The Vegan Philly Cheesesteak. Shout out to PA. No giard on this one today. Pair with your finest bourbon, or for my friends who do not imbibe, your finest topo chico.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and we can celebrate together.

The Vegan Philly Cheesesteak. Siri please play The Seed 2.0.

VEGAN PHILLY CHEESESTEAK

prep time: 15 minutes
cook time: 30 minutes

A sandwich to commemorate our friends in Pennsylvania.

This recipe requires you to soak and cook some soy curls, toast some bread, melt some cheese, caramelize some onions and celebrate some democracy.

To start, the soy curls…and the onions.

What you’ll need:

soy curls
salt
pepper
olive oil
oregano
yellow onion
garlic

Open up your bag of soy curls. Dump them into a bowl. Soak them with water, stir occasionally. Give them 10-15 minutes depending on how many you use.

Eventually they will look like the world’s worst bowl of cereal.

While your soy curls are soaking, get out one yellow onion. Or two. Cut the onions in half and cut along the grain so you have crescent moon shaped onions. Throw some olive oil in a pan and add your onions once the flame is up to speed. You’re gonna want to do these slow and low while you get your garlic ready.

I only made one sandwich so use more if you want.

Crush and mince up a few cloves of garlic. Set those aside for now. Once the onions start to brown and become aromatic, toss the garlic in. Give it a stir and bring the heat up a little. Add salt. Add a little pepper too.

Drain your soy curls with a strainer and then toss a bunch of them into the pan once your onions and garlic are aromatic.

What you’ll need:

salt
pepper
oregano
soy sauce
liquid smoke (optional)
beer (optional)

Your soy sauce and liquid smoke will add a deeper color as well.

Turn the flame up a little more and stir this whole mess up. It’s going to be a messy sandwich. Add salt, pepper and oregano once the soy curls start to brown some. Add soy sauce and liquid smoke too, however much you want.

If the soy curls leave some stuff stuck to the pan, add a splash of beer (preferably stout for color) or vinegar to lift it up. Give it a stir. Let everything cook.

Next you’re going to get your bread and cheese going.

What you’ll need:

hoagie rolls
vegan cheese (I used mozz, whatever you wanna use is fine)
canola oil spray (or comparable)

Preheat your oven to 400°. Cut an opening in the hoagie roll. Spray your hoagie roll with some canola oil, toss it on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven for 8 minutes.

Now that your soy curls have some color to them, slap a bunch of cheese on it.

Toss a lid on the pan (or a cutting board like I did) and let the cheese melt for a few minutes. If you time it right, your bread should be ready…..now.

Pop your bread out of the oven and add cheese to the inside of it. Then you’re going to toss it back in the oven for 3-4 more minutes. Just keep an eye on it so your bread doesn’t burn or something.

This is the worst picture possible but I’m also watching TV.

Lift the lid/cutting board off of your pan and kill the flame. You should now have something very reminiscent of a Philly cheesesteak in your pan. Pop the bread onto a plate and add your soy curls/onion/cheese onto the bread.

Serve with the finest liquor in your house, or whatever you may choose to drink. We have an endless amount of work to do but today we can drop our shoulders and breathe a sigh of relief. I hope this sandwich finds you well. No giard in respect to PA.