okara patties

We've been trying to eat less meat during the week.

Here's an easy and healthy recipe that I used to make okara patties.

If you want to add some ground beef, you may want to use this recipe, but for this meatless version, this is what I did.

Okara Patties : Makes 6

Patties:
120 grams okara (soy lees)
1/4 carrot, minced
2 pinches of dried hijiki (brown seaweed), reconstituted
part of an onion, minced
1 egg
grinds of pepper, to your liking
1 tablespoon oil

Sauce:
1 tablespoon shoyu
1 tablespoon mirin
slurry (some cornstarch diluted with water)

Topping:
grated daikon
chopped green onion

Combine the okara, carrot, hijiki, onion, egg and pepper together.
Using a tablespoon, scoop and form 2 or 3-inch patties.

Heat a pan with 1 tablespoon oil and cook patties.
(I covered the pan and let it cook for 3 minutes, flipped them over and cooked for another 3 minutes).

After the patties are cooked through, remove and make the sauce.
Add the shoyu and mirin to the pan and swirl, add a little of the slurry until you get the consistency of the sauce you want. (I didn't make it too thick)

Spoon over patties and top with grated daikon and chopped green onions.

NOTES: The texture reminds me of corned beef hash patties with more potato than corned beef.

You can top it with the sauce above or catsup. We've also had it with tonkatsu sauce.

If you don't like crunching on half cooked carrots and onions (we like the crunch), you can sautee them to get them soft before adding them to the okara.

You could also add cooked beans like edamame (soy beans) or konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly).

If you make the patties smaller, they are great in bento (boxed lunch).