10 recipes with soy products

It’s incredible how many soy-based products you can find—starting with edamame (the fresh soybean), plus tons of by-products like tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (TVP) and soy milk. Today, I invite you into the world of soy with 10 easy-to-cook and truly sublime recipes. Let’s get started!

Edamame: 2 recipes with fresh soybeans

Edamame (pronounced “edamamé”) is the basis of all soy products. It’s actually the fresh soybean. You can find it with its pod in fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables (with or without the pod) at your favourite grocery store. With or without the pod, it’s best to cook it in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes.

The pod is unpleasant to eat, so removing it and eating only the seed is better. A little anecdote: the first time I tasted edamame, I thought it was just a bit bigger than an average bean. So, I ate the seeds and the hard pod with some fuzz! Let me tell you, it wasn’t the best experience 😂! To eat them the right way, without the pod, here are the edamame recipes I suggest:

Greek salad with feta and edamame (in French)

Ah, the Greek salad! The first meal I ate on my trip to Greece in 2019. In the recipe I’m sharing with you, we add a good portion of edamame for even more freshness and crunch. As I adore Greece, I invite you to dream and drool as you read about my journey in my article 10 easy Greek recipe ideas to feel like you’re in Greece! (in French)

Poke bowl with edamame and salmon (in French)

The reputation of poke bowls is well-established. It’s good, fresh, and colourful; you can put just about anything you like in it. In this one, I add slices of radishes for some spice. Simply sublime with a sesame vinaigrette.

Tofu: 2 recipes with the best-known soy product

Tofu is the best-known of the soy products. Tofu is coagulated soy milk compacted into a block. And there’s something for every taste: from extra firm to soft for both main courses and desserts. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an all-purpose protein. You can use it everywhere, even in a recipe for tofu brownies that Crazy Leeks has already presented in one of its articles! Here are my 2 favourite tofu recipes:

Loounie’s famous magic tofu (in French)

I’ve already told you about Loounie in my top 10 foodies to follow on the Web (in French), but do you know about her magic tofu? An absolute delight to eat with any side dish!

If you want to make tasty little bites for any occasion, I suggest crumbling your tofu fairly coarsely, seasoning it with Loounie’s magic blend and coating the bites with panko or breadcrumbs. After 35 minutes in a 375°F (190°C) oven, it’s like eating popcorn chicken! Use on pasta, pizza, Super Bowl snacks (in French) and your favourite recipes.

Easy-to-make tofu salad sandwich

It doesn’t get much easier to make than a tofu salad. For a more “spreadable” texture, I like to add a little more mayonnaise (I’m a huge mayo fan 😉 ), and I replace the mini pickles with relish, but not just any relish... the kind my mother-in-law makes at home! If you don’t have homemade relish, store-bought will do too!

Tempeh: 2 recipes using this product made from fermented soybeans

Tempeh: the food that some people find hard to like, but so good when you know 2-3 tricks for preparing it quickly and easily. Because tempeh is made from fermented soybeans, the taste is slightly firmer than tofu. It’s rich in antioxidants and B vitamins. It even contains some natural antibiotics. Crazy Leeks has written an excellent article with 10 delicious recipes for cooking and discovering tempeh (in French), which many people love. I’ve already tried them all, and they’re perfect. To give you even more ideas, here are my 2 favourite tempeh recipes:

Tempeh and sweet potato sushi (in French)

Marinated tempeh goes wonderfully well with rice. Together in sushi, I find it a winning combination. In the recipe, it says to use onions. I think it’s even better to replace the onions with leeks. Once the leeks have been sliced (or just taken out of the bag of sliced leeks, washed and ready to cook) and lightly cooked in the frying pan so that they fall apart, I find this a real winner.

Tempeh Buddha bowl with sweet and sour sauce

Cube, strip or, crumble, tempeh is perfect for this Buddha bowl recipe from my friends at Crazy Leeks. I’ve even included it in my recipe travel cookbook (in French), which you can download for free from the Crazy Leeks’ website.

Textured vegetable protein (TVP): 2 classic recipes revisited

TVP is made from soy flour defatted when soybean oil is produced. Crazy Leeks also has an excellent article on the subject with 10 recipes for cooking TVP.

I don’t want to make anyone jealous, but I’d buy it in bulk rather than at the grocery store. TVP is a lot cheaper, and it allows me to always have a big jar of it in my pantry to make recipes like these:

Vegetarian cretons à la TVP (in French)

I love eating cretons on toast at brunch. The idea behind this recipe for vegan cretons (and behind the other vegan “imitation meat” recipes) is not to reproduce the food with meat perfectly, but above all, to try something else or eat less meat on occasion. This recipe for vegetarian cretons tastes like happiness... even more so with a touch of yellow mustard, the “baseball mustard,” as I like to call it ⚾.

Vegan Sloppy Joe at the TVP (in French)

The fun thing about TVP is that you can use it practically anywhere. It can even replace some of the meat in a recipe. Not ready to make 100% vegan sloppy Joe like this one? No problem. The important thing is to eat what you like in life. But let’s face it, 1/2 cup of TVP for 1 cup of meat, or 3/4 cup of each protein, allows you to do something different and costs less because TVP costs peanuts compared to meat.

Soy milk: 2 recipes using this soy-based beverage

Soy milk is made by soaking soybeans. It’s a great alternative to cow’s milk and lasts long in your pantry when unopened. I always have a case of it on hand for cooking. You can buy it in different flavours: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, cappuccino, unsweetened and others. My favourite? The chocolate one 🍫 (I could drink gallons of it; I love it so much) and the unsweetened one to make recipes like the 2 I recommend here:

Unsweetened soy milk béchamel sauce for a tasty pasta dish

For my béchamel sauce, I follow the classic recipe: equal quantities of butter and flour + milk according to the desired consistency. It’s quick to make, and you won’t be able to do without it for your pasta dishes!

My ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 container (946 ml) of unsweetened soy milk
• Sliced leeks
• Approx. 2 tsp. vegetable bouillon powder
• Seasonings to taste (a little ground or freshly grated nutmeg, salt, pepper)

My preparation:

1. Melt half the butter in a saucepan, then fry the sliced leeks until they fall, without browning.
2. Add the other half of the butter and melt.
3. Add flour and whisk for 1 minute.
4. Add half the milk and the vegetable stock powder and stir with a whisk.
5. Add the remaining milk, season with nutmeg, salt and pepper and continue stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens.

No more complicated than that! Go with your taste for texture and seasonings. I love using this sauce on pasta before browning 🧀 🤤.

Vegan pancakes with soy milk for a fabulous breakfast

I love eating pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup 🥞. And pancakes made with soy milk are no exception. My personal touch? I add a little ground flaxseed and use the full soy milk container (946 ml). This makes more pancakes, and I freeze some for breakfasts or brunches. These pancakes are even more delicious with berries like strawberries, raspberries and blueberries that you picked in the Cultures de chez nous fields in Sainte-Brigitte-des-Saults 😉.

Soy in all its forms: endless recipe possibilities

Soy is a genuinely versatile plant protein that can be processed in many ways. There are many reasons to love soy and many myths about it (in French). The recipe possibilities using soy products are so endless that I could have given you dozens! I could also have given you recipes using miso paste, tamari sauce and, soy sauce, other soy-based products. Well, that would probably make another extraordinary article of mine 😉.

I’ll let you start by trying my recipe ideas based on tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (TVP) and soy milk before offering you more shortly.

See you soon!

—Serge