Alternative foods you've tried in an effort to go plant based?

JessBbody · September 2020

Let me preface this by saying I am not (yet) trying to adopt a plant based diet.
I'm giving myself 5 years and a whole lot of documentaries like What The Health and
Cowspiracy.

But, more for reducing my meat consumption's impact on the earth (climate, etc), I am trying to eat more plant based food. This is a *kitten* because I truly love meat. I mean, burgers are my favorite food.

Here are a couple of things I've tried that are designed to replace popular foods made with meat and dairy:

Whole Foods brand plant based burger "meat". This is WFs version of the Impossible Burger. Out of 1 lb of this stuff, I ate 3 patties as burgers and threw the fourth away. I couldn't handle it any more. The stuff had chunks of fatty gristle and I swear there was a crunch when I ate it. Didn't enjoy at all.

Follow Your Heart cream "cheese". I think it's soy based. Tastes okay. Nothing like the real thing.

Trader Joe's Organic creamy cashew yogurt alternative in vanilla bean. Tasty, vanilla-y, but lacking in texture of yogurt. It had the texture of melted ice cream. And only 3 grams of protein.

I'm going to very slowly start incorporating these foods into my diet.
curious to see who else is trying different plant based alternatives.

Anything highly recommended?

AwesomeSquirrel · September 2020

Honestly I think you’d do better to learn and enjoy plant based foods in their own rights instead of searching for meat substitutes.

If you love your beef burger, maybe that doesn’t need to be the first to go, but start swapping out other meals and recipes for plant based ones. I started out by inverting meatless mondays, so I’d only have an animal based protein one day a week.

The solution to wanting cream cheese as a sandwich topping isn’t IMO to find plant based cream cheese but to find another topping you enjoy. If you don’t already have a food processor/food processor attachment for your stick blender I’d recommend getting one. Many delightful spreads can be whipped up at home.

My current sandwich obsession is lightly fried Savoy cabbage and onion with mustard and a splash of (oat) cream and sometimes a bit of nutritional yeast.

Instead of fake yoghurt, perhaps you’d enjoy a snack like chia pudding?

nooshi713 · September 2020

I used to love burgers too. I’m not a huge fan of fake meats. I do like the Impossible Burger. I also like homemade black bean burgers better than any fake meat burger. I make them with black beans, some oats, flour, chia, greens, and seasonings in a food processor.

littlegreenparrot1 · September 2020

Having tried all of them I prefer oat mylk and coconut yoghurt.

There isn't really good cheese substitutes, there's a cream cheese one I like but I'm in the UK so it won't apply for you.
I would just lean in and have hummus instead.

I agree about the meat substitutes, never that tasty to me. Much better off just using something else and not trying to replicate it.

I found the easiest approach was just cooking more plant based foods, you find recipes you like and it just starts to crowd out the rest.

AndreaTamira · September 2020

Vegan for several years now. - I have tried some strange things. Vegan cheeses that tasted like chalk, vegan cheeses that tasted like cheese (agreed on by my omini mum), but rather boring cheese, even vegan cheeses that tasted cheese-like and good. The last sort were generally nut cheeses that went through the whole culturing process.

I have tried my way through meat replacement products, and bean burgers, nut roasts, milks, and yoghurt alternatives.

I have tried nutritional yeast, seitan, smoked tofu, raw vegan cheese cake, aquafaba chocolate mousse, and more.

I now know:

I prefer oat milk over most other milks. It also generally tastes ok no matter the brand, while things like soy milk vary a lit in taste.

I dont mind many meat alternatives, and like quite a few, but I dont need them.

Hummus makes a good alternative to cream cheese. It's also pretty easy to make yourself.

Homemade cashew cream cheese, whiie high in calories, tastes pretty good. It's not the same taste as dairy cream cheese but, to me, it hits the same spot.

Store bought seitan is overpriced.

Nutritional yeast is a great seasoning that can add some cheesy, nutty flavour to food and can somewhat mellow and round out tonato sauces.

Falafel burgers are really tasty.

I am a freaking vegan cheese snob. I dont consider most cheese alternatives "cheese", truly. Only very few.They generally are quite expensive.

Coconut yoghurt tastes the best of vegan yoghurts, but it is the highest in calories, too.

Ben and Jerry's vegan ice cream is nice, as are the vegan Magnums. Duck Island has some great stuff, too, but that is NZ specific, so not applicable for most of the world.

Smoked tofu tastes surprisingly boring for something smoked.

Aquafaba is a great alternative to egg whites when baking (you can make freaking macaroons with that stuff!), but I have no clue how to log its calories.

caffeinetanya · September 2020

When I went plant based-I didn’t buy any substitutes for six months. Why? Because I didn’t want to compare it to meat. I wanted to forget what meat/cheese tasted like. So I learned to cook plant based meals, from scratch. It’s actually how I really taught myself to cook.

Nowadays I grab veggies burgers, and vegan cheeses but I’m very particular. I know what I like and what I don’t (ie I vastly prefer nut based cultures cheese but grab daiya mozzarella for things like a grilled cheese or garlic fingers). I don’t like garden burgers. It just is what it is. It took me about 10 times to cook tofu in a way I like. Now I cook it in so many different ways. My best advice is to start with extra firm. Freeze it then thaw it. Lightly press out the water, then marinate it. If you want to fry it up extra crispy-toss it in some cornstarch. Now a days I’m a bit obsessed with medium firm tofu that I make into faux chicken. Never ever though I’d like medium firm tofu. (Search Mary’s Test Kitchen on YouTube. I follow her crispy tofu chicken technique-she also veganizes a lot of Asian foods too).

My advice is make some meals that don’t need a meat substitute. My husband and I lived off of stir fry’s and curries in our 20s (he was a chef so didn’t like cooking at home). We would add some tofu or chickpeas. If he wanted some meat (most of the time he doesn’t care) he’s cook it up on the side. Falafel burgers with Thai chilli sauce was one of my fave ways to have veggie burgers for a long time.

Season foods with things you would season meat with. For example, I associate poultry seasoning with chicken/turkey my mom would make when I was growing up. So whenever I make a tofurkey or a stir fry with a chicken substitute I add that in.

I went veg*n at 22. I’m 35 now. I prefer to eat vegan but do occasionally eat things made with milk or egg products.

janejellyroll · September 2020

I went vegan about fourteen years ago in the American South. This meant I didn't really have all that many substitutes available -- there were some basic cheeses (that were not at all convincing), vegan mayo, and soy milk. This made for a big adjustment period, but it was also good because I learned to cook and enjoy vegan foods that I could easily create at home.

Now there's so much stuff that even I haven't tried it all. I will usually try new stuff when I see it, but the majority of my meals are just like they always were and the other stuff is just treats.

The judgments below of "best" are, obviously, just my opinion.

If I'm buying cream cheese, I"ll get Miyoko's or Daiya. For butter, Miyoko's is the best (but Earth Balance is okay, especially for baking). I've liked all the Miyoko's cheeses I've tried.

For milk, unless I'm making my own (which I do often), I'll get Oatly unsweetened. My non-vegan husband thinks that Silk Cashew is the most like dairy milk (he actually uses it now).

For vegan mayo, Vegenaise, Just Mayo, and Hellman's are all good.

Upton's Naturals makes good faux meats -- I especially like their Chorizo. Their pre-marinated jackfruit is also tasty.

Ice cream: Oatly makes my absolute favorite, but they don't have a deep flavor range yet. Ben and Jerry's is good for fancy flavors. So Delicious is a good line. The Coolhaus ice cream cookie sandwiches are out of this world.

I enjoy both the Impossible and Beyond Burgers. Beyond also makes ground "beef" you can use in recipes (Impossible does too, but I haven't found it yet). Beyond Sausages and Field Roast sausages are both good for recipes that use sausage.

Just Egg is another newer product -- they make a liquid egg that you can cook and some "folded egg" products that you can use for sandwiches. I found both were really convincing -- the pre-cooked egg makes a really quick and tasty breakfast sandwich.

Annie's now makes a vegan "Easy Mac" cup, where all you do is microwave and add water. This was pretty much just like your typical regular microwave mac and cheese cup -- whether that is good or bad, I'll leave up to you.

But like I said, the majority of my meals don't involve these foods. If you try to replicate a meat and dairy heavy diet with commercial substitutes, you're going to be spending a LOT of money and you'll be missing out on a lot of the other joys of vegan cooking, our creamy sauces, housemade "meats," and vegetable-focused meals. There's so much fun to be had in vegan cooking.

JessBbody · September 2020

janejellyroll wrote: »

I went vegan about fourteen years ago in the American South. This meant I didn't really have all that many substitutes available -- there were some basic cheeses (that were not at all convincing), vegan mayo, and soy milk. This made for a big adjustment period, but it was also good because I learned to cook and enjoy vegan foods that I could easily create at home.

Now there's so much stuff that even I haven't tried it all. I will usually try new stuff when I see it, but the majority of my meals are just like they always were and the other stuff is just treats.

The judgments below of "best" are, obviously, just my opinion.

If I'm buying cream cheese, I"ll get Miyoko's or Daiya. For butter, Miyoko's is the best (but Earth Balance is okay, especially for baking). I've liked all the Miyoko's cheeses I've tried.

For milk, unless I'm making my own (which I do often), I'll get Oatly unsweetened. My non-vegan husband thinks that Silk Cashew is the most like dairy milk (he actually uses it now).

For vegan mayo, Vegenaise, Just Mayo, and Hellman's are all good.

Upton's Naturals makes good faux meats -- I especially like their Chorizo. Their pre-marinated jackfruit is also tasty.

Ice cream: Oatly makes my absolute favorite, but they don't have a deep flavor range yet. Ben and Jerry's is good for fancy flavors. So Delicious is a good line. The Coolhaus ice cream cookie sandwiches are out of this world.

I enjoy both the Impossible and Beyond Burgers. Beyond also makes ground "beef" you can use in recipes (Impossible does too, but I haven't found it yet). Beyond Sausages and Field Roast sausages are both good for recipes that use sausage.

Just Egg is another newer product -- they make a liquid egg that you can cook and some "folded egg" products that you can use for sandwiches. I found both were really convincing -- the pre-cooked egg makes a really quick and tasty breakfast sandwich.

Annie's now makes a vegan "Easy Mac" cup, where all you do is microwave and add water. This was pretty much just like your typical regular microwave mac and cheese cup -- whether that is good or bad, I'll leave up to you.

But like I said, the majority of my meals don't involve these foods. If you try to replicate a meat and dairy heavy diet with commercial substitutes, you're going to be spending a LOT of money and you'll be missing out on a lot of the other joys of vegan cooking, our creamy sauces, housemade "meats," and vegetable-focused meals. There's so much fun to be had in vegan cooking.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

Seems like most people are advocating vegan cooking over vegan products.

@janejellyroll thanks for your product suggestions. They all sound really good.

I'm not much for cooking for myself although I love cooking for others.

Does anybody have any recipes they'd like to share? Easy things with not too many ingredients?
The only food I hate is bell pepper. I can tolerate it in Asian cooking but not Latin, for some reason.

I am currently eating trader Joe's high protein veggie burger. It's pretty good although it would be better if I had cooked it in the oven instead of the microwave.

janejellyroll · September 2020

Also forgot to mention that Amy's makes a wide variety of plant-based burritos and frozen meals, most of which are tasty (some have dairy, so check the package). Sweet Earth is another line of frozen foods I enjoy (again, you'll need to check the label). When I travel and can't cook, I'm usually eating a lot of these.

VegjoyP · September 2020

Check out Tabita Brown on YouTube. She has awesome home made plant based recipes that are fun too!

Alternative foods you've tried in an effort to go plant based?

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