Veggie food for meat eaters

[AmateurAgitator]

Especially kid friendly stuff - my kids like processed meat products

We've been low meat/pescetarian for a while but giving up ham, bacon, sausages etc has been a sticking point.
Since Christmas we've been trying various products, some more successfully than others.

So far winners have been:
Quorn burgers
Quorn chicken nuggets (also use quorn chicken pieces for curry/stirfry)
Quorn pepper & spinach chicken slices

Richmond sausages
Linda McCartney sausage rolls

Gosh cocktail sausages

Things that haven't gone down so well:
Jackfruit (they didn't hate it so might just need to find the right recipe)
Quorn ham
Quorn mince

Has anyone found good substitutes for bacon, ham or mince? Or any other suggestions?
Also a nice nut roast or roast dinner food?

I've found the the This Isn't Bacon from Tesco is good. You don't get much of it though, and it's pricey, but it's very much like actual crispy bacon. Tesco also do nice Plant Chef sausages and other good vegan stuff. Quorn cocktail sausages are nice aswell.

Tesco also do a nice vegan spicy mushroom and sourdough pizza. It's spicy in a mild way though. I like to grate mature vegan cheese on to it before I pop it in the oven. It's so good.

By the way, this is the big Tesco I am referring to.

 

[zora]

I'm also a meat-reducer rather than actual vegetarian - for anything ragu-ish, like for spag bol, lasagne and shepherds pie, I have just been using green lentils instead of mince or meat substitutes for several years. Texturally similar enough for me, and the flavour tends to be all in the tomatoes, cheese and herbs anyway.

 

[hitmouse]

Oh, the McCartney fake shredded duck you can get in big Tescos is good imo. Not really the same as mince but I suppose serves like a mince-like function in terms of being something that you can stir into other things?

 

[Poot]

My quorn-hating son likes big lentils - the brown ones that you soak overnight - in a shepherds pie like zora says. Lots of (veggie) gravy and some diced carrot is the key.

For fast food, he likes anything with cheese and pastry (obvs!) and of course pizza. Naked Glory sausages are popular and he will either love or hate a beanburger in a bun depending on which way the wind is blowing that day.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Inspired by this I tried the Quorn steak and gravy pies I had in the freezer. The actual meat substitute part was fine, but there was a slight bitter aftertaste and too much pepper for my taste.
I didn’t like the pastry either, though I expect that wasn’t because it was veggie. It was just really hard, which isn’t my preference at all.

Not a fan of pretty much any supermarket pie tbh. All lacking a certain something usually size of moistness or flavour of all the above.

 

[spanglechick]

Not a fan of pretty much any supermarket pie tbh. All lacking a certain something usually size of moistness or flavour of all the above.

While that’s probably true, I only ever get to eat supermarket pies for 90% of my pie consumption, so I’m comparing like with like in that regard. Tbf, I only eat pies a handful of times a year.

 

[Pickman's model]

Many meat eaters are very partial to chips and will often be happy to eat them without meat or even fish

Try fried halloumi in place of meat

Children may not mind the absence of meat in eg stir fries

 

[nogojones]

I'm also a meat-reducer rather than actual vegetarian - for anything ragu-ish, like for spag bol, lasagne and shepherds pie, I have just been using green lentils instead of mince or meat substitutes for several years. Texturally similar enough for me, and the flavour tends to be all in the tomatoes, cheese and herbs anyway.

Them smallgreen/black lentils have a much better texture and taste than any veggie mince

 

[Thora]

The meatless mince was really good, loads better than quorn.

We had some Vegilantes Thai chicken satay things last night which my 10 year old loved (I thought they were ok). He said he thought he wouldn’t like being a vegetarian because he hates vegetables, but actually lots of the food is delicious AND you’re helping the planet

 

[Wolveryeti]

Especially kid friendly stuff - my kids like processed meat products

We've been low meat/pescetarian for a while but giving up ham, bacon, sausages etc has been a sticking point.
Since Christmas we've been trying various products, some more successfully than others.

So far winners have been:
Quorn burgers
Quorn chicken nuggets (also use quorn chicken pieces for curry/stirfry)
Quorn pepper & spinach chicken slices

Richmond sausages
Linda McCartney sausage rolls

Gosh cocktail sausages

Things that haven't gone down so well:
Jackfruit (they didn't hate it so might just need to find the right recipe)
Quorn ham
Quorn mince

Has anyone found good substitutes for bacon, ham or mince? Or any other suggestions?
Also a nice nut roast or roast dinner food?

We are in the same boat. Love the taste of meat, cant really justify eating it often.

We have tried a lot of veggie minces. Best tasting is Vivera in my view.

Best fake bacon is 'This isn't Bacon.

Don't tend to buy in nut roasts but veggie haggis would probably be my first port of call - they are pretty nice and basically the same thing afaik.

 

[kalidarkone]

Heck do different "sausages" that are green etc
Loads of stuff in sainsbury's yesterday, even richmond doing vegan sausages now

I cant tell the difference between Richmond veggy sausages and Richmond meat ones. I dont think the meat ones have much meat in them.....they were always the ultimate cheap sausage- perfect in a FEB as a hangover cure.

 

[kalidarkone]

I had a waggama take away last night and had a vegan sticky ribs dish which was absolutely amazing- the texture was like pork belly but with more meat and less fat...

 

[Little Piranha]

These are my mum's two nut roast recipes, both very good. She's been making the veggie one for years and I have made it as the veggy alternative for friends many times. She turned vegan recently so has started using the second recipe and now she says she prefers it, although I haven't actually had it yet myself.




*She uses Weetabix instead of wheat germ in the first recipe, and they can also be used instead of breadcrumbs in the second one.

Also, some fried diced mushroom or aubergine in the first recipe is really good if you can be bothered.

I highly doubt she is bothering with sage oil, especially considering the bizarre health warning!

 

[Thora]

I'm low on ingredients (no mushrooms!) but I do have nuts and breadcrumbs so I might have a go at this vegan one Easy nut roast

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Viveria chicken tenders (from Sainsburies) work well in curries, fajitas, goulash etc. Make sure you pan fry them a bit first though. Linda McCartney frozen mince works well in chilli, spaghetti bol etc. imo. Fry's chicken nuggets are good. I hear people like richmond veggie sausages. Torfurky do good sandwich fillings.

 

[seeformiles]

Many meat eaters are very partial to chips and will often be happy to eat them without meat or even fish

Try fried halloumi in place of meat

Children may not mind the absence of meat in eg stir fries

O
If using haloumi it’s best to take its salt content into account when using as a meat substitute. I neglected to do this once and the unfortunate diners’ reaction put me in mind of this..

 

[zora]

Don't tend to buy in nut roasts but veggie haggis would probably be my first port of call - they are pretty nice and basically the same thing afaik.

Gonna make this for Burns night on Monday Janet Henderson’s Vegetarian Haggis - Scottish Food Guide

 

[Hollis]

Sainsbury's Plant Pioneer vegan steaks
Sainsbury's Plant Pioneer cumberland shroomdogs
Tesco Plant Chef - Cumberland Style bangers

My other recent change is having veggie or onion gravey on stuff... certainly helps get the veggies down.

Err, lots of this Leon Love Burger Sauce as well...

Sainsbury's online Grocery Shopping and Fresh Food Delivery

 

[A380]

Ms 747 and MsA320 are veggie and vegan respectively.

This isn’t bacon and this isn’t chicken - in white boxes both pretty good. Plant people mince so good in chilli and spaghetti Bol I don’t bother with meat any more.

Surprisingly, I don’t like KFC, but MsA320 lusts after their Veggan burger. It’s the one thing that overcomes her politics in relation to fast food. I must say I prefer it to their chicken products.

 

[moonsi til]

These sausages were lush, I got from Sainsbury’s but prob available elsewhere.

 

[Grace Johnson]

Plant Pioneers bacon is lovely. I have no idea if it's like actual bacon, though

It's nothing like actual bacon. I like it though, it tastes a bit like then crisps you get after swimming when your a kid.

This is the closest one to bacon I've found but it's a bit pricy considering how much you actually get. Need a full pack for a decent buttie really.

 

[moose]

This is the closest one to bacon I've found

Now I realise why I don't like that one. It smells kind of fishy!

 

[Grace Johnson]

Now I realise why I don't like that one. It smells kind of fishy!

It's a mad one that. I have heard that a lot. Seems All the people who haven't really ate meat before say it tastes fishy and off but all the people who have eaten meat until quite recently love it. Not even sure I want to know what's in it now

 

[Poot]

This stuff was amazing - we all agreed, even the meat eaters. You can eat it straight out of the pack if you're a bit of a gannet

 

[stavros]

What's struck me, looking round various supermarkets (Coop, Tesco, Waitrose), is how almost all meat substitutes come in plastic packaging, non-recyclable round my way. The exception is the McCartney sausages, which are just in a cardboard box (they're also on special offer at the moment at my local Coop, so I'm stocking up the freezer).

Am I looking in the wrong place? Does further non-wasteful packaging of faux meat exist?

 

[killer b]

It's pretty difficult to sell pre-prepared wet-ish food in anything other than plastic I'd imagine, needs to be sealed against bacteria and the like - This isn't... do fake chicken pieces (pretty good ones) in a cardboard box, but I've not seen a whole lot else.

 

[stavros]

It's pretty difficult to sell pre-prepared wet-ish food in anything other than plastic I'd imagine, needs to be sealed against bacteria and the like

Unless it's frozen, which the sausages I'm talking about are. There are other vege sausages, next to the McCartney ones, but they all use plastic, so on which is recyclable, but not the film you peel back.