Gardein Guisao Home Style Beefless Tip Recipe

As part of VegLatino’s commitment to participate in #SabrosoSaturday, here is our next contribution to the series of vegetarian recipes. We tested out a product made by @Gardein called the Home Style Beefless tip. The product resembled pieces of beef and I thought how could we make a dish inspired by Puerto Rican cuisine. A guisao is a stew of vegetables and protein. For this vegetarian recipe, I decided that the beefless tips would be a good fit. I asked for help on the recipe with our group on Facebook and received help from Ana Sellas.

I also called my mom to hear about the ingredients she uses and of course told me to buy meat. I was like, “Mom, this is for a vegetarian dish. So lets forget about the meat.” I remember my mom making this dish with white rice or egg noodles. Our friend Ana said that she would include cooking wine and that her grandmother would even use Welch’s Grape Juice. Both my mother and Ana agreed that any vegetable available goes when you are making a guisao but that the Potatoe should be one of the main ingredients. My recipe is for a serving that is for two people.

Ingredients I used

1 Potatoe cut into big pieces. (I used a Russet potatoe that was big. For more servings use 2-3 potatoes)
1 Carrot chopped or handful of baby carrots
Half of a can of corn
6 Grape tomatoes halved
5 mushrooms chopped
1 tablespoon of Sofrito (onion, garlic, green pepper, tomato, fresh cilantro leaves all chopped and blended or you can buy it already made)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Bay leaf
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 1/2 to 2 cups of water
¼ tablespoon of Oregano
1 Packet of Gardein Home Style Beefless Tips

Instructions

If you are going to make your own sofrito, use a blender to combine onion, garlic, green pepper, tomatoe, garlic clove, cilantro, salt, and pepper for flavor. If you are going to buy the sofrito, make sure that there isn’t any animal by-product.

Add the tablespoon of Olive Oil and sauté the sofrito in a medium saucepan. Add the Gardein Home-Style Beefless Tips. Brown the tips for about 3-4 minutes. Remember this is not meat so it won’t take too long for this to happen. Start adding the vegetables such as Corn, mushrooms, carrots, or any other vegetables you may have.

Add the salt, pepper, and a pinch of oregano. Then add the can of tomato, bay leaf, and water. Taste for salt and pepper. Turn up the heat to start boiling the ingredients. The last thing you want to add are the potato pieces. Turn down the heat and simmer until the potatoes and all vegetables are soft. Even though there isn’t any meat, the potatoes will take longer to cook. Check for fork tenderness.

Serve with egg noodles or white rice. A slice of avocado will go well with the dish.

What other vegetables have you added to a guisao? Would you try this recipe with other soy products?