Vegan ham chunks for soup

July 4, 2023 8:09 AM

I need to find a substitute for diced ham that will hold up in a soup.

Trying to veganize my favorite green bean soup recipe. A lot of my soup recipes are just fine leaving the meat out, but this one I think would not be as good without chunks of something smoky, salty and meatlike. The soup is basically just green beans, ham, onions, potatoes and Italian herb seasoning, boiled until the veggies are very soft.

I've seen vegan deli ham slices but those won't do the trick. Tofurky supposedly makes a ham-style roast which might work perfectly cut into chunks but so far I haven't found it locally, though I will keep looking. I'm thinking it might be a seasonal item though, which wouldn't be ideal because this soup is one of my "safe foods" and I eat it often.

I've seen a few recipes for making ham from homemade seitan and tofu but that is more prep than I would like to do for this. I also saw a vegan ham roll made by May Wah in an online shop but by the time I pay for cold pack and shipping it comes out to over 50 bucks for two pounds 😳

Any other ideas?

posted by Serene Empress Dork to Food & Drink (25 answers total)

Do some sort of bacon-adjacent treatment of sweet potatoes (bake/dry with a salty/sweet flavoring, but make too thick so you can dice it) - ?
posted by esoteric things at 8:21 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Is smoked tofu available where you are? I am able to find it in the vegan cold cuts/cheese slices/other tofu styles section in a regular grocery store. I think smoked tofu would be really really tasty in your soup!
posted by Kitteh at 8:24 AM on July 4, 2023 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah, "vegan roast" tends to be well-supplied only seasonally, though if you have a local "natural market" (Whole Foods, Sprouts, that kind of thing) they almost always have a tiny slot for them year-round.

I don't know how long they'll hold up (might need to add at the end rather than simmering much) but Field Roast brand sausages have a sort of hammy/deli-loaf texture. (I am sure there's other brands that are the same, but it's the FR I always see in stores.) I use it to make vegan pasta sauce and feel like it's stayed pretty much in the slices I started with. They do make an Italian flavor, as well, so not wildly outside your flavor profile. I use quartered or halved meatless meatballs in a lot of casseroles, as well.

Personally I think I would boil mushroom quarters/slices in well-salted water with a layer of fat on top (whatever kind you want, I'd use something with a little flavor) and a few drops of liquid smoke and maybe soy sauce. But one of my favorite flavor combos is green beans and mushrooms, so it may be too mushroomy for you.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:25 AM on July 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

Rather than find something exactly ham-like, I might try adding a similar zing with squares of hot red pepper, maybe fried a bit and added after the boiling.
posted by Phanx at 8:25 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Asian markets often sell vegan hams, like this one or this one. I buy these a lot, but I usually slice them up, fry the slices, and make ham sandwiches (or make vegan omelets). I haven't tried putting the chunks into soups, so I don't know how they'd hold up. If they swell up and get soggy, you might consider frying the ham and the putting the chunks into your soup just before you eat it.

Upon edit: I see that my second example has egg whites in it, so it's not vegan. In any case, I find that the local Asian markets have a rotating stock of different brands of vegan hams. Bizarrely, sometimes they're called "Chicken ham" or something like that, but they don't actually taste like chicken.
posted by alex1965 at 8:32 AM on July 4, 2023 [6 favorites]

Another vote to check out your local Asian market if you have one. There's a lot of soy meat substitute type things that are quite tasty. I just had a bag of frozen "lamb" chunks that would work well in soup.
posted by monologish at 8:42 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

We have had good luck with a brand called "veri soy" frozen ham that we find at the local international store.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 8:42 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

LightLife makes these smoky tempeh strips that I think would work well.
posted by mezzanayne at 8:43 AM on July 4, 2023 [5 favorites]

I doubt anything that’s made by pressing or coagulating is going to stay that way in the soup. I think miso - or just MSG - for the salty hit, and then mushrooms added late for texture if you really want chunks.
posted by janell at 9:00 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

If you're just going for flavor, liquid smoke is usually good for this. I've found that adding kombu or miso also works!
posted by pazazygeek at 9:25 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

What about plant based chorizos or other sausages? Some of these should have a more hammy texture than others. Adding them closer to the end of the soup time may help with structural integrity.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:26 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

You could try smoked almonds.
posted by flabdablet at 9:41 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When you boil ham chunks in a soup, most of the flavor diffuses into the soup, and there is no single vegan item that can impart ham-level flavor and also stay chunky. So you’re going to need both I thing to doctor the broth and the thing for texture, I recommend a little bit of brown sugar some Braggs/Maggi seasoning, a bit of soy sauce, and a scoop of miso for the doctoring agents, and I would caution against liquid smoke unless the recipe you’re used to is specifically smoked ham, otherwise it’s gonna taste more like a barbecue. For the chunks, dense seitan or pressed marinated tofu (both available in Asian grocery stores, but if you only have access to Anglo grocery stores, any of the field roast or Tofurkey type things will do it, it doesn’t need to be specifically the ham flavored one.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:42 AM on July 4, 2023 [11 favorites]

I'd be looking for a vegan sausage product to dice up small. Yeah it's not "hamlike" exactly but sausage is legit in a bean soup, there are at least as many legume+sausage soups as there are legume+ham, and I think you'll be able to find something easy and tasty and chewy in that category. Of course no vegan product has as much porky flavor as actual ham, but you can add umami + smokiness easily from other sources. (Go very very easy if you go the liquid smoke direction.)
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:52 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

How about sun-dried tomatoes? Or dried mushrooms, but I think I would like the tomatoes better.
posted by mumimor at 9:55 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

My first thought is halloumi is kind of chewy and salty in the right sort of way, so maybe a vegan halloumi? They seem to be tofu based so you'd probably want to cook separately and add at the end.
posted by stillnocturnal at 10:20 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Vietnamese grocery store near me has many varieties of vegetarian and vegan ham in the freezer section.

There also lots of recipes to make your own cha lua chay.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MinWPrNUwuQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2F&feature=emb_logo
posted by forkisbetter at 10:49 AM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

I want to vote for liquid smoke used sparingly with a bunch of miso and Braggs/Maggi, then something like pre-made vegan sausage (or yes seitan) for texture!
posted by branca at 10:50 AM on July 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Lots of great ideas, thanks! I marked a few best answers for things I especially want to remember to try. I just picked up a pack of Field Roast Italian sausages so that will be the first thing I try.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:02 AM on July 4, 2023

Best answer: I would go the route of a combination of mushrooms. Fresh meaty buddies like king oyster (or regular oyster; when pan sautéed properly they crisp up like bacon) and reconstituted dried mushrooms (porcini would do well here as would lions mane and shiitakes) soaked in water with a dash or two of smoked paprika and liquid smoke (check your label; lower quality brands sometimes use glycerine that cannot necessarily be confirmed as vegan. These are usually less flavorful and taste fake anyway). The smoke flavor will get absorbed by the dried mushrooms and the fresh oysters or king oysters will give you some great texture.
posted by furnace.heart at 11:50 AM on July 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

If you're gong for vegan sausage, I'd suggest Impossible sausage, which comes in a variety of flavors (though availability will vary). I personally have never liked Field Roast, though obviously a lot of people do.
posted by FencingGal at 12:52 PM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

+1 to the king oyster mushroom, well-cooked at a decent temp, don't crowd the pan so much they just steam. Cook out the water before adding a couple of ham-adjacent spices (smoke, salt, etc.) and you should be set.
posted by aramaic at 12:56 PM on July 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

A simple swap might be cut-up vegan hot dogs.
posted by apparently at 2:22 PM on July 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

for flavor, good old baco's. Always been vegan and easy hammy smokey flavor
posted by couchdive at 12:41 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I use Field Roast chorizo pretty often for making a vegan version of a similar soup (potatoes, kale, garlic, sausage-like-object), and it absolutely holds its shape during cooking and boiling.
posted by ActionPopulated at 1:07 PM on July 5, 2023 [1 favorite]