Don’t Eat Only Tofu: The Vegan Meats You Still Don’t Know About (And How To Cook Them)

The best-known vegan meats or vegetable meats are tofu, tempeh, seitan and textured soybeans. However, there are more vegetable meats or protein preparations that we can do, usually from these ingredients. Examples of them are vegetable burgers or vegetable meatballs, in which we put a good amount of protein ingredients along with vegetables, legumes…

Today we propose other more original vegan meat preparations that can be very interesting both to change from time to time and to have more options prepared and used at any time. These are two types of vegan meat typical of India and Japan. Take note of the recipes to prepare them and encourage yourself to vary your vegetarian menus with them.

Tofu is used to prepare very original recipes, like the one you can see in this video, although we can also opt for other vegetable meats.

Cauliflower Curry with Tofu Recipe

Vegan meat type Soya chaap

In northern India, a vegetable meat that is sold ready-made, usually canned, or that is made at home, called soya chaap, is very popular. “Chaap” is what they call the ribsand the soya chaap is a vegetable meat that imitates them, with a wooden stick (like the one for ice cream) in the center. It has a tender and meaty texture and wheat gluten and soy are used as main ingredients.

With this vegetable meatIt’s cook dishes like tandoori soya chaap/malai soya chaap tikka or soya chaap masala curry. That is, it is used the same as if it were meat.

Soy Chaap Recipe

Use this recipe to make soy chaap at home, you will get quite a few and you can use them in all kinds of dishes:

Read Also: Original and tasty omelette recipes (so as not to fall into the classic potato omelette)

Ingredients:

1 cup soybeans (whole beans) 1 cup coarse textured soybeans 1/2 cup wheat gluten 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Let soak soy for at least 8 hours. Drain and beat with a blender, uncooked, just soaked. If necessary, add a little water, and beat it until it becomes a paste.In a saucepan, bring 1 liter of water (more or less) to a boil with the coarse textured soybeans.Reduce the heat when it comes to a boil to prevent it from boiling. comes out, and take it out when it’s tender.Drain the textured soybeans, put it in the blender and beat it until it is like mincemeat. Mix the soy milkshake and the textured soy milkshake in a bowl and add the salt and gluten. Mix it very well to form a ball of dough. If necessary you can add a little water (or a little normal wheat flour if it is very wet). To shape the chaap, roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it is a couple of cm thick.Cut it into strips 1 finger thick and roll these strips around ice cream sticks. When you have them all done, bring plenty of water to a boil in a pot and when it boils put the chaaps one by one. Lower the heat a little and let them cook for 25-30 minutes. Transfer the chaaps to a bowl with cold water to cool them quickly.You can save them or use them at the moment, brown them, fry them or remove the stick and cut into pieces to use in whatever you want.

Kaofu type vegan meat

Kaofu is a fermented seitan, very spongy, which is usually sold in Japan dehydrated. The best thing about this type of seitan, apart from the fact that it comes out in a good amount, is that by dehydrating it we can keep it for much longer.

Read Also: The plants that grow on the paths are also eaten!

The preparation is very simple and does not use soy sauce or spices. The idea is to make a “base” seitan that perfectly absorbs the flavors of the dishes in which we use it.

Vegan Kaofu type meat recipe

Use this recipe and, once steamed, you can use, store or dehydrate it as I propose:

1/2 teaspoon of dry baker’s yeast 1/4 teaspoon of sugar (optional) 240 ml of lukewarm water 200 g of wheat gluten powder

Preparation:

First mix yeast and sugar well with warm water and let it rest for 10 minutes. You will get little bubbles, and that means the yeast is active.Put the wheat gluten in a bowl and gradually add the water with the yeast, stirring constantly. Shape the dough into a ball, cover it and let it rest in a warm place until it doubles in size. Prepare a pot for steaming.Put the already fermented gluten in a round mold or square and steam it, covered, over medium heat, for 20 minutes. After that time, turn off the heat and leave it for 5 minutes with the residual heat. Remove the gluten and let it temper.Preheat the oven to 130º C with heat above and below and, preferably, with a fan.Put baking paper on a baking tray.Cut the gluten, which will now be a very fluffy dough, into medium cubes and spread them out on the baking tray.Bake to dehydrate, about 60 minutes, until dry and crisp. If you don’t have a fan, leave the oven door slightly ajar. If you see that it is toasting, lower the temperature, because the purpose is to dry it to preserve it, not to toast it. You can also use a dehydrator.Let it cool down and store it in airtight jars. to use whenever you want. If they are not completely dehydrated, store it in the fridge. To use it, simply soak it for a few minutes in hot water, drain and use like any other seitan. As this one has no flavor, it his thing is to use it in dishes that have very tasty sauces, to absorb the flavors. For example in stews, stews, stir-fries with sauce, soups, stews, etc.