Filipino Inspired Soy Curls – Vegan Tocino Recipe (2024)

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Today, I am sharing with you my vegan tocino recipe. As I write these posts and recipes, I’m starting to realize just how many Filipino breakfast dishes I love. If you want something that’s more savory for breakfast than vegan champorado or more of a “meal” the fluffy, pillowy vegan Spanish bread, then vegan tocino is a great option. This recipe is ridiculously easy and perfect for weekend mornings where you just want to keep it chill.

Tocino means bacon in Spanish. In the Philippines. While Filipino tocino is a cured and very sweet pork dish, this vegan tocino recipe does not require any curing (yay!) and obviously does not require pork (double yay!). Instead it’s simply dehydrating our gloriously vegan soy curls, massaging them with the tocino marinade for 5 minutes and cooking them for 15-20 minutes.

So yes, it is originally labor-intensive and a whole lot of work would go into it but I had to figure out a way to make it fit into my vegan diet and, well, my time. I just wanted to acknowledge that because I don’t want to undermine any of the hard work other people have done in the past. This is simply my own version of the recipe of a food that I truly loved growing up.

Tocino is typically served with garlic fried rice and an egg. I personally enjoy it with plain steamed rice and for obvious reasons, I can do without the egg.

Sometimes I even just make my own sandwiches or wraps with whatever bread/tortilla I have in the house.

I just lightly spread vegan mayonnaise on both slices or on the surface of the tortilla and stick some adobo in there to get an instant meal. I make sure to have a small green smoothie or some kind of vegetable on the side to balance it out though. Man, I should really start publishing some of our healthier recipes. Ha! They exist I promise.

Speaking of which, if you know you’ll want to make garlic fried rice or even just steamed rice to go with this sweet, vegan tocino dish, feel free to make that right before you start working on this recipe.

I grew up eating this dish and it reminds me of my favorite aunt who made it for us on the weekends. It also reminds me of when my husband and I first fell in love. He was eating a plate of tocino when he told me he could see a future with me.

I had to make some significant revisions just to get this vegan tocino recipe right for him. After all, I wasn’t vegan when we got married. He’s very honest so it was a little frustrating trying to get it right. But the constructive criticism was helpful. And with additional feedback from some friends, one who is also Filipina and her tocino enthusiast partner, I was able to perfect my vegan tocino dish.

First you have take your soy curls and soak them. I used cranberry and pomegranate juice and water to cover the soy curls in a large 14 cup food storage container. Then I let them sit for 10 minutes.

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While the soy curls are soaking for ten minutes, I put all our ingredients together to make a marinade. The more important ingredient is the annatto, which helps give the dish the color and a peppery but sweet taste. Paired with the sweet paprika, it gives the dish the color and smokiness it needs. Which is interesting because neither is smoked.

Pictured above is actually Mama Sita’s annatto powder. Mama Sita’s already carries a tocino mix but I prefer organic sugar so I couldn’t use that mix for this recipe.

By the way, I originally wanted to keep it organic so I ridiculously bought some annatto seeds and thought I could just easily grind them up. Spoiler: NO. JUST NO.

I gave myself a complete arm, neck and shoulder cramp trying to get this done right using the pestle and mortar pictured above. I even had it set at the perfect level so that my body mechanics weren’t all messed up. My gosh, man. And I couldn’t use my grain mill attachment because it’s not a dry grain. I tried using both my food processors and my high powdered Vitamix blender and nothing worked. Oh well. I’m glad I made that mistake otherwise I wouldn’t be using Mama Sita’s stuff! It does make me feel better to use something from a Filipino company.

We mix in other dry ingredients that include: cornstarch, garlic powder, tapioca flour, salt, organic dark brown sugar and sweet paprika.

The cornstarch and tapioca flour look the same and I probably shouldn’t have put next to each other in the picture ike that. Ha! I used the dark brown sugar instead of light because I wanted it to have a richer, sweeter taste. Kind of like molasses. And the sweet paprika to help with the color.

When we’re done mixing the dry ingredients for the marinade, we mix it with ¼ cup of water and ¼ cup of organic teriyaki sauce. It should have the same appearance and consistency of red enchilada sauce.

Making the marinade doesn’t take long at all. When the soy curls are done, you just drain them and mix the two. Then you massage the marinade into the soy curls.

There are two ways to cook this:

1) Throwing all of marinated soy curls in a huge pot and just letting the vegan tocino cook on medium high heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. It takes a while but for a busy mom like me, it kind of allows me to breathe a little bit. I know it’s done when it’s slightly brown and sticky. Some browned spots.

or

2) Frying the vegan tocino in batches so that it is charred a little bit. Many people like it like this.

Not necessary but I like to garnish my stuff with green onions and/or everything but the bagel seasoning. I just like to add those small touches.

I prefer the first option when it comes to my vegan tocino so that’s how the recipe is written out. Since I have a kid, I get a little weary about the charred parts. If you want to fry it the way you would regular bacon, please do so at your own discretion.

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Vegan Tocino

Print Recipe

This is an easy vegan recipe for the famous sweet and savory Philippine breakfast dish, tocino. It is made with soy curls and takes only a little over half an hour to make. Best served with rice.

• Author: Jan Carlisle @ Bakeroise
• Prep Time: 10
• Cook Time: 20
• Total Time: 30
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Main
• Cuisine: Philippine
• Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

Scale

Rehydrating soy curls:

• 16 oz or 454g dried soy curls
• 32 fl oz of Cranberry Pomegranate juice
• Tap water for soaking (If not tap, 48 fl oz to cover the soy curls)

Tocino marinade:

• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon tapioca flour
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 6 tablespoons of annatto powder
• 1 cup of organic dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup of organic teriyaki sauce
• ¼ cup water

For cooking the soy curls:

• 1 cup of vegetable oil

For optional garnish:

• Sliced green onions
• Everything but the bagel seasoning

Instructions

1. In a large bowl or food storage container (at least 14 cups), add the soy curls, cranberry juice and water to cover. Soak for 10 minutes to rehydrate the curls.
2. While the soy curls are rehydrating, gather all the marinade ingredients and combine in a medium bowl. The consistency and appearance should be that of red enchilada sauce.
3. When soy curls are done soaking, drain using a fine mesh sieve. Return to the now-empty bowl or container they were soaking in.
4. Combine the marinade and soy curls together and massage soy curls for five minutes with a clean hand. Your hand might get red so you do what you need to do if this is a problem.
5. Bring a large pot or pan to medium heat and add 1 cup of vegetable oil. You will have to adjust the heat based on your pan. My intense induction stove was way too hot at medium high heat so I had to have it on medium.
6. When oil is hot enough, carefully add the soy curls and cook for 15-20 minutes until slightly brown and sticky, stirring every few minutes
7. Serve with rice.

Equipment

Rubbermaid 14 Cup Food Storage Container

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Notes

• To get a more charred or blackened appearance like traditional Filipino tocino, cook in one-layer batches and simply pan-fry at your discretion.