Vegan Practically

I’m home at my parents’ place for the Easter weekend. While it’s not a vegan household, my mum and dad have both gone a long way to make it vegan friendly. And so when I was chatting with them last week, my mother asked if I had ever given any thought to vegan possibilities for a South African dish called “pickled fish,” traditionally served on Good Friday.

As this article describes, despite that it is everywhere in the lead up to Easter, it’s become more of a culinary tradition that transcends its Christian roots. In my South African immigrant family in Canada, we ate it every Good Friday (and, as the article says, through the rest of the weekend until we couldn’t face it anymore). My mother used to make big batches of it, with big discussions every year about what kind of fish she would use, how much she should make, whether the fish should be fried (as used to be the usual way) or baked or microwaved, how to get the smell of the fish out of the house, and what kind of bread to serve it with. I remember my astonishment on a trip to South Africa when I saw that they actually stock tubs of pickled fish in the refrigerated ready-to-eat section of supermarkets.

People who didn’t grow up with it tend to approach it with caution (assuming they don’t immediately recoil) because it’s perhaps not the most appetizing dish to look at. But if you think of it as just a curry meant to be served cold, rather than focusing on the “pickled” descriptor, that might help. Our vegan version is pictured in the photo above. To me it looks delicious and I can’t wait for lunch.

The dish is typically made ahead of time to give the fish time to marinate in the curry. Given that the curry sauce and the fish are cooked separately then combined, it seems as if it should be an easy thing to veganize simply by using something in place of the fish. The curry sauce is in many ways the main event. It’s a thin sauce with lots of onions, and it’s important to have really good bread, usually spread with butter, to sop up the delicious juices. I remember going back for second helpings sometimes and only taking onions and sauce, and another dinner roll to eat it with.

But the seafood industry is cruel and environmentally unsustainable. And I am vegan. So if I want something that connects me with fond family food traditions but doesn’t compromise my values, I need an alternative.

I did a little bit of searching around, convinced that I would find some South African vegans who, like me, had grown tired of missing out on this culinary tradition. My research yielded these two different approaches: Vegan Cape Malay Pickled Cauliflower and Faux Curried Pickle Fish (Tofu). I sent them off to my mother with a note that we definitely don’t need three cups of oil to cook the cauliflower.

My mother used the recipes as a starting point (really only for the cauliflower and tofu ideas). She opted to try both, coating pieces with a light batter and then cooking them in the air fryer (for next time she suggests the oven because it has more space). Since she has a decades old tried-and-true recipe for the sauce itself that is already vegan, she stuck with that. My parents worked together to make it ahead so there would be time for the requisite marinating. It really is one of those dishes that gets better and better over the next few days.

The result: A cruelty-free take on an old recipe that is (to me) superior in taste and texture. It delivered all the elements that I was used to and I had it for lunch and dinner yesterday. Dinner was even better because we defrosted one of the baguettes my dad had made recently. Slathered with a good spread of Earth Balance, it was the perfect choice. The pickled cauliflower and tofu with the homemade baguette hit all the right notes. The recipe is definitely a keeper. Besides being delicious, it doesn’t stink up the house for days with the smell of cooked fish.

Thanks Mum and Dad!

Bon Appétit!