(upbeat music)
- We have done a lot of chicken on this channel
like plant-based chicken or vegan chicken.
Today, I thought we would tackle a different type
of flavor profile and that is beef.
So today on The Edgy Veg
I'm going to show you how to turn soy curls
into a kind of like a stripped beef
or like sliced steak to make tacos.
Hey guys, I'm Candice The Edgy Veg
and if you're new here hit that subscribe button,
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Let me know if you have any requests
in the comment section down below.
So like I said, I'm going to try and turn
just regular dried soy curls
into like a nice juicy beefy meat alternative
or just a plant-based version of beef
and then serve them in tacos.
And the tacos I decided to go with today
are chimichurri style tacos
because I love a really good chimichurri.
I haven't had tacos in a while
so that's what we're gonna do.
All right, so the first thing I'm going to do
is rehydrate my soy curls.
I have them here.
There's about two cups.
This recipe should feed between two and four people
depending on what else you have that you're serving.
They're dried and we want to rehydrate them
and they double.
Yeah, about double in size when they're rehydrated.
And the easiest way that I think to rehydrate them
is just to take a no beef bouillon cube.
If you don't have access to something like this,
better than bouillon,
the vegetarian version works really well for this
or just a normal vegetable boiling out.
So I'm going to put that into a bowl
and then I'm going to top that with hot water.
So one bouillon cube is good
for about two cups of hot water.
So this is the package of soy curls.
Butler is the brand that I kind of just use exclusively
just because it's the easiest for me to find.
And what this is they're just like strips of protein
and they're actually made with the whole soy curd.
It's a great source of protein, really natural
but it's a really good source of fiber as well
and it makes just such an easy meat substitute
and it's pretty cheap.
All right, so I'm using a dry measuring cup
just because my wet one is in the dishwasher.
So that's two cups of boiling hot water
and then you just want to kind of with a fork mash
that bouillon cube up
and make sure it's completely dissolved.
All right, so that's pretty much dissolved.
Now, I'm just going to pour in my soy curls.
Push them down into the water
and you wanna let these sit for about 20 minutes.
So set that aside.
So the first thing we are going to make is the chimichurri.
So chimichurri is of Argentinian and Uruguay origin.
It is a uncooked sauce that you can actually use
as a table condiment for grilled meats and other things.
There's a couple of different ways to make it.
I tried to find one of the more traditional recipes
kind of add a couple things to it.
I have just a mini food processor here
because it's a small amount
I don't wanna pull out my giant heavy food processor
but what I'm going to do is just add my parsley.
So I'm doing about 1/2 a cup of parsley
and then about a 1/4 cup of cilantro.
If you don't have cilantro, you can just use all parsley.
And then of course, lots and lots of garlic
then also some oregano and cumin and some red wine vinegar.
And I'm just going to blend that together.
(blender roaring)
Now, I am going to add in some olive oil
and then I'm going to pulse some red chili flakes.
And I've had a couple of comments recently about
why am I not using like fresh chili flakes,
and why am I not doing things like completely traditionally,
and one of the reasons is because I try
to make these recipes accessible to you guys.
So instead of getting a bunch of fresh chilies
that maybe you can't buy at your local grocery store
I'm using chili powder or chili flakes
and then I try to make them like super easy for you
so you can whip them at home,
you're not spending hours in the kitchen.
(blender roaring)
And then again, the chilli flakes are kind of,
the amount is up to you.
I'm using half of a teaspoon just
because Louie doesn't like spice.
If it was just for me, I would probably use a full teaspoon
because I like spicy food.
Yeah, so just kind of pulse that in.
(blender roaring)
So I'm just going to pour that into a bowl
and let it sit for about 20 minutes just so everything
and all the flavors can come together
and I'm gonna go ahead and make the sauce
that we're using on our soy beef.
So I am just salting it with my sea salts.
Just about 1/2 of a teaspoon ish.
Again, everyone's palate for salt is a little bit different.
The other thing I'm going to do,
I just like to kind of add
a couple extra chili flakes on there.
Now I'm going to make the secondary sauce.
This just gives it a little bit more life
as if I had marinated my beef.
So I'm just going to add a little bit more life
and depth of flavor to the soy curls.
And to do that, I am going to add some garlic powder.
I have some Vegan Worcestershire here.
If you don't have access to this,
that's cool you can leave it out
but I do love the depth of flavor that it adds cumin.
Lots of cumin in this recipe.
It's a maple syrup, liquid smoke, some soy sauce.
You can also use tamari.
And then I'm going to start with about two tablespoons
of olive oil and just whisk that together.
It's actually very similar to the bacon marinade
that I use for the recipe pepper bacon.
A lot of my marinades are kind of the same ingredients,
it's just different amounts.
All right, so it's been a little over 20 minutes
and this is what our soy curls look like.
They are nice and thick.
They have like a nice texture to them.
Kind of look like little chicken pieces.
Squeeze out the liquid,
and then after squeezing out all the liquid,
I'm gonna put them into this colander here.
Because we don't want them to be no water logged and soggy.
So I'm going to measure out about 1/2 a cup this broth
and we're going to put it into the sauce
that we made earlier that's been sitting on the side here.
And then just whisk that together.
Then we're going to take the soy curls
that we just squeezed everything out of
and put them back in here.
So we are going to stick them back in here.
Then I'm gonna use the fork and just press them
into the liquid and let them sit for about five minutes.
While we are waiting for those to marinate,
I'm just going to make up
a little cornstarch slurry situation.
So I want one tablespoon of water
and one tablespoon of cornstarch and just mix it around
and set it aside until we need it.
Oops I'm making a mess already.
I'm gonna toss that in there.
And then just with a fork,
I mean, you can use a spoon too, but I prefer a fork
and then you can set that aside.
All right, I'm at my stove now, yay.
So over a medium-high heat I'm going to heat up
about a tablespoon or two of olive oil.
And while that's heating up,
I'm going to do the exact same thing I did earlier
with my soy curls.
So again, squeezing out some of that liquid
putting it back into the colander.
Now I'm just going to dump all of my little bits
into the hot oil and the frying pan.
And I'm going to fry them just until they're brown slightly.
Don't burn yourself.
While the soy curls are cooking,
I'm going to add about a 1/4 cup of the marinade
into a bowl.
I'm gonna follow that up with about a tablespoon
of brown sugar or I like coconut sugar.
About a tablespoon and then also a tablespoon of tamari.
And what you want to end up with is kind of this nice
like brownish liquid.
Give these a little stir they're starting to brown now
which is perfect.
And then we're going to go ahead and add our slurry
that we made before with the cornstarch.
Giving that another stir.
All right, so these are perfect.
If it's not quite as dark as you want
or you want there to be more flavor,
I like to add about a tablespoon of barbecue sauce.
About a tablespoon,
and then you can go ahead and mix that up
and pour it onto your you beefy tacos.
It's going to get very thick very fast.
So they still kind of look like chicken,
but they taste more like beef.
At this point, you wanna salt and pepper it,
you totally can.
To serve, I'm using corn tortillas,
but you can use corn or flour.
I happened to find some corn tortillas
at my local grocery store today
so that's why I'm using that today.
Because a lot of the time they're either not available
or they're all sold out.
So I just have a dry pan here and I'm just heating them up
and then we're going to top them with some smashed avocado,
some red onion, and cilantro.
Now, let's build our tacos.
So I'm starting with the avocado.
I just have smashed avocado here
and I'm going to put it on my corn tortilla
which I've toasted.
And I'm using just plain smashed avocado
because there's so much flavor and everything else
that we were adding to it
that I don't want it to be too overwhelming,
our soy curls,
and of course the chimichurri that has been sitting
and is perfect right now.
I'll just add that on top.
A little bit of red onion, a must I think,
but if you don't like raw onions,
you can just leave them out.
That's our taco.
And our neighbors are doing construction
so we're gonna go take photos of this
(Candice laughing)
and then come back and do a little taste test for you.
(upbeat music)
All right, guys there you have it.
Delicious chimichurri tacos.
I cannot wait to dig into this guy.
Oh my God.
Oh, that char is perfect.
This is the perfect flavor combination honestly.
The cilantro, the chimichurri, the char of the soy curls
definitely let them have a couple of charred spots,
the cheese everything is so tasty.
You guys have to make this recipe.
As always if you want the recipe to the guy,
it is in the description box down below.
If you're new here, hit that subscribe button
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Let me know if you have any recipe requests
in the comment section down below.
(upbeat music)
This is everything.