How to share the joy of smoking with vegetarians??

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I regularly make smoked hummus. You can smoke all the ingredients and the canning liquid, and for extra smokiness bag or seal everything overnight in the fridge.

Smoked portobello mushrooms are amazing, a little olive oil and seasoning of your choice

Smoke all the ingredients for a pasta sauce or most of the ingredients for a pesto

You can even smoke pasta

Tons of options.

[jfmorris]

I will tell you what NOT to smoke - or at least to over smoke - and that is cauliflower. I made something that sounded good in theory - smoked cauliflower - the entire head. It even gotta kinda brown, and smoked maybe an hour or three - can't remember. The problem was it soaked up smoke flavor like a sponge, and was honestly way too smokey. I think I gave it a treatment of buffalo sauce, but the smoke overpowered it. Wife didn't like it, and I couldn't stomach it as leftover and tossed most of it.

I think most veggies will do much better without a lot of smoke, and are better grilled (hot and fast) or cooked indirect if appropriate WITHOUT a lot of smoke on them.

[LA Pork Butt]

I like smoking a whole head of cauliflower and grilling summer squash, eggplant, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and butternut squash. This Creole Vegetable Seasoning goes well on almost of these except maybe the butternut squash.

1 cup Salt
1/4 Cup White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Cayenne Pepper
1/8 Cup Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Dried Parsley (coarsely ground in a pepper mill)
1 1/2 Tablespoon Granulated Garlic
1/4 Cup Granulated Onion
1/4 Cup Curry Powder

[MBMorgan]

Here's a loose approach to stuffed peppers that I've made many times (it's really a long-term work-in-progress ... and I do them a little differently each time). For a vegetarian version, just use vegetable broth instead of chicken:

Bell Peppers – Stuffed and Grilled
★★★
BBQ/Grilling/Smoking, Veggies

Description:
Bell Peppers – Stuffed and Grilled
MBM – October 2003
Basically, these peppers are stuffed with vegetables, mushrooms, rice (all fully cooked), and tomatoes … then grilled over a low/moderate charcoal fire until done.

Ideas:
Might want to top the peppers with melted fresh mozzarella for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.
Might want to cook in grill baskets to avoid tong damage.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 Bell Peppers (Red (best), Yellow (ok), or Green(meh)) with flat bottoms so that they will stand up
• 2 cups Brown Rice
• 8 oz Mushrooms, Portobello (2 large), Porcini (container), Button (container) … all coarsely chopped
• 1 medium Onion , yellow (coarsely chopped)
• 1-2 cloves Garlic , crushed
• 4-5 Carrots, (coarsely chopped)
• Broccoli (or Cauliflower) Florets - Coarsely chopped
• Chicken Broth (for rice), get the kind in the paper container (sub: vegetable broth if you have to)
• 6-8 Plum Tomatoes , (seeded and coarsely chopped)
• 1 bunch Fresh Basil, chopped
• Salt, Pepper, Sugar
• Sherry or Sweet Marsala
• Tabasco (green is best) if you want to spice it up a little
• Olive Oil – Extra Virgin
• Parmesean Cheese (Parmegianno Reggiano), Grated
• Good Balsamic Vinegar

Directions:

• Parboil carrots and broccoli in lightly salted water for 2 minutes; remove and drain
• Cook brown rice in rice cooker using vegetable broth instead of water (don’t add salt … the broth will have plenty)
• Remove bell pepper caps and seeds. Reserve caps and any decent trimmings for stuffing (coarsely chop and set aside)
• Seed and coarsely chop plum tomatoes (these will be added raw to the stuffing later)
• Add the chopped basil into the tomatoes and toss together evenly. A little salt and pepper should be added also.
• In a large skillet (or wok) cook onions and garlic together in olive oil until onion just begins to wilt
• Add mushrooms and stir fry with onions and garlic until the mushrooms begin to brown (do NOT add salt yet or they will start giving off too much moisture)
• Add salt, pepper, and a bunch of sugar (minimum - twice as much sugar as salt) … all to taste. FYI, you want this mixture to be fairly sweet and you want a fair amount of liquid remaining … to be soaked up by the rice.
• Stir, taste, then add either sherry or Marsala (off the flame) … then either flambé or just let it cook down a little
• Remove from heat and stir in the parboiled carrots and broccoli and also the uncooked tomatoes (they’ll cook later on the grill).
• As soon as the rice cooker is done, stir in the rice also … you’ll want it to set for a while so the rice can soak up any extra juices from the pan.
• Stuff the peppers, and then rub them all over with olive oil. A little olive oil drizzled into the stuffing doesn’t hurt either.

If using a grill:

• Cook the stuffed peppers over a low/moderate charcoal fire (cranked way down below the grates) for about 20 minutes … until the bell peppers have roasted and are just showing signs of charring. Optionally, add hickory, alder, or mesquite to the fire.

If using a pellet smoker:

• Set the smoker for 250-300F (Pro Mode, not PID (if you have a choice)).
• Cook the stuffed peppers for about 30-60 minutes (this is a guess at this point) ... until just starting to char and the internal temperature is at least 160F.

• Remove from cooker; grate fresh Parmegianno Reggiano over each; and serve. If there is any unused stuffing, use it as a base in which to stand the peppers.

Notes:
Note that the suggested pellet smoker temps are a SWAG at this time. Give it a try and adjust time and/or temperature as necessary

Source: MBM – October 2003

[Washblue]

Winter squashes, sweet and russet potatoes, carrots…. Lots of rabbit food we smoke as side dishes to a big ol’pig butt…

[texastweeter]

But I typically dunk them all in bacon grease first, lol.

[Washblue]

I actually hate the big cooks…
It uses most of my grease stock, brushing the onions and such… texastweeter …

[texastweeter]

Doing 4 brisket, 2 hotel pans full of jack daniels baked beans, 2 hotel pans full of loaded tater salad, a gallon of sauce, and 6 peanutbutter pies tomorrow. Well they go in the pit tomorrow, service Wednesday. That is actually a smaller one

[ofelles]

I got lucky this last week end. My granddaughter and boyfriend I knew only ate fish(didn't fix any) so they both ate the smoked ham and turkey I made and enjoyed it.
One of the daughters very recently decided to stop meat. She brought some beyond burger and asked if it wuld be much trouble to grill them. I only had my Yoder going and said I would have to pull out a bag of charcoal, Light it up, wait for it to get ready. She hoped I could just plug my grill in and be done with it. I said no not than easy. She had ham and turkey!

[Attjack]

There is a joke about smoking with vegetarians. For an honest answer, jackfruit supposedly can be a vegetarian pulled pork.

Here's some jackfruit that I smoked.

[texastweeter]

How was it?

[Attjack]

texastweeter Very good. Obviously, you are not eating a fatty pork product so you're not going to be fooled into thinking it's meat. I've made these several times. That one was good and I have made better ones too. I recommend getting the canned young jackfruit instead of that preseasoned stuff in the picture.

[FireMan]

Well, I recommend diggin a big Ol’ pit in the ground to start. Then git yerself a post, the bigger the better, bout the size of a telephone pole. Then, depending the size of yer post you can lash up two & mebbee three of yer vegeteranian folks onto said post. Put the post over some fruit wood & slowly turn em. Now whilst spinning yer friends ya kin slather Q sauce on their faces so’s they can enjoy lickin it up as they absorb the smoke. Ya don’t want them over the smoke too long cuz their skin might turn to bark and they just might git upset if’n ya crisp em up. Do not use a thermometer cuz they will get upset if ya poke a hole in em. Bout an hour will do. Any other suggestions just ask. Happy smokin to ya!

[Attjack]

You can stuff and smoke cabbage. This one had bacon in it but you could omit that.

[Hal]

Thank you all for great ideas!! Will sit down with them when they all get here and let them help pick. Thanks again and happy holidays!!

[Huskee]

I'm a fan of preparing many veggies on the pellet cooker. I also like pineapple rings over a wood fire, then a little brown sugar on 'em. That's all I've got, nothing novel or earth shattering.

[Attjack]

While it's about grilling more so than smoking this is s a good book.

[WayneT]

After re-reading the OP title, I couldn’t resist a smart-ass answer.

Use a hookah!

[CaptainMike]

I totally misread the title as well, I thought it was about having a stogie with 58limited, our resident veterinarian.

[lostclusters]

Hal I am really surprised no one suggested bbq tofu. If you are interested I'll dig up the transcribed recipe:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/misc-or-general-food-discusison/1172953-bbq-tofu