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The Fake Tenderloins As Good As The Real Thing

The emphasis on a crispy coating makes this Midwestern standard ripe for some delicious plant-based sleight of hand.

Broad Ripple Brewpub‘s pancake-flat, slightly crunchy, and sprawling well outside a buttery brioche bun mock “chicken” tenderloin, at Indy’s oldest craft brewery known for its funkier, healthier fare, comes with a side of surprisingly rich vegan mayo. 842 E. 65th St., 317-253-2739, broadripplebrewpub.com

Housemade seitan replaces the pork in the Buffalo Sheltonator, a decidedly unorthodox take on the original that the Fountain Square vegetarian go-to Three Carrots loads up with not-too-searing Buffalo wing sauce, cheese sauce, crispy fries, pickles, and a schmear of aioli. 920 Virginia Ave., 463-221-3669, threecarrotsfountainsquare.com

A thick-cut slab of slightly smoky seitan sits tidily on the vegan variation at the Bloomington-based Upland Brewing Company. The addition of chow chow, a pickled-cabbage relish, gives this version an intriguing sweetness and tang. 1201 Prospect St., 317-672-3671; 4842 N. College Ave., 317-602-3931; 820 E. 116th St., Carmel, 317-564-3400; uplandbeer.com

Terry Kirts joined Indianapolis Monthly as a contributing editor in 2007. A senior lecturer in creative writing at IUPUI, Terry has published his poetry and creative nonfiction in journals and anthologies including Gastronomica, Alimentum, and Home Again: Essays and Memoirs from Indiana, and he’s the author of the 2011 collection To the Refrigerator Gods.
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