My favourite part of osso buco is not the meat… but the vegetables part. So here’s a recipe that takes the ingredients and seasoning of osso buco and turns it into an Italian-inspired vegan dish.
The recipe involves simmering carrots in a sauce made of tomatoes, celery, onions and white wine, and seasoning it with gremolata (Italian parsley seasoning).
If you want to prepare a classic osso buco, simply add pieces of veal shank to this recipe.
Serve this vegetable preparation with pasta, gnocchi, rice or cereal cakes, for example.
Vegetarian osso buco
Ingredients
- 1 large yellow onion
- 400/450 g carrots
- 1 stalk of celery
- 400 g canned tomatoes or fresh ones, depending on the season
- 200 ml dry white wine
- 8 sprigs of parsley
- ½ clove of garlic
- olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 2 tbsp flour
- ½ lemon or ½ orange
Instructions
- Wash the carrots, cut them on the bias into slices (medium thickness).
- Chop the onion and finely dice the celery stalk.
- Steam the carrots for about 10 minutes. They should be barely tender.
- Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a frying pan. Brown the onion, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, add the celery. Continue to stir and fry for a further 5 minutes. The onion should be tender and translucent.
- Then add the carrots to the pan. Fry for 2/3 minutes and add the white wine. Let the wine evaporate and the vegetables simmer for 5 minutes on low heat.
- After that, pour in the tomatoes (diced beforehand). Add the flour and stir to mix it well with the tomato juice.
- Add the bay leaf, thyme and rosemary and simmer for 30-40 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, prepare the gremolata. Rinse and dry the parsley. Chop it finely. Finely chop the garlic. Remove the lemon or orange peel (organic). Mix everything together in a bowl and sprinkle with a tablespoon of lemon or orange juice.
- Add the mixture to the vegetables 5 minutes before stopping the cooking. Your dish is ready!
Notes
Some ideas to customize the recipe:
- you can add a little squeezed orange juice to the tomato sauce if you want to reinforce the acidity of the dish
- you can also add ingredients to make this dish even more delicious: mushrooms cut into quarters, black olives, etc.
- don’t hesitate to sprinkle the dish with parmesan shavings just before serving
- you want to to “replace” the meat of the classic osso buco, you can add tofu or seitan for instance