Oh boy did I used to love seafood before I went vegan. Here in Acapulco I walk along the strip and smell it cooking in various dishes.
I just have to remind myself of the reasons I went vegan and I can curb my yearning for it. Memories of foods we used to love get the stomach grumbling. This is good for getting creative and figuring out ways to duplicate certain dishes we once loved, by making vegan versions of them.
Today I made a mock seafood pasta sauce using oyster mushrooms. For some reason these mushrooms are quite easy to find in Mexico and unlike in Canada where I am from, they are less expensive.
I simply chopped the mushrooms into chunks and added it to a pot of sauteed garlic onions and hot peppers, which some people may like to omit, but I am a spice lover. I added a chopped Roma tomato, a small spoonful of tomato paste, a spoon full of dehydrated vegetable broth and a quarter cup of water. I decided to add lime juice to give it the citrus and seafood taste. I really loved it but if I had a lemon I would have preferred that. Lemons are not popular here in Mexico. I cooked it just long enough to soften the mushrooms, in order to keep the mushroom's texture.
It was remarkably close to the real deal except without the fishy taste of real seafood. Oyster mushrooms have a texture similar to scallops. I served it with whole wheat pasta.
What would I do differently next time? I would make a whole lot more!
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