might need to season only with pepper)
- Add the chopped parsley, stir and serve with the steamed potatoes.
Notes
Nutrition
I have posted & linked my Bourguignon recipe also to #cookblogshare
Libby says
I am so excited to be able to fulfil my winter Bourguignon cravings without beef. Huge thanks for developing this hearty meal. Miam miam.
Nicole says
Thanks Libby, Good to hear you are enjoying the meat-free bourguignon!
Jacqui - Recipes Made Easy:Only Crumbs Remain says
Looks really tasty Its cold and misserable out tonight so this is just the right kind of dish for such weather. Thank you for linking to #CookBlogShare
Nicole says
Pleasure Jacqui, I hope this dish will warm you up!