Veggie / Vegan food

[CavemanLynn]

11 hours ago, King Coconut said:

I fear that 6 will provide so much bleeding courgette that you'll never want to eat one again as long as you live. You'll even annoy friends with your constant courgette generosity. They'll call you Tommy Courgette. 

I'm in the same boat. Start of lockdown, when everyone was convinced the world was ending and we were all going to devolve into war-time rationing, I took it as the impetus to finally start a veggie patch in the garden. Of course, I went to the garden centre and picked up a bunch of seeds, thinking "oh they'll be nice to have around", but then threw them in the ground not expecting the low-slung saw-edged umbrella-leafed triffids that would spring up in a week or so. They've only just started flowering, so not only am I now growing spinach faster than I can eat it, but in a week or so I'll have courgette coming out the wazoo.

[Rey_Piste]

9 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

I'll have courgette coming out the wazoo.

Normally it's courgettes going in the wazoo. At least that's what I have seen on Xhamster.

I'm not vegetarian by any means, but I will still try vegetarian options if it's on offer. I will happily cook vegetarian meals for my veggie friends when we used to be able to meet up. For me though it tends to either be a lack of flavour or a weird texture to a lot of meat substitutes and I do tend to avoid them when cooking vegetarian meals. I will use aubergine and courgette in a bolognese for example. Especially since one of my friends has a soy allergy that takes a lot of meat substitutes off the table.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Rey_Piste

[Ronnie]

10 hours ago, Loki said:

I’m never quite sure i’m of the logic behind it if I’m honest.  There are so many great veggie or vegan recipes and products nowadays - I really like the Waitrose bean burgers for example.  Mrs Loki made chinese salt and pepper tofu slices the other day that was amazing.  So why the obsession with recreating the texture/taste of meat?

Some of us are a little uncomfortable knowing that something was killed (and didn't necessarily have a nice life) in order to produce the meal that we really like the taste and texture of. In a lot of cases, that sense of guilt isn't strong enough to drive those feelings into the logical step of choosing not to eat that food rather than be complicit in its production. Similarly, there are people who know that meat production is ecologically harmful but are challenged to give up their bacon sandwich because ultimately they're depriving themselves of a pleasure for no significant gain. By presenting a perfect replica, you make it easier for those of us who fall into those categories to eat more ethically.

We're far from perfect in this household but we've discovered that Quorn sausages do a good job of replicating good-quality (relatively speaking) meat varieties, as do Quorn nuggets, and several other items from the brand. That has helped us reduce our consumption of meat. It doesn't always work: the mince feels somewhat synthetic to us, so we've rolled back to using meat.

[mim731]

2 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

We're far from perfect in this household but we've discovered that Quorn sausages do a good job of replicating good-quality (relatively speaking) meat varieties, as do Quorn nuggets, and several other items from the brand. That has helped us reduce our consumption of meat. It doesn't always work: the mince feels somewhat synthetic to us, so we've rolled back to using meat.

This pretty much mirrors what we've been doing. The Quorn sausages and the Sainsburys Shroomdogs do a good job of replicating meat so we generally go for those instead of the meat option where possible unless it's a special occasion. Same for chicken nuggets, and I generally use the Quorn pieces instead of chicken in a lot of meals Mon-Fri, simply because they can be cooked from frozen so that makes life a bit easier. I'm still eating meat, but far less regularly and far more selectively than a few years ago simply because the options to replace it with non-meat products, with minimal disruption to the taste and texture I'm expecting, are plentiful in 2020. 

[FLips]

13 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Some of us are a little uncomfortable knowing that something was killed (and didn't necessarily have a nice life) in order to produce the meal that we really like the taste and texture of. In a lot of cases, that sense of guilt isn't strong enough to drive those feelings into the logical step of choosing not to eat that food rather than be complicit in its production. Similarly, there are people who know that meat production is ecologically harmful but are challenged to give up their bacon sandwich because ultimately they're depriving themselves of a pleasure for no significant gain. By presenting a perfect replica, you make it easier for those of us who fall into those categories to eat more ethically.

We're far from perfect in this household but we've discovered that Quorn sausages do a good job of replicating good-quality (relatively speaking) meat varieties, as do Quorn nuggets, and several other items from the brand. That has helped us reduce our consumption of meat. It doesn't always work: the mince feels somewhat synthetic to us, so we've rolled back to using meat.

I have more than happily replaced any meal needing diced chicken with Quorn Pieces because in Curry and things like that you can't tell the difference. Quorn Nuggets are as good as, if not better than chicken nuggets because they're not even real chicken anyway. I can't get away with Quorn Mince though, it's just flavourless mush.
I enjoy Veggie Burgers/Bean Burgers anyway and eat them regardless.

Edited June 23, 2020 by FelatioLips

[Chris B]

Some store's own-brand options are pretty good. It's been a while since we've had any fake mince, but I remember the Morrison's own-brand being pretty good.

[Ronnie]

21 minutes ago, FelatioLips said:

Quorn Nuggets are as good as, if not better than chicken nuggets because they're not even real chicken anyway.

That's pretty much the reason for the sausages being so good, I imagine. If a real sausage tastes great (and plenty are bland, of course) then that should be easy to replicate because it's not as though it's down to the presence of meat, is it?

[Loki]

I might have to try Quorn nuggets.  We've tried making bolognese and lasagna with Quorn mince and it's a miserable experience.  Better to just use mushrooms, which actually have some fucking flavour.

My favourite veggie dish atm that Mrs Loki makes is the first one here:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/27/yotam-ottolenghi-30-minute-recipes-beans-leeks-eggs-fried-tofu-salmon-potato-bake

Spicy cannellini beans, leeks and eggs

Besides the leeks, it's basically a store cupboard recipe, and if you like chilli (which I do) you can whack a fair amount it.

[Chest Rockwell]

16 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

That's pretty much the reason for the sausages being so good, I imagine. If a real sausage tastes great (and plenty are bland, of course) then that should be easy to replicate because it's not as though it's down to the presence of meat, is it?

Nah. The reason is that textures are harder to replicate than flavours, and a mushy sausage or nugget texture is much easier to mimic than a piece of meat.

[Rey_Piste]

4 minutes ago, Loki said:

I might have to try Quorn nuggets.  We've tried making bolognese and lasagna with Quorn mince and it's a miserable experience.  Better to just use mushrooms, which actually have some fucking flavour.

That's part of the reason I will use cut up courgettes and aubergine when doing a veggie spag bol. The main thing is once the aubergine is cubed to liberally salt and to fry it in a bit more oil than you would think since it will absorb a lot of it.

[wordsfromlee]

I’ve found that the trick with Quorn mince is to not cook it like meat. 

If you’re making a bolognese or chilli or something, make the sauce but stick the Quorn mince in right at the end for about 10 minutes just to warm through. Any longer than that and it just turns to mush. 

[Carbomb]

36 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

I’ve found that the trick with Quorn mince is to not cook it like meat. 

If you’re making a bolognese or chilli or something, make the sauce but stick the Quorn mince in right at the end for about 10 minutes just to warm through. Any longer than that and it just turns to mush. 

This makes so much sense, I'm almost kicking myself for not having considered that before. I make the same kind of adjustments when I make vegetable dishes, it should follow that the same would apply to meat substitutes. 

Thanks for that. I'm going to try it out. 

[tiger_rick]

3 hours ago, Loki said:

I might have to try Quorn nuggets.  We've tried making bolognese and lasagna with Quorn mince and it's a miserable experience.  Better to just use mushrooms, which actually have some fucking flavour.

I've done a lasagne and cottage pie with quorn and it's been ok. Did a Chilli that was a bit shit. I much prefer using vegetables instead. Similarly, I much prefer the vegetable "sausages" to any fake ones. Vegetables are great. Just eat them.

[King Coconut]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Vegetables are great. Just eat them.

And if you can, grow them! It makes them greater. 

[CavemanLynn]

2 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

And if you can, grow them! It makes them greater. 

Agreed! I'm so used to shop-bought stuff pissing out water as soon as you show it a picture of fire. I mentioned my spinach earlier; we're so accustomed to wheelbarrowloads wilting away to nothing in the pan, but the first time I cooked up a batch of mine, it didn't go anywhere! Just a plateful of scrummy ironny green goodness.

I've never got on with Quorn - it always left me gassy - but Sainsburys shroomdogs are great. I've not had one in a year, but I remember Iceland's No-Bull burgers being spectacular.