Quote:
![]()
Hungarian recipes (vegan only please)
Hungarian Goulash
![]()
2 lb. seitan
1 tsp. salt
2 onions, white or yellow
2 Tbs shortening
2 Tbsp. imported sweet paprika (most important to use real hungarian paprika for ultimate flavor)
2 bay leaves
1 Qt. water
4 peeled and diced potatoes
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Cut seitan into 1 inch squares, add 1/2 tsp. salt. Chop onions and brown in shortening, add seitan and paprika. Let seitan simmer in its own juice along with salt and paprika for 1 hr. on low heat. Add water, diced potatoes and remaining salt. Cover and simmer until potatoes are done and seitan is tender. Prepare tofu dumpling batter:
¼ cup soft tofu
6 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
Add flour to tofu and salt. Mix well. Let stand for 1/2 hour for flour to mellow. Drop by teaspoonful into Goulash. Cover and simmer 5 minutes after dumplings rise to surface.
Serve hot with dollops of vegan sour cream.
Serves 4 - 6.
2 lb. seitan
1 tsp. salt
2 onions, white or yellow
2 Tbs shortening
2 Tbsp. imported sweet paprika (most important to use real hungarian paprika for ultimate flavor)
2 bay leaves
1 Qt. water
4 peeled and diced potatoes
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Cut seitan into 1 inch squares, add 1/2 tsp. salt. Chop onions and brown in shortening, add seitan and paprika. Let seitan simmer in its own juice along with salt and paprika for 1 hr. on low heat. Add water, diced potatoes and remaining salt. Cover and simmer until potatoes are done and seitan is tender. Prepare tofu dumpling batter:
¼ cup soft tofu
6 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
Add flour to tofu and salt. Mix well. Let stand for 1/2 hour for flour to mellow. Drop by teaspoonful into Goulash. Cover and simmer 5 minutes after dumplings rise to surface.
Serve hot with dollops of vegan sour cream.
Serves 4 - 6.
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
Hungarian style tomato salad
3 or 4 large juicy fresh tomatoes
1 cucumber peeled, scored with a fork and thick sliced
2 banana peppers sliced or 1 green pepper seeded and chopped
1/8 cup of chopped Italian flat leaf parsley -OR- 1 tsp. of minced fresh dill
1 small peeled onion sliced thin
1 garlic clove minced
3 Tbs. of vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
6 Tbs. of oil
Salt and pepper
Slice the tomatoes and place in salad bowl.
Peel cucumber, score lengthwise and slice.
Slice the banana peppers or chopped seeded green pepper.
Add the chopped parsley or dill, sliced onion, minced clove and toss together.
Add to bowl vinegar, sugar and oil.
Toss again, taste and adjust seasoning by adding salt and pepper if needed.
Let sit for 1/2 hour to mingle flavors.
(June Meyer's recipe)
PS vegancherrypie, Earth Ballance makes a vegan shortening.
![]()
3 or 4 large juicy fresh tomatoes
1 cucumber peeled, scored with a fork and thick sliced
2 banana peppers sliced or 1 green pepper seeded and chopped
1/8 cup of chopped Italian flat leaf parsley -OR- 1 tsp. of minced fresh dill
1 small peeled onion sliced thin
1 garlic clove minced
3 Tbs. of vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
6 Tbs. of oil
Salt and pepper
Slice the tomatoes and place in salad bowl.
Peel cucumber, score lengthwise and slice.
Slice the banana peppers or chopped seeded green pepper.
Add the chopped parsley or dill, sliced onion, minced clove and toss together.
Add to bowl vinegar, sugar and oil.
Toss again, taste and adjust seasoning by adding salt and pepper if needed.
Let sit for 1/2 hour to mingle flavors.
(June Meyer's recipe)
PS vegancherrypie, Earth Ballance makes a vegan shortening.
3
LOL Great thread!!!
![]()
BTW! A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a booklet full of veganized recipes of Hungarian classics. If people are interested, I can try to find it and type in a few of the recipes.
Now for something really serious. I really can't emphasize enough the importance of using good Hungarian paprika. With good quality paprika, you can't ever go wrong.
It's not really rocket science, paprika is not saffron, so you don't have to spend a fortune. But definitely try to get paprika from Hungary. Spanish, Mexican, or American (sorry!) grown paprika simply won't do.
In Hungary you can buy whole dried paprika (paprika=pepper in Hungarian) braids, just like you see garlic braids everywhere. That is of course the ultimate, just taking a few whole dried peppers, crushing them between your fingers directly into the pot. But ground paprika powder out of a tin box works just fine too
![]()
There are two types of paprika: sweet and hot. Sweet paprika is the foundation of all Hungarian dishes, and some of it may be replaced with hot paprika if the goal is spicy (and Hungarians like their foods REALLY damned hot, yikes!!).
For sweet paprika, there is a strict grading process. Every harvest and batch is judged and classified according to the taste, color and quality.
The grades are (quality increasing from top to bottom):
rózsa (rose)
édesnemes (sweet and noble)
csemege (delicatesse)
különleges (special)
This last one is the one all cooks should aim for. Though I doubt you can find it easily in the U.S. The best I could find in the U.S. is the brand "Pride of Szeged" (Imported from Szeged, the most famous paprika producing town in Hungary). I can get it in all health food stores around here, even Safeway has it sometimes. I think its grade is 'csemege'. It's really really tasty and not expensive.
Here is a favorite recipe of mine that I used to cook very often. It's very simple and very delicious, and uses a lot of paprika:
Potato Paprikash (Hungarian Potato Stew):
1. Cut a few lbs potatoes into 1/2 - 1 inch cubes (I never peel potatos, but Mom always did).
2. Peel and finely chop a large sweet white onion
3. Heat oil in a pot, add onion and some caraway seeds, and cook onions until glassy.
4. Add potato cubes, and saute them briefly, stirring constantly for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Fill up the pot with enough water to just cover the potatoes.
6. Add 3 Tbsp paprika per 2 quarts of stew. Yeah it's a lot!
![]()
7. Add a few chopped very ripe tomatoes (with peels), and if you have them, a few peppers cut into rings (best to use Hungarian Yellow Peppers, but bell peppers will do too).
8. Optional: add about 1/2 tsp liquid smoke (the original version uses smoked sausage and adding l. smoke imitates the flavor perfectly!!)
9. Bring to simmer and simmer until potatoes soft (about 15 minutes).
This is incredibly delicious. Also, I found that keeping it in the fridge for 1-2 days even improves the flavor! So leftovers will taste even better!!!) If you like it hot and spicy, replace some of the sweet paprika with hot paprika.
BTW! A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a booklet full of veganized recipes of Hungarian classics. If people are interested, I can try to find it and type in a few of the recipes.
Now for something really serious. I really can't emphasize enough the importance of using good Hungarian paprika. With good quality paprika, you can't ever go wrong.
It's not really rocket science, paprika is not saffron, so you don't have to spend a fortune. But definitely try to get paprika from Hungary. Spanish, Mexican, or American (sorry!) grown paprika simply won't do.
In Hungary you can buy whole dried paprika (paprika=pepper in Hungarian) braids, just like you see garlic braids everywhere. That is of course the ultimate, just taking a few whole dried peppers, crushing them between your fingers directly into the pot. But ground paprika powder out of a tin box works just fine too
There are two types of paprika: sweet and hot. Sweet paprika is the foundation of all Hungarian dishes, and some of it may be replaced with hot paprika if the goal is spicy (and Hungarians like their foods REALLY damned hot, yikes!!).
For sweet paprika, there is a strict grading process. Every harvest and batch is judged and classified according to the taste, color and quality.
The grades are (quality increasing from top to bottom):
rózsa (rose)
édesnemes (sweet and noble)
csemege (delicatesse)
különleges (special)
This last one is the one all cooks should aim for. Though I doubt you can find it easily in the U.S. The best I could find in the U.S. is the brand "Pride of Szeged" (Imported from Szeged, the most famous paprika producing town in Hungary). I can get it in all health food stores around here, even Safeway has it sometimes. I think its grade is 'csemege'. It's really really tasty and not expensive.
Here is a favorite recipe of mine that I used to cook very often. It's very simple and very delicious, and uses a lot of paprika:
Potato Paprikash (Hungarian Potato Stew):
1. Cut a few lbs potatoes into 1/2 - 1 inch cubes (I never peel potatos, but Mom always did).
2. Peel and finely chop a large sweet white onion
3. Heat oil in a pot, add onion and some caraway seeds, and cook onions until glassy.
4. Add potato cubes, and saute them briefly, stirring constantly for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Fill up the pot with enough water to just cover the potatoes.
6. Add 3 Tbsp paprika per 2 quarts of stew. Yeah it's a lot!
7. Add a few chopped very ripe tomatoes (with peels), and if you have them, a few peppers cut into rings (best to use Hungarian Yellow Peppers, but bell peppers will do too).
8. Optional: add about 1/2 tsp liquid smoke (the original version uses smoked sausage and adding l. smoke imitates the flavor perfectly!!)
9. Bring to simmer and simmer until potatoes soft (about 15 minutes).
This is incredibly delicious. Also, I found that keeping it in the fridge for 1-2 days even improves the flavor! So leftovers will taste even better!!!) If you like it hot and spicy, replace some of the sweet paprika with hot paprika.
Wow, I LOVE this kind of thread! So many great North/Central European cuisines are simply "assumed" to be meat-based, when in fact, it just takes a little creativity to adapt some of their classic recipes for new vegan versions.
Any beginner can make a five-star vegan feast if the cuisine is, say, Asian or Middle Eastern or African, because all those cuisines have been blessed since time immemorial with a wealth of gorgeous vegetables. But it takes real ingenuity to make a fine, classic, truly traditional Hungarian, Russian, Czech or Scandinavian vegan dinner, since those cuisines are originally meat-based.
Thanks for all these recipes. As it happens, I do have a homesick Hungarian friend who's looking alarmingly skinny these days -- I'm going to cook up some of these great dishes and see if I can't build her up a little
![]()
Any beginner can make a five-star vegan feast if the cuisine is, say, Asian or Middle Eastern or African, because all those cuisines have been blessed since time immemorial with a wealth of gorgeous vegetables. But it takes real ingenuity to make a fine, classic, truly traditional Hungarian, Russian, Czech or Scandinavian vegan dinner, since those cuisines are originally meat-based.
Thanks for all these recipes. As it happens, I do have a homesick Hungarian friend who's looking alarmingly skinny these days -- I'm going to cook up some of these great dishes and see if I can't build her up a little
Oatmeal said, "BTW! A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a booklet full of veganized recipes of Hungarian classics. If people are interested, I can try to find it and type in a few of the recipes."
Interested!
![]()
Interested!
3
My husband is Hungarian/Croatian and I'm Serbian/Croatian/Polish. Yes, we are uniting Yugoslavia one family at a time!
![]()
Oatmeal, I can't wait to show my H the tidbits you offered about paprika, he'll be delighted.
![]()
I'm printing out this post because there are some really yummy sounding recipes that I want to try! While it's true that most of Central/South/Eastern Europe is very meatcentric, most of the peasant cuisine is quite veg*n friendly. Also considering many of those countries are Eastern Orthodox, they go without meat, (some do fish) dairy, eggs and sometimes oil for the duration of the great fast. (AKA Lent in the Western Calender) If you are really pious, you go without meat, dairy, eggs and oil every Wednesday and Friday.
Although it's a great deal of fun to "Veg-a-tize" familiar dishes. I have veg a tized several familar dishes most with good results. (I've had a few bad dishes, but hey I'll try again) I highly reccomend, if you can get your hands on one an orthodox great fast or lenten cookbook. There are lots of adaptable and ready veg*n dishes to experiment with.
PS. This is a weird non sequitor, but my grandfather named me his meat-a-less granddaughter.
![]()
*Hugs*
Meatless Alison
Oatmeal, I can't wait to show my H the tidbits you offered about paprika, he'll be delighted.
I'm printing out this post because there are some really yummy sounding recipes that I want to try! While it's true that most of Central/South/Eastern Europe is very meatcentric, most of the peasant cuisine is quite veg*n friendly. Also considering many of those countries are Eastern Orthodox, they go without meat, (some do fish) dairy, eggs and sometimes oil for the duration of the great fast. (AKA Lent in the Western Calender) If you are really pious, you go without meat, dairy, eggs and oil every Wednesday and Friday.
Although it's a great deal of fun to "Veg-a-tize" familiar dishes. I have veg a tized several familar dishes most with good results. (I've had a few bad dishes, but hey I'll try again) I highly reccomend, if you can get your hands on one an orthodox great fast or lenten cookbook. There are lots of adaptable and ready veg*n dishes to experiment with.
PS. This is a weird non sequitor, but my grandfather named me his meat-a-less granddaughter.
*Hugs*
Meatless Alison
1 - 12 of 12 Posts
