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The best meat replacer really isn't tofu, it's Seitan. It has the umami quality certain meats & cheeses have, you just need to have another bite, that I've not
by wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
The best meat replacer really isn't tofu, it's Seitan.
It has the umami quality certain meats & cheeses have, you just need to have another bite, that I've not have had with other meat replacements.
I've eaten the most delicious vegetarian chicken made of Seitan over a decade ago in a monastery in Xiamen.
Still not sure why it hasn't made it's way to the West. Maybe because of the fact its basically pure gluten.
- ReactiveJelly 3y agoI agree, seitan is a lot more like meat. I prefer less-realistic replacements so even though I've enjoyed seitan I actually quit buying it. It's too convincing.
- upon_drumhead 3y agoI can buy it in my local grocery stores and numerous restaurants serve it. I feel like it has gotten to the west, but just isn’t too popular.
- wouldbecouldbe 3y agoYeah you can buy it, but soya is by far the most popular base for commercial replacement. In China you can buy all sorts of meat replica's based on seitan that are much tastier then current meat replacements way before beyond burger.
- Glench 3y agoMy friend perfected seitan nuggets: https://bartlebysfood.com/ https://bartlebysfood.com/
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y agoSeitan is so good and easy to make at home
- neuronic 3y agoIt has? At least in Germany I can easily find Seitan in stores in bigger cities and order copious amounts of organic Seitan online from German vendors. No marketing, but an example: https://www.korodrogerie.de/bio-seitan-400-g https://www.korodrogerie.de/bio-seitan-400-g
- wouldbecouldbe 3y agoyeah you're right, you can get it, but it's not actively used as the main ingredient for meat substitution both in recipes and commercial products. In China it was one of the main ingredients already for decades I think, if not longer. Here it became soya for some reason
- hnfong 3y agoGotta have that "gluten free" label.
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoA lot of Vegan meat substitutes are based on Gluten. Like Seitan. So if you are gluten free and vegan, it's tough. And you have to be careful because you can't just grab some vegan product and think it is safe. Thus tofu is my go-to for protein.
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- globular-toast 3y agoTofu isn't a "meat replacement". It's just tofu. You can get the umami quality with soy sauce or just pure msg.
- Spivak 3y agoAnything you stick in the "meat" slot of a recipe originally written for it is a meat replacement and for anyone getting their protein from primarily meat any non-meat they stick in the "protein" slot in their diet is a meat replacement. It doesn't mean tofu doesn't stand on its own but that "of things people use to replace meat in their diets with intention" tofu is the most popular.
- tills13 3y agoThe beautiful thing about tofu is that it yields to whatever you put it in or drain it with. Kind of like chicken for most people.
- solardev 3y agoYou can very often find fake seitan meats in natural food stores across the US. They're usually just reprocessed into something else (like a sausage or nugget). You can also get it in powder form in the bulk aisle. If you want something prepared Asian/Buddhist style, 99 Ranch or a similar Asian store should have that. You can also get similar things online from Lily's Vegan Pantry (formerly May Wah): https://www.lilysveganpantry.com/Vegan_Chicken_s/1516.htm https://www.lilysveganpantry.com/Vegan_Chicken_s/1516.htm
- hombre_fatal 3y agoDon’t forget TVP aka soy chunks. This twitter account uses it exclusively in their recipes for meaty dishes, https://x.com/tofumasque/status/1725857452392898849 https://x.com/tofumasque/status/1725857452392898849 (videos) I think the US is so meat-centric that seitan (for those who even know what it is) and tofu/soy are commonly seen as some sort of weirdo/hippy/vegan/activist food. I suspect the reason 90% of people who arrive at seitan who aren’t involved in a cultural that already eats it are arriving there because they went looking for a meat replacement, not just for an addendum to their American diet.
- sgarland 3y agoI ate a ton of TVP growing up in rural Nebraska, of all places, because we were poor, it was cheap, and we were in a food co-op that ordered it in bulk. Surprisingly not bad in a lot of dishes.
- throwaway2037 3y agoFor other readers, TVP = Textured vegetable protein. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein I only see that term used in India. Is it used elsewhere?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]