Adventures with Soyrizo

Well over a decade ago I met David.  Great guy and happily part of the family since marrying my cousin, Rachel.  I'll never forget the time the cousins were all hanging out together and David gets on a roll talking about vegetarian alternatives to things normally meat like hot dogs, bacon, and chicken nuggets.  I had never heard of such things as "Tofu Pups" and "Not dogs"!  He had me in tears.



So when C and I decided to eat vegetarian Monday through Thursday we both stayed away from the wanna-be-meat stuff.  I'll admit we have used the protein crumbles in spaghetti sauce on occasion but otherwise only straight up tofu, beans, quinoa, eggs and lentils for the main protein sources.

We started this whole partial vegetarian thing last November which is amazing to think about.  We don't beat ourselves up about it.  Say we're out to dinner - if there isn't an appealing veggie option that's ok.  Let's face it the veggie option is often a Boca burger (hello lazy/lame afterthought) or a sandwich with three kinds of cheese, guac, sour cream, and a leaf of lettuce or pasta with Alfredo sauce.  Tasty perhaps but not the healthiest. Kind of annoying really.  Now, I like me a juicy burger.  I'm not knocking meat.  I'm just saying is it that hard to come up with ONE creative and healthy vegetarian option for a menu among a couple dozen other meat options?  Oh and I don't mean salad.  Just saying...

I digress... Well, with it being grilling season we've been slipping on our meatless weekdays like you wouldn't believe.  oops.  Following our trip to Chicago I am rejuvenated to get back into it!  I follow other blogs and keep seeing soyrizo show up.  I immediately thought of cousin David and his Not Dogs and laughed as I picked up a package.

One night last week I made scrambled eggs and then crumbled up the soyrizo and sauteed it with diced onion, crushed garlic, and frozen corn.  We made breakfast burritos!  Verdict?  Pretty tasty if you like chorizo.  The brand I purchased as seen in photo above tasted surprisingly like the real thing.  It occurred to me that I'm not a huge chorizo fan but I did like it.  So I'll probably cook with it a little more than I have cooked with chorizo in the past but not every week.

Sorry for lack of pictures... I'm outta practice!  

Eggs and Soyrizo Burritos

6 eggs
salt
1 tbsp milk
2 links soyrizo out of casing and crumbled
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves garlic crushed
grated cheese
tortillas
*Whatever additional burrito toppings you like, say salsa, tomatoes, avocado.

Crack eggs in bowl, add milk, and couple shakes of salt and scamble.  Preheat nonstick pan over medium heat, spray with nonstick cooking spray.  When hot add onions and saute a couple minutes.  Add garlic and corn and stir until fragrant.  Add soyrizo crumbles and saute several minutes until heated through.  Remove from pan to a bowl.  If you have kids or family members that don't like spicy stuff probably wash pan before next step.

Return pan to heat and add more cooking spray.  When hot add scrambled eggs. Cook, stirring constantly, until desired level on doneness.   Put eggs in a bowl.  Everyone can make their own burritos by layering eggs, soyrizo, and other toppings as they please.  We wanted hash browns but were out of potatoes.  Instead we made tater tots and sweet potato fries.  It works.