Soy steaks with almond cream and field mushrooms

One of the ingredients that you get acquainted with when you go vegetarian is soy in all its nuances, such as the 'steaks'. Not inviting polystirol wizen sponges aspects and even less tempting taste of cork sawdust, nothing against the producers of soy. The good thing, is that you can disguise the typical taste,  annoying for many, so to make them a tasty alternative to meat.

Sauces, dippings, spices and delis can transform also the most sawdusty soy steaks in a delicious dish that tastes good also for the most meateater of the meateaters.

Now, be careful with sauces and dippings: when you start a vegetarian diet you also learn to count calories. Training is a good idea but controlling the calories is an even better one.

Lasagne, melanzane parmigiane, cereals and legumes soups, risotti and timbales are definetely tasty and balanced but cannot be considered low-calorie, so, at least for the everyday diet, a low-fats and low-calorie cuisine is advisable. The grilled tenderloin with fresh salad or carrots, the fish fillet baked or grilled sided with seasoned oranges, the tuna salad, perfect solution for so many lunches and dinners, especially when the bathroom scales needle was being nasty, are a sweet memory quite difficult to replace. 

To obtain the same proteine, minerals and vitamines intake of one of these dishes it is vital to combine many nutritious, and trying to avoid cooking with a quantity of calories that would fade the number of calories of a decadent chocolate cake. 

Once tested the pizzaiola soy steaks we can start elaborating something new, just for a change. For instance steaks with white wine, cream and mushrooms. Wait a moment, there's something wrong.. the cream, the wine and the soffritto will add to the not-low-calorie steaks a quantity of calories that could turn nervous the needle of the bathroom scale sneery smirking at the dinstance between the ideal and the actual weight after having tasted this course, eventually with a glass of good wine or a sparkling soft drink for non drinkers, and preceding it with a good truffle risotto and a good slice of pie.

Easier to eat the whole decadent chocolate cake with whipped cream and buttery icing....

Or dripping calories.  

Avoid the soffritto with butter and oil, lightly warm the extra virgin PDO olive oil with a bit of chilli, mutuate the cream with the salty almond cream that can be bought in some organic shops, skip the risotto and for the pie, if we really cannot do without, try to keep it warm till merenda time and meanwhile get a slice of white mellon with drops of lemon and fresh mint leaves. Not to say to avoid as much as possible alcohol and sparkling soft drinks, using mainly hot or cold herbal teas, infusions and natural mineral water.

Dehydrated soy steaks

Extra virgin PDO olive oil
Cuisine chef almond cooking cream

White wine (Falanghina)
Salt
Field mushrooms
Chilli
RInd of Seville orange
Crumbs of almonds, haelnuts, walnuts
Vegetables cooking water or vegetable broth to rehydrate the steaks

Soften the steaks in a big pot with the water used for cooking vegetables, vegetable broth or salted and spiced warm water, for the time needed, one to three hours, with the consistence of a wet not hard make-up removal sponge, easy to chop, On the boxes they often say to boil them for 20', not a good idea, dry inside and overdone externally. Squeeze and chop in 3cm cubes, warm the oil with the Seville orange rinds and chilli, depending on taste, but remembering that soy easily picks the spicy flavour. Quickly saute, add wine, about a glass, and evaporate the aclohol, add the mushrooms previously cleaned, sliced, ,salted, lower the heat. Cook at low heat for the cooking time of field mushrooms, add the almond cream and the same quantity of water when in the pan there's still the natural sauce of the mushrooms, sprinkle with Seville orange rinds, crumbs of almond, hazelnuts, walnuts, garnish with flowers of sage and little clouds of marmelade.

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