Recipe of the Month: Savory Soy Curl Pasta

October has been a busy month for us. We've had something on our schedule at least one day every weekend: a football game on the 7th, yard sales last weekend, an outdoor show this weekend (which ended up being rained out, but we didn't know that until a few hours beforehand), the Folk Project's Halloween Show next Friday, and a trip to the Renaissance Faire with some friends next Saturday. And that's in addition to our regular board game nights and RPG sessions. With all that going on, we haven't had as much time as usual for shopping and cooking, so I wasn't sure when we were going to find time to squeeze in a Recipe of the Month for October.

Fortunately, Brian came to the rescue last Saturday with this improvised dish. After a day of shopping at the town-wide yard sales and socializing with a friend, he whipped up a last-minute dinner out of what we had on hand: Soy Curls, pasta, broccoli, and a few odds and ends. 

He started by soaking the Soy Curls in a mixture of water, salt, and nutritional yeast, then pan-fried them until crisp. He then used the same pan to cook the broccoli and to make up a sauce from red onion, garlic, mushrooms, and the soaking liquid from the Soy Curls, thickened with cornstarch. He even fancied it up with a touch of sherry and lemon juice before tossing everything together with a half-pound of whole-wheat penne. 

For a totally impromptu meal, this was quite tasty. It's not so surprising that it had plenty of flavor, since all the ingredients that went into the mix did, but they complemented each other better than you might expect. The meaty texture and umami flavor of the yeast-soaked Soy Curls played off against the brightness of the lemon and sherry, the earthiness of the mushrooms and whole-wheat pasta, the piquancy of the onion and garlic, and the green, ever-so-faintly bitter taste of the broccoli. It was an agreeably complex mixture without anything overly fancy. (It's also a dish that an unsuspecting carnivore would probably never guess was vegan. Under all the other flavors, the Soy Curls were almost impossible to distinguish from chicken.)

When I asked Brian, he said the only thing he might change about this dish is to add the lemon juice to the mix earlier, perhaps even putting it into the soaking liquid for the Soy Curls. But he liked the first iteration of the recipe well enough to write it down and even give it a name:

Savory Soy Curl Pasta

1. Soak the Soy Curls. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast to 1.5 cups water and microwave for 1 minute. Mix thoroughly, then add 3 oz Butler Soy Curls and allow to soak for 5+ minutes. Squeeze liquid out of softened Soy Curls and reserve all liquid. 

2. Prepare the veggies. Cut 8 oz broccoli crowns into small florets. Chop ¼ red onion and mince 3 oz mushrooms. Mince 4 cloves garlic.

3. Make the pasta. Combine 8 cups water and and 1 Tbsp salt and heat to a boil. Add 8 oz whole-wheat penne and cook for about 10 minutes, then drain. Try to time this so the pasta is done after the sauce is finished.

3. Saute the Soy Curls. Heat about 3 Tbsp canola oil in a nonstick or cast iron skillet on high heat. Add Soy Curls and cook, stirring frequently, until browned. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

4. Cook the broccoli. Add another ~1 Tbsp canola oil to the skillet with the broccoli. Saute until florets are bright green and slightly browned. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

5. Saute the veggies. Saute onion over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and mushrooms. When the mushrooms begin to release liquid, add 1 Tbsp sherry. Continue to saute until mushrooms begin to brown. Lower heat. 

6. Finish the sauce. Suspend 1 Tbsp cornstarch in a small amount of water and add to the reserved soaking liquid. Add the mixture to the contents of the skillet and cook over low heat until the sauce thickens. Add 2 tsp lemon juice.

7. Combine. Add the Soy Curls to the sauce and stir to coat thoroughly. Add to drained pasta, along with the broccoli, and toss to combine all ingredients. Add additional lemon juice to taste.