I took a walk a little earlier and I was thinking: maybe instead of the bacon or chicken wing or whatever, a dried mushroom or two, or maybe a few sun dried tomatoes could work to add flavor as the beans cook. Have you tried cooking beans with either of those by any chance? Interesting tip on the nooch. I'd never heard of it before, but I had heard vegan friends mention using yeasts to add flavor. I'll give that a try sometime.
Sun-dried tomatoes sound good too. Tomatoes are supposed to have umami. I can't really tell; or maybe their own taste overpowers it. Personally, I feel like nooch, onion, and garlic sub well for chicken. Beef and pork are harder. Shiitake is the best thing I've found. Nooch is awesome. It's great for chicken/egg/cheese flavoring. I'm a particular fan of this unchicken seasoning recipe.Have you tried cooking beans with either of those by any chance?
I have. I like shiitake or baby portobello, with a little soy sauce, with beans or bean soup. Emphasis on little; it's very easy to add too much, and then it tastes like soy sauce, which is awful. White mushrooms also work. They don't have as much umami, but they're cheaper. If it's just beans, not soup, the mushrooms will be much better pan-fried in butter first. Really draws out the flavor. Especially white mushrooms.maybe instead of the bacon or chicken wing or whatever, a dried mushroom or two
If I were making that particular recipe, I'd probably sub chopped shiitake for the meats. Or ground. If you figure out how to grind them, let me know, heh.
Thanks for the encouragement. I don't usually create my own recipes. I usually use existing ones, or directly modify meat → umami-vegetable. Or throw random stuff into a stir fry, you know. But if I come up with something that seems original enough, sure, definitely. If you like, Thug Kitchen is one of my favorite vegan recipe sites. They're usually really good, don't require exotic ingredients, and his presentation is pretty great.
Don't discount those little tweaks that come when cooking! I've so often found a pretty solid recipe that needs a bit of tweaking and then before I know it, it's much more personalized than when I started. That site looks pretty fun, thanks for the link.But if I come up with something that seems original enough, sure, definitely.