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The current movement for healthy eating has led many to be sparing in their meat consumption. But for a meat lover, days or weeks without beef or pork in his diet is unthinkable. What will happen to kiddie parties without Filipino-style spaghetti or to the many family celebrations without the common favorite menudo?

With soy-based fake meat or simply soy meat, however, there’s no need to miss out on the familiar and delicious flavor of these dishes.

Soy meat is not really a new product in the food industry. In fact, a lot of processed meat products in the market, like hotdog and meat loaf, have been using soy meat for a long time now, says Esperanza Garcia, nutritionist and trainer at the Ultima Entrepinoy Forum Center in Quezon City.

Being a by-product of the extraction of soybean oil from soy flour, soy meat is low in fat and rich in protein and fiber. And dried soy meat can be cooked just like meat, but it needs to be briefly soaked or boiled and cut into pieces as desired.

If properly seasoned, it could actually replace meat in many dishes like kare-kare, afritada, siomai, barbecue, siopao filling, and a lot more. It makes the dish healthier and more cost-effective as well.

For this project, we will make menudo using soy meat. The use of soy meat for this dish cuts cooking time significantly.

Ingredients

• 200 g soy meat (Magic Meat), P60
• 6 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup (60ml) cooking oil, P5
• 3 tablespoons (22.6g) minced garlic, P3
• 2 bulbs chopped white onions, P5
• 70 g tomato paste, P7 (P20 per 200g)
• 250 ml tomato sauce, P16.5

• 2 tablespoons (30ml) Worcestershire sauce,          
• 1/4 cup (50.3g) brown sugar, P1.50
    (P29 per kg)
• 1 tablespoon (12g) white sugar, P0.50
    (P35 per kg)
• 1 tablespoon (15g) iodized salt, P0.50
    (P16 per 1/2 kg)
• 1 teaspoon (5g) ground black pepper, P3.5            
   (P34 per 50g)
• 1 teaspoon (2.8g) whole black pepper
• 1 can liver spread, P14 per 85g-can
• 2 pcs bay leaves, P1
• 1 pc red bell pepper, cut into strips, P10
• 1 pc green bell pepper, cut into strips, P10
• 3 pcs (0.5kg) potatoes, medium-sized diced, P32 per 1/2 kg
• 1/2 cup (151.4g) raisins, P19.70 (P13 per 100g)
• 1/2 teaspoon meaty ginisa oil, P5
• 1 tablespoon (7.5g) Savory mix, P2
    

1. Boil 200 grams of soy meat in six cups of water for 10 minutes, and then cut it into desired sizes. Drain and set aside.

2. Preheat cooking oil in the frying pan. Sauté the garlic and white onion, and add the soy meat. Add the following as well: crushed bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, savory mix, ground pepper, white sugar, brown sugar, iodized salt, whole pepper, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and half of the green and red bell pepper. Mix.

3. Pour 1/2 cup of water and simmer for five to 10 minutes. Mix in the liver spread, potatoes, and meaty ginisa oil. For vegetarians, liver spread can be removed from the recipe and replaced with available vegetarian seasoning. Simmer again for a few minutes. Serve hot.

Cooking time for this dish is more or less 30 minutes. The yield is eight servings.

Tips:

To compute the cost per serving, get the price of each of the ingredients that you have consumed by dividing its retail price of each of the ingredients that you have consumed by dividing its retail price with the volume or number of pieces used. Add up all the costs per ingredient, then divide the sum by the number of yield. You should get about P211.20. Divide this number by the number of servings to get the cost per serving-which would be P26.40.

If you are planning to sell the dish, you may add a 50 to 80 percent margin to cover your overhead costs and profit. To do that, multiply the cost per serving by 50 to 80 percent and add that to the cost per serving. This will give you your serving price of P40 to P50.

Besides being a substitute for meat, soy meat can also be used as extenders fir meat-based dishes like hamburger and siomai. If you have a canteen or a small eatery, you may also use soy meat as a healthy extender for your dish.

Where to train and look for supplies:

ULTIMA ENTREPINOY FORUM CENTER
107 E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave., Quezon City
Telephones: (02) 411.1349; (02) 742.0826