Recipe: Hipster Poutine

This is part of our Healthy & Delicious Restaurant Recipe Series.

The Cannery’s Sean Jorgensen has been supplying decadent comfort food to Shanghai for years. When we asked him to give one of his most popular dishes a healthy makeover, he decided it would be great fun to take on a Canadian national treasure, poutine. The potatoes are baked, the cheese is low-fat, the gravy is vegetarian and the flavor, heavenly. As for the name, it’s plant-based (unless you add dried beef) and it’s junk food, does it get more hipster than that?

Hipster Poutine

Images courtesy The Cannery (left) and by Cristina Ng/That's

Serves 40 as an appetizer

Fries:

• 20g olive oil

• 600g potatoes (cut into 2cm wide sticks)

• ½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp black pepper

Vegetable Stock:

• 200g carrot

• 200g white onion

• 100g celery

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 liter water

Gravy:

• 10g garlic

• 500ml vegetable stock

• 10g mushroom soy sauce

• 40g white miso paste

• ¼ tsp onion powder

• ¼ tsp Montreal steak seasoning

• ¼ tsp black pepper

Slurry:

• 10g cornstarch

• 15g water

Toppings:

• 40g skim mozzarella

• 40g fresh mozzarella bocconcini

• Smoked dehydrated shitake mushrooms or beef jerky

• 10g pickled jalapeños

Method:

1. First get the vegetable stock cooking. You can make this ahead of time. Wash, peel and chop vegetables roughly. Place vegetables in water with bay leaf. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. This should yield 500-600ml of stock.

2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Peel and cut potatoes into 2cm sticks then run under cold water for one to two minutes. Toss cut potatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

3. While the potatoes are cooking, make the gravy. Sauté the garlic, seasonings and miso for one to two minutes on low heat. Add the stock and bring to a boil, then add soy sauce. Combine cornstarch and water to make the slurry. Add slurry to the gravy, continuing to whisk until sauce is at a desired thickness.

4. On an oven-safe plate, place a bit of gravy and top with fries and cheeses. Put in the oven for three minutes to melt the cheese (not all will melt) and remove using a towel. Top with remaining sauce, pickled jalapeños, beef or mushrooms.

[Cover image by Cristina Ng/That's]

See listing for The Cannery. For more recipes in this series, click here.