This Vegan Chinese-Style “Meat” Sauce is one of those hearty dishes packed full of flavour that you can prepare in advance and serve over your choice or rice or noodles for a delicious meal.
The sauce itself is packed with “meaty” TVP or texturised vegetable protein (but you can use other substitutes), and a mix of vegetables for the delicious bite. I personally love this on both rice and noodles for either a hearty rice topping or a delicious saucy bowl of noodles.
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS “MEAT” SAUCE
This recipe’s heavily influenced by Lu Rou Fan or Taiwanese braised pork. I’m reminded of the vegan braised “pork” over rice I had back in Taipei a few weeks before the pandemic began. It was a small street-side family-run vegetarian restaurant. Below is a photo of that dish. It was so simple but so tasty, and perfect served with rice.
I wanted to incorporate some chopped veggies into this meat sauce to add that extra bite and also get some of those vegetables in! It’s a very customisable recipe and you can even add mushrooms for extra umami.
TWO WAYS TO ENJOY THIS CHINESE-STYLE MEAT SAUCE
- Over rice for a hearty rice topping
- With cooked noodles (and even pasta!)
It’s really your pick on how you want to enjoy yours but I enjoyed mine with both. This recipe makes 5-6 servings and you can easily have the first few servings with rice, and the rest with noodles. Totally your call!
Aaand over noodles then mixed through!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE “MEAT” SAUCE
Protein and Vegetables
- dry TVP, plant based ground, or mushrooms (see recipe notes)
- red bell pepper
- green bell pepper
- white onion
- garlic
- ginger
- carrot
- green beans
Spice Mix/Seasoning
- salt to taste
- Szechuan pepper powder, I simply crushed whole peppercorns
- Chinese five spice powder
Sauce
- soy sauce
- hoisin sauce
- sugar
- Shaoxing wine or other rice wine
- dark soy sauce
- Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar
- hot sauce or chili sauce, optional for spice
Broth
Corn Starch Slurry
- corn starch
- room temperature water
The full recipe is in the card below!
NOODLES OR RICE (TOTALL YOUR CHOICE!)
For the noodles, I simply boiled instant ramen (those without sauce packets of course!) until still very chewy and then ran these through cold water to wash off any starch and also stop it from cooking.
HOW TO COOK THE CHINESE MEAT SAUCE
- Place the TVP or texturised vegetable protein in a large heat proof bowl. Pour boiling hot water and allow to rehydrate for 5-10 minutes until doubled in size. Run through some water and squeeze out any excess liquid. Set aside.
- Prepare the vegetables of stir-frying. You can also include any other vegetables of choice and just finely dice/mince them as well.
- For the sauce, simply mix everything together. Fee free to adjust to your taste!
- If you’re planning to cook down noodles, you can cook it before preparing the sauce. I recommend to slightly undercook the noodles so they stay nice and chewy. Running the noodles through water after cooking can also help stop its cooking and wash off any starch.
- Heat a large pan or wok over medium heat. Once hot, add some neutral oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, ginger, and vegetables until half cooked. Do note that you’ll need to cook the carrots a bit longer until tender. Add in the spices, salt and adjust to your taste.
- Add in the rehydrated TVP or protein of choice.
- Pour in the sauce mix. Mix to coat well. Pour in the vegetable broth. Leave over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
- Meanwhile, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl until you have a slurry.
- Lower the heat of the sauce. While mixing, pour in the slurry. Continue to mix until the sauce starts to thicken form the corn starch.
SERVE AND ENJOY
- Taste the sauce and feel free to season with more soy sauce, sugar, chili sauce if desired.
- Scoop over cooked rice or noodles. Mix and enjoy!
OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT LOVE:
- Ginger and Scallion Noodles
- Saucy Ramen Noodles
- Crispy Wontons
- Savoury Sticky Rice
- Chinese Green Bean and Mushroom Stir-Fry
- Vegetable Dumplings
- Chinese Chive Pies
- Pan-Fried Cabbage and Noodle Buns
- Wontons in Chili Broth
- Scallion and Sesame Buns
Chinese-Style “Meat” Sauce (Vegan Recipe)
This Vegan Chinese-Style “Meat” Sauce is one of those hearty dishes packed full of flavour that you can prepare in advance and serve over your choice or rice or noodles for a delicious meal. The sauce itself is packed with “meaty” TVP or texturised vegetable protein (but you can use other substitutes), and a mix of vegetables for the delicious bite. I personally love this on both rice and noodles for either a hearty rice topping or a delicious saucy bowl of noodles.
Ingredients
Protein and Veg (see notes for other sub)
- 1.5 cups dry TVP (see notes for sub)
- 1 small red bell pepper diced into small pieces
- 1 small green bell pepper diced into small pieces
- 1/2 medium white onion diced into small pieces
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 small carrot peeled and diced into small pieces
- 3.5 oz french or green beans sliced into small pieces
Spice Mix/Seasoning
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp Szechuan pepper powder , I simply crushed whole peppercorns (optional)
- 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder see notes
Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce or more to taste
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar or more to taste
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or other rice wine, optional
- 2-3 tbsp dark mushroom soy sauce optional for colour (see notes)
- 1-2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp hot sauce or chili sauce , optional for spice (see my homemade chili garlic sauce)
Broth
- 1.5 to 2 cups vegetable broth , see notes
Corn Starch Slurry
- 2.5 tbsp corn starch , see notes
- 5 tbsp room temperature water , see notes
For cooking
For Serving
- 5 servings cooked rice or noodles
- Sesame seeds for topping
Instructions
- Place the TVP or texturised vegetable protein in a large heat proof bowl. Pour boiling hot water and allow to rehydrate for 5-10 minutes until doubled in size. Run through some water and squeeze out any excess liquid. Set aside.
- Prepare the vegetables of stir-frying. You can also include any other vegetables of choice and just finely dice/mince them as well.
- For the sauce, simply mix everything together. Fee free to adjust to your taste!
- If you’re planning to cook down noodles, you can cook it before preparing the sauce. I recommend to slightly undercook the noodles so they stay nice and chewy. Running the noodles through water after cooking can also help stop its cooking and wash off any starch.
- Heat a large pan or wok over medium heat. Once hot, add some neutral oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, ginger, and vegetables until half cooked. Do note that you’ll need to cook the carrots a bit longer until tender. Add in the spices, salt and adjust to your taste.
- Add in the rehydrated TVP or protein of choice.
- Pour in the sauce mix. Mix to coat well. Pour in 1.5 cups of vegetable broth. Leave over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
- Meanwhile, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl until you have a slurry.
- Lower the heat of the sauce. While mixing, pour in the slurry. Continue to mix until the sauce starts to thicken form the corn starch.
- Taste the sauce and feel free to season with more soy sauce, sugar, chili sauce if desired. If you want the sauce a bit runnier, you can slowly add more broth and mix well. From there, you can see if it's reached your desired consistency.
- Scoop over cooked rice or noodles. Mix and enjoy!
Notes
Protein, Veg, and TVP
- You can also use extra firm tofu and crumble this and cooked it down until it starts to resemble ground “meat”. Another great alternative is finely diced/minced mushrooms!
You can also use plant-based ground meat alternatives like those from Beyond Meat, Lightlife Foods, etc. - DO NOTE that most of these brands have seasoned plant-based ground meat. If this is the case, you can skip the salt from the spice mix first and just adjust to taste as you cook.
Corn Starch Slurry and Broth
- You can start with 1.5 cups of the broth. If you want the sauce a bit runnier, you can slowly add more broth and mix well. From there, you can see if it’s reached your desired consistency.
- On the other hand, if using 2 cups broth and you want the sauce even thicker, you can add more slurry by mixing together 1 tsp corn starch + 2 tsp water.
- Do note that the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
Dark Mushroom Soy Sauce
- This adds the rich caramel colour but isn’t actually salty. It does add a hint of umami which is nice for the sauce. If not using this, you can add a bit more soy sauce if needed, to taste.
NUTRITIONAL INFO
Serving: 1serving (just sauce) | Calories: 133kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 1713mg | Potassium: 63mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 203IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 4mg
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This Post Has 13 Comments
Could you replace the ‘meat like ingredient’ in this recipe with split lentils?
Yes that’d be good too! ◡̈
It was delicious and easy to make. Just wondering if leftovers can be frozen
Yes you can freeze the sauce! I recommend to just cook a fresh batch of rice/noodles for the sauce when you reheat it in a pot/pan. Since rice and noodles don’t freeze well. Hope this helps!
It was super easy to make and very good ! Thanks for the recipe Jeeca 🙂
Thanks for a very good recipe! I followed the directions almost exactly, except that I added 2 cups finely chopped mushrooms and reduced the dry TVP to one cup. When I make this again I would also reduce the amount of vegetable broth very slightly, to 1.5 cups because it was still a little too soupy even after the cornstarch slurry and being cooked down. Also would not add any salt at all as even the low sodium soy sauce has plenty.
The mushrooms might’ve released more liquid so the 2 cups of broth was a bit too much. Will leave a note for that. Thanks so much for the feedback, appreciate it ◡̈
Hi, are the notes incomplete? It looks great.
Hi Sam, I realised i didn’t get to add the notes on the dark soy sauce so I just edited it. If there’s anything else you need to clarify that I missed, please let me know! ◡̈
Hi and thanks a lot for this great recipe. I tried this last weekend and it was done quick and easy. And it was delicious! First day I served it with rice, second day with noodles. It was so good that this recipe went straight to my favorite list 🙂
Hi Sandra, i’m so happy you liked it! Thanks so much for giving it a try and leaving this review. Means a lot ◡̈
Absolutely delicious! Another great recipe, thank you Jeeca 🙂
Thanks Celina, hope you enjoyed it!! ◡̈