Stir fried soya chunks - An easy vegetarian stir-fry with lots of vegetables, soya granules and hot chili sauce, simple and flavorful.



Soya chunks stir fry is a delicious main course dish you can make anytime.
Stir-fried soya chunks

Sight, aroma, taste, feel and sound all contribute to the eating experience — we smell food before we see or taste it, and sometimes we even hear it being cooked, these ignite our senses.

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We cook with our senses, and we have six of them, all of them critical, the sixth most of all. Taste is the common mantra among chefs: “Always be tasty to the buds.” Enough richness, enough depth, enough seasoning, and enough acidity these all factors we need to consider. We need to tune it like a guitar!!

Senses in cooking:

But often overlooked as a fundamental cooking sense is hearing. For example, throw chopped garlic into a hot oil pan, your sense of hearing triggers and your sense of smell can tell you when it has infused in the oil, smells garlicky and it’s time to follow the other ingredients. But more important is imagined sight. What you expect to see should be a part of the cooking process. Touch is essential, a sense to call attention. We touch bread dough to know how thick it is. Press down on steak to intuit how done it is on the inside (will be posting in my next post in detail). We touch the top of the fish to know how well it is done.

Cooking brings all the senses into our playground of kitchen:

  • Sight in the recognition of commodities and the eye appeal in the presentation of dishes.
  • Smell in the freshness of food and identifying the various cooking smells.
  • Taste an important field and one allied to smell, testing for flavour and the use of seasoning agents.
  • Touch, the use of hands in sampling or testing of food for freshness, texture and other factors.
  • Hearing in communications and listening to food being cooked, recognition if the food is cooking too fast or slow.
  • Kinaesthesia is the sixth sense. A general term involving the coordination of sense in performing a task. The knowledge and the recognition on an unconscious level, this being achieved by proficiency. Cookery brings all the senses into play. Most chefs have highly developed senses particularly of smell, tastes and touch within a built-in sixth sense, that of Kinaesthesia.
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 Five senses:

Taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell — lead to the most important sense of all. But the sixth sense: a bit more on explanation is common sense!!  This cannot be written into a recipe. You can’t Google the common sense for a recipe!! But it’s critical in good cooking and often lacking in the home kitchen.

This is what missing in my sweetheart Sibil while cooking at home. A five-minute job will be dragged to a five-hour marathon. 

Soya chunks stir fry is a delicious main course dish you can make anytime.

Our world is better when we cook for the people we love. Our bodies are healthier, our families are healthier, our communities are healthier, and our environment is healthier. That’s the sense I love most about cooking.

Soya chunks stir fry is a delicious main course dish you can make anytime.
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Soya chunks are a defatted soy flour product, a by-product of extracting soybean oil. It is often used as a meat analogue or meat extender. One time I introduced this to a buffet menu in one of the hotels I worked at. An aggressive vegetarian lady turned up with a piled plate of soya and claimed she had beef on a misguided food tag. Standing next to those sharp carving knives I thought it’s going to be the last day of my life. I forget all the six senses explained above. And the seventh sense called in me Helpppp… It took an hour for me to convince her it’s vegetarian.

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Stir-fried soya chunks cooking instructions.

  • Preparation time – 20 minutes
  • Cooking time – 20 minutes
  • Serves -4

Ingredients for Stir-fried soya chunks

  • Soya chunks – 50 grams
  • Oil for frying
  • For the batter
  • Corn flour – 2 tbsp
  • Plain flour – 1 tbsp
  • Kashmiri chilli powder or mild paprika – ½ tsp
  • Ground black pepper powder – ½ tsp
  • Garlic and ginger paste – 1 tsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Vinegar – 1 tbsp
  • Water – 3 tbsp

For the sauce

  • Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp
  • 1 green chilli  (to taste)
  • Garlic finely chopped – 5 cloves
  • Ginger finely chopped – ½”
  • Green, red and yellow  pepper diced – 1 cup
  • Onion diced – ½ a cup
  • 1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce
  • 3 tbsp soya sauce
  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 50 ml of water
  • 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 2 tsp of water
  • Salt to taste

Method to make Stir-fried soya chunks

  1. Soak the soya in water for 15 minutes
  2. Wash, strain and squeeze out the water from soya and keep aside in a bowl.
  3. Heat oil in a wide saucepan. In a mixing bowl add the cornflour, plain flour, chilli powder, black pepper and ginger garlic paste along with the salt. Add the vinegar and water; mix to make a thick batter. Add the soya chunks to it and mix well coating all the pieces with the batter.
  4. Fry the soya chunks in the hot oil in batches for 1-2 minutes. They should have a slight colour all over. Drain the soya on kitchen paper and set it aside.

To make the sauce.

  1. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok on medium heat.
  2. Add the green chilli, chopped garlic and chopped ginger.
  3. Fry for 10 seconds and add the peppers along with the red onions. Sauté for 1-2minutes until they begin to soften.
  4. Add the chilli garlic sauce, tomato ketchup and the soya sauce & stir well.
  5. Add the water and bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute on low heat.
  6. Put the cornflour water mix, season to taste and simmer for a further 2 minutes as it begins to thicken.
  7. Add the fried soya and mix
  8. Your stir-fried soya chunks are ready to serve with either rice or noodles.

More similar recipes:

  1. Paneer cheese balls
  2. Chana masala curry
  3. How to prepare baingan bharta
  4. kovakka recipes
  5. Beetroot pachadi Kerala recipe
 
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Regards,
Sumith.
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Soya chunks stir fry is a delicious main course dish you can make anytime.
Stir fried soya chunks
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5 from 1 vote

Stir fried soya chunks

Stir fried soya chunks – An easy vegetarian stir-fry with lots of vegetables, soya granules and hot chili sauce, simple and flavorful.



Course Main Course
Cuisine Chinese, Fusion, Indian, Indo-Chinese
Keyword Stir fried soya chunks
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 188kcal
Author Sumith Babu

Ingredients

  • 50 gms soya chunks
  • oil for frying

For the batter

  • 2 tbsp corn flour
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 1/2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1/2 tbsp black pepper powder
  • 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • salt to taste

For the sauce

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • 1/2 inch ginger finely chopped
  • 1 cup green, red and yellow peppers diced
  • 1 cup onion diced
  • 1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce
  • 1 tbsp soya sauce
  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 50 ml water
  • 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water
  • salt to taste

Instructions

Method to make stir fried soya chunk

  • Soak the soya in water for 15 minutes


  • Wash, strain and squeeze out the water from soya and keep aside in a bowl.


  • Heat oil in a wide sauce pan. In a mixing bowl add the corn flour, plain flour, chilli powder, black pepper and ginger garlic paste along with the salt. Add the vinegar and water; mix to make a thick batter. Add the soya chunks to it and mix well coating all the pieces with the batter.


  • Fry the soya chunks in the hot oil in batches for 1-2 minutes. They should have a slight colour all over. Drain the soya on kitchen paper and set aside.


To make the sauce

  • Heat the vegetable oil in a wok on a medium heat.


  • Add the green chilli, chopped garlic and chopped ginger.


  • Fry for 10 seconds and add the peppers along with the red onions. Sauté for 1-2minutes until they begin to soften.


  • Add the chilli garlic sauce, tomato ketchup and the soya sauce & stir well.


  • Add the water and bring to a boil and simmer for a 1minute on a low heat.


  • Add the corn flour water mix, season to taste and simmer for a further 2 minutes as it begins to thicken.add the fried soya and mix


  • Your stir fried soya chunks is ready to serve with either rice or noodles.


Nutrition

Calories: 188kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Sodium: 590mg | Potassium: 219mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 409IU | Vitamin C: 74mg | Vitamin E: 1mg | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 2mg