You down with TVP? Yeah, You Know Me.

What now?

Textured
Vegetable
Protein

Mmmm, sounds so appetizing, right? Haha. Well, if you're a non-cow eater like me and you've ever bought these:



you've eaten TVP. Veggie crumbles are easy to find at any store & aren't too horribly expensive... until you find out how cheap the ingredients are to make it yourself! You can make your own for about 1/4 of the cost. Plus, this brand has eggs and dairy in it. Boo.

Step 1: Go to Sunflower Market, Whole Foods, or other hippie-type grocery store that has a bulk isle. Scoop yourself up a nice bag of TVP.


It looks like Grapenuts. Weird. Do not buy Grapenuts.













Step 2: Find a recipe that normally would contain ground beef.

Step 3: Make up some TVP ground beef & put it in the afore-mentioned recipe.

If you don't have any brilliant ideas or are thinking that if you had a great recipe idea, you wouldn't be wasting time reading a cooking blog, then I will pick one for you. Make stuffed peppers! Now!


Make the "meat" first or you will be waiting what seems like years to eat.

Meatless Ground Beef
1/2 cup TVP
2 and a little extra cups water
3 to 4 tablespoons low sodium Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 to 3 tablespoons oil
pepper, to taste
a couple shakes of liquid smoke (optional) (I opted not to)

1) Place dry TVP in a skillet and cover with water and about 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce. The water should completely submerge the TVP.

2) Cook over low-medium heat until the water is completely absorbed. - completely means completely. I mean, don't burn it or anything, but you don't want it mushy. Plan on 30ish minutes.

3) Add the oil, seasonings and more soy sauce, if desired. Fry over low-medium heat until the chunks are firm and the mixture resembles ground beef. It takes a little bit for it to dry out and firm up. Stir occasionally to make sure that it cooks evenly and does not stick.

4) Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Traditional Stuffed Peppers


1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup rice, uncooked
2 Large Bell Peppers, halved and cored. (I use a mix of red and green. Ees for fun.)
1 15 oz can Tomato Sauce
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Oregano
1 recipe TVP ground beef
A handful of shredded mozzerella cheese (optional)

1) Put rice and vegetable broth into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

3) While oven is heating, sautee the onion and garlic with a little olive oil in a large skillet on med heat for about 5 minutes.

4) Add rice, ground "beef", oregano & about 1/3 of the tomato sauce to the skillet with the onions and garlic. Heat through.

5.) Place your bell peppers in a shallow baking dish and fill evenly with filling mixture.

6.) Pour remaining tomato sauce both over peppers and into the bottom of the pan . (Prevents burning)

7.) Cover with foil and bake at 350* for 45 minutes

8) Remove foil. Top peppers with cheese if you're using it and bake 15 minutes more.


That picture isn't of the ones I made, because Mr. Eat It, Fool ate them all so fast there wasn't time for pictures.

Note: stuffed peppers are a great place to put lots of veggies! In this recipe,however, I wanted to show case my mad fake-beef-making skills, so I went a more classic route. But, I freaking love stuffed peppers with lots of veggies in them and there's a good chance you'll see more stuffed pepper recipes in the future on here. Or just add them in on your own and stop relying on me for everything. Lazy.