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how to make soy curls taste delicious

blue heron paper mill

Hello, reader.  How are you doing?  Do you have wonderful foods to eat?  I want to tell you how to make soy curls taste delicious.

Well, I was given a large quantity of soy curls to cook for Food Not Bombs.  With trial and error, I discovered a wonderful way to turn something boring into something tantalizing.  Here is what you do!

ingredients

Gather these ingredients.

  • soy curls
  • water
  • garlic Better Than Bouillon
  • chopped onion
  • minced garlic
  • garlic powder
  • onion powder
  • black pepper
  • oregano
  • maybe thyme
directions

Boil some water with a generous dollop of garlic Better Than Bouillon to season and salt it.  Better Than Bouillon is a thick, salty, flavorful, gooey substance sort of like Marmite or miso.  The company makes various flavors, and the garlic flavor might be hardest to find, but it’s so delicious.  Here in Eugene, you can buy it at WinCo.

If you can’t find garlic Better Than Bouillon, other substances could be homemade broth, store bought broth in a carton, bouillon cube, or another flavor of Better Than Bouillon.  If you were desperate you could just do salted water with some bay leaves.  Hmm, that actually sounds nice.

Then add your soy curls.  You want the soy curls completely submerged in the fluid.  Boil that for a few minutes.  Then cover the pot, and let it sit for 20 minutes or so.  Check and make sure the soy curls are now very soft.

frying

Heat your wok with some oil, and wash your hands extra well.  Reach into the warm liquid and pick up a handful of soy curls.  Squeeze them out like a sponge, letting their liquid drop back into the pot.

Then throw the squeezed out soy curls into the hot oil.  Grab all the soy curls, squeeze them well, and throw them into the wok.  Stir them until the soy curls are beginning to brown.

Then add your chopped onion, and all the seasonings.  Add a lot, more than you think you need.  Fry it until the onions are done as much as you want–probably golden.  Add the fresh minced garlic toward the end.

Then taste your creation.  Is it salty enough?  Do you need more spices?  Add more.

By now your soy curls are dry and browned, and the onions might be sticking to the wok.  So take some of the broth-liquid that the soy curls soaked in, and add it to your wok.  Deglaze the pan, and let liquid soak into the soy curls to make them soft and wet again.

Taste a soy curl.  Is that delicious or what?  If it’s bland, please add more spices.

where you go from here

If your soy curls are now delicious, you can do whatever you want with them.

  • add them to a pasta sauce
  • put them in your enchiladas
  • eat them over rice with veg
  • put them in your chili, cut up or whole
  • eat a bowl of them and then a second bowl

You’ve basically made fake chicken that’s vegan and simple.  Please enjoy life now that you know how to make soy curls taste delicious.  It’s like buying expensive soy meat, but you’re doing it yourself and can control the seasonings, excluding wheat or corn or whatever you’re allergic to, if you have a lot of food intolerances like I do.

other seasonings

If you are making enchiladas or chili or tacos, you can use other seasonings of course.  But this onion-garlic-oregano is a nice start and versatile.

(The picture is me and Ming at the Blue Heron paper mill ruins in Oregon City, Oregon last weekend.  Photo by our dear chosen family member friend.)

By Laura-Marie

Good at listening to the noise until it makes sense.

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