Vegan Rou Jia Mou (Chinese Hamburger)

 

It’s been nearly 10 months since we left China, but my craving for good Chinese food never seems to go away. One of the absolute best, and sadly disappearing, things about China is street food! The number of tasty snacks available from street vendors along the small hidden alleyways is  dizzying, Meant to be a quick meal on the go, these hand-held goodies are just so good.

I miss those hot summer days wandering the alleys in search of something salty, followed by something spicy, then a bit of fresh, and finally top it off with a bit of something sweet,

I had always been curious to try a delicious looking snack sometimes referred to foreigners as “Chinese hamburger”, but is actually called rou jia mo. It’s usually made with pork, but you know Veggie Mama don’t mess around that. I needed a great replacement to replicate the look and feel of shredded pork, so I eventually decided on using lion’s mane mushroom (hou tou gu ). This amazingly beautiful mushroom has been all the rage in the health and wellness scene for its reported positive effects on everything from anxiety to reducing heart disease risk. So, if you have been curious about how to cook lion’s mane mushroom, you are in the right place!

While these may be true, and I hope they are, I am all about how it tastes. In this dish, it’s perfect! It absorbs the flavors of the cooking broth so well. I think even yeye and nainai (grandpa and grandma) would approve. 

You will need to pick up some buns, either some already made bing (Chinese buns), or even hamburger buns. If you are feeling ambitious, you can make your own buns fairly easily on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet. For me, I got them pre-made. 

Now, let’s make meat-free Chinese Hamburgers!

Vegan Rou Jia Mou (Chinese Hamburger)

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Easy to make and delicious meat-free Chinese hamburgers!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 8-10 large dried lion's mane mushrooms
• 2 C water
• 2 tbs Shaoxing wine (any rice wine will do)
• 1 tbs white sugar or sub your favorite sugar
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1tbs light soy sauce
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 4 scallions, sliced in half
• 2 inches ginger, sliced thin
• 2 while star anise
• 1 cardamom pod
• 1 cinnamon stick or 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns or 1/8 ground
• 3 bay leaves
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, washed and roughly chopped
• 6-8 Chinese buns or hamburger buns

Instructions

1. Rehydrate lion's mane mushrooms in warm water, for about 15 minutes. Rinse a couple of times to get rid of any bitter tasting residue. Peel off pieces of the lion's mane mushrooms so that they resemble shredded meat, some larger bits and some smaller will do, but none too small because you will be separating it from the other ingredients later. Place all of the prepared lion's mane in a bowl.
2. In a medium pot, add 2 C water, Shaoxing wine, sugar, soy sauces, tomato paste, and if using vegan Worcestershire sauce, scallions, ginger, star anise, cardamom pod, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and salt. Add the lion's mane, and mix well. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Cover and cook for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a bit more water if needed. You want the mixture to remain moist, but ideally not too wet.
3. Once the mixture is ready, use tongs to remove the chunks of lion's mane mushroom from the pot and place them into a medium sized bowl. Add chopped cilantro and mix.
4. Slice buns about 3/4 of the way through, but not all of the way so the mixture will stay put more easily, and so the juices don't run all over the place.
5. Stuff each bun with as much of the mixture as you darn well please. Enjoy!

Notes

If you don't have access to all of the ingredients, you can use Chinese five spice powder instead.