Enjoy a delicious high-protein orange chicken dish with this vegan and gluten-free recipe. A healthy and satisfying meal for everyone!
Protein-Packed Citrus Delight: Vegan and Gluten-Free Orange Chicken Recipe
Vegan Orange Chicken is a delicious and healthy alternative to takeout, made with whole food ingredients and high in protein. With just 45 minutes of preparation, you can enjoy this flavorful dish that serves 4 and provides 495 calories and 23g of protein per serving.
The recipe includes crispy soy curls coated in a gluten-free soy sauce and sesame oil mixture, as well as a savory orange sauce made with fresh orange juice, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar. The dish is completed with a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce and is served over jasmine rice with sesame seeds, green onions, and toasted cashews for a tasty finish.
Zesty Plant-Based Protein Powerhouse: Orange Chicken Reinvented!
Okay I am showing you guys my pretty much new favorite recipe of the whole year so far and it is like this amazing marriage between an orange chicken recipe with a kind of a sweet and sour pork recipe and it is Sweet It Is sticky and sour and tangy and citrusy and so good you guys it’s going to literally blow your mind and of course as always.
On this channel it is vegan and gluten-free and it’s super high in protein so if those kinds of recipes are the kinds that you like to make so do I so make sure you subscribe below so you don’t miss out on anything like this again in the future and let’s get right into it okay so for this video I’m pretty much going to be breaking it down.
Into three sections we’re going to start with the protein then move on to the sauce and then the veggie prep okay so starting with the protein my number one choice for this recipe would have to be soy curls that’s because I find that personally they achieve the most chicken or meat-like text texture of all the pl-based proteins out there and when you.
Air fry them up they get so ridiculously crispy and crunchy and they’re just so good but you may have seen me make this recipe recently in a what I eaten a day with some TBE and it works great as well so definitely you can try Tempe if you don’t have soy curls and I think this would also be really great with tofu I do think that air frying them up into.
Little cubes or you can even Shred the tofu if you want more of like a shredded meat texture would also o be fabulous so to make the soy curls all you need are some hydrated soy curls soy sauce sesame oil and a little bit of cornstarch so first we’re going to take some soy sauce or you can use of course gluten-free tamari we’re just going to pour that.
Over our rehydrated soy curls followed by a little bit of sesame oil now if you are oilf free you can totally omit this but you might not get quite as crispy soy curls as you would with using oil then once you give it a good toss we’re then just going to take a few tablespoons of corn starch and you’re just going to drizzle that or sprinkle.
It over your soy curls and again give it another little toss make sure that there’s no white flourish spots remaining and then you’re just going to transfer those soy curls onto a lined baking tray or if you have a large air fryer you could obviously air fry these into smaller batches we’re just going to pop them in the oven bake them up for.
About 40 minutes until they are super crispy and crunchy okay so let’s move on to the sauce now now I would argue that the orange sauce here is definitely the star of the show it is what is going to absolutely make the meal so a few things is you can either choose to Fresh squeeze your own oranges to make the orange juice if you like or you can just.
Buy store bought orange juice store bought can be a little bit on the bitter side but once you make your sauce you can always taste it and if you need to add a little extra sweetener you can totally do that if you don’t have the extra 10 minutes like I did to make my own orange juice just go for store bought now we are also going to be using.
Fresh ginger and garlic in this recipe and I always say garlic is one of those things you have to measure with your heart so if you want less or more garlic than what I have in this recipe go for it just just go for it add more I don’t see why you’d add less but you can definitely add more same goes for the ginger so in addition to the orange.
Juice this recipe is going to need some sweetener like maple syrup some apple cider vinegar and some soy sauce or tamari so first off if you’re going to be using your own oranges to make orange juice use one of those and remove the zest from one orange you’re going to need about a tablespoon of orange zest and then you can proceed to squeeze your.
Own oranges and make some orange juice I did the not so common way by using a citrus squeezer but if you actually had an orange juice squeezer or whatever you call them a orange juice press you can use one of those too now to add some saltiness savoriness a little bit of umami flavor we’re going to add some soy sauce and we’re also going to add some.
Apple cider vinegar this is just going to really help to boost up the acidity level and then we’re going to add some maple syrup as our liquid sweetener but you can always use date syrup or agave syrup if that’s what you have now for this recipe I’m using about five cloves of garlic and about a 1 and 1/2 in chunk of fresh ginger but of course you can.
Use more or less depending on your sensitivity to ginger and garlic and then we’re going to be chopping up some veggies for this recipe much like you would find in a sweet and sour pork recipe which usually calls for chopped bell peppers and onions so I’m kind of taking that similar approach to a sweet and sour pork recipe I’m going to infuse.
That into this orange chicken recipe when you’re you’re chopping your bell peppers and onions make sure you make big slices big chunks the chunkier the better because I find when you have big squarish chunks of the bell pepper and the onion they like sof up the sauce way better than if you had minced them into little tiny fine pieces and I just love.
The crunch that the onion and the bell pepper brings to Dish so make sure you make them Big And Chunky all right now we’re going to hop over to our Skillet we’re going to warm up a few teaspoons of sesame oil now I personally like use sesame oil in this recipe because it imparts a really nutty delicious flavor but if you’re oilfree of course you can.
Omit it in just water sauté and then we’re going to sauté up the ginger and garlic and some red chili flakes for just a minute to let them kind of release some of their flavor then we’re going to add in that sauce give it a good stir and then add our veggies directly into the sauce we’re going to just let that simmer for about 5 minutes.
And then once that has simmered we’re going to add in a bit of a corn starch slurry situation so about a tablespoon of cornstarch to 2 tsp of water that’ll help the sauce to thicken up really nicely and by this point your soy curls will have baked up really nicely they’re super crispy and crunchy and they have just the most delicious texture and so.
Now what we’re going to do is we’re just going to add those directly into the sauce they’re going to absorb so much of that flavor they’re going to have the best texture and the nice thing about making them crispy ahead of time is that they’re not going to get soggy once you add them to the sauce they’re still going to maintain their their crisp.
Crunchy texture and oh it’s so good you guys just look at how it’s bubbling and it’s so luscious so now all you have to do is basically just let the sauce thicken up until you can coat the back of a spoon with it and then it’s done once you’re ready to serve it you can garnish it with some sesame seeds some chopped green onion or if you like.
Cilantro or any other fresh herb you have on hand you can go for it I personally love to serve this vegan orange chicken recipe on top of some fluffy jasmine rice but you could use any other variety of rice or any other grain I also think this would be really tasty over any kind of noodle like white rice noodles or verelli or even a brown.
Rice ramen noodles I think that would be so tasty what I really love about this recipe is that it comes together in 45 minutes or less it makes up to four servings and if you opt to use the soy curls as I did in this recipe you’re going to get a super high protein meal which is really great if you’re an individual who works out a ton and is.
Trying to build some lean muscle on a plant-based diet a few other optional add-ins you can always throw into this recipe are some chickpeas if you’re looking for an extra protein boost or even some edamame and of course you could always add some chopped nuts like I added here I love chopped roasted cashews or even peanuts on top would be.
So delicious it is no joke when I tell you guys that when testing out this recipe I literally made it like three times in one week it is so flipping good it’s literally all I want to eat right now it’s like an obsession like deep within my soul so if that doesn’t say something I don’t know I don’t know what will but you guys got to try out this.
Recipe I would be so jazzed jazz hands I would be so jazzed to know if you made it so let me know in a comment below it would make my little heart so happy and as always all my recipes are vegan they’re gluten-free they’re always high protein so if that is your journey as well make sure that you are subscribed don’t want you to miss out on other.
Videos just like this and that’s it give it a like check out this playlist before you head out and I hope you have a wonderful day I’ll see you in the next one bye
