Low Fat Cooking: Baked tomatoes stuffed with Soya mince and tantalising flavours
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Vegetarian | 8 comments
My mum tried Soya mince once and never again. I can still remember the shriek. Danny’s mum also tried it once. Perhaps they read they same article.
About a month ago I was tootling around the Daily Bread Cooperative with my mum. I spotted a shelf of Soya products and was about to accelerate past when I thought I’d stop and investigate. Soya is gluten free and packed with protein, vitamins and minerals. It’s a high yield product, so it’s cheap. They were offering Soya mince and chunks (these seemed to look a bit like dog food) so I chose the mince. The 550g pack was only £1.09.
A large sign informed me that I would need to add flavour, such as yeast extract or vegetable stock powder. I was intrigued and quite excited by the prospect of playing with flavours. Surely this couldn’t taste as foul as it had been when we were children.
I decided to experiment with the dish on an evening when I had some standby food, just in case.
50g transmogrified into a 500g of jug of ‘mince’. I had fun adding the flavourful ingredients. As I wanted a beefy sort of taste I started by adding a little Marmite, vegetable stock powder and a dash of red wine. A handful of chopped parsley lifted the ‘mince’ and a couple of heaped teaspoons of olive tapenade (Waitrose – green olives, coriander and lemon) gave depth. Finally I stirred in three tablespoonfuls of passata and a dash of garlic granules. It tasted great.
I stuffed some chunky tomatoes with the mix, drizzled them with a little olive oil and baked them for 15minutes at 190 (170 fan). They were delicious, served on a bed of Camargue rice and wilted rocket. The stuffing had the texture and flavour of herby minced beef. The next evening I used the rest of the mixture in sweet Marmara peppers. Excellent.
This is a great long life store cupboard meal for someone on a budget or pressed for time. As it contains no fat, Soya mince is worth considering for people on a low fat diet.
So the bag of Soya mince proved a good investment. I can’t wait to road test the chunks.
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It’s really yummy
Hi Kate(uk)
Thanks so much for this recipe. It sounds delicious. I must do more curries as I love them.
There are some gorgeous pestos around- coriander pesto, mixed with ground almonds and a bit of yogurt to make a thick paste, spread on top of opened out filleted chicken thighs, roast in a lidded pan in the oven on top of pilau rice with green sultanas,grated carrot, onions and cinnamon….just do the frying bit of the onion and rice on top of the cooker first, then put it, other ingredients and the stock in the covered pan with the pasted thighs on top.Give it 50 minutes, but check the rice after 35 to make sure it isn’t too dry…at the same time cook ( again in covered roasting pan) sliced onions,aubergines and peppers with a little water/stock and grilled red pepper pesto with some added ground green coriander seeds- voila a very easy no hassle curry! But to return to soya chunks- I’ve tried small chunky dried stuff that Tesco do that you add boiling water to- again, make sure you put it in very flavoursome dishes, makes a good sauce for lasagne.Not tried any bigger chunks…yet.
Hi Amanda
I’ve since discovered that The Chicken Lady’s mum used to add soya mince to beef mince to make it go further.
We were astonished how good it tasted.
Hi Kate
Perhaps I’ll try currying the chunks. Have you used them?
It was fun playing with the flavours. Going through a real pesto phase at the moment “ using it instead of butter in sandwiches.
Soy mince is good- as long as you really go for the flavour, it curries well and tapenades and pestos really work with it.Excellent for stuffing, personally, I prefer it to meat for stuffing vegetables.
I’ve never really liked the texture but with the cost of everything shooting sky high and the need to reduce fat, etc I think I might give it another try. You make it sound very tempting!
Hi Kay
I think it’s the words soya mince and the look of the stuff that’s offputting. We were amazed how tasty this dish was.
I think I read the same article – your recipe sounds much tastier than the last time I tried that stuff, back in the eighties when I was vegetarian.
Maybe it’s back to the drawing board for me too!