Vegan Seafood?!

First, a quick plug for a sweet new cookbook that I just ordered from the Queer Vegan Food blog. It's only $15, with lots of recipes from well-known vegan and vegetarian chefs. And the best part is that 100% of the proceeds go to the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Very cool! 

And, one other nice thing - it's digital! Pay your $15, get the cookbook almost instantly. Just be warned of drooling at your desk while looking through recipes. I'm already excited about the blueberry avocado salsa and the chocolate-covered potato chips. They also have recipes for corn, black bean, and cherry tomato cupcakes as well as peanut butter and tomato sauce. Plus the number of dessert recipes is almost equal to the number of appetizer, side, and entree recipes combined, so it's gotta be good!

So, on to the main reason for this blog post...

Last night, Scott and I tried the Sophie's Kitchen brand vegan crab cakes. You can check out their website here: http://sophieskitchen.net/html/home.html

The basic gist of the company is that the owners' daughter (and namesake of the company) has a seafood allergy, and so they developed this company as a vegan substitute so that their little girl could still enjoy seafood.

The main ingredient in a lot of their products is the konjac root or elephant yam. The elephant yam has traditionally been used across Asia for a very long time, and is considered a health food because of its high fiber content and relatively low caloric count. After a quick scan of the Wikipedia page on konjac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konjac), I was surprised to learn that konjac is commonly made into a popular Asian fruit jelly snack, but can pose a choking risk because it doesn’t readily melt in your mouth. Because of these ‘gelling’ properties, it can also be used as a vegan substitute for gelatin.

Before reading my review, know that I lived in Baltimore for a year and a half. Crab cakes are to Baltimore what burritos are to New Mexico – they are cheap, easy to eat, and every restaurant claims they make the best one. So obviously, you must try them all! But, my review might be a tad bit harsher than the ‘average’ seafood consumer-turned-vegan.

Upon removing the crab cakes from the packaging, they do look pretty real. They have the lumpy type of texture that is common in crab cakes, and the size and density is about right. You have two options for cooking – you can either pan-fry them for a few minutes on each side, or you can bake them. Since I already had the oven on for our cabbage/onion/pasta side dish, I just lightly oiled a cookie sheet and placed them on there for a 20 minute trip into the oven.

I flipped them over after 10 minutes, and the bottom was starting to brown some. I like my crab cakes pretty crispy on the outside, so after an additional 10 minutes, when they weren’t completely browned on both sides, I put them under the broiler for a few minutes, which did the trick. While they were cooking, I made up a quick tartar sauce of sorts, which was just Vegenaise, roasted garlic, some dill, and a bit of zucchini relish that Scott’s mom makes each year.

Scott seemed a little hesitant about the crab cakes after the first bite, but the combination of our pasta side dish and the mock tartar sauce were enough to win him over.I was a little less excited about them, but I have seriously high standards for crab cakes, and with living inland, I really don’t miss seafood because I’ve gotten so used to not eating it.

I’d say that overall, the texture was actually pretty good. It was kind of mushy and a tad bit stringy, like crab cakes can be, and I think getting the extra crispness on the outside is key – it gives a little more added texture to the cake, which might tend to get sort of bland after a few bites otherwise. One of the other main ingredients in the crab cakes is seaweed powder, and so I think because of that, the crab cake is still somewhat fishy. Or at least the seaweed powder imparts a ‘from the ocean’ sort of taste.

These are definitely not going to fool anyone into thinking they are real, but I think the texture is reminiscent enough of real crab cakes to win over any vegan looking for that seafood fix without having to eat a fish. I’m not sure that I would purchase them again, mainly because I’m not really into the meat substitution thing. But, if you are going to a dinner party or get together and feel like you need something more ‘real’ for the non-vegans, the Sophie’s Kitchen items would probably be a decent happy medium for everyone.