Vegan Poutine Recipe
Today we are making the Ultimate Vegan Poutine Recipe! So if you don’t live in or around Canada, you may not have heard of it. This indulgent dish is Canadian comfort food that we swear by: poutine! Can you find a more Canadian dish? (ahem, eating poutine is one of our favorite things to do on Canada Day) More specifically, a French Onion version – the best part because why go with plain if you can jazz it up?
The main elements in classic poutine are fries, topped with a meat-based hot gravy (usually beef gravy) and cheese curds. I’ve usually seen this eaten as a side dish, but I felt it filling enough to be a main course. But is it vegan? Definitely not – in traditional poutine, the brown gravy is usually made of meat broth, and the cheese mixture topping contains dairy. But can be vegan? Yes! Today we are featuring a rich gravy (VEGAN) filled with french onion flavor, topped over a crunchy golden brown potato (homemade french fries) base!
Why You’ll Love This Easy Vegan Poutine Recipe
Hearty Potatoes: Any dish that’s potato based is bound to be a filling and hearty meal that you can usually serve as a the side dish with a main course, or as an appetizer. Potato dishes are central to so many holiday dishes because of how versatile it is! Fries, mashed potato, baked potato, chips, you name it! This poutine layered on top of the crispy potatoes is just a combination you’ll want to make over and over again.
Nutritional Powerhouse: Lentils, onions and the spices used today all contain their own levels of vitamins and minerals and are simple pantry ingredients. Lentils are also high in protein! You can add more lentils into this dish to make it even more high protein. Or stir fry some tofu and add it on the side to make it for a meal prep. You can take the leftover gravy to add it onto a bed of healthy grains for a meal the next day as well.
Canadian Speciality: This recipe is a Canadian specialist, but there aren’t a lot of places to get poutine that’s vegan. Granted, I’m not using cheese curds here like the recipe usually does, but I also haven’t come across a brand that makes them. Finding any form of poutine that’s vegan, whether it’s loaded with cheese curds or french onion, is not a very common vegan menu item. Making this at home makes it that much more special!
Vegetable Substitutions
Onions: Duh, it’s french onion. Chef’s kiss! This is the main ingredient and we need the onions for sure. No replacement here – although cooking these might make your house stink for a bit! Totally worth for the flavor though. I always turn on my diffuser to spread a nice essential oil aroma throughout the house when I cook with onions.
Potatoes: You’ll need to make roasted potatoes in the oven to eat with this. The best type of potatoes to use in poutine are large russet potatoes for the crispy french fries! Heck, you could try this recipe with sweet potato fries and I’m sure it’ll taste great. It’s up to personal preference what you want to layer your poutine on.
Other Substitutions
Cornstarch: A gluten-free thickener that is used here. You’ll want this because the gravy needs to be thick! You can opt to use all purpose flour if you don’t have cornstarch, but it won’t be gluten free.
Bay leaf, salt, pepper, paprika, black pepper: This was the combination of spices I used, and it worked perfectly. Feel free to switch it up though! You could add dried or fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary, basil, onion powder or more. The black pepper would also taste best if it’s made right out of the whole peppercorns rather than bought as a powder. I personally wouldn’t add any other spices, as they may overpower the dish itself.
Broth: You can add vegetable broth to anything and it’ll amp up the flavor tenfold. Leaving it out would definitely compromise taste, unless you add in a slew of other seasonings. I used a vegetable stock cube that you add to water and it turns into broth. Much easier to buy the small cubes than large boxes of broth!
Olive Oil: Avocado oil or salted vegan butter sticks (like from Earth Balance or Melt) can be another substitute here. I used extra-virgin olive oil. Refined coconut oil may also work, but it should not be virgin or extra-virgin or it will smell like coconuts and leave an aftertaste in the recipe.
Vegan Poutine Recipe Notes
- This full recipe was originally a non-vegetarian poutine recipe, found at this link. This is just my vegan version of it. I don’t have the preparation steps for the gravy written here, since the owner of the original recipe has it on her website. I have linked that down below in the recipe card!
- For a no bake recipe, you can also use an air fryer to make the potatoes! Turn the air fryer on to the same temperature settings as your oven and lay the fries out in a single layer (which may take multiple rounds). The time in an air fryer will vary, so you’ll want to put it on for shorter periods of time and check how cooked they are in between. They will also need to be flipped to cook both sides.
- Vegan feta cheese is available in many supermarkets, such as Whole Foods or the Real Canadian Superstore (or buy it online)! Sprinkling some of top of this dish would really elevate the flavor and give it a type of vegan cheese flavour. Alternatively, find a block of vegan mozzarella cheese to make homemade cheese curds.
More Savory Recipes You’ll Love
Mediterranean Eggplant & Chickpeas
Southern Style Mashed Potatoes
If you make this Vegan Poutine Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Vegan Poutine Recipe
Equipment
- Stovetop Pan
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
For the Gravy
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2½ cups purple onions sliced lengthwise
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¾ tsp salt add more as desired after
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup brown lentils uncooked
- 1½ cups vegetable broth
- ¼ tsp paprika
- 1 large bay leaf or 2 small
For the Potatoes
- 4-5 medium white potatoes, sliced
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and any other seasonings to taste
Instructions
- I will link the original recipe here, so you can check out the instructions for the gravy specifically. Although I changed up some of the ingredients, the steps are the same. Linked here.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- While you cook the gravy from the link above, you can start on the potatoes. Wash and slice the potatoes lengthwise. Once you are halfway through the gravy recipe and the onions are being caramelized, it would be a good time to bake the potatoes (so they don't get cold if your gravy is not finished yet).
- Toss the cut potatoes in the 3 tbsp olive oil, along with the salt, pepper and any other seasonings.
- Arrange the fries on a greased baking tray, making sure they aren't overlapping. Once the oven is hot, put the potatoes inside.
- After 15 minutes, flip the fries around and bake the other side for 15 minutes, for a total of 30 minutes in the oven.
- To check if they're done, pierce one of the fries with a fork. If it is easily pierced, then they are finished. Turn off the oven and take the tray out.
- The gravy should be almost done by the time the potatoes are out of the oven. Once the gravy is complete, you can use a hand blender to make it more of a "gravy," or you can top it on the potatoes without blending, like I did in the photo.
- Enjoy it hot!
Notes
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Storage
- Store the gravy an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, until ready to use on the potatoes.
