I have a friend that keeps me on my toes. You know the kind, not one, but three steps ahead of everyone else. She runs circles around me in business, her creative radar is permanently set to “on”, and gets any job completed at the speed of lightening. She is a force to be reckoned with. Savvy, smart, with a bit of sassy…I adore her.
It’s probably a good thing she lives a few states over. She also has this inapt ability to discover the latest gadget. I’m using gadget loosely here. Gadget could be an appliance, a food product, or an everyday this will rock your world gotta have it now something to the other. Amazon loves it that we’re friends.
Whats unique about her is she actually masters and earns a portion of her living off such “discoveries”. My friend is very resourceful. If I was ever deserted on an island and could only take one thing, she’d be it. If she has a need, she finds a way to fill it in the most unique way. Take for instance a few years back when she was a budding vegan entrepreneur and cooking vegan food had to happen stat. Welcome to the world of vegan pressure cooking. Suddenly every busy home cook wanted to be part of fast and bulk cooking, thus a star was born.
She didn’t stop there folks. Another need arose and she soon sought out the air fryer. A foreign object to us all, she welcomed it in and set upon a path to making all things vegan with the Air Fryer. We now love her for that and the fact our kitchens is less hot, greasy, and smelly. Her latest cook book, The Vegan Air Fryer, is now available online or at your local bookstore.
The reason I’m sharing all this with you is my friend also turned me on to Butler Soy Curls. She’s been using them for quite awhile, but I just recently gave them a try. Needless to say, she did not steer me wrong. Soy curls are my new favorite substitution for meat and when paired with the Air Fryer, they are a marriage made in heaven.
The Butler website describes soy curls as this, “an all natural alternative to meat that are heart-healthy, delicious and easy to use…are a delicious alternative to meat that are a great addition to your favorite recipes…are made from select, non-GMO, whole soybeans (Soy), grown without chemical pesticides.” What’s not to love!
For some reason I was initially a bit intimidated by the package of curly dried up looking pieces. Fear can be a stop sign people, but have no fear in the soy curl. My intimidation was zapped on the first use. After soaking in very warm water for 10 minutes, I drained them, gently squeezed them dry, and began to season and sauce them up. I made two batches to create two different salads. Here’s what happened.
Seasoned generously with Jade Spices Chicken Salt (vegan) and then coated in a Korean BBQ sauce. I sprayed the Air Fryer with a tad of Avocado Oil to prevent sticking to the pan and air fryed on 390 for 8 minutes, shaking the pan half way through the cooking cycle. Bam, perfecto! I served them over a pre-mixed bag of Asian greens with sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and a lime vinaigrette. Delicious!
The second batch went like this.
I followed the same process as above except instead of the Korean BBQ sauce, I applied a liberally amount of Nutritional Yeast. As in the case with the BBQ sauce, the cooking time was perfect to give them a nice solid texture on the outside, but remaining soft and chewy on the inside. If you want them crisper, increase the cooking time checking and shaking frequently to prevent over cooking. I served the Cheesy Curls over greens with tomato, red onion, avocado, cucumber, radish, sunflower seeds, and a vegan Catalina dressing. So. Good.
I’m hooked folks all thanks to my dear friend who not only keeps me on my toes, but makes sure I’m having fun and success in the kitchen along the way.
You can find Butler Soy Curls online http://www.butlerfoods.com/soycurls.html or on Amazon. Tip: Store the curls in the fridge until ready to use, or in the freezer if not using right away. You can thank JL, https://jlgoesvegan.com, for that too.
Happy cooking!
Kat