Shrimp Substitute

[lacourre]

Does anyone have any ideas for a shrimp substitute? I am trying to transition to vegan, but my favorite non-veg dishes are with shrimp.... Shrimp on the grill, and shrimp w/ broccoli over linguini. ANY ideas or suggestions would be great! Thanks!

[Ckflew]

I think you'll end up choosing different things for different dishes. Tofu cubes work well on kabobs, which you can grill. I'm not sure what I'd do with the broccoli/linguini dish - I would probably do that with just broccoli, a little oil and garlic, and the linquini.

[feline01]

May Wah (http://www.vegieworld.com/) is a store that sells mock meats and seafood to many US veg restaurants and also sells retail and ships nationwide. Many of their items are vegan and they list ingredients so you can easily detect which ones aren't. This is an example of the vegan shrimp (http://www.vegieworld.com/P005/P005.htm?id=394) products that they sell. That's if your craving is that strong, personally, I like CKflew's suggestion about finding alternates like tofu.

[xmysticprincessx]

try some asian grocery stores in your area. SIL told me a few years ago that one of them in my city had some kind of vegan seafood. i checked a few, but never found it. (there's quite a few in the same area, so i may have just been going to the wrong store!)

[kjmckenzie]

I remember my mom always turned up her nose at imitation crab meat when it was in stuff. Is that vegan? I wonder...I know you can get sushi with it, but I prefer the vegetarian sushi so I never checked the label.

[r14stars]

Imitation crab meat is usually made out of white fish, so it's not vegan. You can try some of the imitation seafoods. But, i know for me, what I really crave when I crave old (meat) favorites is usually the sauces or seasonings more than the actual meat itself. So I like to experiment with similar seasonings using tofu/beans/veggies.

Good luck!

[lacourre]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really like the texture and consistency of shrimp. Tofu is too mushy. Maybe water chestnuts or walnuts would give a bit a crunch? That would be good for the linguini... but for breaded grilled shrimp I will try tofu kabobs.

I have no asian stores in the area, and a health food store 45 minutes away. Makes for some challenges! But I will try that place online, May Wah!

Thanks again everyone for helping me out!! :-)

[PikkuMyy]

Go to layonna.com - she's a vegetarian Buddhist who owns a fake meat shop here in the Bay Area. she sells the most amazing "shrimp".

[Jamie Wilson]

Our favorite "shrimp" dish is coconut tofu-- I just drain tofu, cut it into cubes, marinate it in something citrusy and a little spicy (whatever I concoct that day-- braggs, lime, OJ, spike, cayenne, etc) then dip into shredded coconut and broil or fry, depending on my level of decadence that day. Then I dip it into a mixture of dijon, oj and a little apricot jam, and it's heaven.

I also replaced shrimp in vietnamese summer rolls with mandarin orange segments, for the "texture," and it worked really really well.

[lacourre]

Jamie,

Very, very creative!! I would have never thought of orange segments... so cool! And although I've had coconut crusted shrimp, I wouldn't have made the leap to coconut crusted tofu! I can't wait to try it!!! :D Brilliant.

BTW, what's the difference between summer rolls and spring rolls?

[Jamie Wilson]

In my experience...

Summer rolls are made with those clearish rice paper wrappers that are soaked in water until pliable and not fried.

Spring rolls are typicaly fried and use a different type of wrapper, the kind that's already pliable and is in the refridgerated section, although I think sometimes people use the term spring rolls to mean summer rolls and say egg rolls when they are talking about fried rolls.