I’m on a bit of a roll with the Butler’s Soy Curls these days. After exhausting the supply Frankie so kindly gave me, I called/visited every place likely to carry them in Courtenay and Campbell River, but had no luck.

BUT I discovered that Vegan Supply in Vancouver sells the soy curls both in 227-gram packages (for $7.49) or in a 5.43 kg. box for $109.99 and $25 shipping (which works out to about $5.60/pkg, so quite a savings!).

Reader, I ordered them.

When the box arrived a couple of weeks ago, I was kind of shocked at the size, and wondering how we’d ever get through them all, but I’ve already put a nice dent in the box. And I’ve forced a few ziplock bagsful on our cooperative neighbour, Alec, and my darling niece, Dana, who was here for the night with her friend, CP, a couple of days ago.

And Em was here two weekends in a row, so I made a couple of soy curl dishes for her to try, including the following vegan “beef” chow mein, which is VERY quick and easy!

Vegan “Beef” Chow Mein

First, make the sauce by mixing together:

• 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 3 TBS sesame oil
• 1/2 cup vegan “beef” broth (use a half cup of the broth you used to reconstitute the soy curls)
• 1 TBS tapioca flour
• 1 TBS sugar

Set aside the sauce.

Saute in lightly oiled wok until nicely browned:

• 227 grams Butler’s soy curls, reconstituted for 30 minutes in 4 cups vegan “beef” broth (such as Better than Bouillon No Beef Base), then drained and squeezed out

Remove from wok and set aside.

Cook, drain, and set aside:

• 4 cakes of Lotus Foods brown-rice-and-millet ramen noodles (or 250 grams of your noodle of choice)

Saute in lightly oiled wok for a minute or two:

• 2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
• 3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, julienned
• 6 green onions, thinly sliced
• 2 finely chopped garlic cloves

Add noodles and soy curls to the wok and toss well.

Drizzle in sauce and mix for a minute or two until everything is heated through.

Serve topped with sliced green onions!

This is so delicious, satisfying, and very quick to make! And it’s even better if you serve it with some Vegan Sweet-and-Sour Chick’n!

And the song of the day is Joy Oladokun’s “Jordan.”