#2023 #thanksgiving #amazing #vegan #turkey #cutlets #shredded #soycurls #glutenfree #oilfree #wfpb
Plant-Based Turkey Cutlets
Equipment
Ingredients
Turkey-Inspired Broth
- ½ cup water
- ¼ tsp yeast extract (vegemite or marmite)
- ⅛ tsp rosemary, dry
- ⅛ tsp granulated onion, dry
- ⅛ tsp granulated garlic, dry
- ⅛ tsp paprika
- ¼ to ½ tsp sea salt (depending on your taste)
Turkey 'Meat'
- 2 ounces soy curls
- 2 tbsp oat flour (or other binder, such as rice flour, corn flour (masa harina), cornstarch, etc.)
Cutlet 'Skin'
- 4 sheets small rice paper (or 2 large, see notes)
Herb Baste
- ½ tsp plant-based chicken bouillon powder
- 1-2 tsp water
Instructions
- Add all 'Turkey-Inspired Broth' ingredients to a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, add soy curls, turn off heat, stir. Cover for 10 minutes (stirring once after a few minutes).
- Shred soy curls (see video in notes).
- Add oat flour (or other binder) to soy curls and mix well with your hands. Really squeeze it all together! They should stick together, but only just. If it's too dry, add a tiny amount of water to your hands until it just sticks!
- Dip rice paper in water for about 10 seconds, and put it on a cutting board. Take a small handful of the mixture (1/4 of it) and form a dense cutlet. Set it on the center of the rice paper, and when the rice paper is sufficiently pliable, wrap it around the cutlet. Wrap it tightly, trying not to break the paper (it's ok if it breaks). Repeat with the remaining cutlets.
- Make your herb baste. Simply mix the vegan chicken bouillon powder with water until it's just thinned out!
- Air fry on parchment at 390-400℉ 8 minutes, then baste, and air fry 4 more minutes or until desired brownness and crispiness.You could also oven bake or cook in a skillet. NOTE: I highly recommend using parchment paper. Until you feel confident in the rice paper not sticking, you an also dust with a little bit of rice flour (which slightly alters the appearance) and they will not stick, I do this all the time!!
Notes
The Steps
- Create a turkey-inspired broth
- Rehydrate soy curls
- Shred soy curls
- Add binder to soy curls
- Rehydrate rice paper
- Form a dense cutlet with your hands
- Wrap in rice paper
- Optional: initial baste (do this if you want the skin to have extra flavor)
- Air fry (or bake, or cook on a skillet)
- Baste
- Finish cooking
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About These Vegan Turkey Cutlets
For a few years now, I’ve been experimenting and dreaming of ways to replicate some meaty tastes and textures with whole foods. Enter: soy curls. I don’t cook with soy curls as much as I used to, but I still do sometimes. I continue to use them because they’re so versatile, and I do appreciate the minimally processed nature of them. I’ve spent too much time searching for something to replicate turkey flavor, only to realize that’s not the direction I want. I want to replicate the experience.
Not the experience of carving a turkey; that’s a pain in the ass. I never liked doing it. The culinary experience of a dense, meatless, meaty, herb-infused cutlet that’s wrapped in a fat-free fatty/slightly-tough/crispy basted skin (made with our good friend rice paper). It’s actually wicked simple!
The Strategy Comes Together
I’ve been doing the shredded soy curls thing for a while, but the best binder to date has been the less-than-ideal methylcellulose. After making some millet quenelles in a recipe shared by @chris_vege_95, a fantastic individual I met on Instagram, I realized I don’t need some perfect meaty binder, I just need a simple binder.
Simple Binders
In his recipe, @chris_vege_95 uses chickpea flour to bring already sticky millet into a hearty quenelle. Impressive, no doubt. So I tested with chickpea flour and masa harina (fine corn flour). Chickpea flour works well in his recipe, but it is overpowering in this one. I liked the masa harina. It’s got a distinct corn presence, but let’s be honest, corn tastes better than turkey every did, and the lightly seasoned soy curls as well as the basted rice paper skin are still the stars.
And The Winning Binder Goes To…
I was really impressed with this simple cutlet. It tasted good warm, cold, even at room temperature! So, I tested more binders out of sheer curiosity, and the clear winner was shocking: oat flour. Somehow that underlying oat warmth CRUSHES it here, but if you don’t have oat flour, there are so many options that I tried in micro batches that are wonderful. I tested them all in the same ratio (1 tbsp binder to 1 dry ounce soy curls, rehydrated in broth) and that worked out just fine!
- Oat flour
- Rice flour
- Corn flour (masa harina)
- Cornstarch
Visual Steps
Final Thoughts
I’ve been trying to get to something like this for a long time. Something hearty and satisfying that doesn’t require weird ingredients and doesn’t taste weird. Honestly, I can’t believe how simple it ended up being. A lot of what we make seems lost in mish-mash of ingredients (shout out to my plant-based sour cream!), and the most important takeaway I’ve had so far is to strive for simplicity, but accept complexity when necessary.
This was very good. Loved the crunch of the rice paper. Served with cranberry sauce.
I’m so excited about making these to take to the family’s Thanksgiving dinner! Do you have any thoughts on how far in advance I can make them and how they’re best heated before serving?
These are really forgiving, and in my experience they behave a lot like turkey as well, which is kind of handy. To make ahead, I have two thoughts:
1) Fully make ahead — make them in full a day early or morning of, and reheat at 300-350F 10 mins, check the skins and dab with a bit of water for moisture if desired, and cook maybe 5-10 more minutes until heated and skins are to your liking.
2) Partially make ahead — make them all the way up through wrapping in rice paper but not basting or cooking a day early or morning of. Store layered with wax paper on beneath and above. Bring your baste in a small dish and a brush, too. Shortly before eating, finish them either in the oven or an air fryer (even a skillet can work) by cooking them, basting, and finish cooking.
I’ve cooked these as low as 250F for an hour and up to 400F for 6-8 minutes. They were great both ways!
I realized I didn’t answer your _actual_ question! I haven’t tested to see how far in advance one can make these fully, but I’ve eaten them as leftovers the next day, so I would say a day or so in my experience.
What a beyond thorough, complete answer! Thank you SO much for this and all of your wonderful, creative recipes!
I actually quadrupled the recipe to be able to try a couple of different things. First let me say the turkey inspired broth was delicious, and I’m making more to use in the gravy for our Thanksgiving meal. The soy curls and binder were pretty easy to work with when making the cutlets, and an absolutely delicious filling.
I first used brown rice paper and basted with herb baste and air fried as directed. Though yummy, the rice paper was really tough. I don’t know if it was because of the type of paper or the type of home-made bouillon powder I used (maybe not thin enough?). The second batch I used white rice paper that was predominantly tapioca starch. Again cooked in the air fryer as directed, they crisped up nicely (my herb baste was much thinner) but at the table the rice paper was gummy.
I decided for our Thanksgiving meal I would stuff portobello mushroom caps with the remainder.
Five stars for flavor and creativity!!! Can you share what brand of rice paper you use? I’m ready to try again to make a proper cutlet.
Thank you for your comment! The rice paper brand I used for these Star Anise Foods. The main two reasons I think it could be gummy at the table are if there was just a lot of layers of rice paper or the soy curls were maybe a little too moist, so even after the rice paper dried out they re-moistened it from within. There could be other reasons, but these are top of mind. I don’t know if it will be helpful, but here is a 10-minute video I made of the forming and wrapping part of making the cutlets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_daeIQ25KZ4