[Closed] Vegan 'meat' what does STW think?

Quorn to replace mince works okay for nachos, chilli etc. Tonight is Quorn enchiladas, very tasty. The vegan meat stuff is a no though, looks odd and tastes odder.

Are we talking about the lab grown meat that was on TV recently, or non-meat dressed up to look like it?

struggles to not have at least one portion of pork a day

Nice one Finbar.

The answer is: no.
In general the substitute products are just shite. Have a nice saag aloo instead 🙂

If you think that converting to veganism is a good thing then anything that encourages it should be worthwhile. Over time, new meal plans and recipes can be developed. Use these substitutes to create that window.

Quorn Fillets are good. We use them in Thai green curry, encheladas, fajitas and so on.

The Quorn meatballs are ok, they just need simmering for a while to absorb some flavour!

And ditto chicken pieces - fine in a curry or something spicy.

Just by themselves, they're a bit bland.

Have a nice saag aloo instead

This. I had a lovely lentil curry last night. Mind you I had chicken sandwiches for lunch.

But, IMO, there are loads of veggie dishes without resorting to mock-meat of any kind.

The M&S Plant kitchen range is actually surprisingly decent.

the nuggets taste like nuggets, the sausages taste sausagey (not finest quality butchers, but not as bad as crappy irish sausages full of breadcrumbs), soy protein burgers are not bad either. Pizzas don't leave your house smelling of feet, like most vegan cheese does, and the dirty fries are awesome.

Bear in mind, not all Quorn stuff is vegan yet though.

it is a real paradox ... so many of the meat substitutes are extremely processed. I was reading an article about vegan tuna flakes the other day .... they are about as far as you can get from real food. But the are vegan...

Bleeding burgers are for the flexitarian .... vegans don't want anything to do with tham... and many veggies don't really like the taste / thought of meat.
Which is ironic why the manufacturers of Quorn and soya nuggets try and make them taste of chicken, or beef, or bacon ....
Whilst the veggie trend is o the up, it is the people that are eating less meat that are driving these products in the market. They are still carnivores at heart, but want to eat less meat, so eat meat substitutes...
There is some stunning vegetarian stuff out there ... life is too short to eat soy burgers ....

The Quorn meatballs are ok

Yep. Fry them off with onions, peppers, chilli and garlic then add them to a tomato sauce.

Quorn round sausage patties are quite good, the texture's about there, the seasoning's spot on and they make for a decent sausage and egg sarnie. When we have burger night now I'd rather have a Lidl/Aldi spicy bean burger in a bun and cheer it up a bit than a faux burgerette which just makes me pine for a decent meat burger. But yeah, daals and chana gobis and stuff like that are ace, we have a couple of veggie curries a week at least (parp, etc...) No need for meat at all, really.

Eggs too, there's not much a fried or scrambled egg can't improve. Stick one on an aforementioned spicy bean burger or on leftover bean chili on toast for breakfast.

I've got no intention of going veggie but the GF's son is vegan and a local Chinese does fake meat replacement options (for chicken, duck, beef, king prawn and squid) so tried it once. I don't know where it comes from or what the fake meat is but I thought the chicken, beef and duck was pretty convincing (the duck even had skin looking stuff on it which impressed and concerned me in equal measure). The king prawn and squid less so (mushy white stuff).
I remember seeing something on Discovery about lab grown meat substitutes which is getting very convincing but whilst it might be good for people transitioning from omnivore to veggie/vegan ultimately you're probably better off eating normal veggie stuff and not trying to get it to imitate meat.

Eggs too, there’s not much a fried or scrambled egg can’t improve.

Yeah but, vegan.

Vegan meat substitutes always make me chuckle. For people that claim to hate meat and all it stands for they don't half put in a lot of effort to make something that's a shit facsimile of it.

There are so many other things you can replace meat with, without resorting to processed fake products.

Myself and the OH only eat meat a handful of times a week, but it is good quality, local and free-range. Luckily we have our own pigs too.

But we replace meat with lots of lentils, beans and pulses. Some great recipes out there that require you not to have the fake stuff. Hugh's River cottage veg is a great book and has a good recipe for a pinto bean chilli, plus the Thug Kitchen some really fresh tasting recipes. Plus if you stock up on the beans and pulses etc. it is probably much cheaper than other meat alternatives.

My wife and I have both been vegetarian for 25+ years, the only meat substitute we ever buy is quorn chicken style pieces just to add a little bulk to things like fajitas or chow mein. Can't stand the mince tho, just tastes weird.

I eat them and meat too, i think marketing this kind of product as a 'meat substitute' was a truly stupid idea.
They are just another type of food, some processed beyond recognition, others less so. Some are crap, some are ok. I would recommend experimenting with them, you might find something you like 🙂

If you think that converting to veganism is a good thing then anything that encourages it should be worthwhile.

Kind of depends why you think converting to Veganism is a good thing. I hear three common arguments: healthier, better for the environment, no animals suffer.

It doesn’t automatically follow that all vegan food is healthier. Factory produced fake meat is not quite the same as fresh veg on the health stakes; the ingredients list often sounds more like a shampoo bottle than a delicious food, and it’s probably not made locally, farmed sustainably and their idea of eco will be about economy not ecology; and whilst you might avoid factory farming of animals the mass production methods for crops often are pretty brutal on native species whether it’s orangutans or corncrakes.

I’m naturally sceptical about the current vegan food hysteria - because it seems to be being fed by large multinational businesses who profit from fake food rather than any real evidence that any old vegan diet achieves all the implied benefits.

Learning to cook/source/grow veg so it’s tasty and has potentially more real benefits - especially for someone cutting down rather than cutting out.

Vegan meat is the work of Seitan

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I happily use Quorn or soy products for added protein, as well as tofu if I can be bothered with the faff of cooking it right. I also like smoky bacon flavour crisps! In particular they're good for comfort food - sausage butty, toad in the hole and veg, 'chicken' and mushroom pie. Fine as part of a healthy diet and good for me as an IBS sufferer to reduce the amount of beans and pulses i consume. I'm not impressed by vegan cheese tbh. Tried the Iceland burgers and wasn't very impressed, they seemed chalky. I've been veggie more than half my life, so I don't really know what meat tastes like or its texture, although you guess from the smell. But I agree that really the point is to cut down meat consumption so just take on recipes that aren't focusd on the meat - chilli, stir fries, curries, pasta, middle eastern or meditteranean salads.

Try linda McCartney's fake duck. It's good. I like the meat substitutes apart from quorn mince as I don't like the texture. If you don't want to eat meat then they are fine.

Fake meat is just a reminder that you are not eating real meat and leads to a sense of meh.
I have at least a couple of days a week where I probably am vegan or vegetarian without even trying, purely by accident. There are so many good recipes out there to try that are their own thing without trying to copy something they are not.

just eat meat and forget about this nonsense. you can replace red meat (pork and beef) with chicken/fish and be healthy.

I asked a friend who eats a lot of Quorn as opposed to meat what it actually was, she didn't know.

I looked it up, I'll stick to vegetables. (Personal preference, if people enjoy eating a culture grown in a tank in a dark room then please go ahead).

I've been veggie for years and there are plenty of veggie / vegan protein sources that don't look like a copy of meat.I know lots of people come to this for varying reasons and some will struggle not to think in terms of basing a meal around a lump of meat but it seems odd to me that people who find the idea of meat abhorrent will pay good money for a lump of shite that " bleeds " beetroot juice. I thinks there's a bit of trendifadiness going on rather than personal lifestyle choices. Hipsters !!

My wife is veggie - I am not but often end up eating veggie and vegan stuff as a result.

quorn butchers choice sausages are good but do have a smidge of egg white in them - depends how much of a purist you want to be! I'd say if you can get over using a fiver you can get over that...

Linda mac suasages also quite nice and they are vegan - nothing like real sausages - they're crispy! Go good with cooked mushroom and tomato in a bap as a veggie brekko sandwich.

Veggie haggis can be pretty good.

Veggie black pudding can be good.

I think any attempt to replicate non processed meat like bacon is usually crap. The quorn chicken shizzle and fillets are just about ok if cooked into something like a curry or mexican fajita filling.

Vegan cheese is awful!!! I've tried lots.

To be honest I could probably manage without much meat but not eating fish / seafood is unbearable and I doubt there is anyway to make up for that via vegan stuff. Also vegan ways of getting Omega 3 are a bit dubious - last time I read something on it the advice was to pop algae pills as all the flax seed / chia stuff doesn't actually get absorbed properly. I suspect that a lot of meat eaters are also shit at getting omega 3 into their diets though...

just eat meat and forget about this nonsense. you can replace red meat (pork and beef) with chicken/fish and be healthy

Funny you should turn up in a vegan thread Poah 😘
The OP hasn't stated their reasons for eating less meat, but if they are avoiding it for cruelty or environmental motives, then your plea falls a bit short, doesn't it?

Hopefully the younger generations coming into veganism are bringing less of the dogma to the table.

Hopefully the younger generations coming into veganism are bringing less of the dogma to the table.

As opposed to horsema.

You've got Vegan in your thread title but mention just wanting to eat less meat; Quorn products are really nice, but it you're going down the Vegan route, be mindful that quite a bit of it contains egg, if you're happy just cutting back on meat then there's plenty of choice in the Quorn range.

My Wife and I are Vegan and really enjoy [url= https://www.goshfood.com/ ]Gosh[/url] products which is really tasty but doesn't try to mimic meat (although they do do some 'burgers' & 'sausages').

Vegan cheese is awful!!! I’ve tried lots.

It can be, but we like the Sainsbury 'Free From' vegan cheese (coconut based I believe).

As several people have said, there are different reasons for going vegan: health, saving the planet and not treating animals badly being the usual reasons. I've not listed being a fad-following sheep because I'm sure there are none of those in the vegan camp.
I can't see the point of putting meat substitutes in curry because curries are one of the easiest things to make tasty to a meat-eater without using meat or even fake meat.
If saving the planet is the issue then some nice crunchy crickets could be a better solution than all the fakery.
If it's all about health then just back off the quantities of meat, particularly beef. While you're about it back off the coconut too.
I've never eaten Qorn but I do like tofu, in Chinese style food.
Burger King used to do a bean burger that was pretty good. The fact it was three times the price of a hamburger told me something.
Beans (and other legumes) ftw, to use the stw parlance.

Hopefully the younger generations coming into veganism are bringing less of the dogma to the table.

I'm not sure if you describe something as an ...ism you can really expect anything else.

To add, lots of veggie and vegan stuff has palm oil in it so it's not always as ethical as it may try to make out.

I haven't eaten anything recently which to my knowledge contained palm oil, so I looked it up: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil
So when you say "veggie and vegan stuff", you actually mean "junk food".

if you describe something as an …ism

Not my definition, feel free to come up with something better.

As a family we are trying to eat less meat to be healthier and for environmental reasons. Both my partner and I are happy to eat vegetables but my son of 8 wants to try too and whilst he is pretty good I like to make it easier when I have the time. Rather than mince meat, grated cauliflower works really well to make spag bol, cottage pie etc. Grate it using food mixer thingy. You have to work harder to pack in flavour and I admit using beef stock cubes and Worcester sauce defeats the object of the exercise for some, for us it doesnt.

Not my definition, feel free to come up with something better.

Veganism suggests a belief system (and indeed some vegans have recently tried to argue that their beliefs deserve the same sort of protection as religion) - any structured set of beliefs inherently contains dogma. Of course, people can choose to eat a "vegan diet" without adopting the belief system. Those people would presumably not associate with the "...ism".

I have been vegetarian for 30+ years but never used the word vegetarianism so guess there is less of a belief system for vegetarians?

If your goal is just to eat less meat that is easily done and things like jack fruit, beans etc,. make a perfectly good substitute for me. Going vegan is much harder due to the far stricter approach compared with just eating a bit less meat and shouldn't be used in the same sentence as they are not interchangeable.

My wife’s a Veggie, I’m about 90% Veggie too, which means I’m not Veggie at all.

However, replacing meat with a substitute is IMO pointless.

Just ditch meat, replace it with something that doesn’t proport to be “like” meat.

🤷‍♂️

Going vegan is much harder due to the far stricter approach compared with just eating a bit less meat and shouldn’t be used in the same sentence as they are not interchangeable.

This. It's pretty easy to eat vegan meals without trying (see loads of Asian dishes for example) but going for the whole straight edge vegan lifestyle is difficult. I admire vegans just for their tolerance of flavourless 'cheese'.

I'm an unashamed carnivore. However, my wife is following a vegan diet, consequently I only eat meat a couple of times a week as I/she refuse(s) to cook two completely different meals every day - having tried some of the "meat" substitutes and looked at the ingredients we prefer not to use them and concentrate on making the veg work. We use some Tofu for bulk and texture occasionally but that's about it. I find it weird that the food industry ties itself in knots creating faux meat products that require huge amounts of processing and packaging and still taste absolute carp!

Having been vegetarian for about 30 years. We tend to not use too much meat substitute - sausages maybe once a week. Tofu sometimes in stir fry/Thai curry, sometimes just use cashews for added protein.

Much more likely to just cook with veg and pulses. Curry, pasta dishes, chilli/texmex, homemade soup etc all work very well without meat substitute. As mentioned above bean burgers are generally nicer than the meat sub ones as well. I would never pay for meat substitute in a restaurant.

A big upside of Vegan popularity is that the choice of vegan/veg restaurants and cafes and food choices in meat restaurants is much improved.

In answer to the q - why eat substitute meat if you're supposed to be vegan/vegetarian? - is - Because I like the taste of meat but not enough to kill animals for it. And yes I realise it doesn't taste exactly the same ( not as good to your taste) which is why I don't eat much of it.

I would suggest ism can refer to an ideology, not necessarily a belief system.

One thing to consider is that veggie/vegan meat substitutes are often just about the flavour, texture and convenience.

The flavour of sausages/ burgers etc. whether real meat or not is mostly from seasoning. Quorn sausages and burgers taste like real meat to me (bearing in mind I haven't knowingly eaten real meat for over 30 years), so much so that if someone else serves me a quorn veggie burger I have to double check!

I would challenge any hardened meat eater to do a blind test on sainsbury's own brand meat free hot dog sausages - taste and feel no different to meat ones (which barely contain meat anyway). I'd also love to see that experiment with gregs sausage rolls 🙂

I don't get why some people have a problem with veggies/vegans enjoying food that tastes and looks like meat, but isn't? We are all omnivores biologically, so are kind of hard-wired to enjoy it, even if some of us have chosen not to eat it.

I'm currently enjoying the meaty non meat stuff. I'm not veggie, wife and daughter are vegan, I just like tasty food.

There is no veggie substitute for bacon. quorn bacon tastes like frazzles. tempeh bacon just isn't.
As mentioned above, Veggie haggis is really nice, likely due to most of the flavour of proper haggis being from the herbs and not the meat.
Glasgow is blessed with some great veggie an vegan restaurants and cafes. The vegan square sausage is lovely. not a square lorne by any stretch, but in a mortons roll with a bit of brown it's great.
Frankie and benny's vegan burgers are very good too, and on the lunchtime menu now.;-)

wife and daughter are both of the view, don't be cruel or kill animals if you don't need to. they no longer have a need to eat meat, so don't. I'm sure there are other things they could do, but the use of animals and animal products is so ingrained in how things are done there's a balance to be struck in terms of viability. The more effort you put in to do something you think you're doing right, the more those that don't want to change reactively find flaws. Which to me is weird, but I'm guessing decades of animal rights campaigners 'forcing' opinion tires the general population.

and for balance.
I had a steak bake yesterday and it was yummy.