This vegan mongolian beef uses soy curls to mimic the unctuous crisp and chewy texture of the original dish but has the same sticky sweet and savoury sauce! Perfect for takeout made in your kitchen with a tiny bit of work. So tasty!
Recently Yamchops sent me some of their premade meals to try (I got some fysh sticks, shepherd’s pie, and mongolian beef) and I got to try something that I hadn’t had in a REALLY long time: mongolian beef! They used soy curls and had this incredible texture that I didn’t understand how they got, because I’ve cooked with soy curls multiple times before but it’s never had that bite to them that resists and also holds onto sauce really well. If I lived closer to Yamchops, I’d probably just get it for takeout or delivery all the time, but since I live out in Hamilton, Yamchops is not quite accessible to me. So for those who have been missing this dish, I did a deep dive into figuring out how to make vegan mongolian beef.
It starts with a protein: traditionally it’s made with beef flank, but obviously we’re not going to do that. There is a type of TVP that is flattened and is kind of a square shape that I think is very similar to the shape of the slices of beef used for this dish, but I don’t really like the texture of that TVP as much as I like soy curls. You could also use tofu, especially double-frozen or single-frozen tofu, tear it up into chunks and squeeze out excess moisture. Or you could use homemade seitan as well, it doesn’t really matter which protein it is, as long as you can dredge it and fry it!
I dredged with a cornstarch base as well as a tapioca starch base, both work exactly the same so use whichever one works best for you.
Frying in some high-heat safe oil like canola, vegetable, or sunflower oil, I fried them in small batches so as not to crowd the oil. Adding too many items to fry at one time lowers the temperature of the oil and you might find a lot of them may clump and stick together, while also frying for too long and retaining too much oil from that.
Once you’re done frying, the hardest part is done! The rest is whipping together the sauce and that takes less than five minutes.
Infusing the oil with garlic and ginger is the beginning of this sauce, then you add a combination of soy sauces, water, and starch to create a slurry that will thicken and become this incredible, thick and sticky sauce that is super delicious and reminiscent of takeout!
Toss in those fried soy curls and green onions, and even a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds on top (maybe not traditional but very tasty), and you get homemade takeout that is just as oily and salty as the original XD
If you want to see the method and how I made this recipe, definitely check out my vegan mongolian beef video on YouTube below, I tend to be pretty descriptive and maybe even a little too detailed with the recipe method, but hey, that’s just how I work haha. Better that you have more information than less when it comes to new recipes. XD
Hope you are all safe and staying home <3
Vegan Mongolian Beef with Soy Curls
Ingredients
- Oil for frying 2 inches in a large pot
- 227 g soy curls a full bag
- 4 cups boiling water or just to cover the soy curls
- 2 tbsp 15 mL mushroom broth powder
- ~3/4 cup to 1 cup approx 200-256 g corn starch or tapioca starch
For the Sauce:
- 1/4 cup 60 mL soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
- 2 tbsp 30 g brown sugar
- 1/3 cup 60 mL water
- 2 tbsp 16 g cornstarch
- 2 tbsp 30 mL dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp 10 mL chili flakes (go to 1-2 tbsp if you like it really spicy)
- 2 tbsp 30 mL vegetable oil
- 1-2 inches of ginger 30 g finely minced
- 4-5 cloves garlic finely minced
- 3 sprigs green onions greens cut into 1-inch segments (whites not used for this recipe, but you can put them in water to grow them)
Instructions
- To Fry The Soy Curls
- Preheat your oil in a large wok or pot to 350F (I bring it up to a 6 on my stove) .
- In a large bowl, rehydrate the soy curls in boiling water + mushroom broth powder (or just veggie broth if you have that). Let rehydrate for 5-10 minutes, then squeeze as much water out of it as you can.
- Dredge the rehydrated soy curls in cornstarch until coated well, shake off any excess and fry in the oil until crispy. Fry in small batches so you don’t overcrowd the oil and bring down the temperature too quickly (otherwise you’ll fry for too long and it’ll be really oily). Gently stir the soy curls in the oil while cooking to turn and cook them evenly, and remove to let drain on a wire rack or paper towel once golden and crisp. Repeat in batches until all soy curls are cooked.
- To make the dish
- Prepare the sauce by combining soy sauce, brown sugar, dark soy sauce, cornstarch, water, and chili flakes in a bowl. Stir well to combine and try to dissolve most of the sugar. Set aside.
- Using either the same wok (removing all but 2 tbsp of oil) or in another pan with oil, and frying ginger for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Add the sauce mixture to the pan and stir constantly to cook through. Let the mixture come to a bubble and thicken for about a minute.
- Add the fried soy curls to the sauce and stir well to coat. It might not look like the sauce is enough to coat everything, but as the soy curls soften slightly with the sauce, the sauce should be able to coat all the soy curls. As soon as everything is coated, add the green onions and stir to cook the greens through.
- Serve and enjoy! I like eating this with some rice and some stir-fried garlicky greens :D You can top with toasted sesame seeds for a little extra nuttiness too!
Not the Viet Vegan says
I made this today with my partner, and it was legit! Yes, the frying is the most time consuming,but the meal is hella worth it. I’m new to soy curls, and was searching for recipes to make meals out of them. To note, I tried making your lentil patty recipe last night, but that was a fail. but, the winner there was that damn tahini Sriracha sauce. Ugh, you’re the best! I appreciate that you’re an awkward weirdo like myself and seeing a different kinda vegan onscreen is a breath of fresh air.
Evelyn from the Internets calls her viewers Internet Cousin, mayhaps Viet Vegan needs a name for her viewers as well. Anyhoo, great recipe. I’m sad I have very little leftovers
Lisa Le says
Yesss I’m so glad you liked them! It is definitely worth it :D I have a TON of soy-curl recipes, I believe i’ve sorted them so that you can search “soy curls” in the sidebar (or close to the bottom if you’re on mobile) and recipes should show up :) I’m sorry the lentil patty didn’t work for you! It’s one of my most popular recipes. Feel free to leave a comment on that recipe post so I can help you troubleshoot, and maybe that will help others as well
Not the Viet Vegan says
No need to apologise about lentil recipe. you know what you’re doing…I do not. I will say that for this particular recipe, we used combination of coconut and liquid aminos because we had no soy sauces. Oh, and we used a blend of cornstarch and potato starch because again, we were low on ingredients. It was very hard not to snack on the fried bits before we got to the saucy part. Great recipe! Will make it again, for sure-sure!
Mimi N. says
Tried this tonight with TVP. Sooooo good! I think I would have to add more water to the sauce, it thickened quickly and JUST covered the TVP. Thank you for this recipe!
Lisa Le says
More water definitely might help! That happened to me in my video as well, good tip!
Judee says
I used to go to an Asian Vegetarian Restaurant in the Philadelphia Chinatown. Mongolian beef was one of my favorites. I don’t know where to get soy curls, so I’ll probably try this recipe with tofu. Sounds like an amazing sauce.
Lisa Le says
Yeah! you could definitely just use the same cooking process (or shallow-fry) for your tofu and it’ll be the same deliciousness :D
Jan says
Amazon or directly from Butler Foods.
knitbunnie says
I order Butler Soy Curls from Azure Standard – half the price of Amazon. Luckily, they deliver to my area once a month.
Deb Z says
Amazon carries them.
Pam says
Butlerfoods.com
I order my soy curls from them all the time
Andrea Beizer says
What kind of mushroom broth powder do you use??
Lisa Le says
I don’t know the brand of it, I link to the package in the video description on YouTube, but its a white/silver bag with vegetables on the front on a blue background lol. It’s all in Chinese so I can’t tell you a brand name ^^;
Andrea says
Thank you!!!
Jan says
香菇调味料 GIA VỊ TINH CHẤT RAU CẢI Mushroom Seasoning – 14 oz. (400g) I buy it on Amazon. Delish!! Great for broth, in making Seitan, on cooked veggies, etc.
Judee says
I made the recipe with tofu, and it was fabulous. over rice. thanks so much.
Mary Beth says
I made this dish tonight and it is delicious! The problem is that my daughter didn’t realize I was making us dinner and she ordered Thai food for herself and her daughter. Can this recipe be frozen or refrigerated and if so, should I store the sauce and the fried soy curls separate? My daughter thought that reheating the soy curls in the air fryer and then combining. Opinions?
Lisa Le says
Hi! Sorry I didn’t see this right away! I usually store the leftovers in the fridge like any other leftovers! The soy curls will lose a bit of the crisp texture and be mostly be tasty and chewy! Reheating the soy curls in the airfryer and then combining afterwards sound promising, I’ve never tried it myself though!
Emily says
This recipe was AMAZING. It tastes just like take out but better. I had a bit of trouble with the frying: I burnt some, some absorbed too much oil, but some were just right lol. I added in some sautéed peppers and onions. I think it was a great addition since I didn’t have any greens.
Siara J. says
Hi Lisa! I really want to try this recipe but my stores are all out of soy curls (I wish I could buy it in bulk- I should really make a trip out to Hamilton when self-isolation is over!). I want to try it with tofu: will one extra firm block be a good replacement in terms of the ratios of the sauce? I wasn’t able to determine this from your ingredient list, since the 227g soy curls is the dry weight.
Thanks! Can’t wait to try this!! :)
Lisa Le says
Hi Siara! I believe I’ve used two tofu blocks, depending on the size of your tofu. Sorry for the super late response!!
angelo messina says
Hello ! love your recipe they re so tasty and creative, i’ve been follow you for a while now , i can say i am new vegan cause its my second month of being vegan ! at the begin was hard also cause i used to love meat! but then i decide to change my lifestyle , follow your blog and reading your book was essential for me to be able to go trought all of this i also follow a ! Month Vegan Challenge https://bit.ly/3e8atnz that consist in 5 book that explain everything people must know about going vegan! and both your blog combined with this challeng make me achieve my goal ! thank you very much for what you do everyday inspiring lots of people.
lets change the world GO VEGAN
sincerely
Angelo M
Janet says
Have been making this once a week. My son, who is sheltering I place with us, loves it so much! Thank you for making my meal planning a bit easier!
Louise says
I can’t get soy curls in the UK so I used some homemade seitan strips and it was amazing. Made it for my non-vegan husband for his birthday and he absolutely loved it.
Lisa Le says
Ooo thats great to hear! So glad he loved it! Hope he had a wonderful birthday!
Kaili Carlton says
Do you think you could air fry the soy curls?
Lisa Le says
Yep! Coated with cornstarch, you might need to spritz or toss lightly in a bit of oil and air-fry in smaller batches until they’re golden. I’d say like 400F for about 10 minutes maybe?
Katie says
This recipe is glorious!!! This was better than any actual beef recipe in a restaurant! My picky new Yorker husband says this is the best meal I have ever made in my life. I added some sliced sweet onions as well as scallions. I ended up making a larger batch of sauce to properly coat all the curls and leave some to spoon over rice. I’d love to see how this tastes in the air fryer. I’d make it every day if I didn’t feel guilty about the frying part of the nutritional aspect :) Thanks for the fantastic recipe!!
Sharon says
I made this last night (not the exact recipe, but pretty close, just used what I had on hand). Lemme tell you .. it was sooo gooood. Even my meat loving husband said it was delicious! I’m not a huge fan of a lot of “meat” substitutes, but this one is by far my favorite! I immediately went and bought another bag of curls, and am pretty sure they’ll be a staple in my household. More recipies pleeeeeasee!!!
Rachel says
I made this recipe for dinner tonight. It took forever, but wow it was amazing. It only took forever because I saw someone in the comments ask if they could air fry and I decided to try, but for me it didn’t work ? I was still able to salvage the soy curls tho, fried them up in some oil. Even without the sauce on them they were really good, just tasted like fried chicken. My omni boyfriend also loved this recipe too, which is a huge win! Definitely will make this again :)
Shadow Feng says
I just made this and it was so delicious!!! I pan fried the soy curls and they were just as good!
Carolyn says
This is quite good, I made it today. I have a soy crumble so next time I will make more sauce. I didn’t have the black soy sauce so I used fish sauce instead. Yummy, thanks, I will definitely make again!
Carolyn says
By the way, mushroom broth powder is amazing! What flavor. I’ve never heard of it before but will be using it a lot from now on. Thanks again!
Chyanne Servais says
This recipe is a labor of love to make, but it was so incredibly delicious! It made me have a whole new appreciation for soy curls.
Brianna says
This recipe was absolutely FANTASTIC!!! I air fried the soy curls on 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes in 3 batches! I covered them with the flour and a bit of all purpose seasoning and then a good spray of oil! SO DELICIOUS! It was my first time using soy curls and can’t wait to use them again :) Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe!! :)
Lisa Le says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!
Leslie says
Thank you so much for this recipe! It was so so good. My little ones liked it even before I added the sauce. My family isn’t vegan (although I aspire to be) but we try to have at least 50% or more of our meals on the side of vegan. Even with a few mistakes (need to add more water to the sauce next time and fry for a little less time.) I never heard of Soy curls until now and I’m a fan. I also enjoyed watching your video!
uyen Tran says
I just made this! The soy curls are fabulous. But my sauce is so salty ! I even added more water. I had to throw it out. Wonder what I did wrong! 🤦🏻♀️
Lisa Le says
I’m so sorry you experienced that! I think my soy sauce might be lower sodium than most other people’s soy sauce. I will adjust the recipe, sorry about that!
Laura says
Thank you Lisa! Another recipe that saves me! FOR REAL! Just made it but didn’t fry or bake the soy curls. Just dumped the curls into the sauce and cooked it up! Then let it set for awhile in a pot with lid so the sauce and the curls marinated. OMG!!! It was so delicious! Can’t express how much happiness you bring to my vegan family! Not only that you make the cultural comfort food for me that is just love. Lately my mother is so surprised by my responses to “ohh…you can’t eat that- that isn’t vegan.” My answer is “OH! There is a veganized version by Viet Vegan on YouTube, let me send you the link. ” Then it is anyone’s guess if she can figure out her texts messages and how to click the link! Again THANK YOU !!
Thomas says
I just made this today. Excellent!
Ali says
LOVE this recipe. I make a few adjustments to the sauce. I use half the soy sauce called for, half the corn starch called for, double or triple the water if too thick, add a tsp toasted sesame oil, lots or szechuan peppers, eliminate the ginger, double the garlic and sometimes a splash of rice vinegar. DELICIOUS 😋
Ali says
This is so good! A weekly staple in our house, thank you!
ramesh says
Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
Robyn says
We make this all the time. It’s outstanding! The sauce is perfect (we double it, we like things saucy) and the texture of the soy curls is incredible. Thank you!!!
Wayne says
Love your recipe,just made it tonight.
I made a couple of changes. I used the soaking liquid from dried mushrooms ( mushroom broth) as suggested then I squeezed out all the liquid. I placed the soy curls in a large bowl then added a little oil and tossed the curls until all were completely covered. I added salt and pepper then tossed it again then added the corn starch.
I used the wok to fry it with just a little bit of oil, came out perfect. I also added roasted sesame.
Nat says
Currently eating this as I comment lol! Just had to say it’s very delicious. Love the textural difference of the soy curls from frying first. Made a little extra sauce to stir-fry some veggies in. 10/10 Thanks Lisa!
ruby says
WOW! Made this last night and had the leftovers for lunch…AMAZING! even after reading the recipe wrong it turned out super delicious. The leftovers equally delicious…I never write reviews but this recipe is the bomb! Now I gotta look at your other creations. Thank you for sharing.
Lisa Le says
Yay I’m so happy you love this!! Thanks for taking the time to write a review :)
Laura says
Made for dinner. Used the air fryer and turned out so good. Boyfriend said this was his favourite thing I’ve ever made. Definitely 10/10
Gail says
I can’t find soy curls anywhere around here, so I used TVP to make it since I didn’t want to buy the soy curls on the internet. It still works, but not really crispy. Definitely tasty, though.
Joyce H says
Made this yesterday and WOW!! Frying definitely the longest part but super worth it. I was a little scared about the sauce but it was enough!
Now can you do one for bulgolgi!
Lisa Le says
I make a ground bulgogi ahha. I should try wit soy curls though!
Kristen says
I have tried 3-4 mongolian beef soy curl recipes, but this is the best one.
Sebastian says
3rd time making this, thank you so much for the recipe. I literally just sent 6 bags of soy curl to my sister in Poland because of this. She can’t wait to try your recipe.