Vegan scallops, made with marinated king oyster mushrooms, served on a fresh, summery edamame bean smash! They make a great starter or a fancy breakfast!
Sea food vibes like you wouldn’t believe!
These ridiculously realistic vegan scallops are such a treat. I very rarely go directly for meat/seafood analogs but these guys are just too good to resist! They look IDENTICAL to the real thing. Since they’re marinated in all the right stuff, they even TASTE of the sea!
I serve these bad boys with a beautifully fresh, summery edamame pea smash. It’s bursting with lemon zest and fresh parsley. There’s just something so sophisticated about this dish and yet, since it’s really just mushrooms on toast, I’d 100% eat this for breakfast!
How did you come up with THIS??
As much as I’d love to take credit for this masterpiece, I am definitely NOT the first person to make scallops from king oyster shrooms! The first time I ever saw anyone make vegan scallops from king oyster mushrooms was probably Derek Sarno from Wicked Healthy. Once again – that guy is changing up the entire vegan game!
King oyster mushrooms have such a beautifully bouncy, meaty texture – just like scallops! They really do feel like a sea side treat, despite being mushrooms! I love how they brown so beautifully when you grill or pan fry them. My mind is already racing about all the things you could use these guys in!
- What about sticking them in a paella! I haven’t had seafood paella in my entire life – now I feel like I could really do a good job of replicating that!
- How about wrapping them in This bacon and serving as fancy hors d’oeuvres!?
- Or even what about frying and stirring through linguine with some lemon and samphire?!?!?!? The options are literally endless!
But do they TASTE like seafood?
Yes, the answer is yes! And here’s how we do it!
This recipe calls for Kombu, which is a specific kind of dried seaweed. It’s used in dashi, a kind of Japanese broth, and it imparts such a sea-side flavour to the mushrooms, you have to taste it to believe it.
Kombu is used in making vegetarian and vegan miso soup – it’s what brings the insanely umami vibes as well as that distinctly Japanese flavour. It’s not super tricky to get hold of – Asian supermarkets are usually well stocked with the stuff or just use Amazon if not (it comes dried so is very postage friendly). Therefore, if you have the time, you MUST marinade these vegan scallops for as long as you can.
If you love these guys…
Why not try making my Tofish Sandwiches!? They’re like a vegan fillet ‘o’ fish and they’re pretty mind blowing!
Oh and don’t forget to leave a rating and a comment on the recipe below! Thanks! Love ya!
Equipment
- no specialist equipment required
Ingredients
For the Scallop Marinade
- 280 ml water
- 4 cloves garlic (peeled and crushed)
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp brown rice miso
- 6 g kombu (around a 4cm square slice)
- 1 tbsp ume plum seasoning or paste
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
For the Scallops
- 2 king oyster mushrooms (the large ones with a cylindrical stem)
- 30 g vegan butter
- 1½ tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Crushed Edamame Peas
- 140 g edamame beans (shelled – frozen is fine!)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 20 g vegan butter
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 red chilli (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp parsley (roughly chopped)
- 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
Instructions
To Make the Marinade
- In a small saucepan, mix all the marinade ingredients together. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil. As soon as the marinade reaches a boil turn off the heat. Cover and leave the flavours to combine for 10 minutes.
- After ten minutes, remove the kombu and discard or clean and freeze for use again. Place the saucepan back over medium/low heat and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
- While simmering, slice the mushrooms into roughly 1 inch thick discs (you’ll need 6 scallops). Do not use the cap – reserve it for a nice mushroom risotto or mushrooms on toast. Place the mushrooms in a small but deep baking tray.
- Once simmered and slightly reduced, pour over the sliced mushrooms. Cover and leave to marinade for at least one hour. Meanwhile, make the edamame smash!
To Make the Edamame Smash
- Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you reach your desired consistency (I like to keep mine quite chunky for texture!). Set aside.
To Make the Scallops
- Remove the scallops from the marinade one by one and place on a plate. Using a sharp knife, score the top and bottom of each scallop with 6 bisecting lines to create a diamond pattern.
- Place a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the vegan butter and allow to melt. One by one, place the scallops in the hot butter, circle side down. Fry for a good 3-5 minutes before carefully lifting to see if the bottom is brown. If it looks brown and nicely cooked, flip the scallop and repeat on the other side. Once cooked, reduce the heat to the lowest while you plate up.
- Toast 2 slices of good bread and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Top each with a good few spoonfuls of the crushed edamame mixture then top with 3 scallops. Drizzle again with olive oil, a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, a good squeeze of lemon juice and some fresh parsley.
OMGoodness..this was fantastic!! I will serve this again and yes the possibilities are endless. Thank you for your passion.
This is a really impressive and delicious dish! Not difficult to make either.
I served it with roasted cauliflower, broccoli and cherry tomatoes with a mustard dressing, and we really enjoyed the meal. Thanks Richard!
Can I marinate these overnight? Started them too late this evening and won’t be able to eat them until tomorrow!