Hiltl Tatar: the vegan tatar from the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant
By Arnaud Joubay ·
Hiltl kept this recipe secret for over a century, then published it. Roasted aubergine and okara do the work — no imitation mince. The full recipe, translated.
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Serves
- 4
What's in it
- 2 medium aubergines (350 g)
- 1 shallot (50 g)
- 50 g pickled gherkins
- 50 g capers
- 50 g green olives, pitted
- 10 g beetroot powder
- 300 g okara (the soy pulp left over from making soy milk)
- 200 g ketchup
- 1 tsp mild mustard
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 10 g raw cane sugar
- 5 drops Tabasco
- 2 level tsp turmeric
- Salt and pepper from the mill
- A few capers and onion rings, to garnish
- Fresh toast, to serve
How it's made
- Heat the oven to 220 °C. Set the whole aubergines on a lined tray, prick them all over with a fork, and bake for 40–50 minutes, until the skins are shrivelled. Let them cool on the tray for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, peel the shallot and chop it coarsely with the gherkins, capers and olives.
- Halve the aubergines, scrape out the flesh with a spoon, and let it drain in a sieve for about 15 minutes. Squeeze it out, put it in a tall container, carefully stir in the beetroot powder, and purée with an immersion blender.
- Tip the aubergine purée into a bowl, fold in all the remaining ingredients, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Plate with a ring mould, draw the classic stripe pattern across the top with a fork, and garnish with capers and onion rings. Serve with fresh toast.
I lived in Switzerland for five years, and Hiltl is the thing I’ll miss most now that I’m moving to Finland. It opened in 1898 and it is, per Guinness World Records, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world. Its tatar is the dish people talk about — including people who eat meat and expected not to be impressed.
What makes it interesting isn’t imitation. There’s no fake mince here, no attempt to reproduce beef. The texture comes from two ordinary things used cleverly: aubergine, roasted whole until it collapses, and okara — the pulp left over when soybeans are pressed for soy milk, normally discarded as a byproduct. The colour comes from beetroot powder. Everything else is classic tatar seasoning, which was always doing more of the work than anyone admits.
Hiltl guarded these amounts for over a century, then chose to publish them in their cookbook Meat the Green — the recipe above is that one, translated. Their own tip: the classic version is finished with a splash of cognac, and the non-vegan table can add a fresh egg yolk. Watch them make it — it’s in German, but YouTube’s translated subtitles are enough to follow along. And if this one lands, the book has sixty more where they do the same trick to cordon bleu, crab cakes and meatloaf.