Soy and Cancers

 Linking here so that I have it for future reference. I've read several meta-analyses that have said the same thing.

Gyro "meat"

Reconstituting Soy Curls...
I spread them in a rectangular baking pan (9x9 or bigger so there's more surface area).

I sprinkle the soy curls with garlic powder and onion powder and add a little VERY HOT (almost boiling) water.  Add just enough to cover the bottom layer of the soy curls.  Stir a lot.  Add a little more water you need after you've stirred if some seem dry.  The bottom of the pan should be have maybe 1/8 - 1/4 inch of water on it.  Keep stirring.  Add other spices if your recipe needs it.

For the Gyro "meat" I sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of dried oregano, 1-2 teaspoons or dried rosemary, a little ume plum vinegar about 1-2 teaspoons, and the juice of a lemon.  I don't add salt 'cause the plum vinegar is VERY salty.  If you use red wine vinegar you may want to add a little salt. 

I do this during the 10 or so minutes the water is soaking in and I'm stirring.  You may need to add a little more water and keep stirring.  The texture will be very soft, but not totally soaking.  (If you've soaked them in water you will see the difference.  I'm trying to get as much flavor into the soy curl as I can with this method.  If it's full of water, it can't soak up the flavor.)

In my big cast iron skillet, I add just enough oil to very lightly cover the bottom of the pan.  I stir them will browning them -- it takes about 10 minutes, maybe a little more.  I like them kind of crispy.

We serve with lettuce, tomatoes, and whatever sauce we have (sometimes hummus, sometimes more like a mayo)... I'll need to come back and list sauces.  I'll also need to add a picture.  Yum!

This is one of Kira's favorites!

vegan umami

I'm not sure what to call this except, YUM, vegan umami!

It doesn't taste like bacon, but that's what One Ingredient Chef, who inspired the recipe, was trying to create. One Ingredient Chef made his version of "bacon" with tempeh. I tried the recipe his way and it was good, reminiscent of bacon, but a little too time consuming around here. I'm all about easy and fast!

I have a lot of these:

And decided they would be an excellent way to use his marinade, and that it would be a lot faster to not have to cut anything.

I used a pack of the soy curls. I put them in a 9x11 baking pan and spread them out. I poured a cup of boiling water on them and stirred them around. (Pour the water slowly and make sure it's not too much. You want to soften them but not soak them. If you need a little more, add it.) Sprinkle the soy curls with onion powder (about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon), and garlic powder (about the same amount).

Next pour on the following:

1/2  cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Tamari
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika

Stir and let soak in the yummy marinade for 10-15 minutes.

Cook, in a frying pan, for 10 - 15 minutes, while stirring well. (I cooked in two batches.) The edges of the soy curls will get crispy. Because the soy curls are pretty thick, they weren't going to get really crispy throughout.

While they were cooking I spooned on another teaspoon or two of smoked paprika. Mix the smoked paprika in well as you stir the soy curls.

The smoked paprika is really essential to make this tasty and a little more bacon-like. Make sure you get the smoked kind of paprika! I had to hunt for it in the store, but it was definitely worth the hunt.

 
Cooking!


 
And then I made a salad with a yummy umami topping (I ate mine this way).


And I made the other four people in the house a yummy sandwich--reminiscent of a BLT.

Rating: 5 out 5 of us liked this! It was a fun Sunday night dinner. I made a second batch the same way so we have leftovers for lunch!

Soy is safe!

People always ask this question... It's another good article.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/ask-well-is-it-safe-to-eat-soy/?src=me&_r=0