dandelion (she/her)I made a recipe shared on lemmy: "smoky, brothy pinto beans"
southsamuraiI’m not sure jumping through hoops to poorly replace pork would be as good as just leaving it out, but it’s a damn nice effort for those that want it :)
For me, if I’m doing pintos, the smoked paprika alone does everything I would use a pork product for except maybe the fats. Since I find using oils just as good as pork fats for this application, the only thing left is texture, and I’m fine with just the beans for that tbh.
Again though, that’s me going on a tangent about personal preferences, and the recipe and work behind it are fucking great :)
personally the texture and nutrition are major reasons to substitute pork with something like TVP.
I really hate the way TVP tastes generally, it has this chalky off taste that I don’t know how to get rid of. So this time, determined to eliminate that weird taste, I rinsed the TVP thoroughly in hot water, then boiled it in a separate pot with black pepper, no-steak better-than-bouillon, vegan Worcestershire sauce, etc. and then drained it again before putting it with the onions to fry it up a little bit.
The TVP dramatically increases the protein per serving, it would have been probably 10 g or less in a bowl / serving without the TVP, and then it wouldn’t have seemed like chili at all - just a thin bean soup. I try to aim to have around 20 g protein per 500 kcal meal, and it’s even more important when vegan to pay attention to the protein content.
The reason I want protein is mostly for energy and satisfaction reasons - I’m less hungry when I eat more protein, and I notice I have more energy, which is important for supporting healthy habits like exercise (besides generally making life easier, as fatigue makes getting your tasks and work done more of a drag).
Also, adding the TVP didn’t feel like too much of a hassle tbh - it was certainly easier to prep than cooking dry beans for hours, and having to do that prep a whole day in advance.
Fair enough :)
In all honesty, the folks I used to cook vegan for aren’t as big a part of my life as they used to be, so I’ve fallen out of the habit of directly supplementing protein since I eat meat to some degree or another a few times a week. I can do fine with a big ol pot o beans and some veggies the rest of the time. Since I don’t tend to miss the texture for the same reason, I didn’t even think about it being a big factor for anyone that would be using this recipe to begin with. That’s what I get for not thinking outside of myself lol.
For real though, it’s great that you put the extra effort in and posted it. Seems like a really solid recipe