Vegan Filipino-Style “Pork” Barbecue

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Barbecue is a very big part of Filipino cuisine and can be found in pretty much all Filipino restaurants. This version I made is of course vegan and I used soy meat chunks in replacement of the meat that’s traditionally used. These Vegan Filipino-Style “Pork” Barbecue skewers are soy meat chunks marinated in a sweet, tangy, and savoury sauce before being cooked to a light char and served with garlic turmeric rice.

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Marinate Time 1

Total Time 1 45

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian, Filipino, Pinoy

Servings skewers

Calories 123 kcal

Equipment

5 8-inch bamboo skewers, you’ll need more or less depending on the length of yours
Grill or griddle pan
Silicon brush

Ingredients

“Pork”

120 g dry soy chunks or soy meat , makes around 500g rehydrated

Marinade

3 tbsp soy sauce see notes
3.5 tbsp lemon juice or calamansi juice
1/4 cup tomato ketchup or banana ketchup (hello, Filipino friends!)
2 tbsp coconut sugar or other sugar to sweeten
1 tsp minced garlic or garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground pepper

For Cooking

Neutral oil
Remaining marinade

Vinegar for Dipping

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar adjust according to desired sweetness
1/2 small red onion diced
1 bird’s eye chili chopped (optional)

To Serve

Garlic Turmeric Rice see recipe here (or with plain rice)
Atsara/atchara (Filipino pickled papaya)
Vinegar for dipping recipe above
Bird's eye chili

Instructions

“Pork” and Marinade

You can check out the video below to see how these are made!
Place the dry soy meat or chunks in a large heat proof bowl. Pour in boiling hot water and then cover the bowl with a heat proof lid or larger plate. Leave the chunks to soak for 20 to 25 minutes or until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, prepare the marinade by mixing everything together. You can mix this directly in the large air-tight container or tupperware you'll use to store the soy chunks.
Once the soy chunks are rehydrated, leave these to cool for a few minutes and then carefull squeeze out the excess liquid with your hands. Transfer the soy chunks into the marinade.
Repeat this for the rest of the soy chunks until you have all pieces in the marinade. Mix the soy chunks well in the marinade.
Cover the container and then leave to refrigerate overnight for the best flavour. You can opt to leave this to marinate for even longer but note that the barbecue can turn out saltier because it’ll continue to absorb the sauce, so I recommend starting with 2 tbsp soy sauce if leaving to marinate for longer than a day.

Preparing the Skewers

Soak the bamboo skewers in a deep plate or tray with some water for at least 15 minutes. This is to prevent the sticks from burning when cooking.
Get a skewer and then pierce a piece of soy meat/chunk into the stick before moving down, leaving at least 1” (2.5 cm) part of the stick exposed that you can hold on to. Repeat this until you’ve filled up the skewer.
Repeat this for the rest until you’ve filled the skewers. Note that you may need more or less skewers depending on the length of each stick you have.
Don’t discard the excess marinade because we’ll be brushing this on the skewers when cooking.

For Cooking

Heat your griddle pan over high heat or prepare your grill. If using a griddle pan, brush some oil on the pan.
Once hot, add in the skewers. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on high heat until lightly charred, then turn around to cook the remaining side.
While cooking, brush the remaining marinade on the skewers. The barbecue will continue to absorb the sauce for more flavour!
Once all the sides are lightly charred and browned, remove the barbecue from the grill/pan.
There can be small pieces of the soy chunks that will fall out of the bigger chunks. I simply gathered these and mixed the small bits into the garlic turmeric rice I cooked afterwards.

To Serve

Prepare the vinegar dipping by mixing everything into a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved.
Serve the barbecue with the turmeric rice or plain rice, vinegar, atchara (if using), calamansi (if using), and extra chili (if using). Enjoy ◡̈

WATCH Video

https://youtu.be/tbbnSQagKLg

Notes

Marinade — You can opt to leave the barbecue to marinate for even longer than 1 day but note that the barbecue can turn out saltier because it’ll continue to absorb the sauce. I recommend using 2.5 tbsp soy sauce if leaving to marinate for longer than a day.

SOY CHUNKS/PLANT-BASED MEAT SUB

Here’s the exact soy meat I used! PS. Link is not an affiliate link. I purchased these from Shopee and can be shipped in the Philippines.

For my US-based friends, here are similar meat substitutes that you can find on Amazon:

(these are affiliate links)

Soy chunks

Vegan meat substitute

NUTRITIONAL INFO

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