Sunday, February 28, 2010

this turned out brilliantly

i like TVP, but unless it has a while to soak in flavour it can still have a soy aftertaste and be fairly distinguishable from red meat.

this was a relatively quick way for it to pass 100% for ground beef - taste, texture, smell.

start some water boiling

wait till it boils
then add two thirds box of whole wheat penne,

while that water starts going
preheat the oven to 350 degrees

and also heat up a pan
add a glug of oil and
one-quarter cup diced yellow and orange peppers
one small diced onion
saute for a few minutes, add a bit of garlic powder
add a quarter cup of red wine or so
simmer for a few minutes, then add one-third jar or so of Catelli diced tomato and basil sauce (on sale right now at No Frills for a dollar)

as that is saute-ing and cooking away mix together (a one-cup measuring cup works great)
one-half cup TVP (texturized vegetable protein)
about three-quarters of a cup boiling water
stir in:
1 pinch italian seasoning
1 tsp or so of beef boullion
5 or 6 dashes of worchestershire sauce
a good glug of red wine (2 tbsp or so)

and shred
one cup cheddar cheese (or other cheeses)

About a minute before the pasta is finished and you start putting the dish together, mix together the TVP mixture and the sauce.

pasta finished cooking..? .. good!

drain the pasta, then layer in a medium casserole dish:

sauce
pasta, cheese, sauce
pasta, cheese, sauce

Bake (uncovered) for a little while - 20 minutes is good, but i got impatient and took it out after 10. it was still awesome.

2 comments:

chRistine said...

are you eating TVP because you're a vegetarian or other reasons.. the reason I'm asking (and excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb question) - but doesn't soaking it in beef bouillon negate the vegetarianism of the thing?

Meredith said...

jarod and i have been vegetarian in the past, and still eat some tofu and TVP because of health reasons. Tofu is cost at-par with meat often, but TVP is far cheaper. I used it that night becuase I was out of ground beef and still wanted a bolognese-type sauce.