Quorn & Battery Eggs

[MonkeyDrummer]

you are right, it was a nice letter and i have got answers and i can carry on eating Quorn. Interestingly my girlfriend wrote to them at pretty much the same time, hers was an arse-kissing letter, mine was stick you fake meat up your arse basically, and only i have got a response.

when i turned veggie for the first two weeks I craved meat and felt tired. After two weeks though I was gagging at the sight of meat.

have a go, a little test for yourself and let me know how you get on. Quorn burgers tend to be the best for taste if you have it with cheese and sauces etc. You'll barely notice the difference. Quorn chicken's nice, but it's obviously fake and i haven't tried meat-free lamb.

[TraceyQ]

Ok, right. I'm suffering with a cold at the minute so I'm going to start this experiment next Monday for two weeks. Hopefully I should actually be able to taste my food by then.

[Krang]

I think i could give up meat fairly easilly....
vegetable stirfry, pasta, pizza. mmm....

[gazzyk1ns]

MonkeyDrummer, you must have to be very careful with, or completely avoid, pasta too?

[MonkeyDrummer]

MonkeyDrummer, you must have to be very careful with, or completely avoid, pasta too?

bastard. i didn't think of that! shit, shit, shit. Fuck it, pass the steak.

[mook]

Dry pasta made with durum wheat doesn't have to contain eggs, though it must have yeast in it so I guess that's out for vegans. I could be wrong on this though.

Quorn turkey rasher, what the fuck is that about. Who are they aiming that product at? It won't appeal to "omnivores" surely, they can get there fix of fried salty goodness from proper bacon. Why don't they just make the mushroom based stuff in convenient bread shaped slices and be done with it.

[Ambient Sheep]

I'm thinking of doing a The Spark type experiment. Go veggie for two weeks. See if I miss eating meat at all. What do you lot reckon? I love a good burger, me, and chicken and I adore roast lamb. I'm really starting to wonder how I'd get on if I was meat-free for a fortnight.

Good on you for preparing to have a go, but it sounds to me - and apologies if I'm wrong - that you're going to make the classic mistake of just dropping meat, or replacing meat with meat substitutes like Quorn.  This is fine, but having identical meals with different "meat" will probably just remind you of the real meat you're probably missing.

What you should do is cook in entirely different styles, so that you're not having the same meals that you would normally have meat with, doing more veggy-style food, like pasta salads.  (Of course, if you *already* have pasta-salads with chicken in, this breaks down, I suppose, but you know what I'm saying.)

It was easy for me because I went veggie when I left home.  Although I was already going off meat when I was living with my parents, my mum, a meat-and-two-veg traditionalist, was (and still is) bemused at how to cook any vegetarian meal apart from veggie lasagne, which she does do superbly.  I left home to move in with a veggie girlfriend who cooked different styles of food, like the pasta salads previously mentioned, along with various rice dishes, curries, and yes, Quorn as well.  I can honestly say that I hardly missed meat all the time we were together.

Sorry if any of this is insulting or obvious.  Even if you can't change the format of your meals for family reasons, I think it'd be interesting for you to give it a go.  You do miss it quite a lot at first, but rapidly get used to, in fact prefer, it if the cooking's good enough.

[TraceyQ]

Well, this is what I'm thinking. First off, I'm a terrible cook. I just cant do it. secondly, my diet is terrible. I do eat a lot of salad actually *with* my meals but I mostly survive on tins of soup, pre packed sandwiches and processed shite I can bung in the oven that I know the kids will eat without a fuss (chicken nuggets, fish fingers, burgers, etc.). Maybe this will give me the spur to learn to cook. (I'm also learning to drive (again) at the minute, but that's another story).

[Ambient Sheep]

Well, this is what I'm thinking. First off, I'm a terrible cook. I just cant do it.

Gosh, you mean you're NOT perfect after all?  ;-) x lots

...secondly, my diet is terrible. I do eat a lot of salad actually *with* my meals but I mostly survive on tins of soup, pre packed sandwiches and processed shite I can bung in the oven that I know the kids will eat without a fuss (chicken nuggets, fish fingers, burgers, etc.).

Well you can get veggy equivalents of all of those.  In particular the fish-finger-lookalikes (that are actually full of peas, sweetcorn, etc.) are bloody nice and I often prefer them to fish-fingers anyway.  Linda McCartney English sausages are excellent (I can't tell them apart from a real sausage, proving that it's all in the seasoning), and her burgers aren't bad either.

In a way perhaps it'll be easier for you than I thought...if you're NOT used to cooking "proper" stuff for yourself all the time (you mentioned roast lamb, y'see) then you just change the contents of your freezer-oven-plate (like me!) shopping basket.

Maybe this will give me the spur to learn to cook.

Well that's a good idea, if you have the time to do it.  At this point I should confidently whip out a title of some veggie cookbook or other, but I can't, sorry.  :-(

[Gazeuse]

Most dried pasta is 100% duram wheat so it's fine for vegans. Vegans eat yeast too btw...Or at least I do.

As far as going veggie goes TQ, good luck with it. I didn't miss meat at all when I started. Cooking is much easier because the cooking times are much easier to cope with...You don't have to cook out all of the bugs that could be lurking in meat, so getting everything cooked at the same time is much easier.

One thing I do try to do is make sure that I have a good mix of proteins (From a mix of pulses, nuts & seeds and grains) every day.

You never know, you could end up as slim as me!!!

[gazzyk1ns]

Ah right, didn't know that dried pasta didn't contain egg, I always get fresh stuff. Not because I have poncy standards, but because it only takes a couple of minutes of boiling to be ready.

[Synchronised Cocks]

Well, this is what I'm thinking. First off, I'm a terrible cook. I just cant do it. secondly, my diet is terrible. I do eat a lot of salad actually *with* my meals but I mostly survive on tins of soup, pre packed sandwiches and processed shite I can bung in the oven that I know the kids will eat without a fuss (chicken nuggets, fish fingers, burgers, etc.). Maybe this will give me the spur to learn to cook. (I'm also learning to drive (again) at the minute, but that's another story).

Here's some meal ideas for easy make meals.

1. Realeat Vege-Bites chicken style nuggets, Heinz spaghetti, Smash mash.

Same as Chicken nuggets, spaghetti and mash really!

2. Quorn pieces, Mushrooms, Pasta shapes (Penne rigate is good for this), Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

Put pasta on to cook in water with a veggie stock cube added and a splash of olive oil.

Fry the Quorn Pieces for about 8 minutes in olive oil, then add the mushrooms (chopped) to the frying pan and fry for a few minutes until they become cooked.  Pour on the Cream of musroom soup (if concentrated then add a tinfull of water). Lightly fold in the mixture until the soup becomes smooth and even.

Pour the cooked pasta into the frying pan along with the stock (if there's not to much liquid left, use your own judgement), another splash of olive oil then lightly fold the pasta into the mix.

Bring up the heat and stir a bit until bubbling through, then serve.

3. Tesco Vegetarian Burgers. (made by Tival for Tesco and work out tons cheaper than the same Tival brand burgers from Holland and Barrett). Look and taste just like standard economy Beef burgers. When I first bought some years ago I was wondering if there actually was chopped lamb in them as the taste and texture is just so similar. Serve with baked beans and Smash mash.

There's loads of things you can do with a bag of Soya mince.
4. Make cheap pot noodle by the gallon.
5. Chilli con Carne (without the Carne but use Soya instead).
6. Add it to a vegetable and chick pea curry.
7. Spaghetti Bolognese, make your own or buy Heinz meat free Spaghetti bolognese.

To make the Soya mince taste good use a frying pan to heat the water and add in a veggie stock cube or cubes depending on how much mince you do (OXO or Knorr are nice). A sprinkle of chilli powder (I like to add in a level teaspoon full but I like things hot) a splash or two of olive oil and a big whoosh of Amoy Dark soy sauce. When this mixture is well dissolved and starting to boil then add in the dry soy mince. Stir a while, add more water if neccesary and stir till boiling again then reduce the heat and the mince is ready when soft to the core and not hard and chewy.

8. Cottage Pie.
Add to the mince as prepared above, a tin of Heinz Country Vegetable Soup, stir it in and heat it through. Pour the mixture into enamelled pie dishes and top with mashed potato, then put under grill until browned (a bit of egg brushed on the mash helps with this last bit).

9. Quorn make a nice Quorn roast that once sliced thinly is just like chicken. It's great in sandwiches or for Sunday lunch with vegetables and stuffing.

10. Quorn Southern Style Burgers, baked beans and chips. These are just like Bernard Matthews Turkey Steaks used to be (probably still are?).

Go on give it a go.

:-)

[jimbobsyouruncle]

Been a vege for about 10 years now... no fish, no meat... but theres the constant dilemma as to what you get served at restaurants, geletine, rennet and god knows what else are just fancy names for bits of animal, but you can't go asking every waiter whats in the food.

So for me I just make the vege decision where I can, and live with the fact that Im in a minority and that theres some give and take that goes along with it. Everyone draws their own line for food, some dont eat meat, some don't eat brussel sprouts.

The post about seitan. I spent a lot of time in Singapore recently and the BEST vege food for me has to be chinese/taiwanese. They seem to be able to create such authentic meat-free dishes that even hardened meat eaters have trouble telling the difference. Vege restaurants have the bizarre habit of calling meaels by their meat names, so Lemon Chicken, Spare Ribs etc are all on the menu, but are really meat-free.  I even got to try vege frogs-legs while there, although having never eaten normal frogs legs I can't vouch for their authenticity.

Since I got back Ive been checking every chinese supermarket here for the stuff you can get there, but no luck ouside of the tinned stuff already mentioned.  Anyone know of a place in London where they sell this stuff ?

[Ambient Sheep]

BUMP - how did you get on, TraceyQ?  Or didn't you?