Trying to give up red meat

I have never cooked with soya chunks. but I have made bolognese and chilli using quorn mince. The first time, I cooked the quorn for the same time as you would beef mince and that turned out with a rubbery texture. Maybe it is the longer cooking period that makes it so, maybe some other GNetters can advise.

Haven’t tried soya chunks but find that Quorn pieces work well. I also use Quorn mince to make bolognese sauce and found, after advice from GN, that it works best if cooked for much longer than it says on the bag but I keep it at a gentle simmer.

Is it just red meat you want to give up? My first thought was chicken would have gone well in place of quorn. We have restricted red meat to to about once a fortnight. We eat salmon, fried kippers, white fish, coated fish, stir fries and noodles, cauliflower cheese, pasta of different kinds, risottos, omelettes and chicken. Tried substitutions for red meat, together with some plant concoctions. Just about “okay” or “ugh”.

I don’t use meat replacements like soya. I cook using lots of veg and add lentils, beans etc. I used to soak beans but now I buy tins as I’m usually cooking for one,

After a stomach cancer scare I overhauled my diet and never eat red meat now. I tried the vegan alternatives but didn't enjoy any of them so I focus on fish and vegetables for main meals now.

I suppose it depends on why you want to reduce red meat consumption. If is is to avoid cancer etc I think the recommendation is to eat no more than 70g a day, which we find very easy to do as we only eat meat on a three day rotation, and then it is often chicken. The other days are fish and veggie.
Processed meat we keep to an absolute minimum, but not cut out entirely as we do love bacon and sausages.

If it is for environmental reasons then cutting out red meat particularly beef entirely is more problematic if you enjoy meat. Personally I am not a fan of anything soya related so if I was going down that road I would try all the lovely vegetarian recipes before resorting to soya in its many forms. Mind you I suppose the fact that soya is so bland should add to its appeal, as you can incorporate it into so many other flavours.

You don’t have to replace meat with processed soya chunks, beans are packed with protein. I’d recommend looking at the recipes in Bosh( they have a website) which has a fabulous chilli recipe , things with mushrooms etc Tofu is better than the processed quorn stuff and can be made crispy with ginger, garlic, soya sauce, rolled in sesame seeds , flour and fried in sesame oil lovely in a stir fry.

www.bosh.tv/recipes/ultimate-chilli

Cannellini beans are nice in soups. I used to make one that I think was a Weightwatchers recipe where you added rosemary to it. That was very tasty. Sorry I don’t have the recipe but am sure a Google search will come up with ideas.

I agree with everyone else. Meat replacements aren't usually very nice. It's better to use lentils, beans and an array of lovely veg instead. Having said that, I have eaten tofu in various Asian dishes and found it to be delicious. However, it was cooked by skilled chefs in restaurants. I've never tried soya chunks and I really don't think I want to!

vegansrock

www.bosh.tv/recipes/ultimate-chilli

This looks delicious vegansrock. Guess what's on the menu for this weekend ?

I had a vegetarian lasagne yesterday and found it quite unpleasant .
I'm going to stick to just chicken or fish from now on. And limit those to three days week with salads etc on the other days.

I've used Quorn mince and it was ok but the white tofu we found just revolting no matter how it was prepared.

I try to avoid processed meats but DH still will eat them no matter what I say.

Meat substitutes are not the answer, especially if they are, as you say, 'rubbery'. Last weekend I was staying with my vegan son and his partner. I was offered tofu in small chunks, fried and looking like croutons, but tasting of nothing in particular and quite 'chewy'. But the Moroccan dish they served up was wonderful and needed no meat substitute. I seem to have lost 1kg over my weekend with them!

In the 50 s and 60 s we only had chicken once a year for Christmas dinner, not sure if the reason, cost? Availability?
I-like the vegetarian idea but woukd struggle without either fish or meat on my plate, but have reduced the amount of red meat we eat by 50%.

We have cut down on meat generally, so I use a lot of lentils (red and yellow) and various beans. Chopped mushrooms make a good substitute for mince. When a dd was vegan for a while I once made a big vegan lasagne for her birthday - surprisingly very good - the ‘guts’ of it was a lot of mushrooms, chopped small and initially cooked down to get the water out.

Among other things, now and then I make a ‘main meal’ minestrone, with plenty of pasta, lots of different veg, and a tin of butter or other beans. Preferably with garlic bread - I often make a batch for the freezer.

silverlining48

In the 50 s and 60 s we only had chicken once a year for Christmas dinner, not sure if the reason, cost? Availability?
I-like the vegetarian idea but woukd struggle without either fish or meat on my plate, but have reduced the amount of red meat we eat by 50%.

Chicken was relatively expensive then silverlining48 - in that era I don’t think we ever had a Sunday roast chicken! Beef or pork were cheaper. That would have been before battery chicken farms 🙁 of course.

In old novels you see mentions of roasting or ‘boiling’ fowls - the old ones were presumably considered too tough for roasting.

I would not touch quorn with a bargepole, pink manufactured flab

I would go the simplest route and add beans/whole lentils to a casserole, also grated carrot and if you do need a meat look-alike then you can buy tvp mince which you can soak a little while in oxo etc. Also curry is a good disguise for that

I am not veggie, nor vegan but most of my meals are meatless, yesterday was a hm veggie lasagne, I froze 8 portions. It was yummy and the main protein was beans plus it needed the extra amino acids from a whole grain, which was via the wholegrain spelt lasagne sheets

I have some tvp in my cupboard, good to add to a hm soup equivalent as a layer in a lasagne, it needs extra taste eg concentrated tomato

Callistemon, tiba tempeh is lovely. It is a lightly fermented soya and much nicer than tofu. Very high in good bacteria for the microbiome

I make my own tofu from time to time via organic soya beans, my soyabella and a press. I don`t like it plain but it easily takes on marinade flavours

I make my veggie stews with vegetables. Super healthy and delicious. Same with curries and pasta.

Chicken became cheap when battery farming started. It was in the mid-60s and I think the first company into it was Buxted Chicken - in Buxted.

I say that because we visited some familty friends living there who talked all about it. That was c 1965.

If you are giving up meat for animal welfare/ environmental reasons, you could instead move to only buying 'Pasture for Life' reared meat www.pastureforlife.org/ . This meat comes from entirely grass fed cattle, who are usually out all year and live healthy normal lives, without being fed corn, rape and other feedstuffs that are not part of the animal's normal diet in the wild and causes health problems and requires continuous medication for cattle fed this way. Because pasture for Life animals eat only grass there is less need for medication and antibiotics. Better for the animals and healthier for consumers.

I have also just cut down an average portion size. We eat lots of casseroles and stews, so you do not really notice that there is less meat and more veg in every porion.

Stir Fry using Quorn Pieces, is quite tasty. Also, Quorn mince in a curry. The sauces cover any flavour 'problems'.
The thing about using Quorn instead of chicken is that you no longer have to worry about salmonella &co, and the meals are so much quicker to prepare.
Problem with Quorn sausages is that they are just as highly processed as the meat versions, and that is not good.

Yes, Monica, I buy the M&S 'kinder', but oh so much more expensive, turkey at Christmas time.