Meet the Ingredients - Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP)

If you've never worked with textured vegetable protein (TVP) you may be surprised by just how closely it resembles ground beef There really is no other food quite like it in the vegetarian world. In fact it is often used by thrifty moms and thriftier restaurants to extend meat and is the key ingredient in many vegetarian "meats" that are commercially available. However, making your own "meat" products is much cheaper than buying the convience products in the freezer section.

What is it you ask? TVP is a knobbly, dehydrated product made from reduced fat soy beans. It doesn't have much flavor on it's own, but absorbs the flavor of whatever liquids or spices you cook it with quite well. Nutritionally it is far superior to ground beef, containing no fat and about 80 calories per serving. When not used to excess, it can be a good choice for vegetarians because it is chock full of both dietary fiber, 4g per serving, and protein, 12g per serving.

You can find tvp in most grocery stores or health food stores, Bob's Red Mill being perhaps the most widely available nationwide. You can also buy it at Amazon. Go, Amazon.

To cook textured vegetable protein you must first rehydrate it. You can do this with plain ol' water but I recommend using this as the first opportunity to imbue your TVP with a bit of flavor. Vegetable broth works very well for most any application, and adding some appropriate seasonings always helps as well. I highly recommend adding just a little soy sauce, about 1 tablespoon per cup of TVP,  as well to give it that savory, complex flavor that vegetables don't normally provide. You can then use it to replace ground beef in just about any dish. Remember that unlike ground beef, which releases fat as it cooks TVP is fat free so you will need to add some fat to your recipe or to your pan to keep it from sticking.


If you season TVP well and treat it right, it can be your friend, especially if you are new to vegetarianism or trying to convince an unwilling family. Keep in mind that tvp is a processed food and like any other highly processed product, don't eat it every night. Mostly you should be eating whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts.