Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm going to try and make a meat sauce for spaghetti tonight using tvp, but wondering if others have done this and have ideas for making the meat.

I'm planning to rehydrate the tvp using better than bouillon beef broth and then sauté it in a bit of oil and soy sauce along with some spices. Then I was going to add all the tomato stuff. I could just rehydrate and toss it into the sauce, but I want to make the tvp more flavorful somehow. Ideas?

my go-to for this kind of thing uses grated tempeh instead of TVP (it's a lasagne recipe from a cookbook "Temptin' Tempeh"

basically:
- onion
- garlic
- 300g tempeh
- 2x can of chopped/diced tomato
- 1/2 cup white wine (I use 1-2 tbsp mirin)
- 1/3 cup (ish) tomato paste
- 1.5 cup water
- 1tsp each of: salt, sugar, basil, rosemary, oregano
- pepper to taste

fry onion/garlic in a pan, then tempeh, then everything else (+/- the water - see how 'saucy' it feels). I leave it for a while (~30mins) to let it develop.

I get pretty good reports back on it. good flavour and great texture without anything too processed. so maybe either try tempeh, or just swap TVP in here!

That's usually how I do it too, only I use water with a tablespoon or two of soy sauce instead of broth. The soy sauce gives a great umami flavor to the tvp. I've never had better than bouillon, so I don't know how it compares.

What you described is exactly what I would do. Soaking it in broth or soy sauce will give it some nice flavor, plus if you're cooking in the sauce for a bit it will integrate well into that. When you reach the sautee stage you could add some minced garlic and onion, but other than that your plan sounds pretty good.

Jar sauce + Boca ground "beef" crumbles or crumbled tempeh = meat sauce

I'm not complicated and I kind of hate cooking right now.

Yup, this coming from a person that had pasta & meat sauce a lot growing up...I just get a package of soy crumbles and a jar of sauce, brown the crumbles in a bit of olive oil, add sauce and let simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes. You are good to go...

Pasta and meatless sauce is one of my favorites. I've done it many different ways:

-tempeh
-boca crumbles
-lentils (prepared as they are in Isa's Ancho Lentil Taco recipe, except with Italian seasoning).

In all cases I saute with garlic and lots of herbs and spices, sometimes wine if I have some available, occasionally onion or mushroom to fill it out, and then pour in a large can of crushed tomatoes (or a combination of smaller cans of crushed and diced). I never by jarred sauce anymore, so I always just add my own seasoning to the much cheaper canned tomatoes.

One of my first forays into vegan cooking was fake meat sauce. Which actually meant a package of chopped, frozen spinach. It obviously doesn't taste even remotely the same but it gave my husband the same filling, chewy satisfaction of a meat sauce.

I don't remember ever having meat sauce when I ate meat but I never cared for pasta much. Having said that Chloe's Spaghetti Bolognese is really good. It uses mushrooms, walnuts, flour and spices to give the meatiness. My husband couldn't even guess what was in it and definitely thought it was meaty.

I was about to post about this. BEST EVER.

Oh yeah I can totally see this working amazingly. I need more damn cookbooks.

What you're doing sounds good. For extra umami meatiness - brown the tomato paste with the tvp/tempeh. Maybe add a little bit of sesame oil, and you don't have to use a lot, but - add a hint of raw garlic at end, garlic at start (to cook), and garlic powder. If you like garlic, that is. And if you have wine, cooking red wine off adds great richness.

Oh I forgot Chloe's recipe has beans too (either pinto or kidney). I found it if you want to try it at a later date:
http://www.veega.co/2012/10/dining-in-s ... gnese.html

I haven't tried this in spaghetti sauce but I like to use bulgur as the main ingredient in my chili. Mollyjade posted a Texas style chili recipe using it and it is really good. It might translate well into a sauce.

i've been inspired, and i also had 2 packages of mushrooms to use up anyway.

i diced the mushies, cooked them down, added some tamari and frontier's chicken broth powder, a splash of water and a bit of TVP. cooked that for a bit, added some oregano and basil and a half can of tomato paste (so about 3 oz) and a 28 oz can of diced tomates. haven't eaten it yet, but i got's some linguini a-cookin', so it'll happen very soon.
::edit:: yep. it's yum-tastic!

*bows* thank you, most excellent of humans.