Soy Chorizo Two Ways!

On a recent shopping expedition Nicole procured soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s. She texted me about this find and I could only respond with curious trepidation. It rested in the fridge tempting, no, daring us to try it. But how? What is the best way to cook and consume soy chorizo?

The first wave of inspiration came a few nights ago while Nicole had a house guest. I was in the process of firing up the grill for some brats and burgers, but that’s about all we had and the light fluid had just been lit, there was time to kill and bellies to fill. So into the frying went the chorizo along with some olive oil and minced onion. We allowed it to brown a bit and warm through while the onions took some color and flavor. Once it was sufficiently heated through we layered it onto tortilla chips with black beans and cheese before popping it all into the oven for a few to melt the cheese. Cheese now sufficiently melt-y we heaped some sour cream onto the pile and dug in. The result? Some of the best goddamned nachos I’ve ever set tooth to, and I’ve had my fair share of nachos. (Like the Jamaican jerk chicken nachos with pineapple salsa at ABC the Tavern!)

Half a chorizo down we were considering our options for the rest of the sausage-like soy food product when it dawned on us: breakfast! Of course this would make a great breakfast treat! So earlier this week we hatched a plan for a breakfast-for-dinner evening repast. Skipping to the chase: it was a rousing success. Now, here’s how we did it:

Nicole pre-sliced a few small potatoes on the wide slicer blade of her box grater. These potato chips were layered into a skillet with some olive oil. With each layer that went in we sprinkled on Mexican chili powder, salt and pepper, or crushed garlic. The bottom of the potato layer cake was allowed to sufficiently brown before we flipped it over and mixed in the other half of the soy chorizo. The rest of the potatoes were given time to brown and absorb some spicy chorizo goodness. When the potatoes and chorizo seemed to be almost-but-not-quite done we poured four well scrambled raw eggs over the whole deal and let that cook for a few minutes. Once the eggs seemed mostly set, save for the top, we popped the oven-safe skillet this was cooking in under the broiler. After a minute or so in the broiler a handful of cheese was tossed on top and back under it went. Cheese melted and browning just around the edges we pulled the rig from the broiler and sliced it up. Served with a dollop of sour cream, a few shakes of Valentina (Mexico’s hot sauce of choice) and a few dots of sriracha our soy chorizo/hash brown\frittata was not only done but capitol-A-awesome. Spicy, savory, and hearty as hell, this would be an excellent start, or end in our case, to the day. Oh, it’s great with a beer, too!

All I’m saying, I guess, is give soy chorizo a chance. And why not? It's fairly helathy, full of protein, spicy and well seasoned. It has great texture and is ready to go right out of the package. It can be heated along with whatever it's being served with or served chilled from the fridge. The only draw back to the soy chorizo is that it has to extricated from its non-edible casing. Not the end of the world, but it does mean no spicy soy chorizo on the grill.