That looks delicious. How did you get the soy to turn out like that? I usually boil mine - in the same water as I use for noodles, served up with some crispy fried veggies - and while I do like the taste, they are just the most beige food. I find them far too chewy if I don’t boil them, though.
If you can get fine textured soy (a.k.a “soy chunks”/“soy meat”) for cheap where you are, it’s easy enough to make balls similar to this.
Soak chunks in hot water for 20-30 minutes (they need to be really soft), squeeze out water with your hands. Add spices to taste, mix in wheat flour and potato starch (I don’t know the exact ratio, but there should be more flour than starch) until it gets to a consistency where you can roll it up into a ball. Deep-fry in some oil. Add tomato sauce and simmer until it thickens. Serve on pasta.
Nice! Yes, that sounds good - I’ll give it a go.
Oh, I forgot to mention once thing: the chunks need to be fine (<5 mm diameter). I usually buy bigger chunks, use them up in other dishes, and at the end there’s a bunch of what I call “soy sand” which I use for these “meatballs”.
The soy balls are a supermarket brand, I just fried them a bit. Didn’t make them on my own.
Ah, fair enough. We normally get them dehydrated in packets here. They obviously keep amazingly well - years and years in the cupboard - but I’ve not yet found quite the right way to make them so appetizing.
I also get the dehydrated ones sometimes. I just boil them and then fry them a bit. They’re chewier and less dense than the soy balls I had here, and they keep more water, like a sponge. But they’re also very good with some spices.
