How many of you remember SOS? Yes, that funny little recipe us older folks affectionately remember as "Sh*t on a Shingle". Well, this week my readers asked me to recreate that comfort food favorite, so without further ado, I give you my Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast.
This is one of those iconic recipes that has been around a very long time. In fact, it actually appears in the Manual of Army Cooks, from 1910.
I can remember my late father-in-law always making jokes as it was commonly served across all branches of the Armed Forces during the various wars.
It's basically dried, salted beef that had been reconstituted with water, mixed with a milk gravy (they even used powdered milk), and served on bread.
It was quick, it was cheap, and they could make a lot of it. I won't say it was particularly healthy, but it filled soldiers bellies and that was the main point.
It's not the most photogenic recipe to look at either. You may even say it looks like sh-t, and with toast resembling a roofing shingle, well, you can see where the slang name came from.
Ahhh good old SOS.
The surprising thing to me was just how many people actually asked me to
So I made the Cabbage Rolls last weekend and this Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast this weekend. (and believe me, my fridge is full!)
So I hope it brings back fond memories and I hope you enjoy it. I tried to make it as simple as I could, but still 'kind of' resembling the original.
Obviously, I don't use real beef so I had to get creative with my choice of ingredients so I tried mushrooms and even potatoes but neither gave me that mouth-feel I was looking for.
So I went with something else that I think comes remarkably close.
Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast
Chipped Beef
So we're going to need some Carrots.
Surprisingly enough, thinly shaved carrots look and feel just like little bits of shaved beef when added to the gravy. No worries, they don't taste like carrots because were gonna marinate them first.
Start with 2 large carrots and trim each end. Then using either a mandoline slicer or a vegetable peeler, cut the carrots lengthwise into thin strips.
If your mandoline has a thickness adjustment, set it to as thin a slice as you can.
NOTE: Please be careful using a Mandoline! ALWAYS use the protective food guard and/or wear a Cut-Resistant Glove if you have one.
I have both the food chopper/slicer I use and the cut-resistant gloves available in my Amazon Store for purchase if you want to take a look. The gloves are pretty inexpensive and will save your fingers. The food chopper comes with
When the carrots got too small to run through my mandoline, I just used my old-fashioned vegetable peeler to make thin strips. I used as much of the carrot as I safely could, but don't be a hero if they get so small it becomes dangerous. Toss the rest into a salad or something.
So now that you have a cup or so of shaved carrots (and really you can use as little or as much as you want), we make the marinade.
All the marinade ingredients are listed below in the recipe box. Just mix together, pour into the carrots, and stir. The longer they marinate - the more flavor they will have but I'd give them at least 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Then we simply pour the carrots and marinade into a skillet and gently saute them over medium-low heat until most of the liquid has reduced. Set them aside for now and let's move on to the gravy.
The Gravy
We're basically going to make my Vegan Sausage Gravy, but tweak it a little. It's really that easy.
Note: I used whole wheat flour but I know many of my readers have subbed other flours to make this Gluten Free.
We mix the dry ingredients together, toast them lightly in a dry pan, then pour in 1 cup of the unsweetened Almond Milk. Take the time to mix this well so
This is the point where I also add my marinated carrots. The soy sauce in the marinade will turn the gravy slightly brown but there's no getting around that. It still tastes good.
Heat gently and stir until it thickens.
The Bread
I'll leave the bread up to you but I used Ezekiel Bread as it's oil-free. Costco also has an oil-free whole wheat Sourdough and I have seen it at Whole Foods too.
Toast up your favorite bread and slather on some of that gravy and you have Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast - who would have thought?
It's probably not the healthiest recipe I have, but at least there's some nutrition from the carrots. Anyway, hope you enjoy and please leave those comments below.
I think next week I'm going to take an older recipe of mine and give it a makeover with new photos and video. If you have a favorite - please let me know!
Until then, enjoy your Vegan SOS 🙂
Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast (SOS)
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Gravy, Sauce
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American, Vegan
Description
This week my readers asked me to recreate an old comfort food favorite, so without further ado, I give you my Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast (aka SOS)
Ingredients
Vegan Chipped Beef
- 2-3 carrots, thinly shaved into long strips
- ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 Tbs maple syrup
- 2 tsp liquid smoke
- 1 Tbs nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
Cream Gravy
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tbs nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp rubbed sage
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
- ⅛ tsp ground thyme
- 2 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
Toast
- 2 slices of your favorite bread
Instructions
- Remove both ends of carrots and scrub clean
- Carefully shave carrots into very thin strips (use a mandoline or veg peeler)
- Make the marinade and stir into the carrots - allow to sit at least 5 minutes
- Pour carrots and marinade into a large skillet and saute until liquid has evaporated. Set aside.
- Mix all dry gravy ingredients together and toast lightly in a dry pan - 2-3 minutes
- Slowly pour in 1 cup of the almond milk and whisk to remove any clumps
- Add remaining almond milk and the marinated carrots and stir
- Heat gently until thickened, stirring frequently
- Spoon over toast and enjoy!
Notes
Kimberly
I've made this twice in one week- it's just so delicious. I added some vegan Worcestershire sauce in the end to the gravy, but it didn't need it (I was just running low on salt). I also used fresh sage which is a game changer. I made this with homemade bread, and it was just over the top delicious. I've never actually had SOS or the meat version of this recipe, but this one just sounded so good. I doubled it for a dinner for two and used a whole batard from King Arthur recipes.
Jay
I’m retired from the USAF as was my dad. I grew up on SOS using hamburger. A few years ago due to dietary issues, the recommendation was to go vegan. That being said. Thanks for the Vegan Chipped Beef on Toast (SOS) recipe. It may not be exactly the same, but I do like it.
Blake
I’m not even vegan (nobody give me any flack for that, it’s just not possible for me at this point in my life due to health issues. I have tried before, and it doesn’t end well)
But this is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve made it many times over the past few years. I am gluten free so I sub for gluten free flour. I also use oat or coconut milk since I’m not a fan of almond personally and that doesn’t seem to change the recipe. It’s always come out great besides one time that I used buckwheat flour. I don’t recommend that as an alternative to wheat flour here. I usually use General Mills gluten free flour blend, but I’ve used a few different gluten free all purpose flour blends. I think that’s the best way to go. I also use the same amount of milk in the end, but instead of doing 1 cup and then adding the remaining 1 and 1/2, I do 1 cup, stir, as the next, stir, then the final 1/2 cup. I find this helps prevent clumping for the gluten free flour. This recipe is so good, and I just wanted to leave this comment for any other celiacs that may want to try it but are worried about how it’ll work with gluten free flour.
Becky Holm
Sounds terrific! My only alteration is to use silken tofu instead of almond milk...
carrots and bread do NOT a filling meal make 🙂
Cathy
Sounds interesting, I look forward to trying it.
Juliana
So good and tastes so much more indulgent than it is! Thank you!
Erin
Chuck, I have to say a huge thank you! My husband just recently had to jump on board with me on my plant-based journey, my two kiddos too due to a genetic mutation that requires them to eat a low toxic load diet, enter the WFPB lifestyle! I've been following it for about a year now after I had to get my gallbladder out and animal-based foods I just couldn't digest anymore. My husband is a full-time student and was having a rough day when they were serving SOS in the cafeteria and he almost caved in to having some. He actually sent me this recipe and we made it today. I've never had SOS but of my goodness this was amazing! Even my picky eater 6yr old really like it! I made it following the recipe exactly! I think we will maybe marinate the carrots overnight next time to get them thoroughly flavored. I also might try making it by shredding some soy curls as another reviewer mentioned. All this to say we all thoroughly enjoyed it and it really helped my husbands craving. We also made your green bean casserole and your pot pie for Thanksgiving this year and again they were huge hits!
Donna Reeves
Great idea. I remember it being very salty and I enjoyed it a lot. I'll be making this.
Erin
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I had a very random craving of this last night. I don’t know why because I haven’t had this concoction in well over a decade & it’s usually something you eat when it’s colder outside, not in 100* humid GA heat!
Anyway, I text my dad to see if he could remember the name of it because I was going to try and find a veganized recipe. He hasn’t text back yet so I started searching for “meat gravy on toast”, which led me to chipped beef on toast. Then I searched for a vegan version & yours was the first one to come up!
It was fun reading about the history of SOS.
I really look forward to making this tonight! I never would have thoughts of using carrots. What a splendid idea. It’s something I could make for my dad too, as he is gluten intolerant, with homemade GF toast of course ?
Joy
I just made this for supper. My husband always loved S.O.S., but I was not much of a fan. This is so good. As soon as we got done, he asked how soon we could fix it again (he cut the carrots). It was a cloudy rainy today, so it was a real pick me up. I did leave out the salt in the gravy, because we normally do not salt things. Other than that I followed it exactly and we did not need the salt in the gravy. Definitely 5 plus on the stars. Goes into the recipe file under favorites.
Joanne
Chuck, I love the idea of using carrots! I recently started making the carrot dogs and we really enjoy them. I completely agree with your wheat on wheat explanation, and you've created a whole food recipe rather than using processed food products, Bravo! Btw, you're stylin, dude, I love the new haircut!
Becky Holm
I love carrot dogs also! (I'll have to look for Chuck's variation!)
Since it's carrots and bread - I make a pudding as the "filling" part of the meal. Silken tofu, stevia and cocoa. YUMMY!
Linda
I am going to make this exactly as the recipe is written. I am guilty of loving SOS so am looking forward to trying this. Carrots sound like a great and healthy alternative to beef for this. Thank you for creating this.
Margaret
Since your carrot dogs are the best I’ve tried, I am going to trust you on this. We made ours of dried beef from a jar. We poured boiling water over it to get rid of the salt, then added it to a white sauce and we served it on homemade biscuits with green beans. It’s my comfort food, so I’m looking forward to making this. Thank you!
Connie
Thanks Chuck! Sounds like another winner. Can’t wait to try it.
Melinda
Do you think I could use your carrot "beef" method and marinade and make a vegan "French dip" sandwich? Just curious how you think that would taste.
Chuck Underwood
I already have a Vegan French Dip - in case you didn't know. You can use the search bar at the top of the page to easily find it.
Sondra
Interesting idea Chuck of using carrots but my experience has been that carrots never quite come out like so many vegan recipes tell you they will. Anyone for fake salmon? Lots of recipes for Seitan out there that could be used sliced thin in this recipe. If you are careful with a knife even soy curls would work to slice up in bits and pieces or better yet just shred them in a Vitamix on the lowest setting after they have marinated. Works every time. I'd even try very thinnly sliced potatoes and dunk for one minute in boil water and drain. Mixed with the gravey they should be good. Soy curls shredded would be my first choice if I was too lazy to make Seitan. They turn out like shredded chicken and that would work and far preferable in texture to carrots! I'll pass on the carrot idea.....
Chuck Underwood
I chose not to use Seitan because 1) its more work to make and I know many people want quick & easy recipes, and 2) it's adding even more wheat. So you'd be eating a wheat-based gravy, with wheat-based protein, on wheat-based bread. I am not personally GF but I try to be mindful of all of those who are. I tried the potatoes and really liked the texture of the carrot better.
Desiree
Sounds great! My Dad did all the cooking once he retired from the Merchant Marines. We were a very large family & he used to make sh*t on the shingle often. His version with sirloin tip. I have seen different carrots at the Asian & Arabic markets. Any carrot in particular you used? Can’t wait to make it. Loved the reminisce & remake of old dishes. Thank you.
Stefanie T
I'm eating this as I type. It's seriously delicious! I used a peeler for the carrots and it worked perfectly. I didn't have low sodium soy sauce, so I just put less salt in the Gravy to try to balance it out. I often have carrots I need to use up and this will be my go-to recipe for sure!
Ro
Why not get your own blog? Chuck's recipes are great
Cathy
Ro, why is there a comment section if you can't make honest comments?
Susan Wright
We used to eat that allot as a child it was cheap cause we were poor I can't wait to make this. Thank you