It never ceases to amaze me how few okara recipes there are available. That was a bit of an overstatement, but I mean I always just see things like “oh, I throw it in muffins” rather than concrete recipes. There are a few good recipes out there, like Fat Free Vegan’s “Crab” Cakes and the repository at Ellen’s Kitchen, but in general the pickings are slim.

So here’s a dead simple recipe with tasty results, a thick burger made from okara. I really want to get some more okara recipes out there since it’s such a nutritious thing to waste (for those who make their own soy milk, you can probably relate with the guilt felt when throwing yet another batch in the bin). If you have any suggestions, please, by all means share them!

Recipe Notes

These okara burgers are more like the beefier of the frozen veggie dealios you pick up at your supermarket. No vegetables here, I’m afraid (but technically wine contains fruit, so it totally counts as healthy). Experiment with the spices all you want, but I recommend sticking with the yeast extract because it really imparts a beefy flavour. Finally, for a less firm burger try using a little more liquid in the mix.

Sesame and miso get along famously, complementing each other in a way that makes a perfect base for soups, stir fry sauces, and salad dressings. This basic miso salad dressing recipe uses tahini for thickness and creaminess, but a nice sesame oil is just as delicious. The best part? It’s probably the easiest salad dressing you’ll ever have to make.

And this stuff really does go well with the ol’ stir fry. Today’s lunch involved broccoli and red onion stir fried in groundnut oil with some garlic, a splash of soy and chili sauces, a few tablespoons of coconut milk, and a splodge of this dressing. But miso enthusiasts, beware: the high heat will kill off all the healthful bacteria in that soy paste.

Anyhow, below is a quick run down of my main uses for the prolific soya bean, complete with numbered pictures (hey, I love pictures).

1. Firm tofu coagulated with nigari and gypsum

Nigari coagulated tofu has by far the best flavour, but gypsum bulks it up a bit, so I tend to use a combination of the two in the process. I use a homemade tofu press crafted by my father, draining and lightly pressing the curd for up to an hour before removing the block, wrapping it in a tea towel, and popping it in the fridge.

If I want a more firm tofu, I press it further using the usual techniques. I use fresh tofu fairly quickly, so I tend to skip the step of storing it in water in a closed container (but I will store it this way if it’s going to be around for a few days).

2. Silken tofu coagulated with nigari

This is tofu which hasn’t been pressed, and the nigari imparts a lovely sweet taste which makes it ideal for simple pudding dishes and in light soups.

3. Soy milk

I make my soy milk with approximately 1.5 litres (6 cups) of water per 190g (1 cup) of soy beans (dried weight), or a water to bean ratio of 6:1. This makes a very thick and creamy soy milk which yields more tofu with less liquid (for those who use a soyquick machine, that’s two lots of bean per one lot of water).

4. Dried soy beans

This is the base product, dried and waiting to be transformed into soy milk. Pre-soaked they’re quite small, but increase in size by about a third or half when soaked overnight. Once soaked, they are ground with water and strained. What comes out of the stainer is soy milk.

5. Fresh okara

What’s left behind in the straining process is okara, or soy pulp, a highly nutritious source of fibre which can be used in a whole range of dishes. If you look closely, you’ll see some whole soy beans in there, to give an idea of what they look like once soaked.

6. Dried okara

And finally I’m often left with heaping quantities of okara, hence I dry it in the oven so it keeps. It can be reconstituted later and/or added to baked goods.

For years I had no idea what a pot sticker dumpling was, assuming it was some sort of hip kids’ terminology for the reefer. Hell, it wasn’t until I found myself in Beijing one autumn day that I was made aware of the existence of a non British style dumpling or gyoza. In fact, I’d go as far as saying those few days in China’s capital city were the basis of what blossomed into a love affair with my disaster area laboratory kitchen.

This vegan potsticker filling is both simple and delicious, meat free and an ideal party food. The ingredients can be easily juggled to suit your own tastes (don’t like broccoli? Try celery and carrot).

As a child I was often exposed to the horror that is microwaved “baked” potatoes, a travesty which, in my opinion, is one to compete with that of the most audacious crimes in this world (like using apostrophe’s incorrectly- hello mister greengrocer). Har har.

It wasn’t until I moved to Britain that I realised it was possible to achieve restaurant style potatoes at home, baked spuds with crispy skins and a smooth and creamy centre. Microwaves may save time, but they make a potato taste like… err a microwaved potato to be precise. I’m a snob. I also don’t own a microwave.

So anyway, as a child I also loved to consume boxed twice baked potatoes. Layer the fact that I didn’t know real baked potatoes were possible on top of this tragic aspect of my youth and it makes sense why I didn’t realise until recent years that not only could you make your own oven baked potato, but that it’s also possible to make homemade twice baked potatoes! Life is miraculous and, yes, I’m American.

Recipe Notes

If you’re looking for an easy comfort food then twice baked potatoes should be an obvious maybe on your list of potential meals. Try this vegan version served with a nice salad or on their own (my general rule is one whole baked potato is an adequate meal). The yoghurt adds a creamy richness to the potatoes while the miso and sherry impart a very mild Eastern influence. Should you omit the latter ingredients, some extra salt may be worth chucking in (and maybe some extra yoghurt too).

Don’t feel limited to the ingredients I’ve chosen for this recipe. Try vegan yoghurt and fresh chives (for a mock sour cream and chives flavour), or your favourite fake cheddar with facon bits.

It’s time for a killer vegan breakfast treat.

I’ve been feeling a bit of a cold the past week, not to mention the fact that I’ve hit the inevitable monthly mark on the calendar where my stomach views the world as an all you can eat pig out. These things combined are treacherous (ask my partner, whose finger I nearly bit off on Saturday whilst trying to devour food between his fingers) because they both make me feel the need to eat. Okay, not just eat, but eat a whole lot of everything. Specifically this is a time when I crave a good vegan breakfast, but I also had some samosa skins I needed to use.

And I mean, come on, who hates a fry up? And who hates deep fried? Now imagine combining the two. For realz. Vegan breakfast in a deep fried parcel!

I’ve taken all the best bits of a vegan fry up (my favourite parts of a vegan breakfast anyway): mushrooms, scrambled tofu and facon, and mashed them together into a filling for a samosa. If you have different breakfast favourites, by all means use them instead. Vegan sausages crumbled, tempeh, spinach, you name it and I bet it’d be kick-arse in these samosas. The samosa skins in this recipe were bought, but you can also make your own samosa pastry if buying them pre-packaged isn’t an option.

It’s oyster, not meat!

Anyone who knows me can attest to my obsession with Southeast Asia, my own personal respite from the never-warm-enough climate of Greatish Britain. I’ve yet to visit the country as a practising vegan, but even the vegetarian diet seemed tricky during my travels. Very little dairy is used, so it wasn’t so much the typical “is there rennet in the cheese” issue as it was the argument that fish is not, in fact, vegetarian (which reminds me, there’s a word for that: pescetarian. Yes, that’s right. Vegetarians don’t eat fish).

I could only take so many arguments regarding the “fact” that oysters don’t count as meat, so I’d settle for simple pasta to avoid conflict and chance. My most recent visit, however, introduced me to some vegetarian-friendly establishments I’d yet to try previously. Thus began my love affair with the region’s cuisine, my constant attempt to get it right in my own kitchen. And honestly, making vegan Thai food isn’t difficult at all.

A sexist meal?

You wouldn’t be the first to question the title of this Thai dish, pondering the whereabouts of its female counterpart. “Down with this patriarchal snack,” you might say, but the seemingly most frequently told story speaks quite loudly for feminism (albeit slightly on the passive aggressive side if you ask me, which you probably didn’t). It goes something like this: A mother is disgusted with her son in law’s arsey behaviour and serves him these eggs as a metaphorical representation of what’s going to happen to his man vegetables if he doesn’t snap to it.

And with that, here’s the recipe.

I’m on a constant quest to find things to do with leftover okara as it’s something in which I’m usually swimming (so if you live near Crawley and ever want some, just give a shout). Here’s an easy and tasty recipe using okara for a vegan style omelette, a filling way to start off any day! Or end it. I’m all about the midnight snacks, you know.

Recipe Notes

I use okara which is left as a byproduct of making soy milk in my Soy Quick maker. First I allow the okara to cool and then I bundle it in thin muslin and squeeze and much milk out as possible, leaving me with a clump of broken down soybeans which is still just wet enough to stick together. I’m telling you this just so you have an idea of the liquid content of the okara before you set out making this yummy vegan omelette!

Try any filling ingredients that take your fancy, but the cheez and onion is a good combination. If you’ve got a cast iron skillet, I high recommend cooking the onions on that for nom factor.

A lot of people don’t understand how it’s the case that eggs were and are still my greatest craving during the process of giving up all animal products. Cheese? No, not really (and believe you me I was the biggest cheese fan on this dear planet). The flavour and texture I miss are bog standard hard boiled eggs, the main ingredient in the favourite finger food that is the deviled egg.

At family gatherings I would, as a child, scarf the deviled eggs like they were my only sustenance in weeks. It’s a party snack I’ve always loved, but in adulthood my increasingly underachieving social life has prevented me from an encounter. Only last week did I suddenly recall this food memory, and behold the result.

Recipe Notes

I used a batch of fresh, firm nigari tofu which I made myself, but firm-ish bean curd should do. As far as quantities are concerned, the ingredients and amounts listed below are to be viewed as more of a suggestion. Maybe you don’t have that much tofu or you want smaller pieces, or perhaps you just want to eat a chunk of curd with a squirt of the deviled filling.

Make a huge tray for vegan party food!

On the day I first made this, my husband arrived home for lunch to my question: would he eat a sandwich if I made it? I informed him it would be good but that I didn’t want to say what it was until he took a bite. I wanted to know if he’d be able to guess what I was mimicking without me having to say.

And upon that bite he was as impressed as I, asking “where’s my other sandwich?”

Picnic fodder, baby!

Recipe Notes

Welcome to the world of not too many ingredients. For that reason, I take the opinion that there’s not so much room to take away with this vegan egg mayo. The turmeric adds colour, the black salt an eggy flavour, the mustard a bit of a tang (okay if you must you could probably live without this ingredient). The tofu subs for the egg and the vegan mayo plays its usual role. By the way, I use Plamil vegan mayonnaise. It’s the best, at least here in the UK.

By all means, add things, just like I added chopped up dill pickle (about a tablespoon).

This tofu egg salad recipe makes only enough for a single sandwich, so get out your maths brain to calculate just how much you’ll need.