Beyond Italian Sausage

[Teasing the Korean]

Well, I sautéed one of these, sliced it up, and topped a couple of slices of pizza with it. 

As a long-time vegetarian, this was as close as I've come to Italian sausage in decades.  

[Chuck Nessa]

Sigh.

[Rooster_Ties]

My wife and I have grilled Beyond burgers a few times (when they’ve been on sale), and we thought they were mostly pretty tasty, by and large. As good as the real thing? Of course not, but still pretty good, all in all.

We’re not vegetarian (far from it), but we’ve been trying to eat less meat for 10+ years — and easily eat barely 1/4th as much red meat — and 1/3rd as much chicken — but more fish (and shrimp), mostly all farm-raised, far as we’re aware.

I’m all for meat substitutes, long as they’re tasty (and they don’t have to taste exactly like the real thing), and as long as the “mouth feel” is sufficiently good.

Some faux-meat products have lot further to go than others, but Beyond is more than halfway there, imho.

[Rabshakeh]

I'm a great believer in just cutting your losses and not substituting. It never tastes as good, and there are a lot of other good things to eat out there that do.

[mjazzg]

I'm a longstanding vegetarian who doesn't really deal in meat substitutes (except for the very occasional 'meatball'). I can honestly say I don't miss the taste of meat one iota so don't really bother.

Gorgonzola and artichoke for my pizza today, if I were having one.

More seriously, it's good that meat substitute exists and is gaining some traction. This poor planet needs s lot less meat eaten that's for sure.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, mjazzg said:

I'm a longstanding vegetarian who doesn't really deal in meat substitutes (except for the very occasional 'meatball'). I can honestly say I don't miss the taste of meat one iota so don't really bother.

I've been vegetarian since the nid-1980s, and I'm 99% with you on this.  It's just that every once in a while I like to remember dinners from my childhood. My mom has been gone for several decades.  She used to make a great linguine with white clam sauce.  I have developed a veg version of this using certain mushroom varieties in the role of the clams.  Anyway, I plan to make spaghetti using the faux Italian sausage just to relive the experience.

[Dan Gould]

Count me and the Mrs. among the "won't ever consider a sample of fake beef, ever."

 

[Teasing the Korean]

20 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Count me and the Mrs. among the "won't ever consider a sample of fake beef, ever."

I don't think they allow fake beef in Plant City, so you probably have nothing to worry about.  

[Rooster_Ties]

For me, one trick to eating less meat is finding ingredients when I cook (and I do all the cooking in our household), that have a satisfying “mouth feel” that sorta approximates at least some kinds of meat — so everything doesn’t feel like eating veggies and pasta, etc.

Edamame is one (blissfully available as a workhorse of an ingredient, flash frozen in bags, easily available in our regular grocery, even in a cheaper ‘store’ brand). I have no idea what it really tastes like, but it’s SUPER satisfying added to all kinds of dishes. Or I’ll make a recipe with half as much cut-up chicken (or pork), and add edamame instead. And I’ll stretch a Chipotle burrito bowl into 3 meals by adding about half a cup of edamame and some raw spinach.

Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) are similar. And whole cashews too, which soften slightly when heated — and especially when reheated after they’ve sat in the dish with all the other ingredients in the fridge overnight.

That’s the way I cook with less meat a lot — and don’t really miss it — and food is still really satisfying.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Rooster_Ties

[Dan Gould]

57 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I don't think they allow fake beef in Plant City, so you probably have nothing to worry about.  

If they could turn strawberries into it, they would.

 

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I've been vegetarian since the nid-1980s, and I'm 99% with you on this.  It's just that every once in a while I like to remember dinners from my childhood. My mom has been gone for several decades.  She used to make a great linguine with white clam sauce.  I have developed a veg version of this using certain mushroom varieties in the role of the clams.  Anyway, I plan to make spaghetti using the faux Italian sausage just to relive the experience.

Early 90s for me and I know exactly what you mean hence the very occasional not-meatballs and spaghetti 🍝 (emoji added only because I had no idea one such exists!).

In my carnivore days I used to love cooking clams and linguine, would have loved your Mum's recipe I'm sure

44 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

For me, one trick to eating less meat is finding ingredients when I cook (and I do all the cooking in our household), that have a satisfying “mouth feel” that sorta approximates at least some kinds of meat — so everything doesn’t feel like eating veggies and pasta, etc.

Edamame is one (blissfully available as a workhorse of an ingredient, flash frozen in bags, easily available in our regular grocery, even in a cheaper ‘store’ brand). I have no idea what it really tastes like, but it’s SUPER satisfying added to all kinds of dishes. Or I’ll make a recipe with half as much cut-up chicken (or pork), and add edamame instead. And I’ll stretch a Chipotle burrito bowl into 3 meals by adding about half a cup of edamame and some raw spinach.

Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) are similar. And whole cashews too, which soften slightly when heated — and especially when reheated after they’ve sat in the dish with all the other ingredients in the fridge overnight.

That’s the way I cook with less meat a lot — and don’t really miss it — and food is still really satisfying.

Big fan of chickpeas and cashews here too. Broad beans instead of endame only because I love them so much.

Edited July 26, 2021 by mjazzg

[mjzee]

11 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Big fan of chickpeas and cashews here too

True carnivore here, but I recommend this recipe - we eat it often:

Spicy Toasted Garbanzo Beans and Pistachios

[mikeweil]

1 hour ago, mjzee said:

True carnivore here, but I recommend this recipe - we eat it often:

Spicy Toasted Garbanzo Beans and Pistachios

Will try this. My wife and I are 95% vegetarian.

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, mikeweil said:

Will try this. My wife and I are 95% vegetarian.

Just watch the salt.  We use salted shelled pistachios, so you don’t need to add more salt.

[Chuck Nessa]

i don't understand "pretend meat". If you don't want to eat meat, leave it alone.

Would you buy "pretend veggies"?

[Rooster_Ties]

15 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Would you buy "pretend veggies"?

  

[rostasi]

You can still want and enjoy the taste of flesh foods
without having to succumb to the horrifics of their creation.
Also, I've found it humorous that often there's this weird idea
that people who are veg are somehow all striving for some kind
of flesh standard. Being "as good as the real thing" really means
"this resembles what I already know" to someone who's not veg.

Edited July 27, 2021 by rostasi

[Teasing the Korean]

A man who eats meat
Wants to get his teeth into something
A man who does not eat meat
Wants to get his teeth into something else
If these thoughts interest you even for a moment
You're lost

- Leonard Cohen

[Rabshakeh]

I'm a strong believer in avoiding meat and diary when cooking and allowing onions, celery, garlic and spices some time in the sun.

It's amazing how much fun you can have with those flavours when you cut the other flavours out.

Also, what Leonard Cohen said.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Rabshakeh

[mjzee]

I like Beyond Burgers.  I think they plausibly taste like real burgers, and they're enjoyable.  Two downsides: upon opening the package, they smell like cat food.  Also, they're kept frozen but need to be cooked from a defrosted state, so you can't just cook them on the spur of the moment.

[mikeweil]

I never looked at it as substituting anything for meat. Those who do are not real vegetarians.They are still thinking meat and missing it. I do not miss it. If I want some, I eat some. But seeing how most animals are grown and killed in a factory-like way, kills my appetite. I only buy meat from local organic farmers.

Edited July 27, 2021 by mikeweil

[Bluesnik]

On 7/26/2021 at 4:00 PM, Rooster_Ties said:

And whole cashews too, which soften slightly when heated

When I was in Indonesia in 1990 or 91 they had a terrific dish, in I don't remember now where, which was a kind of fried rice with cashews and Green Pepperoni, I think. Very tasty.

[Rooster_Ties]

On 7/27/2021 at 1:30 PM, mikeweil said:

I only buy meat from local organic farmers.

We’ve been doing more of  that too, from a local-ish farm at our weekly farmers market. I think about 80% of the meat we’ve bought in the last 18 months has been from them.

What motivated that (for us) was the reports of Covid spreading at processing plants all across the US. But the reasons you cite are good ones for our change too (even if that isn’t what finally pushed us  make that change).

[Teasing the Korean]

On 7/27/2021 at 1:30 PM, mikeweil said:

I never looked at it as substituting anything for meat. Those who do are not real vegetarians.

From a practical standpoint, a gastroenterologist, cardiologist, or oncologist might consider those persons to be real vegetarians. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Teasing the Korean