Cholent is that famous Ashkenazy Shabbat overnight stew of potatoes, white beans and kishka (stuffed beef intestines.) But what gives it a lot of its flavor are usually a few marrow bones and a chunk of beef. Nevertheless, there’s no reason for the vegans and vegetarians among us not to enjoy the unparalleled flavor and creamy texture of the overnight stews.
The truth is, you can always make any cholent recipe vegan just by cooking it without the meat, and you’re still going to get a great dish. My mother used to make it for us whenever one of her kids became vegetarian.
But I went a step further and used a few tricks (porcini and chestnut, to name a few) to make the stew taste bolder and delicious. This may not seem like out grandmothers’ cholent, but actually, mushroom and chestnuts were used in many cholent pots in Poland (according to Shmil Holland’s book Shmaltz.) And grandmothers always know best.
Vegan cholent
Course: Main courseCuisine: Ashkenazi, Jewish, IsraeliDifficulty: Medium6
servings45
minutes12
hoursINGREDIENTS
½ oz. dried porcini mushrooms
½ cup hot water
5 tablespoons corn or neutral oil
2 yellow onions, halved and thinly slices
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper
5 oz. cooked peeled chestnuts (optional)
6 pitted dates
2 cups kidney, pinto, cannellini or cassoulet beans, soaked in water overnight and drained
3 cups vegan chicken flavored broth
1 cinnamon stick
6 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and halved
- For the kishka stuffing
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 finely chopped large yellow onion
¾ cup corn or neutral oil
DIRECTIONS
- Soak porcini in ½ cup hot water. Set aside.
- In a large Dutch oven heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until golden brown, for about 15-20 minutes. If onion seems to burn too quickly, reduce the heat and continue. Add brown sugar and tomato paste and cook for a few more minutes to caramelize the onion.
- In the meantime, remove porcini from water and reserve the water. Chop porcini and set aside.
- Make the kishka stuffing while the onion is cooking. Put flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix. Add onion and oil and mix again until all the flour is wet with oil. Shape the mixture into a log. Set aside.
- When onion is ready, add salt, black pepper, chestnut, dates, beans and chopped porcini to the Dutch oven and mix well.
- Add broth and increase heat to medium-high to bring to boil.
- Use a spoon to transfer the porcini soaking water into the pot, being careful to leave out the sand at the bottom of the bowl.
- After the broth reached the boiling point, use a spoon to remove any foam. Add cinnamon stick to pot. Arrange the potatoes on top of the beans on one side of the pot and the kishka on the other side. Cover pot, and continue to cook on low heat for 30 minutes.
- Turn oven to 225F degrees.
- Transfer pot to oven for the night or for a minimum of 10 hours. You want the stew to have only about an inch of liquid in the morning, so you can remove any extra liquid first thing in the morning and let it cook longer, until lunch time.
- Serve for lunch, and take a long nap.