Taiwanese breakfast sandwiches are the perfect balance of being flavorful and filling yet still somehow delicately light and refreshing. However, some of the key ingredients that make Taiwanese breakfast sandwiches unique are traditionally not vegan nor vegetarian (pork floss and ham). We share with you today an easy vegan and slightly bolder, more umami twist on the Taiwanese breakfast sandwich, perfect for a summer outdoor meal. With our Vegan Pork Floss and our TVP XL Slices to replace the traditionally meat ingredients and our Toon Sauce to add a bolder more umami twist, vegans and vegetarians are now also able to enjoy this delicious Taiwanese classic.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Assembly Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 1
Sandwich ingredients:
- 2 slices of bread
- 1 tomato
- 1 baby cucumber
- 1 TVP XL Slice
- Vegan Pork Floss (Seaweed) or Vegan Pork Floss (Kelp)
- Vegan mayonnaise
- Toon Sauce
TVP Sauce Ingredients:
- ~ 1 tsp oil
- Water
- ~1 tsp soy sauce
Prepping Instructions:
- Place 1 TVP XL Slice in a bowl with enough water to submerge the TVP. Push the TVP underneath the water and flip a couple times to ensure all sides touch the water. Put the bowl aside to allow the TVP to rehydrate.
- Cut the crust off each side of each slice of bread (optional)
- Cut your tomatoes into slices. Cut as many slices as you'd like in your sandwich.
- Cut off one end of the baby cucumber. Then cut diagonally to create thin slices of cucumber. Cut as many slices as you'd like in your sandwich.
- Cut the slices again into thin strips (optional).
- Toast one side of each slice of bread in a lightly oiled pan.
- At this point, your TVP XL Slice should be mostly rehydrated. If not, push the TVP underneath the water again, squeeze the TVP a few time with your fingers, and flip a few times while doing so before letting it soak for another 5 minutes.
- Once mostly rehydrated (mostly soft, doesn't feel like there are any parts inside that are still hard and would break if bent/squeezed hard etc.), squeeze the TVP XL Slice a few more times under water before removing from the water and squeezing all the water out.
- Once most of the water has been squeezed out, pour out the water from the bowl, place the TVP XL Slice back in the bowl, and add enough water to submerge again. Repeat steps 8 and 9 a few times.
TVP Cooking Instructions:
- After squeezing as much water out as possible, place the TVP XL Slice in a pan and add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan by about half a centimeter.
- Add about a teaspoon of soy sauce (adjust depending on your flavor preference) to the water (and any other seasonings you'd like). Stir the water to mix everything together.
- Turn on the heat and bring the sauce to a boil. As the TVP XL Slice cooks in the sauce, flip it to ensure both sides cook in the sauce.
- As the sauce is reducing, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of oil. Incorporate the oil into the sauce and move the TVP XL Slice around to get completely coated in the sauce.
- As the sauce begins to dry out, turn the heat down and continue to move the TVP XL Slice around the pan to soak up all the sauce as it lightly pan fries.
- When the sauce is completely cooked off and the TVP XL Slice lightly pan fried on both sides, transfer it onto a plate to prepare for assembly.
Assembly Instructions:
- Place one slice of bread on a flat surface with the toasted side facing up.
- Smear a layer of vegan mayonnaise evenly onto the toasted side of the bread.
- Sprinkle an even layer of Vegan Pork Floss over the mayonnaise.
- Place an even layer of cucumber on top of the Vegan Pork Floss.
- Place your cooked TVP XL Slice on top of the cucumber.
- Place an even layer (as even as possible) of tomato slices on top of the cooked TVP XL Slice.
- Spread a thin but even layer of Toon Sauce on top of the tomato slices. Make sure to squeeze out/drain as much of the oil as you can before placing the sauce chunks on the sandwich. You can add more but the Toon Sauce flavor is pretty strong so a thin layer should be good to start.
- Place your other slice of bread over the Toon Sauce with the toasted side facing down (inward).
- Cut to a more manageable size and enjoy!
Note:
Instead of TVP Cooking steps 1-3, you can cut down on actual cooking/sandwich assembly time by marinating the TVP in a sauce beforehand - usually that process would require marinating for a few hours if not overnight so cooking the sauce into the TVP is faster overall but actual cooking time can be cut down by pre-marinating.