Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

TVP (textured vegetable protein) is also called soya protein, and is great to cook with. It’s dehydrated, so you can give it a lot of flavour depending on what you re-hydrate it with. It’s also high in protein, low in fat, cheap, and can be used for anything you need mince for. I got a few questions about how I cook with it over on My Instagram Page recently, so I thought I’d go into more detail here

Starting with re-hydrating

This is how I typically prepare tvp, this will make 200g of mince and can be used in all sorts of recipes

You’ll need;

1. 50g (dry weight) of tvp
2. 150g of hot vegetable stock

Method;

• This is the tvp I’ll be using, I bought it from Holland and Barrett for £1.99
  
• Weigh out 50g into a shallow dish
  
• Next weigh out 150g of hot vegetable stock
  
• Pour the stock over the mince, it will need five minutes or so to absorb
  
• Pop a plate onto the dish, this will ensure that all the stock is absorbed, and none can evaporate. Leave it for five minutes, then it should look like this
  
• Now you can see all the stock is absorbed, and it’s ready to use

Suggestions

Now onto some suggestions

1. Once the mince has absorbed the stock, it’s ready to use and doesn’t require any further cooking
2. Some dishes I like to use it in are; shepherd’s pie, spaghetti bolognese, chilli, lasagne, or as a pie filling along with fried onions and thick gravy
3. Using tvp in other recipes; if you’re using a recipe that calls for meat free mince, this is what I do. Divide the amount of mince the recipe needs into four, one quarter being the dry weight of the mince, the rest being vegetable stock. Then re-hydrate as stated above and it’s ready to use

TVP Chilli Recipe

Yield; 2-4 servings Cook time; 30 minutes

You’ll need;

1. One teaspoon of oil
2. One small brown onion, diced
3. One red pepper, deseeded and diced
4. 200g tvp mince, see above
5. One heaped teaspoon of the following; dried oregano, ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika and chilli powder
6. Salt and black pepper to taste
7. One 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, I like to blend mine with a stick blender for a smoother sauce
8. One 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Method;

• Add the oil into a frying pan over a medium heat, once it’s warmed up, add the onion. Allow it to soften and cook for five minutes
• Next, add the pepper. Give it another five minutes to cook, stirring occasionally
• Now add in the mince, herbs and spices, give it all a good mix to combine
  
• Once that’s all mixed, add in the chopped tomatoes, and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Give it another 10 minutes to cook, stirring every now and then
• Lastly mix through the kidney beans, and give them 5-10 minutes to heat through
  
• When the beans are heated through, then it’s ready to serve
  If you want to make nachos like I did, move onto the next part

Vegan Chilli Cheese Nachos

Yield; 4-6 servings Cook time; 10 minutes

You’ll need;

1. The chilli from the recipe above, or between 400-800g of tinned vegetable chilli, I like to use more chilli but you can use less if preferred
2. 150g of tortilla chips
3. 100g of dairy free cheese, I used Applewood vegan smoked cheddar

Method;

• Line a baking tray with baking paper, then scatter the tortilla chips in an even layer across it
• Spoon the chilli onto the tortilla chips, trying to get this as evenly distributed as you can
• Finally scatter the grated cheese over the top of the chilli and tortilla chips
• Melt under a warm (but not hot) grill for around ten minutes, keep your eye on it so nothing burns. Once the cheese is melted it’s ready to serve. I topped mine with some fresh salsa

I would definitely recommend using Applewood vegan smoked cheddar for this if you can. I melts really well, and you can get some very impressive cheesy pulls with it. You can buy it in store from ASDA , or online from VBites Website  or The Vegan Kind Supermarket. But if that isn’t available where you are, just use your favourite dairy cheese that melts