Soy curls…

Sweet and sour “pork.”

Let’s clarify: I am not a vegetarian or vegan. Life is too short not to indulge in foods that you love. Everything in moderation is my motto.

We were vegetarians for a couple of years back in our twenties, but at the end of the day, we are carnivores. 

I have been making meatless meals at least twice a week for some time now. I still use beef or chicken stock and dairy in those dishes.

Marty has high cholesterol, and we should watch our diets for heart-healthy reasons. Yes, I usually post foods that are indulgences, but why can’t healthier recipes taste like them, too? 

I support vegetarian diets as a healthier lifestyle while eating whole-natural foods. I can also understand why people do it for ethics.

I can’t think about ethics, or I won’t want to eat meat either. It’s a circle of life thing; we don’t have teeth to eat only vegetables.

A vegan lifestyle is a choice, and many times, food is laden with many scientific and chemical byproducts and is something I do not support.

I support people as vegans if they are eating whole-nature foods. However, many vegans I know have horrible diets and eat shitty fattening foods and NO vegetables. Weird.

If vegans are craving a bloody hamburger and are eating all that chemical-filled impossible stuff, well, dammit, it may be time to reevaluate what in the fuck you are doing. Why are you craving bloody meat? 

Some people’s bodies need the amino acids and iron you cannot get without eating meat. It happened to a friend of mine whose hair started falling out, plus my ulcerative colitis left my body needing more iron than vegetables and vitamins could provide.

This is 100% true for me. My body wanted and needed meat. My opinion on veganism may not be popular, and I am ok with that.

Once, I said something on my personal Facebook page about impossible burgers after we attempted to try one. The fake bloody hamburger smelled like nothing I’d ever smelled before.

I read the ingredients on the package since I always read labels due to my gluten intolerance. Here is what I found. 🤢

After my post, my Facebook “friends” lost their shit and got all up in my ass by telling me I didn’t know anything and began making comments defending the impossible line of food.

They insisted their meat-eating partners love it more than meat. I wonder what their honest opinion would be. They weren’t convincing me; they were justifying themselves for eating it.

Hey, you do you, and I’ll do me. I feel that way about most things.

Ok, enough about all that bullshit; this is a post about soy curls. What in fucks name they are? Where do they come from, what are they made of, and are they healthy for you?

Soy curls were created in 2000 by a family-run, Oregon-based company, Butler Foods. They wanted to create a meat alternative for vegetarians and vegans.

Soy curls are healthy and are a whole-natural food, meaning they do not have a bunch of chemicals in them. There is only one ingredient on their package: soy.

Marty stumbled upon soy curls while picking up a snack for us while we were in Albany making a delivery to the store Honest Weight. He chose a soy curl teriyaki salad made without gluten.

It was delicious, and we needed to know more. I researched what they were while heading to our next delivery in Saratoga. After the Four Seasons health food store delivery, I grabbed a bag of soy curls.

I looked up some recipes. I couldn’t wait to make one of our favorite dishes, Mongolian “Beef.” I used my Mongolian sauce recipe, which was the best part. I already knew what it would taste like.

Mongolian “Beef.”

The bottom line is they were easy to prepare, and the dish was better than the one I made with beef. They didn’t get tough in the refrigerator; we ate them cold the next day. You can’t do this with beef./

I have an excellent sense of smell and palate. The soy curls don’t have any smell or taste. They absorb whatever flavors you are cooking them with.

We ordered a big box of soy curls, which we will keep in the freezer and use what we need a little at a time. 

The amount of quick and easy meals we will get out of one box would be hundreds of dollars in meat.

What I like about cooking with them is there is no contamination to worry about or having to wash your hands dozens of times, like when preparing chicken, pork, or beef. 

Here are some other dishes I will be making with soy curls. 

I found the above photos of soy curls on Pinterest. Buffalo Chicken Salad, Steak Tacos, Hot Honey Chicken, Pulled Pork Sandwich, and Beef stroganoff.

I’ll use my regular recipes for these dishes and replace the protein with soy curls. You can be as creative as you want to be. The texture of the soy curls is just like other proteins. It’s amazing.

There are endless possibilities, and you won’t have to worry about defrosting or purchasing meat for quick dinners. 

Will I still make steak, chicken, and pork? Well, hell, yes. We will continue to indulge in foods we love by keeping everything in moderation.

The only negative things about soy curls are for people allergic to soy and for my old pal cauliflower, which soy curls have now replaced. 

You can find soy curls in most healthier stores like Trader Joe’s, health food stores, Whole Foods, and many other places.

They are more expensive on Amazon, so don’t do that. We ordered ours from Butler Foods directly, and they were half the price of Amazon.

I like to write about things people may not know about. I want to educate myself and my readers the best I can and teach them how to use or make whatever I am writing about.

I hope you found this post interesting. I am unsure if anyone will try soy curls, but if you do, I promise you will love them.