If it’s good enough for Greggs…

As you will be aware if your read our blogs (and please spread the word to others if you do) throughout Veganuary (or January as it is known among meat eaters) we have been comparing the vegan dishes launched this month by some of the UK’s biggest chains.

There’s one day left in January and there’s nothing left to compare so we thought we would take the big boys, and girls, on at their own game by doing our own vegan dish.

So, we used Greggs’ vegan steak bake as our inspiration and set off to ‘reinvent’ it in our own inimitable SK style.

You will recall that the Greggs version didn’t score highly on our taste test, with our judging panel suggesting it contained too much salt and that the gravy was pretty non-existent, but to be fair we didn’t eat it immediately and re-heated it so this probably dried it up a little.

The Greggs’ bake used Quorn, but the ‘meat’ in our version is marinated tofu and we added a few different ingredients such as caramelised onion chutney and white wine, hic!

We also got around the glazing issue which makes the Greggs’ bake look slightly anaemic by brushing our bake with a little coconut oil.

That’s obviously all well and good but what about the all-important taste

We invited an independent panel, well by that we mean the SK head office team so not technically independent, to give it a try and here’s just some of their comments:

“It’s got more sauce than Greggs”
“Salty, but in a good way”
“More ‘bite’ than Greggs – less mushy texture”
“Good crispy pastry”
“Juicy with the texture of steak”
“Good balanced onion flavour”

So, we think it’s fair to say the jury rests your honour!

To be fair to Greggs, who we love by the way, it’s a bit easier for us to produce a one off version like this when we don’t need to worry about ingredients etc and let’s just say that if we ever took this to market, it would cost a lot more than the £1.55 that the Geordie baker is charging for their bake!

And speaking of Greggs, they this week launched their vegan doughnut and it looks amazing. And, this has been the whole point of our blogs in January, recognising and celebrating the tremendous strides which are being made in the vegan food world.

So, hats off to everyone who is embracing vegan. It’s going to be an exciting 2020!

SK Vegan Steak bake

Ingredients:

• Sliced onion 200g
• Oil 35g
• Salt 7g
• Caramelised onion chutney 80g
• Vegan gravy granules 31g
• Vegan micro protein pieces (marinated tofu) 400g
• Water 50g
• White wine 50g
• Ready rolled puff pastry 1 sheet
• A little water and flour mixed to make pastry glue
• Melted coconut oil

Method:

In a hot frying pan add the onions and salt and fry until golden and caramelised. Once cooked add the caramelised onion chutney and micro protein pieces and cook thoroughly. Then add the white wine and reduce slightly.

Then add the water and gravy granules and cook until a thick “meaty rich” sauce is made. May need a little extra water. Leave to cool. Pre heat oven to 200oc.

Once the mix is cool enough, take your sheet of ready rolled puff pastry and cut into 4 equal rectangles. On two of those rectangles (which will be the top of the bake) using s sharp knife, gently score into the pastry to make attractive decoration when the pastry is cooked and puffed up.

On the other two pieces spoon the cooled steak mix leaving a 1cm edge around the mix so the lid can adhere to the base. Using the pastry glue, glue around the 1cm edge and place the scored lid on top pressing firmly where they meet.

Using the coconut oil brush the top of the bake and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

It’s lovely on its own or serve with parsley and garlic mashed potato, minted peas and extra lashings of gravy.

About Chris Brown

Sous Chef of SK Foods.

Your food. Our Passion.

View all posts by Chris Brown | https://www.skfoods.co.uk