This video / recipe was recently shared in [email protected], and I thought it would be easy to make and extend my meals without having to go to the grocery store.

I tried out the recipe today using TVP as the meat substitute, and made some cornbread to go with it:

here's the recipe from the video description:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb pinto beans, soaked
• ½ pack MyBacon (mycelium bacon), diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 4–5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp granulated garlic
• 2 tsp granulated onion
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2 tsp No-Chicken Better Than Bouillon
• 8–10 cups water (for a brothy first day)
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Optional “pork” substitutes:

• Light Life tempeh bacon (diced),
• ½ block tofu (smoked tofu works great),
• soy curls (rehydrated, chopped, and roasted ahead).

Method

0. Soak Beans with boiling water for 1 – 2 hours.
1. Prep onions
2. Drain and rinse beans

In a separate pan, render the diced MyBacon until lightly crisp with added oil. Add onion and cook until softened, then stir in the garlic.

Add seasonings and cook briefly. Add the beans and bring to a slow boil, then simmer for 1 -2 hours until beans are tender. Stirring frequently. Season with salt and black pepper. -Brothy the first day, thickens naturally the next.

Top with nutritional yeast 🔥

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Ingredients I used and approximate cost:

• 200 g (~1 cup?) dry pinto beans, ~$0.75 (estimate based on what I paid for kidney beans; these were some beans I’ve stored in my pantry for a while, I don’t know what price I paid)
• 157 g (2 small) onions, normally ~$0.55 for this amount, but I found a deal and actually paid $0.07
• 25 g canola oil (I don’t have cost estimate for this, but oil is expensive)
• 13 g garlic, ~$0.14
• 79 g (~1 scant cup) dry TVP, (I don’t have cost estimate for this, but TVP is usually fairly cheap)

I would guess it’s less than $5 for the whole pot.

I don’t bother to measure lots of ingredients, so I don’t have a cost estimate for other things I threw in there to help it out:

• spices (like paprika)
• miso
• better-than-bouillon
• soy sauce
• mushroom seasoning powder
• MSG

It sorta tastes like it needs more veg, like maybe a can of diced tomatoes. It’s a lot like a chili in some ways, so I keep wanting to add tomatoes. I bet potato would be good in it too, if you wanted to make it more like a smoky potato & bean soup dish.

A bowl with a slice of cornbread & a dollop of vegenaise (for creaminess, instead of sour cream) came to under $2 and had these nutrients:

• 580 kcal
• 23 g fat
• 60 g carbs
• 23 g protein
• 1.8 g fiber