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Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)
This event was on
Tuesday, August 09, 2022 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.
Question:
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What do you think about using TVP (textured vegetable protein) in dishes?
— Dale Papineau
Answer:
It's typically a soy product that's pressed out an expunger very much. Like they do a lot of different products today as far as like pea proteins and stuff like that to get different textures textured vegetable protein is very much like a crumbled meat texture and it is processed. So there are some things that are taken out of the soy to be able to make it into that extruder and put it out in the form that it makes it look like a crumpled beef. I do use TVP but I don't use it a lot. I might use it once every month and a half or something. And typically it's for something, you know, just kind of quick and easy. I'll usually rehydrate it kind of quickly in a saute pan, maybe with some you know, a little bit of fennel and Cracked Pepper and stuff like that to be able to get some of those, you know ground beef kind of textures and I usually use it in something like a taco or enchiladas or something like that. TVP is fine. I just don't do it a ton because it is a very processed ingredient. So, you know, it's it's something that if you feel comfortable with it, that's great. I just don't do it as much because I'd rather just do the tofu, you know, which is not as processed as well. I mean tofu is processed. You're basically, you know, it's Blended soy and then you know, so you are processing it down put tvps a little bit different a little bit further and you are stripping some things out of it as well. So as far as textured vegetable protein, yeah, totally it's okay to use just remember that it is highly processed. So if you're worried about that, just use it in moderation and happy cooking.
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