Smooth loaves of homemade Vegan "Liverwurst" ready to be served with pumpernickel bread, whole grain crackers, rye crisp, or crudites.
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO JOIN THE DISCUSSIONS ON MY VEGAN FEAST OPEN COOKING FORUM!
This may gross you out, but I used to like liverwurst! And, judging by the recipes and info online, I am not alone. Fortunately, I devised a recipe that tasted very much like it, in my opinion, but involves no meat, is easy to make, can be frozen, and has great flavor. It makes great sandwiches, too.
If you used to like braunschweiger, which is smoked liverwurst, just add a little liquid smoke to taste.
Nervous about using liquid smoke? Here's some info from Cook's Illustrated magazine:
"Liquid Smoke
What is liquid smoke and how is it made? We were among the many people who assume that there must be some kind of synthetic chemical chicanery going on in the making of "liquid smoke" flavoring. But according to the Colgin Company (which has been bottling liquid smoke since the 19th century), that's not the case. Liquid smoke is made by channeling smoke from smoldering wood chips through a condenser, which quickly cools the vapors, causing them to liquefy (just like the drops that form when you breathe on a piece of cold glass). The water-soluble flavor compounds in the smoke are trapped within this liquid, while the nonsoluble, carcinogenic tars and resins are removed by a series of filters, resulting in a clean, smoke-flavored liquid.
Curious about the manufacturing process for this product, we wondered if we could bottle up some smoke for ourselves. To do this, we created a small-scale mock-up of the commercial method, involving a kettle grill, a duct fan, a siphon, and an ice-chilled glass coil condenser.
In a comparison of homemade and store-bought liquid smoke, homemade was praised for its clean, intense, smoky flavor. But we spent an entire day and $50 on materials to produce 3 tablespoons of homemade liquid smoke. Commercial liquid smoke is just fine, especially if you avoid brands with additives such as salt, vinegar, and molasses. Wright's Liquid Smoke ($2.99 for 3.5 ounces) is our top-rated brand and contains nothing but smoke and water."
Give this recipe a try! It's great to have in the refrigerator during the summer, for a quick meal or an appetizer.
Printable Recipe
BRYANNA'S VEGAN "LIVERWURST"
Servings: 16
Yield: 2/ 3 x 2 x 6" loaves
1 (12.3 oz.) box extra-firm SILKEN tofu OR 12 oz. medium-firm tofu
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 medium (about 2.5 oz.) onion, peeled and chunked
1 medium russet potato (about 4 oz.), scrubbed and chunked (no need to remove the high-fiber peel!)
1/2 cup raw shelled sunflower seeds
1/4 cup wholewheat flour, OR stone ground cornmeal, OR soy flour, OR chickpea flour (besan)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1/2 tablespoon fresh, chopped)
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1/2 tablespoon fresh, chopped)
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram (or 1/2 tablespoon fresh, chopped)
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
a few gratings of freshly-ground nutmeg
freshly-ground black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until very smooth.
Divide the mixture between two lightly oiled nonstick 3 x 6 x 2" loaf pans (small fruitcake pans).
Cover each pan with foil (oiled on the part that will touch the pâté) .
Place the pans inside of a 9x13" shallow baking pan with about an inch of hot water in the bottom.
Bake for 1 hour.
Cool the pâté in the pans on a rack until firmly set. Carefully loosen around the sides of the pans with a table knife and invert them onto a plate. Cover the plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to a week.
If you would like to freeze the pâtés, cut them into whatever sizes are useful for you, wrap well with foil, then place in a zipper-lock bag, seal and freeze for up to three months.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving or 1/ 8th of a loaf): 61.6 calories; 39% calories from fat; 2.9g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 148.9mg sodium; 182.5mg potassium; 5.6g carbohydrates; 1.4g fiber; 0.9g sugar; 4.2g net carbs; 4.4g protein; 1.2 points.
Enjoy!
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32 comments:
I love liquid smoke. Colgin brand is awesome.
kathy
When I first saw this I thought about my father, how much he loved braunschweiger and how much fun it would have been to make this for him.
Liverwurst? Bizarre! But interesting, I am actually very intrigued to try this.
I heart liquid smoke. I think my supply is very old, as it doesn't seem to impart much flavor, but I just love the smell.
Wow! I can't wait to try this. You aren't the only one that loved liverwurst.
You never stop amazing me. What are you going to come up with next? I can't even imagine.
Thanks for sharing the info on the liquid smoke.
Alicia
I used to love liverwurst, too (well, it was chopped liver, actually, but aren't they similar?). Can't wait to try this out.
Not able to eat tofu unfortunately as this looks delicious. Would it work with tempeh or is there any other sub for tofu you could recommend.
Thanks
Anonymous, I haven't had time to try this, but I would suggest using 1 1/2 cups of cooked or canned white beans-- well-cooked and VERY well rinsed and drained- in place of the tofu if you can't have soy. This has worked for me in some other recipes.
If you can't tolerate soy sauce either, you might want to try my "Soy-Free sauce":
http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/1435893.htm#soyfreesauce
Wow, you never cease to amaze me, Bryanna! You're a total genius! Since I am German I grew up on Liverwurst (actually Leberwurst) and I'm very excited to have it again. Thinking about it makes me drool a little... ;)
Yum! I am going to try making this on the weekend.
Genius, Bryanna, you are one !!!
Us Jerries love us some liverwurst (with pickle slices on top *drool*) !
Up to now it's always been the Tartex Delikatess spread or the Viana Lebenswurst, - but since I have all the ingredients at home, - it looks like liverwurst is going to be made in the KiKi household !!!
Thank you !!!!
Bryanna: I'm wondering if (a) roasted (unsalted) sunflower seeds would work here instead, and (b) you mean tamari, or the kind of soy sauce you get in a sushi restaurant. (I'm never sure in recipes that call for "soy sauce.")
Thanks - I am so excited to try this. Used to LOVE liverwurst as a kid.
I LOVED Liverwurst and braunschweiger when I ate meat. What can I saw...I'm german. I never thought to be able to enjoy it again. I can't wait to try yours!!!!!!
Oh, all you German liverwurst fans are making me nervous! I hope you like it! Please tell me if I'm off the mark! I have only ever had the American kind, and that was at least 30 years ago!!
Anonymous (Aug 9), I'm not sure if roasted sunflower seeds would work. You could try it. But the raw ones blend into such a nice creamy mixture-- I'm wondering if the roasted ones would do that.
As for the soy sauce, I use a naturally-fermented Chinese soy sauce, but you can use a Japanese type, such as Kikkoman, or tamari, which is a naturally-fermented soy sauce made without wheat.
Actually, soy sauce is called shoyu in Japan. More than 300 years ago in Tokugawa Japan, miso masters had a profitable sideline selling the liquid essence pressed out of the miso during the aging process. We have a miso master where I live, an d we can get bottles of it from him, but this real tamari is hard to get. You can buy it from
http://www.great-eastern-sun.com/shopnew/pages/150002.html
More on Tamari:
Some info from William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, of the Soyinfo Center in California
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/soy_sauce1.php
"The first person to try to make a change in the common or usual names of the various soy sauces to reflect their differences was the macrobiotic teacher George Ohsawa. He chose to use the term "tamari" to refer to the traditional, naturally fermented Japanese-style shoyu, which he worked to introduced into the West. The term "tamari," introduced in about 1960, began to catch on in the mid-1960s and was the most widely used term for natural soy sauce in the natural- and health-food trades from about 1970-1980. Ohsawa made a mistake, however, in using the term "tamari" to make his distinction, since "tamari" also referred to a type of Japanese shoyu containing little or no wheat. By the late 1970s this "real tamari" started to be marketed in the US, creating a great deal of confusion over terminology. Starting in 1975 Shurtleff and Aoyagi began a mini-campaign to have all Japanese-style soy sauce called "shoyu" (to distinguish it clearly from both chemical soy sauce and Chinese soy sauce), to have the term "tamari-shoyu" or "tamari" used, as in Japan, to refer only to shoyu containing little or no wheat, and to have the product that Ohsawa and the macrobiotics called "tamari" be renamed "natural shoyu." By 1980 groups marketing real tamari joined the campaign, running big ads stating that other so-called tamaris were not the real thing. By late 1980 the East West Journal and much of the macrobiotic community had made the suggested shift in terminology; distributors of the so-called "tamari" followed suit slowly. Kikkoman was hesitant to switch to calling their product "Kikkoman Shoyu," the name they used in Japan. They agreed that "shoyu" would help clarify the distinction between their quality product and lower-quality HVP soy sauce, but they felt they had invested too much in promoting "Kikkoman Soy Sauce" and that a switch might be confusing. During the late 1970s and early 1980s a number of natural food cookbooks began to use the terminology "1 tablespoon shoyu (natural soy sauce).""
And, in relation to Europe, from
http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/soy_sauce7.php
"During the late 1950s and 1960s the macrobiotic teachers George and Lima Ohsawa did pioneering work on introducing naturally-fermented shoyu to Europe. Then an unusual series of events took place which later created considerable confusion between terms "tamari" and "shoyu." As Lima Ohsawa recalled in 1983:
In about 1958 or 1959 George Ohsawa gave a lecture at a university in Hamburg, West Germany. The lecture hall was packed with some 400 to 500 people. Among them was a young man who was running an organic school in Germany. After the lecture he went to Mr. Ohsawa and earnestly enquired about various aspects of the Unique Principle.
At that time there was also some talk about shoyu. As soon as he tasted this shoyu, he registered the word "shoyu" as his own trademark and brand name, so that only he could sell it under this name. We came to know about this later and thought that it was a terrible thing for him to do. We were troubled by his action, for in Germany the law concerning registered trademarks was very strict. Therefore, in Germany, we were unable to call shoyu by its proper name, "shoyu." Out of sheer necessity, we decided to call shoyu by the name "tamari." After that, people in Europe started to call shoyu by the name "tamari."
In Japan we call the liquid from soybean miso by the name "tamari-shoyu," and it has been used in fine restaurants and for high class recipes. It is a type of shoyu.
After this incident, shoyu came to be called tamari. People overseas started to become familiar with the product and its new name, and they came to be used regularly.
Another version of the story, perhaps apocryphal, has it that in about 1960 when the Lima Foods company in Belgium first started importing this traditional, natural shoyu from Japan, they asked Ohsawa what they should call the product to distinguish it from both regular commercial shoyu and from chemical soy sauce. Ohsawa suggested that Lima call the product "natural shoyu," since that was its name in Japan. Lima Foods said that the word "shoyu" seemed somewhat difficult to pronounce (in French and Dutch) and asked for alternatives. Ohsawa mentioned that words like "tamari" and "murasaki" were also used in Japan to refer to traditional soy sauces. Lima Foods liked the word "tamari," finding it short, distinctive, and easy to pronounce. So they decided to call their natural shoyu "tamari." Ohsawa eventually came to use this terminology in his teaching and writing, and it was picked up and popularized by the world macrobiotic movement, which played a key role in introducing the product to the West.
Yet little did any of these well-meaning people foresee the confusion that would result from this misnomer as people in the West became familiar with both natural shoyu and real tamari, and as distributors began to sell both these fine seasonings.
The first macrobiotic "tamari" was made in Europe starting in 1958 by Lima Food company, under the supervision of Pierre Gevaert and Ohsawa. The first product, made from equal parts soybeans and wheat and aged for 3 years, went on the market in 1961. It had a rich flavor and thick consistency. But by 1967 the company had so much unsold stock that it was forced to stop production."
I used to love liverwurst as well. This recipe sounds so easy and tasty. Thanks for posting it!!
I'm also the anonymous who asked about sunflower seeds and soy sauce. Thank you for all the information! And for the recipe - the flavors have developed such that it tastes markedly more... "liverwursty" after a couple days in the fridge. Some liverwurst recipes call for coriander and cardamom; maybe I'll add a dash of those next time I make this. Which will be soon.
Thanks for the feedback, Danielle! Did you end up using roasted or unroasted sunflower seeds?
I bought raw seeds. It was worth the trip to the store - you just don't mess around with liverwurst :)
I made this today and it was wonderful! I was just thinking this week about a braunschweiger spread I used to amke and wondering if I could do something with Anaszi beans to make a spread and I came across this--very good!
I made this and it was so easy and delicious! Thank you!
I have made the original recipe from Bryanna's Fiber for Life cookbook quite a few times, and this recent post actually inspired me to make it again - two loaves are in the oven as I type. I had okara from two batches of soy milk and subbed that for the tofu though.
Hi, Søren! Great to hear from you! How did it turn out with the okara?
Yes, this is a variation on the pate in "Fiber for Life", but that one does not contain tofu.
it's so awesome to find this! we're trying very hard to be all veggie / vegan, and when you have a hankering for braunschweiger, well that seems to be an impossible taste to satisfy, so we're SOOO excited to try it this weekend... and to read the other recipes along the side column, well, we just can't wait to peruse them all!!!!! can't thank you enough for putting all of this out there :-)
namaste!
Rosalee FoxWood
Welcome to the vegan Feast, Rosalee! I hope you like the recipe!
Hi Bryanna,
I didn't have any tofu at hand which is why I went ahead with the okara - it turned out fine. I haven't tried your updated version with tofu though so I can't really compare.
Thanks as always for being an inspiration for all of us!
Oh, happy day! I can't wait to make and try this with some onions and mustard on rye! I miss liverwurst too... 8( Thank you so much!
OMG, ok so whoever said this gets better in the fridge as it 'marinates' was SOOOO right!
w/ onions and mustard on rye is lovely... not being vegan, MY favorite way is on toasted sour rye and dark rye with butter on the other piece of bread... JUST like when I was in school and my mom made the braunschweiger and margarine sandwiches :-)
mmmmm! happy happy happy german tummy :-)
Thanks again for this and ALL of your wunderbar recipes!
Rosalee FoxWood
Hello there, I discovered Caldwell Esselstyn's book three weeks ago and it made so much sense, I immediately changed my eating habits, embarked on more research and discovered your websites. Being German (yes, another one!) I tried the liver pate. I found it a little bland and added more thyme and majoram than the recipe suggests, and I also added some smoked paprika powder. It not only adds the right kick but also helps with the color. I love it on a slice of your no-knead bread, with a sweet pickle on the side. YUM!!
I made a variation of this today but subbed the silken tofu and sunflower seeds for the pulp that is left when you make almond milk. It worked really well. I am going to let it sit overnight in the refrigerator before I taste it, but it smells fantastic. The texture is nice and firm, it has pulled away from the sides of the pans a little, but is still soft.
Thanks for the great recipe.
Alicia
We couldn't wait until tomorrow we had to try it tonight. While we haven't had the animal version in years we definitely think this is similar. I love having a new way to use the pulp from making almond milk or soy milk. Thank you so much for sharing the base recipe.
Alicia
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