Vegan Szechuan “Beef” Stir Fry
Servings: 4
This stir fry has the perfect balance of great replacement beef texture, spicy and sweet sauce, and crunchy veggies. It definitely takes some effort but check the recipe notes for ways to simply the dish if you're just looking for a great Szechuan stir fry. If you are planning to make the "chickwheat" beef, note you'll need an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, a blender, and a pretty powerful food processor (or standing mixer with a dough hook).
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Equipment
- Instant Pot or pressure cooker
- Food processor
Ingredients
Chickwheat Loaf, Modified from Avocados and Ales
- 2 cups canned chickpeas (300g)
- 1 cup aquafava (225ml) Aquafava is the liquid out of the can of chickpeas. You can sub vegetable stock instead.
- 2 tbls vegetable oil
- 2 tbls miso paste I used a yellow miso paste, but any light variation will do
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbls onion powder
- 1 tbls garlic powder
- 1 tbls poultry seasoning If you don't have any premade available, you can make your own with 2 teaspoons ground dried sage. 1 ½ teaspoons ground dried thyme, 1 teaspoon ground dried marjoram, ¾ teaspoon ground dried rosemary. ½ teaspoon black pepper, and a good pinch of nutmeg.
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten (255g)
Stir Fry Sauce
- 3 tbls rice vinegar
- 2 tbls rice wine If you don't have any available, you can use a dry white sherry, a white wine, or more rice vinegar
- 1 tbls light soy sauce
- 1 tbls dark soy sauce This is available in specialty Asian markets and has a much richer, saltier taste but if you can't find it, it's fine to replace with more of the light soy sauce
- 1 tbls chili "crunch" oil This condiment is amazing and great on its own over vegetables, tofu, noodles… anything really! I like
this Chili Crunch Oil - 1 tbls sriracha sauce
- 1/2 cup mushroom or vegetable stock (120ml) The mushroom stock gives a meatier flavor but vegetable stock is fine
- 3 tbls sugar
- 1 tbls cornstarch
- 2 tsp ground Szechuan peppercorns optional, but really makes a huge difference in giving that numbing, Szechuan flavor. Reduce to 1 tsp if you're worried about heat.
Stir Fry
- 3 tbls
Just Egg vegan egg substitute IfJust Egg is available in your area, it definitely makes a difference in this dish. I haven't tried other vegan egg replacements so they may work as well – you want something quite rich and thick. I would not recommend trying a flax egg replacement as that will leave a grainy texture. If you don't have an egg replacement, you can just use 3 tbls plant based milk of your choice. - 1 tbls vegetable oil For the vegan beef marinate
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil For frying – I use about 1-2 tbls at a time and see if I need more
- 1/2 white or yellow onion Sliced into thin strips
- 2 bell peppers Sliced into thin strips
- 4 dried chili peppers Optional
- 1 tbls garlic Minced
- 1 tbls fresh ginger Grated on a microplane or chopped very fine
- seasame seeds and sliced scallions For garnish
Instructions
Make the Chickwheat Loaf
- Combine all of the ingredients in the chickwheat loaf except the vital wheat gluten and blend using a high speed blender until completely combined. It will be the consistency of a medium-thick batter.
- Pour the mixture into a bowl, being sure to scrape out the inside of the blender cup, and add the vital wheat gluten. Stir to combine, then use your hands to kneed the dough for ~2 minutes to fully combine. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes for the gluten to absorb.
- Take half of the chickwheat dough and put it in the bowl of your food processor and process for about 5-8 minutes. If you don't have a food processor, you can use the dough hook of a standing mixer but you won't get quite the same texture. You can't replace this with hand-kneeding – it won't get the same texture at all. While the dough is in the food processor or mixer, it will become very stretchy and stringy – you'll know it's almost ready when you see little 'strings' of the dough sticking to the sides of the food processor bowl. If your food processor is anything like mine, it will get quite hot, and because the dough gets so sticky, it will take a few minutes to scoop all of the dough out. Clear out your food processor, clean off the blade, then repeat with the second half of the dough (the only reason not to do them both together is it will be too much resistance and burn out most home food processors).
- Once you've fully processed both halves of the chickwheat dough, kneed them back together and pat into a roughly rectangular shape. Wrap the square very tightly in tin foil – I recommend using 4 or 5 layers. This will create additional pressure and texture when you cook it in the next step.
- Add two cups of water to your Instant Pot, or enough to cover the base but not reach the bottom of a trivet or stand. Place the foil-wrapped chickwheat dough on the trivet, then seal the Instant Pot.
- Set the pressure cooker on manual and cook for 120 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure, and remove the chickwheat loaf. The foil may have split as the loaf expanded – don't worry, it will still be fine. Let the loaf cool, then remove the foil. Once it's fully cooled to room temperature, you can use it immediately in the stir fry, or put it in the fridge for up to 3 days. It makes enough to use in other recipes as well, so be sure to save the leftovers and check out other meals using chickwheat.
Make the Stir Fry
- In a large bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients of the stir fry sauce and set aside.
- Now, in a separate bowl, whisk together the Just Egg (or vegan milk if substituting), 1 tbls vegetable oil and salt. Then take 1/2 of the chickwheat loaf, and slice into 1/4 inch thick strips. Cut these strips in half width-wise to make them about half the size of your palm. They can (and should) be fairly irregular. These are your 'beef' strips so feel free to slice as you prefer. Add the sliced chickwheat loaf to the Just Egg, oil, and salt mix and toss to coat. Then add the 1/3 cup cornstarch and toss again. Use a spoon or your hands to make sure every strip has a bit of coating – it will be uneven which is fine, that helps give more texture.
- Heat some of the remaining oil (~2 tbls) in a fry pan, then add the coated chickwheat strips to the pan – try and avoid them touching if you can. You will likely have to cook in multiple batches. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side on medium heat. When they start to get a dark color, remove the strips and place on a plate or drying rack if you want to remove the excess oil.
- Once the chickwheat strips are all cooked, wipe out the pan and add another 1-2 tbls of the oil and add the onions, bell peppers, and dried chili. Cook for ~5 minutes until they are just starting to soften and get some color.
- Add the minced garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant, only a minute or two.
- Take the bowl of stir fry sauce, and give it a whisk just to make sure the cornstarch is fully combined. Then pour it over the vegetables in the fry pan and let it cook until it has thickened slightly, and the vegetables are soft, another ~5-8 minutes.
- Finally, add the chickwheat strips back into the pan and let them warm up and get coated in the sauce.
- Serve the stir fry over jasmine rice and garnish with the sesame seeds and sliced scallions
Notes
Alternative to Chickwheat Loaf:
This meal was a huge hit in our house and really captured the textures and flavors of a take-out beef stir fry. However the making the chickwheat loaf for the perfect beef strip texture is definitely a heavy lift and requires a fair amount of specialized kitchen equipment. If you want a ‘close enough’ alternative to the chickwheat, you can get store-bought textured vegetable protein which you can use as a replacement. Use ~1 cup of the TVP and rehydrate by placing in a bowl with 1.5 cups of boiling water for ~10 minutes. Then simply drain the water you used to rehydrate the TPV and add into the recipe at the end where you would otherwise add in the cooked chickwheat strips. This makes the recipe much more managable for a weeknight or quick meal, especially if what you really want is the Szechuan sauce flavor.
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