[arugula]

I'm giving Soy mince a try for the second time only (once cooked for OH's veggie cousin using Quorn), and I'm making a chilli today  . If it goes well, I plan to use it more often rather than my usual beef or turkey mince. Obviously it should work fine in the chilli, ragu(bolognese) and cottage/shepherds pie style dishes, but does anyone use it to make their own burgers (always/only make my own) or kofta style kebabs? How well does it hold together? Any tips/ideas?

Thank you for reading.   

[Mosslane]

Hi, I use quorn mince which is similar and find that to make it form well into burgers i need to add some moisture. I usually soak it in milk or milk and water for an hour or two before making the burgers. It also makes a nice meatless meatloaf with onions, leeks and a few chopped chestnuts.

Have fun experimenting

[hamstergbert]

Assuming target audience is ovivorous, as an alternative to the milk and water, you might like to try stirring in an egg that has been well beaten (possibly also with a pinch or two of tandoori spice and/or chili powder mixed in. Works for me).  In addition to helping the bind it also provides a pleasant variant to the overall flavour.

[madcat]

I find it is fine for sauce type things with plenty of flavourings to make it taste of something- ragu, cottage pie, chilli and use it quite a lot for lo fat versions of things like that.  Sometimes I confess to using it to 'stretch' the meat when I bought for 2 and find that I have rather more to feed.

But I've not been impressed with it for burgers and koftas which really depend on the 'meat' tasting of something and caramelising around the edges - it's hard work to make it stick together, and the more flavourings the harder it is.  Add it doesnt get the crunchy sticky meat flavoured edge.  So I pass ....

[mumofstig]

When I made soya burgers (do you mean from dry soya granules by the way?) I always used t extra spices, curry worked well, as they are a bit tasteless as others have mentioned, and would egg and breadcrumb them as well, so the crumbs could crisp a bit

[arugula]

MoS I do mean dry granules but they could be rehydrated..... Thanks Mosslane, Hamstergbert (you egg-eater you) and Madcat for your thoughts too. 

[mumofstig]

They're the kind I use, but a lot of people buy the frozen stuff nowadays, so I did wonder 
It took a bit of experimenting before I found something I was happy with but it can be done
I always put tomato sauce over the ones that weren't so good and said they were flat meat balls...at least they got eaten that way

Good luck

[arugula]

They're the kind I use, but a lot of people buy the frozen stuff nowadays, so I did wonder 
It took a bit of experimenting before I found something I was happy with but it can be done
I always put tomato sauce over the ones that weren't so good and said they were flat meat balls...at least they got eaten that way

Good luck

Thanks! 

[sunshineband]

I found the soy granules/chunks quite difficult to hold togther for burgers or meat balls without any egg (DS was vegan for years) but it made excellent chilli  

[arugula]

I found the soy granules/chunks quite difficult to hold togther for burgers or meat balls without any egg (DS was vegan for years) but it made excellent chilli  

It did make a good chilli  , only the quite different texture may take some getting used to.....

[titch]

i use it to stretch out any mince dish that has sauce/gravy - been doing it for years - no one seems to notice as long as there is some meat in there somwhere  

[sunshineband]

I found the soy granules/chunks quite difficult to hold togther for burgers or meat balls without any egg (DS was vegan for years) but it made excellent chilli  

It did make a good chilli  , only the quite different texture may take some getting used to.....

If you want it still veggie you can add those little round green lentils to it as they have a mincy sort of texture 

[arugula]

It did make a good chilli  , only the quite different texture may take some getting used to.....

If you want it still veggie you can add those little round green lentils to it as they have a mincy sort of texture 

Puy lentils? Love them, always have them in the cupboard. Yum!

[sunshineband]

Actually you could use puy but I meant the small ball shaped ones ... whole mung beans I think they are.

They are good too and quite a different flavour to puy 

[arugula]

Actually you could use puy but I meant the small ball shaped ones ... whole mung beans I think they are.

They are good too and quite a different flavour to puy 

Got them in the cupboard too, I like my pulses  . Thanks for the ideas!