by quntmphscs » Mon 19 Jan, 2009 4:17 am
I found this thread while searching for a tvp casserole oddly enough. I have a great TVP recipe and I thought I'd share with you guys. It takes several days to get everything prepared, but it's just part of my every week routine so when I go to make the TVP what I need is aleady on hand.
It all starts with an humble pot of beans. I use the juice from these beans to re-hydrate the TVP. So let's start with the beans
Soak pinto beans overnight. I cook my beans on a woodstove, but you would do just as well in a crock pot or on the stove.
First put a good bit of olive oil in the pot (I guess about 2-3 tablespoons). While that's heating up, heat about a cup of water with a bullion cube so that it disolves. Sautee onions, then garlic. When the garlic is almost done, cover the bottom of the pot with cumin powder. As soon as you can smell it, put in the bullion water. Then put in the pinto beans and enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Then I completely cover the surface of the water with chili powder, then do it again. Then I spice the heck out of it with these other spices if I have them on hand:
Garlic powder, onion powder, more cumin powder (though don't over do it on that one), cayenne pepper, black pepper, annato chili powder, smoked chipolte powder.
Put in 3-4 good dashes of liquid smoke, put on the lid and bring up to a boil. If you don't see a nice layer of oil around the edge of the water, feel free to dump in more oil. then turn it down if it's on the cook stove and cook it till the beans have a creamy consistency. This is a few hours longer than those nasty firm beans you'd get out of a can. On the woodstove, I usually let it cook at least 6 hours depending on the temperature. The main thing is that the bean isn't firm, but creamy, yet doesnt' disintegrate.
Salt the beans when they are done and take the lid off of the beans. I let it sit on the woodstove like this another 1/2 hour or hour to reduce the bean juice and make it a bit thicker.
I jar up the beans and the juice separately - the bean juice is where the magic happens. I put about 1- 1/3 Cup of bean juice in small mason jars, keep one in the fridge all the time and the rest in the freezer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ now for the TVP part
Heat 1 - 1/3 C bean juice when boiling, remove from heat and add 1-2/3 C TVP. If you don't have bean juice at a minimum heat water with bullion cube.
After it's rehydrated I keep it in the fridge as a base for several recipes. Here are a few:
Sautee oil in a pan with onions. If you have a chili spice mix pack (shelby's is the best) put in about 2 Tbl per about 1/3 of the rehydrated TVP you just made. Make a paste with the oil and chili spices. If you don't have a spice mix, you can use a lot of chili powder, onion & garlic powder and a bunch of salt (or get a recipe online). When you smell the chili cooking, put in the TVP and mix to coat. If you can't see a sheen of oil in the pan, if the TVP has soaked it all up, just add more. I add quite a bit of oil. Then a little water to finish, for hot dog chili not too much water, for taco meat (yeah same recipe) a little more water. For a chili stew not too much water because you'll just add the chili TVP to your pot of chili.
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For spaghetti, I start the same way. Soak in boiling bean juice, sautee onions and garlic in the pan. But this time I put italian spices in the oil, when I smell them I add the rehydrated TVP and coat and add oil till i have a nice oily sheen in the pan. Then put in your spaghetti sauce ingredients. I know it sounds odd, but it taste great.
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pretty much all of my TVP recipes are done the same way... Soaking in a very spicy juice and frying it when done in spices, onions and garlic. since it has no taste on it's own, you have to BAM it up a little.
I live in the