What is textured soy and how can you take advantage of it in the kitchen

It is perfect to include more protein in vegetarian and vegan diets, but it is also a food that can be present in many healthy diets that want to minimize meat consumption. Behind that strange image, which almost looks like small pieces of hard bread, hides a raw material that gives a lot of play and that has many healthy benefits, you just have to know how to cook it. We tell you all about textured soy.

Textured soybeans

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What is textured soy?

They call it vegetable minced meat, and that is It is very common in vegan and vegetarian diets to complete the nutrients of diets that do not include animal products and that, therefore, tend to have protein deficits.

Soy can be found in many ways in the market, in the form of a vegetable drink, yogurt, sauce, sprouts, tofu … and it is increasingly common to find it textured. When extracting soybean oil from soybeans, a solid residue remains that is used to make soybean meal. This resulting flour undergoes a series of processes, dehydration, texturing, high temperature and pressure that gives rise to what appear to be bread crumbs or pieces of hard bread or you can even remember some type of feed. It does not contain additives, dyes or preservatives and is 100% natural.

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Benefits of textured soy

It is a very rich protein food, low in fat, salt and sugar, as well as being a very good source of fiber. Although considered a meat substitute, textured soy is a legume and its nutritional value is similar to that of foods such as chickpeas or beans.

A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has concluded that, like other soy products, Textured soybeans have isoflavones that have an antioxidant function in the body so it is a food with anti-aging power that fights the damage caused by free radicals responsible for cell aging.

Textured Soy Burgers

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It is light, satiating and maintains blood sugar levels in addition to helping the body eliminate waste substances. A perfect food also for your weight loss diet that you can include in very tasty dishes, we explain how to do it.

How to cook textured soy

You can find textured soybeans in various sizes, depending on the elaboration you are going to do, you can choose one or the other, although in large areas you will usually find a medium-sized variety. It is a food that has practically no flavor so you will need to combine it with different condiments to give it a tasty touch.

The first step will be to hydrate it by covering it with water (or broth) in a bowl for about 15 minutes, twice as much water as soy. If the water you use is hot you will shorten the hydration time and you will have it ready in about 5 minutes.

Textured Soy Bolognese

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Once hydrated and drained you can spice it the way you want, you can use it as if it were minced meat to make a Bolognese sauce, meatballs, hamburgers, cannelloni, lasagna or to make vegan morunos kebabs. Remember that the secret is to add many spices to flavor textured soy, turmeric, paprika, black pepper, salt, oregano … Bon appétit!