Is Barbecue the Next Big Vegan Trend?
From smoked seitan to smothered soy curls, chefs are finding new ways to apply time-tested techniques
Chris Kim of Monk’s Meats, a Brooklyn-based purveyor of smoked seitan, believes vegan barbecue is the next big trend in meatless food. These kinds of textures and flavors, from char to juicy fattiness to a tangy sauce, occupy a central space in the cuisine of the United States. It stands to reason that as more people opt to eat less meat, for a multitude of reasons, they’ll want to still enjoy the flavors off a grill that they’ve been eating for their entire lives.
It’s not just people like Kim, who stopped eating meat in 1996, who are getting into these possibilities. “Barbecue is changing a lot and there are a lot of innovative chefs and pitmasters bringing new and exciting stuff to the smoker, including different global styles and especially different ingredients,” says Kim. “A lot of these chefs and pitmasters are pretty into trying to bring more fruits and vegetables to the plate.” Just look at the smoked watermelon “ham” at New York’s Ducks Eatery or the smoked mushrooms included in the veggie burger at Nashville’s Hugh Baby’s.
“There’s been some traditionalist barbecue snobbery from some of the whole hog, ‘pig…
