When someone in your family becomes a vegetarian or you have a dinner guest that follows a vegetarian diet, it can be a challenge coming up with meal ideas that don’t include meat. You may think that you’ll have to learn to cook a new kind of cuisine and incorporate new recipes into your repertoire. While it’s always good to expand your culinary know-how and expose yourself and your family to new foods and dishes, cooking for a vegetarian may not be as different as you expect. In fact, you can often make the same meal for both meat eaters and vegetarians with a few small changes.
For vegetarians, avoiding meat means more than just passing on the steak, however. Devoted vegetarians must avoid foods with any animal by-products in them including animal-based soup stocks, lard or gelatin. Here are a few options for products that are vegetarian-friendly that can replace the meat portion of many recipes.
Vegetarian Meat Products
The ever-growing popularity of vegetarianism has necessitated the appearance of companies that create meat substitutes that look, smell, feel and taste like real meat products. Some companies that produce realistic vegetarian meats include Yves, Amy’s Kitchen and Gardenburger. Non-meat versions of hamburgers, hot dogs, ground beef, beef and chicken strips, sandwich meats, sausages, roast beef, meatloaf, chicken burgers, chicken nuggets and even turkey are available. Many of these products can be used directly as substitutes for real meat. For example, instead of using ground beef on nachos, one could use a vegetarian version.
Tofu
Tofu is probably the most familiar meat alternative to many North American people. It is made by coagulating soy milk and pressing the curds into blocks. Tofu has very little smell or taste on its own and picks up flavours from other foods easily. It is low in calories and fat, and high in iron and protein. It can be used in a variety of both sweet and savoury applications and is featured prominently in many Asian cuisines. It can be used in soups and desserts, and can replace meat in many recipes.
TVP
TVP stands for textured vegetable protein. This is a meat substitute made from defatted soy flour, which is a by-product created by the process of making soybean oil. It is fibrous and spongy in texture and comes in granules, chunks or flakes. It has little flavour of its own, but easily absorbs the flavour of whatever it is cooked with. It can be used to replace ground beef, lamb or even fish in dishes such as chili, spaghetti sauce, tacos and burritos.
Tempeh
Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans, but has a different taste and texture. Tempeh is shaped into patties or cakes and has a slightly nutty flavour. Tempeh also contains more protein, dietary fibre and vitamins than tofu. It can be used in chili, stir-fries, sandwiches, stews and soup recipes.
Seitan
This substance is made by rinsing wheat flour with water until the starch dissolves, leaving the gluten behind. The resulting gluten is a spongy mass with a similar texture to meat and can be used as a non-soy-based meat alternative. Seitan can be fried, steamed, baked or eaten raw. In North American grocery stores it can most commonly be found flavoured with shiitake or Portobello mushrooms, coriander, onion or barbecue and other sauces.
Legumes
Using legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, peanuts, soybeans and bean sprouts as an alternative to meat is a great way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, since these foods are significantly lower in saturated fats. Legumes are valuable sources of protein, iron and fibre.
Explore Your Options
With so many different options for replacing the meat in your favourite recipes, it should not be hard to cook for both the meat eaters and vegetarians at your dinner table.
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