Reconnecting with a nugget of my childhood
pun intended + high protein soy TVP nuggets in an Asian style vegetable stir fry
I was browsing the aisles of my local Indian grocery store one day and I saw something that stopped me in my tracks. A sudden childhood memory surfaced vividly in my mind and I couldn’t help but smile as I nostalgically and lovingly looked at an ingredient on the shelf. I fondly remember that ingredient as nutri. I immediately purchased a large bag.
Nutri is known by many names such as soy chunks and nutrella but perhaps the most appropriate ones would be textured vegetable protein (TVP) or textured plant protein or textured soy protein. It’s made from defatted soy flour and is basically a by-product/leftover from extracting soybean oil. It is a great substitute for meat. It’s high in protein with nearly 50g of protein from 100g of dry TVP, low in fat, high in fiber, and therefore low in net carbs. These facts make TVP look like a near perfect source of nutrition. I am quite surprised it isn’t as mainstream as other meat alternatives like Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat brands.
Of course I did not know about any of the health benefits of nutri when I was a child. I just knew that whenever my mom made this chewy nugget in a delicious curry, I would happily savor each bite. She often made a North Indian style soupy curry or masala curry with peas or potatoes or the nuggets by themselves in rice dishes. Nutri was one of my favorite dishes back then. But over time as I left home to go to college and live my life away from my mother’s kitchen I somehow forgot about it. I often did not see it on the shelves of my local ethnic grocery stores and the ingredient went out of my mind. That is until recently when I was absolutely overjoyed to be reconnected with nutri again and couldn’t wait for the weekend to cook it. The long weekend over labor day provided a good opportunity.
I had visited family over the long weekend and devoured too many tasty Indian dishes prepared by my cousins and aunts. Consequently, I was not in the mood to eat yet another North Indian style dish with nutri. But I really wanted to eat nutri. I was instead in the mood for other Asian ingredients like gochujang, soy sauce, miso paste, etc.. I had also bought fresh lemongrass sticks that I was waiting to use for the very first time in my life. So I got inspired to experiment with an Asian-style dish and find out if this little nugget would still be tasty outside of an Indian dish. Hint - it absolutely is!
Step 1: Soak nuggets
Nutri nuggets look like light brown chunks are are dry/dehydrated and hard to the touch. I knew from my previous experience that soaking nutri nuggets was an important step. A quick google search confirmed this. I added warm water to immerse ~2 cups of dry nutri nuggets and let them soak for ~10 mins on the kitchen counter. I did a squeeze test with one nugget and it was basically like a sponge. I could squeeze out all the water and it bounced back as a soft nugget. I then squeezed out as much of the water as possible from the rest of the nuggets and discarded all the leftover water.
Step 2: Marinate nuggets
I free styled my marinade based on the Asian ingredients and flavors I was gravitating towards that day. The marinade ended up being a combination of ~1 tbsp gochujang sauce, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 0.5 tbsp harissa, 1 tbsp of sliced/grated lemongrass and ~4 tbsp of water to bring it all together.
I added the marinade to the soft nutri nuggets, mixed throughly, and put them in the fridge for ~2 hours. The nutri nuggets appeared like chunks of meat to me; it was a bit surreal.
Step 3: Prepare vegetables
As often happens with me, I got excited during the grocery store trip prior to the long weekend and bought too many beautiful vegetables. So I had a plethora of mushrooms and different colored bell peppers on hand to use in this dish. I chopped up the mushrooms and diced the bell peppers and half of a white onion. With mise en place, it was time to cook.
Step 4: Stir fry nuggets with vegetables
I decided to cook the nutri nuggets and the vegetables separately since they both would have different cooking times and different desired texture - a bit crunchy for the veggies but softer spongy for the nugget. I first prepared the nuggets by heating up a bit of olive oil in a pan on low-medium heat, adding the marinated nutri nuggets, and mixing them. I wanted these to not dry out so I also added some hot water, mixed it in, and then covered the pot. I simmered them for ~10 mins on low-medium heat. My understanding is that the nuggets are cooked already, they just need to be softened a bit to improve the texture and take away any rawness there may be. I turned off the stove and left them covered until the vegetables were ready.
On medium heat I sautéed the onion and lemon grass for ~3 mins and then added the mushrooms. I cooked the mushrooms for ~7-8 mins to sweat them out and develop some flavor. I pushed them to the sides and added the garlic along with more oil and fried it for ~30 secs. Next I added all the peppers, mixed them thoroughly, and cooked them for ~3-4 mins. My goal was to have soft flavorful mushrooms with crunchy peppers. Towards the end I found some peanuts in the pantry and threw in a handful to add some crunch. (It turns out this was not ideal as the peanuts were a bit stale!). I added soy sauce to the veggies prior to mixing in the nutri nuggets.
Step 5: Savor each bite!
I would have ideally served this with some steamed jasmine rice. However, I had eaten too many carb-laden things at my family gatherings over the long weekend. So I decided to skip the rice and enjoy this new-to-me yet nostalgic dish as is. The textures were wonderful. There were crunchy bits with the peppers and (stale) peanuts and soft bits from the nutri nuggets and mushrooms. There were exploding Asian flavors from the soy sauce and gochujang, and a kick from the harissa. Overall a very scrumptious and nutritious dish. I hope you also get to cook with and enjoy Nutri nuggets with the variations that come to your mind.
Step 6: Subscribe to ‘free style home chef stories’ to continue reading more nuggets of food stories like this one. Thank you!
Now that I have re-connected with this formerly favorite ingredient, I have so many ideas for how I want to try it in dishes. It could be pretty great for spaghetti and ‘meatballs’ or mediterranean ‘kebabs’ or keema curries or in coconut based gravies or so many other things. Stay tuned as I free style my way with nutri!
Dish Debrief
Is this my winner or disaster? win
How would I rate this dish out of 10? 8 out of 10
What would I change next time? keep exploring variations and use nutri nuggets in dishes from many other cuisines
Would I make this again? yes, can’t wait