Vegan Luncheon Slice (Smoked T@rkey Style)

This is a good simple recipe to make a filling for the humble sandwich. Our kids mostly take a sandwich to school for lunch, pretty common in Australia although maybe less so these days.

There are plant based luncheon meats, sliced and packaged available from the major supermarkets. They are similar in style to the humble ‘devon’ that a lot of us grew up eating on sandwiches (maybe equivalent to polony, Parisian sausage/parizer and bologna). These cheap meat like products (that didn’t really have a lot of meat in them) was a simple cheap staple to chuck in a sandwich.

The plant based versions available however are anything but cheap, some running at $77/kg which is easy to overlook at only $6-7 per packet but the packet is only 100g. That is not cheap and given there are more and more people struggling with the cost of living it is good to have an alternative.

This recipe is a combination of the recipe from Sam at It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken and Sarah from Sarah’s Vegan Kitchen and is a great alternative and cheap too. This made nearly 750g of roll to slice. At $6 for a block of tofu, some gluten flour and other herbs and spices it cost about $7 and under and hour of time it is well worth it.

T@RKEY SLICE RECIPE

Slice Ingredients

• 1 block (500g) of Hard Tofu
• 1 tsp of Liquid Smoke
• 3 tbsp Soy Sauce or tamari
• 1 tbsp Water
• 2 tbsp Corn Starch
• 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
• 2 tsp Garlic Gowder
• 2 tsp Onion Powder
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 Cups Gluten Flour / Vital Wheat Gluten

Ingredient Notes

• Firm Tofu – This is the hardest tofu you generally get. If you have a firm tofu, leave out the extra water and you might need to add 2-3 tbsp more Gluten Flour to stiffen the dough up

METHOD

Making the Slice

1. Place all ingredients except the Gluten Flour into a high speed blender. Start it on low if your tofu is in large chunks to gently break them up and increase to a higher speed.
2. When everything else is combined add in the Gluten Flour. Everything should combine to provide an even coloured dough that is quite solid.
3. Don’t overwork this or you will develop the Gluten and make it chewy.
4. Drop the dough onto the bench and plump, roll and pat the dough into a loaf shape like a roll of stuff you can get from the deli.
5. Wrap this in aluminium foil and twist the ends. You can double wrap it to keep it secure. This is to constrict the roll and stop it expanding.
6. Place the roll in a steamer basket over boiling water and steam for 1 hour. Make sure to check your water level every now and then to make sure the steamer pot doesn’t go dry.
7. After an hour and when the internal temp is above 71deg C let the roll cool down naturally. Leave it in the foil for an hour or so until it cools quite a bit ad then unwrap it as it will be sweaty in there.
8. When cooled to room temperature it can be sliced. You can leave it overnight in the fridge and slice it the next day. Wrap it up or it is going to get a dry crust on the outside so wrapping it in plastic warp will keep some moisture in.

NOTES

1. It will come out quite dense like an extruded sandwich meat. If you don’t constrain the roll it will puff up and expand.