Photo: CN Digital Studio
When I was a Smiths-listening teenage vegetarian, I had no problem getting the flavor of meat: I simply ignored—or, rather, simultaneously ignored and enjoyed—the bits of bacon in my mom’s green beans. Frankly, with all the bacon, fatback, and ham hocks used to season the vast majority of vegetables and legumes in my North Carolina hometown, I probably ate more pork products as a so-called vegetarian than I do now as an omnivore. After all, I had yet to really start cooking for myself or to discover my now favorite vegetarian meaterizer: Spanish smoked paprika.
I use pimentón, which is available in both sweet or hot varieties, to give the smoky flavor I associate with cured pork to a wide range of food, including kale, lentils, white beans, and eggs.
Are you a fan of smoked paprika? Try some today in one of the following vegetarian recipes, to mark Meatless Monday and Food Day:
- Smoky Eggplant and Tomatoes
- Red-Lentil and Red-Pepper Pâté
- Smoky Spanish Tomato Soup
- Swiss Chard with Raisins and Almonds
- Spanish White Beans with Spinach
- Sweet Potato Purée with Smoked Paprika
Smoked paprika is great in meat dishes, too, as Kemp Minifie’s recent Grass-Fed Beef Meatloaf in a Bacon Blanket from Gourmet Live’s TV Dinner Menu demonstrates.
Smoked paprika is one of my favorite food groups! Just kidding! I have found more ways to use this secret ingredient to liven up a multitude of our favorite recipes. Stews, soups, roasted vegetables…we absolutely love it!
[...] I was a Smiths-listening teenage Vegetarian, I had no problem getting the flavor of meat: I simply ignoredor, rather, simultaneously ignored [...]