OK, first of all, I must, again, apologize for waiting so long before posting again! I really have no excuse other than just lazy.
Now. I have found the sine qua non chicken strip/chunk substitute: soy curls. Basically they're just soy beans, cooked in a way to turn them into elongated strips and then dehydrated. It's NOT the same as TVP, the result of defatting soy flour. It's the whole bean, no filler; just bean.
They're available here if you want to try them out (1 8-oz bag). If you do try them and think they're the best thing since sliced bread, you can come here to get them in bulk (get the 12 lb box; seriously)
The bag has the "full" curls (about an inch and a half or longer) in addition to chunks (under an inch long) and also "dust", very fine crumbles. It's usually best to separate the three sizes but it's really not necessary.
The first time I tried them It was in a ersatz chili like soup. It was OK but for the best texture, you really need to squeeze the excess water out of the curls after you've rehydrated them. The "chili" turned out OK, but they really shone in my barley vegetable soup:
Soy curl vegetable barley soup
1 cup soy curl chunks, rehydrated (break the long curls in half)
1 sm onion, diced
2 tsp minced garlic
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 1/2 cups of cooked hulled barley
6 cups of veg broth
1 1/2 cups frozen green beans
1 cup frozen corn
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (incl juice)
4 ounces tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning
Put the soy curls in hot veggie broth to cover for 10 minutes and drain (reserve the drained broth). Squeeze the water out of the curls (I usually put them in a sieve and then press a bowl that fits down into the sieve till they stop "leaking" :) ) Again, reserve the expressed broth.
Dry saute (adding a tablespoon or so of water when things stick) the onion and carrot till the onions are translucent. Add garlic and saute about a minute more. Add the tomato paste and saute/carmelize for about 2 minutes. Add all other vegetables and bring to a boil. (I usually toss in a small handful of red lentils at this point to thicken the end result) Lower to simmer for as long as it takes for the carrots to get tender to your liking. At this point, add the italian seasoning and up to a teaspoon of cumin if you wish. Serve and let everyone add salt to taste.
This will serve at least 8 people with rather big servings. With a green salad and a hunk of bread, this is a very filling dinner!
