So, dinner tonight was part experimentation and part use-the-last-of-certain-things.
Have you ever heard of TVP? If you are a vegetarian and eat out, chances are you have had it in some sort of veggie dish (think mock chicken, mock sausage, mock whatever your heart desires). Anyway, I have been vegetarian and/or vegan for six or so years and have NEVER tried cooking with TVP.
Now, you are probably asking what is TVP?!
Let me clue you in. It is texturized vegetable protein. It is a soy flour that is a by-product when extracting soybean oil. You buy it dehydrated. It is high in protein and contains no fat! Make sure you buy organic though, because the majority of soy in the United States are genetically modified! Eek. I won't open up that can of worms right now. Anyway, if you want to check out more about TVP or just read the nutritional facts, I love Bob's Red Mill products, so go here.
Oh and one last thing about TVP. It is dirt cheap. Seriously, it is less than two dollars a pound and it's the lightest thing ever.
Anyway, on with the cooking.
Get the basmati rice started. I used two parts liquid to one part rice. And to complicate it even more, I used low fat coconut milk for half the liquid and water for the rest. I haven't ever done this before, but my dad and I were watching some cooking show on OPB and we saw the chef do this, so I thought "why not?!" =]
Oh and those foreign things in the bag = TVP (dehydrated)
Post coconut milk, pre water.
How TVP works is that you have to hydrate it before using it. This takes about 10-15 minutes depending on heat/water/size of TVP.
The golden ratio is 3:1 (three parts water to one part TVP)
While TVP is getting nice and plump, I started the stir fry.
I love leeks.
Cabbage, celery, carrots.
Leeks, apples.
chopped.
After about 12 minutes, the water was nearly gone and the TVP was squishy.
I drained the pot and let it sit for a few minutes while I...
Worked on the stir fry.
Then, I added the TVP.
And eventually added some seasonings and a little bit of teriyaki sauce. Not much! I didn't want to drown it.
Finished! It was lovely!
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