This vegan Cuban restaurant in Kendall wants to help you forget about meat

Cuban cuisine doesn’t have a reputation for being healthy food. We think of fried pork dripping with grease and so many other carnivorous delights. The ground beef, the fried shredded steak, strip steak, meat and potatoes, the Cuban frita, plus the many ways to make pork– including the Miami favorite, cooked in the caja china.

In truth, homemade Cuban food is not as unhealthy as we think. Still, it is difficult to be Cuban and vegan.

Luckily, Cuban entrepreneurs Liz Machado and Steven Rodríguez have found a way to provide the flavors of Cuban cuisine to the Miami palate using the same seasonings and ingredients - minus the meat - at their restaurant Vegan Cuban Cuisine.

What began as a home-based catering business in 2018 later moved to a storefront, one of the many that closed during the pandemic. From that kitchen they began to prepare vegan Cuban dishes to sell from the small window while filling delivery orders. Later, they got the owner of the parking lot to allow them to put some tables outside. This is their dining area while they finish the build out inside a neighboring storefront where next year they plan to open the restaurant.

Imperial rice, Cuban sandwich and vegan ground beef

The first vegan dish they tried to make was imperial rice that Steven’s mom brought to a family party. A Cuban favorite, imperial rice has several layers of chicken, rice, cheese and mayonnaise. To make it, they replaced the chicken with grilled tofu, made a cheese substitute with potatoes and used soy mayonnaise, says Machado, who started a plant-based diet because it was the only thing that eased the pains in her joints.

The Cuban sandwich, made with jackfruit and potato Swiss cheese, holds its own against the best sandwich in Miami, Tampa or anywhere else. It’s so good that you won’t miss the pork or ham.

“First we make a typical Cuban mojo with lemon, orange, seasonings, and we use it to marinate, instead of pork, the jackfruit,” says Machado, an FIU graduate. Jackfruit is cooked over low heat for about two or three hours, which is one of the secrets to how they were able to create the Cuban sandwich recipe, said Machado. Then they add a ham made of soy, potato cheese, soy mayonnaise, mustard and pickle, which tricks you into believing you are eating a Cuban sandwich with all the fixings.

Vegan secrets

Slow cooking is also the key to another of the restaurant’s dishes, the soy “picadillo” (ground beef). They create a sauce with garlic, onion, chili, cumin and cook it with olive oil and dry wine, very slowly, so that the soy absorbs the sauce.

Then they add olives, but skip the raisins, which resolves one of the great controversies debated in the Miami media: whether “picadillo” should have raisins. Vegan Cuban Cuisine is Team No Raisins (so tell Enrique Santos).

They have yet to add “vaca frita” permanently on the menu, but they do have pulled pork, also made with jackfruit.

“We cook it differently than the pork in the sandwich, in the pressure cooker, and we put it in the oven so that it dries out a little and takes on the texture of meat, because the jackfruit is moist,” says Machado.

The toughest recipe, though, was the ham croqueta because its secret is the bechamel sauce, which is made with milk.

“We make a hazelnut cream, and the trick is in the cooking time and temperature, because the hazelnut cream burns easily,” says Machado. They are happy with the results because the croquetas are very creamy inside.

They also have chickpea croquetas, for people with gluten allergies, and for those who love that typical ingredient in Mediterranean food.

They somehow even manage to make the Cuban frita, a dish that has various meats, including sausage – which is what distinguishes it from a regular hamburger. They prepare it with a green pea dough – the meat substitute – and add all the natural ingredients of a Cuban sofrito. The final touch is a secret sauce that gives it a smoky flavor and the thin crunchy fries on top.

The menu also has black beans, as Steven is a big fan of well-season beans. “Sometimes the restaurant industry skips that step,” he says, which is why he says often an easy dish like Cuban style black beans doesn’t have the same flavor in different places in Miami. They also offer lentils, which have pumpkin and a touch of smokey flavor.

Have a vegan Cuban holiday

Machado’s favorite dish is the tamale, which a staple for the holiday season. For a “protein” they have jackfruit pulled pork or soy picadillo.

For Christmas Eve they offer vegan party boxes with stuffed potatoes, croquetas, corn and cheese empanadas, and dumplings. For dessert, there’s a pumpkin flan or a traditional one, made with coconut milk.

For the holidays they also cook Cuban fried rice, with soy ham, soy egg, mushrooms, tofu, chives and peas.

The restaurant offers its own vegan Cuban bread, which skips the pork lard and is prepared with olive oil and a less processed flour.

Future plans for Liz and Steven, parents of two children, are to expand the restaurant and ship their vegan Cuban food to other states.

Vegan Cuban Cuisine

Address: 9640 SW 72 St., Miami

Info: 786-292-0564.

You can order for pickup and for the holidays at www.vegancubancuisine.com.