There isn’t too much to be said here. Ground meat, or ground fake meat in this case, is one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen. In the UK, they call it mince and it is the base for so many delicious recipes. It seems counter-productive to make mince out of already formed patties, but it works! It is far from Impossible!
It is especially effective when you’re working with patties that are frozen solid. Cooking them low and slow can help you get some real color on meat, as you can see in our picture! With meat at room temperature, you’ll typically get better browning by going into a scorching hot pan, but the extra water stored in the meat from the ice can really tamper with that.
Even though we got great color on our patty, since it was a frozen brick, the inside would still be “raw” and/or frozen solid. Instead of moving that pan into the oven, like we would with a typical meat patty at room temperature, we’re taking a turn to Taco Tuesday. Breaking up that thawing meat will allow us to get color everywhere, and dry the meat out a little, so we can get a little of texture on there. One of my biggest issues with fake meat products is creating the right texture. Many of our favorite products in this space are really hard to manipulate.
Once the ground meat is starting to brown across the whole pan, add your choice of dry seasonings. Since it was the Chinese New Year, I used: Cumin, Curry Powder, Ginger. I was going to use Chinese Five Spice, but it was way too expired. Remember, use salt throughout this whole cooking process. After those dry powders get a little toasty in a relatively dry pan, it is time to take the meat out and let it rest a bit. It is okay if the meat still has a little red or pink to it.
Now, in this pan, with the residual oil, fat, and flavor from the meat, sweat some onions. As you can see, I used longer slices. Let them become nearly translucent at a lower heat, then add your meat back. Add some wet seasoning to bring it all together, such as soy sauce, Mirin, and sesame oil. Again, those fit the Asian flavor profile we are trying to accomplish. If you want some heat, you could add some Sambal here.
Toast your tortillas, plate your rice and beans, and enjoy!
The kitchen smelled like really good chicken wings after this, for some reason. It tasted even better than we expected, although the meat could’ve used a little more crunch for texture. This was just as meaty as a ground beef taco, despite using only Impossible meat. Being creative in the kitchen is a great way to stay hungry and fit!
