Cheap Eats: TVP (and a recipe for TVP Gyros)

TVP is textured vegetable protein made from defatted flour. It's ridiculously inexpensive bought in bulk in supermarkets or health food stores (e.g. I pay around $1.00 for 2-3 cups of the chunks from the local health food store's bulk bin). It's quick to cook and is usually used as a meat substitute. It comes in granular form or a variety of chunk-like shapes. Usually tasteless by itself, it will readily absorb the flavour of whatever liquids and seasonings are used to rehydrate it.

It's loved and used by vegans, as well as by people interested in frugal living. It's light and stores well, and is also sometimes used by campers and backpackers because of this.

The granular form is fantastic in chili, Sloppy Joes, tacos, cabbage rolls -- anywhere you'd use crumbly hamburger in that sort of way. The chunks are great in stews and casseroles. A quick Google search will bring up all kinds of recipe ideas. For example, you can find a bunch here, including instructions on ratios to follow to substitute the granular form of it for hamburger. One of my favourites is is a recipe adapted from Dorothy R. Bates' TVP Cookbook. I've made it for omnivorous friends and they've liked it as much as I have.

Gyros

Soak for 10 minutes:

1 cup TVP chunks or slices
1 Tbs ketchup
1 cup boiling water

Cover tightly and nuke in a microwave on high for 5 minutes. Check to see if tender and then chill in refrigerator.

Mix the following ingredients for the marinade / dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbs red or white wine vinegar
1 tsp each basil and oregano
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix marinade with the cooked, drained and chilled TVP for a few hours. You can also increase the amount of marinade and let the TVP marinate overnight.

Get the veggies ready:

1 large tomato, diced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
2 Tbs fresh mint leaves, chopped or 1-2 tsp dried mint (fresh is better)
3 cups lettuce, shredded

You'll need:

Six (6) pita breads, cut in half (you can warm these in the oven in advance if you prefer). Toss the veggies w/ the TVP and fill the pita pockets. I usually opt to cut a pita bread and tuck one half inside the other to make a stronger bread. Alteratively, I also like to take a whole pita bread and treat it like a wrap (i.e. the way pita is usually wrapped around donair meat in the Maritimes), securing it with aluminum foil or waxed paper to hold it together and to keep it from dripping. If you fill half-pockets, you'll get 12 gyros, and if you use either of the other two methods, you'll get 6.

Recipe: Kasha and Veggies

Kasha is toasted buckwheat groats (which are just buckwheat kernels stripped of their outer coating and cracked into smaller pieces). In Eastern European countries, the term ''kasha'' is more generically used to refer to a sort of porridge (either sweet or savoury) that can be made from oats, buckwheat, rye or wheat.

If you can't find kasha at the supermarket or health food store (which is where I usually get it), you can substitute regular buckwheat groats, which have a more bitter taste. You can even toast up regular (dry) buckwheat groats in some oil in a pan until they've browned a little. Toasted groats aren't as bitter as the regular groats and have a bit of a distinctive nutty taste.

Here's another favourite recipe of mine, adapted from The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals, which I hope to track down soon.

Kasha and Veggies

Step 1:
2 cups kasha
4 cups water

Boil water and cook kasha for 15-20 minutes.

Step 2:
2 Tbs oil
5 onions, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup tamari
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
3 Tbs tahini

Heat the oil and sauté the veggies for around 6-7 minutes (until tender), then add the cooked kasha, seasonings and tahini and cook an additional 8-10 minutes.

I usually serve it up with steamed greens tossed with a bit of balsamic vinegar, virgin olive oil and crushed garlic, or sometimes with a tossed green salad.

Yum!

Recipe: The Most Amazing Lentil Burger Ever

The recipe is adapted from The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook by Jean Hewitt (ca. 1971). It was the first mostly-vegetarian cookbook I ever bought, back in 1990 or so when I picked it up at a used bookstore in Ottawa. I've made these for over fifteen years and they're still my favourite homemade veggie burgers.

Lentil Burgers

2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup of whole grain bread crumbs (e.g. whole wheat, spelt, etc.)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt (I use a little less)
1/2 Tbs celery seed
1/2 tsp pepper
1-2 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced)
1/2 a large onion, grated
whole wheat flour

Mix all the ingredients but the lentils and flour. Mash the lentils only a wee bit more than lightly and mix with other ingredients. Form palm sized patties, just under an inch thick. Dredge 'em through the flour and then fry on both sides in hot olive oil until they've browned.

Serving suggestion: Melt slices of vegan mozzarella on patties and serve with tomato slices. lettuce and onion sprouts in a whole grain bread sandwich. The recipe makes around 5-6 patties.

Recipe: Baked Rice and Lentils

This is adapted from a recipe found in an old Seventh-Day Adventist recipe booklet published in Canada in 1989. It's incredibly simple and inexpensive to make and you can easily tweak the seasonings to please your own taste buds. Use it wherever you'd use something like mashed potatoes (e.g. with roasted veggies and seitan).

Baked Rice and Lentils

2 medium onions, diced
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2/3 cup uncooked green lentils
2/1-2 cups water
4 tsp or so of soya sauce

Saute the onion in oil, if you wish (I just dice it and throw it in raw with everything else).

In a small casserole dish, dump the rice, lentils, water and soya sauce and the raw / sauteed onions. Bake covered at 325 F for at least 40 minutes or until the rice is tender. Add water if necessary and add salt / pepper to taste when done if desired (I never do since the soya sauce is salty enough).

Optional: Add 1/2 cup of sauteed mushrooms or drained canned mushrooms.
Add crushed garlic to taste.