Been working on a vegan picadillo... Up next is tvp and lentils... The picadillo flavoring is there, with raisins, olives, tomatoes, cumin and such... But, the protein is the issue.. I tried beyond crumbles which tasted of peas and their feisty flavoring.. The problem is, you can't penetrate the crumbles with flavor so, it's like the sauce and protein are separate.. These meat crumbles are their own independent city states of feisty flavorings. So, a bean will allow the sauce to penetrate maybe the tvp will. Black beans with sofrito, are on point. Bay, cumin, garlic, pepper, i added some sour orange, a little vinegar, not enough for one thing to stand out.. Basic rice, avocado with a sour orange mojo and red onion.
Was very happy with almost everything.. Need to work on the vegadillo but, right now it's still pretty damn good.
Sofrito: I have a shitty stick blender.
beans, i like a brighter pepper in the beans. i use a little more liquid than normal and strained the beans right before added the sofrito, i mixed the beans and slowly added the rest of the liquid over the course of the next 45 minutes.
Everything was good in this dish but, that fake shit: cauliflower, lentils, cauliflower and lentils?, i am not hopeful for tvp.. I don't know, this fake meat market is interesting. It's clearly not meat, it's never going to taste like meat, why are we hung up on stuff tasting like meat if it's not meat. No one has tried to make meat resemble a vegetable. Just call me a bean counter.
