Tonight I'm trying out a new recipe and I'm really looking forward to it. It's soya pilau, a spicy East African dish. My kid saw the recipe somewhere and has been bugging me for days to try it out. It's quite simple. You fry some onion and garlic, and a bit of ginger, then you add in the processed soya pieces and some tomato paste. After a few minutes, you add in the spices (it says pilau spices, but I will improvise) and then some water and salt, and let it all cook for about twenty minutes! That's it. It's served with a salad of your choice, or you can just cut up some tomato slices with sliced onion and a bit of coriander, with a few splashes of lemon juice. I can't wait.

The spices sound delicious. I love spicy meals because they seem to satisfy me more. I'm not sure what soya is. Is it anything like tofu in texture? Could that be substituted?

That sounds like it will be yummy, enjoy!

Ooo that sounds good! By soya pieces do they mean tofu type stuff of quorn?

That sounds delicious. At once ate pilau at an Indian friends' house and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was extremely spicy, but I handled it with grace.

Yes, soya protein pieces are just like firm tofu. They are high in protein and iron, but low in calories. It's a great alternative to meat.

Well, it sounded like a yummy dish until I read that soya was similar to tofu. Is the texture the same as tofu? I really dislike tofu.

In a salad that sounds awesome. I try to experiment with my salads lately but it seems our close store has been out of a few things I like so I am hunting around to try new stuff. This might be something I need to add to the list.

Like Lillian, I am also not a big fan of tofu. It's not a taste issue, it is more about the texture. I dislike mushrooms for the same reason.

I have been avoiding eating soy because most of the soy products we get here come from genetically modified crops.