Turning Veganese

This morning, I found myself missing smoked sausage. On weekend mornings, we would often have smoked sausage or hot dogs with fried eggs, fried rice, and tomatoes (we’re Filipino so this is completely normal for me). While Gimme Lean has a great vegan soy sausage product that would be great for this type of meal, I was really craving something smoked. So, I grabbed half a cup of dry soy curls and improvised.

While the soy curls were rehydrating, I mixed together about 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tbsp of agave nectar, and added a few drops of liquid smoke. I have never used liquid smoke before, but I read in some places to be careful about the amount used. So, I tried to be conservative without even really knowing what that meant. Let’s just say that I wish I had put a few more dashes of liquid smoke in the mix. Once the curls were rehydrated, I drained them and let them marinade in the mixture for a few minutes.

I baked the soy curls in the toaster oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. While it was baking, I fried some brown rice in garlic, and cut up some tomatoes and green onion which I seasoned with salt and pepper.

Breakfast was served! My smoky marinade can use some tweaking, or maybe I need to let it marinade for a bit longer. I was worried that I used too much soy sauce and was surprised when the sweetness of the agave nectar seemed to be the prominent taste. I’ll probably use maple syrup next time, too. I don’t have any right now which is totally tragic. This still tasted great, though, and is one recipe I won’t mind experimenting with repeatedly. I’ll take whatever suggestions y’all may have! –Melissa