Your favorite mock meat

Even though all of us here have pushed aside those burgers and drum sticks, what are your favorite fake meats and fake meat brands? Are you a Morning Star person, or a Boca lover? Do you have a favorite burger flavor? Do you like to mix dishes or add them to recipes of your own?

Fake meat thread, I suppose. List your favorites! Mine is the Spicy Black Bean burger from Morning Star, slid on a slice of toasted whole wheat bread and topped with tomato, lettuce, and ketchup. :D 

I'm a big Morningstar fan... my favorite are the Garden Veggie Patties. I have an especial love for Lightlife Smartdogs. Yum, yum!

PRIMAL soy jerky, Gardenburger Veggie Burger, and ANYTHING Morningstar.

I don't really like the Boca stuff...... yuck.

I make my own seitan. It is good BBQ and I also do a sort of fried chik'n. I suppose I should submit those recipes one day. They are sure not going to be low in calories though. At least, I wouldn't imagine them to be.

Seitan:
1C. Wheat Gluten
1C. Water
1 Cube Vegetable Bullion
6C. Water

Mix equal parts wheat gluten flour & water. You are going to knead the heck out of this. It will become very elastic and quite sticky. You can also put some of the Vegetable Bullion in with the water that you used to mix with the Gluten. Roll the sticky glob into a long roll. Cut into slices about 1/2" thick. It will stick to the counter and knife a lot, so use some flour or gluten to try and prevent this. Boil about 6C. of water and add vegetable bullion. Let the bullion dissolve. Now throw in your seitan strip and boil for about an hour. Make sure the water doesn't boil away. To obtain a good texture use a cheese cloth wrapped around your seitan strips and press them with something heavy over night in the refrigerator.

BBQ:
Fry your seitan strip in some oil. You will see then turn a little browner than previously, this is when they are done. Coat with BBQ sauce and cook on a grill. Serve in a sandwich if you like.

Fried Chik'n:
1/4-1/2C. Yellow Mustard (depends on how much you want I like more)
1C. Flour
2T. McCromick Chicken Seasoning
3T. Corn Meal
3T. Nutritional Yeast
Half of the seitan recipe

The amounts in this recipe really mean nothing, because I just throw it together. This is just a guess on how much I use.

Mix your dry ingredients in a bowl.
Coat seitan with mustard and then cover with dry ingredient mix. Fry until you feel it is done. Yummy!

And feel lucky, because I have never shown anyone except my wife how to do this.

This is one of my favorite recipes using fake meat.  It's a hearty meal that takes, like, no effort to prepare & gets thrown in the oven, though it's not exactly low in calories.  My grandma makes it with real beef, and I grew up eating it.  Very popular in our family, so I thought I must be a genius when I decided to make it with a combination of fake beef and lentils instead.  (I also used to make it with just fake beef, but it's more satisfying with the lentils added.)  

Fake Beef Shepard's Pie

1/2 package of frozen Morningstar Farms fake beef
1 envelope of Lipton's (dry) onion soup mix
1 small can (8 oz) can of tomato sauce -- no salt added
1 16 oz can of stewed tomatoes
1/2 - 1 cup of lentils, cooked and drained

about 4 cups of mashed potatoes, prepared as you prefer (I use real butter & sometimes a dab of sour cream for these, but they can be prepared with A LOT fewer calories)

1 big bag of frozen green beans

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.

Because of timing, it's easiest to start the recipe off when the lentils are already cooked, so boil the lentils for about 20 minutes while you peel the potatoes and get out all the other ingredients.  Once they are cooked, drain them and set them aside.

Peel, cut potatoes, etc.  Put water on to boil.  When potatoes are cooking, prepare the rest of the dish...

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine and stir together with a fork or wooden spoon:

       the fake beef
       the tomato sauce
       the packet of onion soup mix
       the juice from the stewed tomatoes drained from the can

3.  After the ingredients above are combined, add the lentils.  Stir well.

4.  On a cutting board (or using kitchen shears, my new favorite thing! :), cut the stewed tomatoes into pieces about one square inch.  Leave them on the cutting board.

Now, you are ready to layer the casserole!

5.  In a large, 12X8 (lasagna-type) pan, put all the beef/lentil mix on the bottom.

Above that, add a layer of frozen green beans.  I tend to use a lot of green beans.  You can also experiment with other vegetables.

On top of the green bean layer, place the stewed tomatoes so that they are pretty evenly distributed over the casserole.

There should be about 1/2 -1 inch of empty space left in the pan.

6.  When the mashed potatoes are done, scoop them on top of the casserole and spread them over it to form a layer.

7.  Using a fork, stab the mashed potato layer about 4-5 times.  (like a pie) to give it air.

8.  Bake for about 35 minutes uncovered.  If you want the potatoes to brown more, turn up the heat for about 5 minutes at the end to 450.

9.  Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

10.  Enjoy with a salad or something light on the side because this is very hearty.

Is that tomato sauce or paste. I don't think I have seen an 8oz can of sauce. I think I might make this tonight, since I have sound fake ground beef in the fridge.

    tomato sauce.  it's a small can -- not spaghetti sauce but tomato sauce.

if you make it, plese let me know if you enjoy it!

-debbie :)

I love "GimmeLean" (comes in a tube, parody of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.)

Its great crumbled on vegetarian pizza.

I love Boca Meatless Ground Burger- I dump some taco sauce on it, microwave and then put it in a tortilla with onions, cheese, lettuce and so on. It's delicious. We substituted it for ground beef in a taco pie recipe and my sister's very carnivorous friend didn't even notice.

Favorite burger is the Tomato Basil Gardenburger- it's not very meaty but it still tastes great.

i really like the tofurky italian "sausage" with sundied tomato and basil. it tastes better than the real thing and has none of the gross in it :). the only problem i have finding good meat substitutes is that a lot of them have eggs or milk products in them (gardenburgers, for instance).

If anyone makes it out to Hawaii you have to try the island style tofu!!!! You won't be able to go back to regular tofu again. It is a very firm style that crumbles like feta but you can slice it and grill it or marinate it and it will stay together. It is made in the Japanese traditional way and I could eat it raw or cooked all the time when I was living there, even my carnivore husband liked it.

Sounds like twin oaks tofu. Best tofu I have ever had. Can't get it outside of Virginia as far as I know. This stuff is extra extra extra firm.

http://twinoakstofu.com/

Gardenburger grilled burger patties. Anything Morningstar... Morningstar chicken patties with marinara sauce and a slice of Mozarella... Fake Chicken Parmesan!!! Better than the meat version. Pinto Beans with 1/2 pkg of Morningstar Facon(bacon subs.)!!!

Gardenburger grilled burger patties. Anything Morningstar... Morningstar chicken patties with marinara sauce and a slice of Mozarella... Fake Chicken Parmesan!!! Better than the meat version. Pinto Beans with 1/2 pkg of Morningstar Facon(bacon subs.)!!!

I finally tried Quorn this weekend and thought it was pretty good!  It's about the only mock meat that doesn't have soy it seems.  Even my little container of seitan in the fridge is flavored with soy sauce, although I know I should be able to buy it without if I look around. 

Anyway, thumbs up for me on Quorn. 

i don't eat fake meats anymore but i used to a lot... i love the gimme lean sausage style, too. i like it mixed in with tofu scramble and a slice of whole wheat toast or on top of tofutti pizza pizazz, that stuff is so awesome. also the gardenburger riblets are amazing, but i love BBQ sauce.

dude, asian mock meats are awesome.

Asian mock meats are typically seitan. Not sure how they get the texture for duck and beef, but I know the chicken is seitan.

Vegetarian since childhood and never really liked the taste of meat BUT  Smartdogs are sooo good :D 

I make my own veggie burgers! Take a can of black Kidney Beans and mush them up. Steam two big carrots, then mash them up and add them to the beans. Then add a cup of whole wheat bread crumbs, some chopped onion and green pepper. If they're too sticky, you can always add a bit of flour to thicken them up. 

This makes a big batch of burgers for super cheap! Waaaay cheaper than the pre-made patties, that are usually ridiculously high in sodium. Once you have your mix, make them into patties, put them between wax paper and freeze them for later. You can also fry them a bit in olive oil first to "harden" them up, and THEN freeze them. They can be re-heated later on the barbecue.

quorn! and tofurkey. yum.