Recently, a lot of big names have been telling us that eating meat is bad for the environment. And, if we aren't ready to give it up, we should at least be trying to eat it a little less often. But how? What is replacing meat in your household?
We're vegetarian, and in our house there is usually no "meat replacement." We simply leave the meat out and instead, eat a larger amount of beans, grains, dairy, and veggies. However, on some nights we just want a burger (or, more likely, a BLT). And that's where the fake meat enters the picture.
We do eat a fair amount of soy/seitan products that are processed to taste like meat. We're addicted to Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patties. But we feel a little bit of guilt when we pop one into the microwave. We're happy that these alternatives exist (it's nice to have some variety) but is it a good idea to take meat out of the diet and replace it with processed food?
Does your family eat "fake meat"?
We just recently came across an interesting post on the subject at GOOD magazine's blog. The author, Michael Keating, suggests that tofu/seitan/veggie burgers could be just the thing, given the right circumstances, to wean all of us off real meat.
What do you think?
(Image: Flickr member sweetonveg licensed for use under Creative Commons)
8 Secret Spots to Hide Valuables at Home
The Live/Work Studio of Robert Siegel Handmade Ceramics
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Howard Butcher Bloc...
10 Easy Vacation Meals to Feed a Crowd
Recipe: Chopped Brown Rice Salad with Grapes and Pecans
I think that they are fine in certain circumstances. Eating out, I've been known to get a veggie burger on the menu, which is usually a Gardenburger or equivalent. And my kids love Quorn chicken nugget-like things. They've never had the evil McDonald's equivalent but maybe it's just part of being a kid?
We don't buy it a lot and really don't miss it.
We eat Qorn on an almost daily basis. Although we're great cooks and love to cook, we don't have a lot of time on the week nights to put something together. So pasta/sandwich/burger/salad PLUS fake meat = delicious, easy, fast meal with enough protein.
On a side note, I have found that, as a vegetarian, some meat eaters are more comfortable eating meat around me if I'm eating a meat substitute. Like, hey, we're all having burgers! Or meatballs! Or chicken tenders! Not that I want to make meat eaters feel better, but it's another case for the fake meat.
I eat real meat and meat substitutes, but I avoid fake meat products that contain soy protein concentrate or isolate.
My main objection to fake meat is that it is processed food, which I try to avoid. However, I am fine with eating it occasionally. Trader Joe's chickenless strips are pretty good if you're craving a chicken pot pie, for example. But I don't really eat fake meat more than once a month or so.
And I wouldn't put tofu and tempeh in the same category -- those are not processed foods, and have been eaten in other parts of the world for many, many years.
www.vegrun.blogspot.com
I almost always eat meat-light, if not completely vegetarian, but cooking for my boyfriend made things difficult. In November, I proposed we try a vegetarian month until Thanksgiving, so I could show him how many good meals are vegetarian (luckily he likes almost everything).
We made falafel, eggplant parmesan, and a lot of other good stuff that was vegetarian to begin with.
Faking out the meat seems to be a big barrier for people, so why not stick to meals that were never intended to have meat in the first place? Instead of "veggie burgers" make black bean burgers, or grilled portobellas. And I agree with Susmita, I don't consider Tofu and TVP to both be in the same category. In some places, after all, meat would be considered a "tofu substitute"
I think Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is an AWESOME resource for anyone even just looking to eat less meat, not necessarily go completely vegetarian.
I'm a mostly vegetarian married to someone who's anything but, and trying to come up with ways to feed him has been a challenge. Meat substitutes mostly don't work for us, he can pick them out a mile away, and I worry about all that processed soy.
So far, I've found the best balance in learning more Indian and Thai recipes, because the teensy tiniest amount of meat/poultry can go a really long way.
I personally think if people went back to seeing meat as a treat, not an entitlement to gorge on at every meal, raising it might not cause so many problems.
As a vegan, I mostly skip the meat substitutes because many of them contain dairy/egg anyway and they're just not as good as homemade beans and grains. However, I will say that Daiya and Dr. Cow helped wean me off real cheese, which I think is harder to part with than meat.
As a lover of Qorn products, I find them to be delicious, not really healthy, and very processed/packaged. I don't consider this to be an 'answer' to anything besides my junk food craving.
For the last couple of years, I have been reducing the amount of meat I eat, and for my vegetarian meals, I never use meat substitutes. They kind of gross me out for some reason - they seem so fake. Eating them would seem to be at odds with why I am trying to eat more vegetarian meals - to have more healthy, low processed foods.
If I never ate meat, I might give them a try, but at this point, don't see any need to.
Ditto cicero.
We are vegan and near-vegetarian in my house, and we find that home made whole foods taste better, are more nutritious, and visiting meat-eaters are more open-minded toward trying them.
That said, the occasional box of "chicken" nuggets for the kiddos or chili "dogs" for us are within the realm of a balanced diet. We consider them treats.
For us the problem with meat substitute is that they set wrong expectations: we expect the texture AND taste of meat...and it never happens.
When we really want meat, every coupe of weeks, we buy real meat or fish, as natural as we can find.
The rest of the time we cook Indian, Thai, Morrocan and bean burgers. For the kids (if dinner is too spicy for them) I frequently mix in the blender 1 cup of cooked white beans (or other beans), 1 cup of rice, 1 cup of veggies. I add oatmeal or bread crumbs if it's too wet and shape into patties, dredge in flour or bread crumbs and cook in a pan with a little bit of oil. They call them nuggets and love them.
We save so much money by eating less meat and cooking from scratch that when we do eat meat we can afford the best, it's a real treat.
I am not vegetarian, but my boyfriend is, and we have meat substitute all the time. People who say that it doesn't have the texture of real meat are totally wrong. I've had fake roasts, chicken, pork, and fish that have been convincingly meaty in taste and texture, though its not always the case. Luckily living in Los Angeles we have lots of vegetarian options. I personally think fake meat is a great option.
i don't buy packaged "faux meat" meals at a grocery store, but at a restaurant i am apt to eat a faux meat meal, especially if I am in a mixed group with non-veggies. It's comforting to them to eat a faux mushroom burger or meatball sub and a good way to introduce vegetarian food.
I don't do fake meat. We eat beans when we want a protein in our dinner that isn't fish or meat. We probably only eat meat once a week, and have no problem not eating it at all.
Part of our household's conversion to vegetarianism involved a caveat: we would not turn to meat replacements. Sure, we eat the occasional veggie burger or tofu, but only when we're dining out. At home, we cook solely with unprocessed foods. We agreed that part of our move to vegetarianism was to eliminate anything that had been processed and instead turn to a purer way of eating.
I bought Smart Dogs once but they didn't go over so well.... It might be because the memory of meat (good meat, that is) remains with our tastebuds, and we recent converts just can't quite replace it with anything. :)
Tofu isn't really a meat replacement. It's in a category of its own.
I eat fake meats once in a while but I mostly stick to real food. I've been a vegetarian for 5 years now and I've just learn to cook with legumes, grains, and veggies. I don't find the meat replacements necessary to get protein or to make a meal. But I do see the attraction when you're eating out. Sometimes it's the only option if iceberg lettuce with microscopic shreds of carrot aren't going to cut it.
I've been a vegetarian for over 10 years and my husband has been nearly vegetarian for the 7 years we've been together. We cook all veggie at home and are raising our kids as vegetarians. For the most part I stay away from fake meat products because I don't really understand the appeal. If you've gone veggie for environmental reasons it makes sense to cut out processed foods as much as possible. If you've done it for health reasons, is it really nutritionally better to eat some Yves faux chicken strips than it is to eat a real chicken breast? Many of the fake meat products are loaded with sodium and unpronounceable ingredients.
We eat mostly whole grains, veggies, fruit, beans and legumes with some dairy and tofu. I don't see anything wrong with having the occasional soy burger or some TVP in a casserole, but I don't want to rely on them as key components of our diet. Instead we make veggie burgers from black beans, veggies, and a grain. We do like Tofurky sausages... yum! But we just eat them a few times a year.
I would try to determine all the nutrients in meat that you may be craving and find vegan alternatives. Maybe you just need a good blast of oils, fats, protein, salt and calories. I like making spaghetti and with lots of oil with a veggie burger crumbled up in it when I need something extra rich.
Heavily processed soy is incredibly bad for you. Stick to more natural soy products - like tempeh and tofu.
Fake meat is a good thing to rely on when you're transitioning, but the reality is that it's not healthy. It's sort of like Velveeta. I mean the soy products have to go through such lengths to become sausages and tofurkey.
Tempeh and some tofu (if you can find an Asian market that makes their own, it's the best) is great. It's basically simple production and thus retains the nutrients without adding garbage.
But Silk, Morning Star, all that- should be treated like junk food. Eat sparingly. Fun treats, better than Mc Donald's, but really not a great thing to have in a regular diet.
If you're worried about protein, legumes- beans, lentils, etc, have plenty. And if you aren't into those, spring $15 a month for protein powder and make good smoothies. I buy frozen fruit and yogurt, some almond milk, and protein powder, like once a month, and the smoothies turn out great. (Oster blenders are fantastic for them.)
I agree with many commenters. Those 'fake meats' are highly processed and fake foods to be enjoyed sparingly. And I always avoid the fake meats that are made to taste like actual meat- that is just gross.
Except for tofu, tempeh and seitan in their purest forms- steer clear of those packaged 'meats'! I like to make my own 'veggie burgers' out of leftover rice and beans- they're super tasty and easy.
I don't like the idea of buying fake, processed stuff to replace meat...I'd rather spend the $ on a piece of organic, local meat. So we mostly go without, and we're both fine with that. But then again we aren't anti-meat...just anti-meat food system in general.
Late post, but wanted to share with latecomers (anyone who finds this link through a google search, perhaps) my fake-meat discovery that for me has made giving up chicken much, much easier. Vegeusa, sold in Whole Foods, has a vegetarian chicken drumstick product (see link below) that is out of this world. It comes with sauce but it's so good I've never even bothered to try the sauce.
Frankly, probably wouldn't have thought to try this product if a family member hadn't bought them for me one evening. After all, fake meat, as everyone above has said, doesn't usually have much subtlety of flavor; esp for chicken, it's just kind of chewy and salty. But the Vegeusa things are unlike any I've ever tried. They've actually changed my diet-- they're almost my go-to comfort food when I'm in a rush and want, well, chicken, if I still was eating chicken (ie, at least once a week).
Try them. Swear you won't regret it. It's an absolutely divine product. I microwave 2-3 of the (frozen) drumsticks for 1 minute and then fry them up in a teeny bit of olive oil. Crispy boneless chicken experience, tender, with that kind of tough shredding experience that most fake meat doesn't give. (!) Hey, sometimes having a substitute is the key to staying on the wagon....
http://vegeusa.com/VegeUSA/products/vege_drumsticks.html
I am a vegetarian going on 13 years, made the change for ethical and environmental reasons. I enjoy mock meats regularly, mostly from Yves, Morning Star Farms and The Veggie Patch. Even though some feel that these are somewhat unhealthy and in the "processed" category, I have no problem with it. I totally support the efforts of companies and their innovative and alternative line of mock meats. If you have mock meat alternatives, then you really don't have to eat meat anymore. I just found out about a company called, VegeUSA (http://vegeusa.com) and heard you can find their products at Whole Foods. Their mock meats sound awesome and I can't wait to try them! Live and Let Live!