You'll want to make this meatless version of traditional Polish bigos again and again! This cozy vegan hunter's stew is made with a mix of zippy sauerkraut, cabbage, hearty potatoes and smoky baked tofu. A delicious comfort food meal that's actually healthy!
Spring is here, but you sure wouldn't know it to look at this recipe! This one is about as wintry as they come.
It's still pretty cold out though, at least in my neck of the woods. And last week I started feeling a tickle in my throat, at which point I promptly freaked out because I'd only been recovered from my last bout of illness for about a week at that point. I had a bunch of ingredients and plans to cook up spring recipes, but I just wasn't feeling it.
The tickle in my throat turned out to be allergies, which is the first sign of spring that I've seen this year.
Anyhow, judging by the lingering cold weather and the number of sneezes I hear (and dodge fearfully) when out and about, I figured maybe I'm not the only one who could use some comfort food. This cozy stew is about as comforting as it gets!
What is Bigos?
Is this one new to you? It's a Polish dish, and until recently it was to me too, which is amazing because one of the main ingredients is sauerkraut, and I LOVE sauerkraut. Have you ever thought you could make a meal of sauerkraut? I sure have. With this stew, you practically can.
Another key ingredient in traditional bigos is meat. Lots and lots of meat, of various kinds. I checked out a bunch of recipes and they call for everything from pork shoulder to sausage to bacon. There's a reason they call it a hunter's stew.
But this is a vegan site, so you probably don't want to hear too much about the meat, right? There's lots of other good stuff in bigos, and the ingredients vary by region, but a few things you'll typically find are red wine, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. Lots of versions have mushrooms too (I skipped them in this one), and since there's so much sour from the sauerkraut, a bit of sugar or prunes to balance out the flavor.
Making a Vegan Hunter's Stew
To veganize this stew, you'll need to replace the meat. I went with a smoky baked tofu as my meat replacement, because it goes so well with the other flavors in this dish.
To make your baked tofu, mix up some marinade and pour it over some cubed up extra firm tofu. You can let it sit and soak up the flavors if you've got time, or just cook it right away. (Marinating doesn't that much of a difference.)
Arrange your tofu cubes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake them until they shrink up and darken.
While the tofu bakes, prepare your stew.
Start by sautéing some onion, carrots and garlic in a bit of oil. Once the veggies have softened up a bit, add some red wine, and let it reduce for a few minutes. Next, add the potatoes, cabbage, spices, and broth. Let everything simmer until the potatoes soften up.
Sauerkraut, some prunes for sweetness, and tomato paste go in last. Make sure your potatoes are tender before this step, as adding the sauerkraut too early could prevent them from cooking.
Let everything simmer for a while longer, then remove the pot from heat and stir in the baked tofu.
Serve your bigos with some fresh dill and chives. I love it with some crusty bread for soaking up the broth!
Tips for Making Amazing Vegan Bigos
- If you're a fan of vegan sausage, feel free to substitute it for the baked tofu. (Or for a super hearty version, use both!) I like Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage sausage with this recipe. Just chop up 3 or 4 links, heat them in a skillet, and stir them into the stew when it's just about done cooking.
- Other variations: add some fresh mushrooms or your favorite veggies. You can also sub veggies for the potatoes if you prefer (cauliflower would be nice). If you're not into prunes, leave them out and sweeten the stew with a tablespoon of maple syrup.
- Consider using a low sodium vegetable broth if you're sensitive to salt. (Sauerkraut is super salty!)
- For an alcohol free version, just substitute some extra vegetable broth for the red wine.
- If you do use the wine, check with Barnivore to ensure your brand is vegan.
- For a gluten-free version of this stew, use gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce.
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
Ingredients
For the Smoky Baked Tofu
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon canola oil
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 (14 ounce) package extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into ½ inch cubes
For the Stew
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 medium russet potato, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 cups chopped cabbage
- 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon caraway seed
- 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups sauerkraut, including juice
- ⅓ cup finely diced dried prunes
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- Salt to taste
For Serving
- Chopped fresh dill
- Chopped fresh chives
Instructions
- Begin by making the baked tofu. Stir the soy sauce, maple syrup, red wine vinegar, liquid smoke, oil, smoked paprika, and black pepper together in a shallow dish.
- Add the tofu and toss to coat. If you've got time, allow the tofu to marinate for 30 minutes. If not, skip it.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Arrange the tofu in an even layer on the baking sheet, then place it in the oven and bake until the pieces darken and shrink, 35 to 40 minutes, flipping them halfway through baking.
- While the tofu bakes, prepare the stew. Coat the bottom of a large pot with oil and place it over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onion and carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrots begin to soften up and the onions become translucent.
- Add the garlic and cook for another minute, until very fragrant.
- Stir in the wine. Bring it up to a simmer and allow it to cook until reduced by about half, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the broth, potato, cabbage, sweet paprika, marjoram, pepper, caraway seed, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Raise the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil. Lower the heat and allow it to simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the sauerkraut, prunes and tomato paste and continue simmering for about 15 minutes more, until the potatoes and cabbage are very soft.
- Remove the pot from heat and season the stew with salt to taste. Stir in the tofu.
- Ladle into bowls and top with dill and chives. Serve.
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Nutrition
This was easy to make and very tasty, love the flavour of the carraway seeds. My husband has issues with tomatoes so I subbed banana ketchup for the tomato paste and it worked well. Thanks for our yummy dinner.
Hi, this is Probably the1st time I rea about bigos on an English website.
I haven’t tried it, but at first I reacted to a suggestion of having potatoes in bigos.
No idea where this came from, maybe there such version, too. However this is far from usual. I’m of Polish origin, have been living abroad for many years and have eaten vegan food for the last over 25 years, so I have tried different vegan versions (before that I had been eating vegetarian food for another 14 years). Even if there are different versions of bigos, I usually put onions and fry a bit, then I add sauerkraut (or I use mixed - both cabbage and sauerkraut). It’s unusual for me to see sauerkraut added at the end.
I’m sure what you have posted is a very good dish. I’m only writing as I feel there are more “bigos” versions available out there, too. It’s easy to put wegański bigos in Google, then find a recipe and put in Google translator. Then you will find many more Polish versions of vegan bigos.
The latest one I’ve found and tried is here: https://www.mojegotowanie.pl/przepis/wegetarianski-bigos
Also they point out there that originally bigos wasn’t a cabbage or sauerkraut dish at all. A lady added them in the 19th century and made it popular.
Happy Christmas
Would this freeze well?
I haven't tried freezing it myself, but I can't see why not!
This recipe was out or my comfort zone because I'm very picky about sauerkraut, but it was so good! My partner who "wasn't in the mood for stew" also loved it...so I guess it put him in the mood for stew. It has a great savory and tangy depth of flavor. I agree with the earlier commenter that I had to add more liquid a few times. I used vegan sausage rather than tofu and it paired nicely. No prunes because I didn't have them, but it didn't feel like anything was missing.
Hello,
I would really like to make this but I do not like tofu or vegan sausages. I saw in the notes that I could substitute mushrooms though.
However, I am wondering about all the seasoning on the tofu. Do I need to adjust the recipe at all to account for that (since I am not adding in the tofu or sausage)?
I am curious about the purpose of the potatoes too considering that is not a traditional component to Bigos? I will definitely try it; I was just curious.
Thank you,
Tina
I think you should be fine leaving the soup seasoned as is. If you'd like, you could sauté the mushrooms with some of the seasonings that are in the tofu, but this isn't totally necessary. The potatoes were my addition, just because they make the soup extra hearty and go so well with the flavors! You can leave them out if you prefer.
Thank you for responding. I look forward to trying it and will let you know how it turns out.
Now I understand re potatoes. To keep they are very “unbigosy”. However you can normally cook them separately (as for any other meal) and then eat bigos and potatoes. That’s more usual to me and also there is a choice then, leaving bigos as it is.
It’s not that I’m not open to experimenting, I do experiment a lot with food, it’s just that I don’t feel like cooking bigos with potatoes as part of it :-)
Kind regards
Oh my goodness, this is delicious! We added mushrooms, went with the Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage sausages, and used the sauerkraut my spouse made this past fall. So good with homemade rye bread, too!
We had this for dinner tonight and it was delicious, so much flavour - savoury and tangy. I halved the recipe as there's only two of us but did need to add a little more stock. Would definitely make this again. Thanks.
Recipe for very simple and tasty bigos-sauerkraut, tomato puree,salt,pepper,garlic,smoked paprika,smoked plums,or raisins,Not potatos in bigos cos this isn't bigos, bigos is made from sauerkraut with or without tomato puree,spices,smoked plums for aroma and taste,juniper(seasoning) and kiełbasa but it's easy to replace by tofu.And never ever add potatos to bigos,never,nor broth,or Worcestershire sauce,cos this recipe isn't bigos.
I am Polish going back as long as anyone knows. 2nd Generation American. I remember my mother making a type of Bigos with her homemade Polish pork sausage, souerkaut, and apples. I made some last year using Tofukey Andouille sausage. I used a recipe very similar to yours. Except no tomatoes, my mom did not put tomatoes in hers. It was wonderful. My parents were also foragers and picked their own mushroom in the old country Polish tradition. So those were used too. The Tofukey sausage held up really well, I had tired using Seitan but did not hold up as well.
I love the idea of including apples - I'm going to try that in my next batch! I've been making this a lot and used Field roast sausage in a few batches - it works well! There are so many possible variations to try!