An excellent, concise lecture from Qiao Collective's favorite professor explaining what 'hybrid warfare' is and the history of its use by the US. A very useful talk if you are new to the concept.

So TVP is sometimes known as hamburger helper, meat extender, or meatless crumbles and if you've ever eaten a cafeteria meal at school or had a processed meal which included ground beef then you've almost definitely eaten TVP before. (Back when there was the European horse meat scandal and the EU was testing meat products for horse, they discovered that one particular brand of meat pie on sale there actually contained zero meat products — it was all TVP!) TVP, or Textured Vegetable Protein, is made from soybeans, and it's the leftovers from soy oil pressing which then undergoes some processing before being extruded into different shapes. Nutritionally it's virtually fat-free and mostly protein when dried. When rehydrated it has a protein content comparable to ground beef. TVP is ideal because you can store it dried for a year (or more - I have and it's no big deal), you can leave it in your cupboard and it doesn't take up too much space, and it's perfect for those times in between paychecks where the fridge is bare and the cupboard isn't looking much better. TVP goes particularly well in chili, bolognese, and other sauce-heavy dishes, which is great because all you need is some rice or pasta, a tin of tomatoes, and a few spices before you have yourself a hearty and nutritious meal on the cheap. Depending on how it's cooked, TVP rehydrates at around a 2:1 ratio, meaning that if you buy 5 ounces of TVP you effectively have a pound of "meat" waiting to happen so you can really stretch your money using this stuff, and that's exactly why it gets used in so many processed foods. I made a post [here](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8683) about how to get the best texture out of TVP which is good for using in recipes that feature ground meat as the star of the dish such as Keema Mattar, and I will make a post about how to flavor TVP soon too, but in the meantime you can simply grab a handful or two of TVP, shake off the dust using a sieve, and throw it in a dish when you are frying your ground meat (for best results) or you can even add it towards the end of cooking when you're making something like a bolognese, just remember to allow it a few minutes to rehydrate in the sauce before serving. If you are new to eating it, try adding TVP at up to a 50:50 ratio your meat — you probably won't even notice it's there. So there you have it: TVP is cheap, healthy, simple, long-life, high protein, and easier to use than ground beef so I'd strongly recommend giving it a try to anyone, rich or poor. (Plus it's more environmentally friendly than eating meat to boot!)

TVP is an underrated, cheap and convenient mock meat but do you ever struggle to get it to taste really good? There are about a million different variations on how to make seasonings and broths but it always seems like TVP ends up as a soggy mass of bland, spongy textured stuff that has a strong cardboard-y aftertaste which has a tendency to permeate whatever dish it's added to.   **So how do you up your TVP game?** [This method from Chef Jana](https://youtu.be/Kgs5XmAtsXs) has a technique that I haven't seen anywhere else before and that is to fry the TVP *before* you add any broth.   **What does this achieve?** First of all, this gives the TVP a delicious, almost al-dente texture like you would expect from ground beef. Second, it prevents your TVP from becoming waterlogged. Third, the broth you add and cook down into the TVP is effectively retained in the TVP so you can achieve flavoring contrasts like you would get normally with non-veg dishes. Fourth, the strength of your broth flavoring will be roughly the same as the final strength of flavor in your TVP which makes it very easy to estimate how to season the broth and how much seasoning to use. Fifth, by shaking off any excess TVP flour you eliminate the majority of the cardboard-y aftertaste and with a properly seasoned broth you will mask any remaining cardboard taste. Sixth, and this is the big one, you will achieve a high level of browning and fond which will increase the contrast of flavors and it will bring a richness that TVP usually lacks. Remember to fry your TVP in deodorized coconut oil or vegetable shortening because the high level of saturated fat will impart a very meat-like mouthfeel and remember that it will take at least a few minutes to brown up but just keep faith and keep stirring because it will suddenly begin browning up all at once and you want to distribute that across all the TVP as well as you can. If you find that you have too much fond on the bottom of your pan or you're worried that it's getting too dark and it risks burning you can deglaze the pan with a minimal amount of very hot or boiling liquid (water, broth, wine etc.) but keep in mind that you want to be very conservative in how much you add because you don't want to braise your TVP and it should be hot liquid because you want it to evaporate from the pan ASAP. Also, if you deglaze very early in the process you may retar​d the browning process and you really want to avoid doing that wherever possible.   That's really all there is to it! Stay tuned for an effortpost on how to season broths for mock meat and how to balance the flavors.