What are the best meat substitutes?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

There are some great alternatives to meat. I prefer not to refer to them as meat substitutes however as they are not made to be just like meat and they deserve to stand alone as great foods that vegetarians and non vegetarians alike can eat.

Falafel - a turkish mix used to make patties and falafel balls - main ingredient being chickpeas.

Tofu - just cut it into cubes marinate and cook. It's usually a very mild flavour but it soaks up the flavours you marinate it with.

Egg - kinda obvious but so versatile.

There are lots of other things that can be added to your veggie dishes to give them a bit more flavour and texture. These include all sorts of beans, nuts and mushrooms, seeds, avocado.

The best vegetarians don't just cut out meat - they embrace all sorts of fruite and veggies and other wholefoods and enjoy plenty of variety. It's so much fun. Make sure you do your research first though. To get enough iron you should have something with vitamin C (e.g. natural orange juice) along with your iron rich veggies (which include spinach, pumpin, silverbeet...) because this helps absorb the iron. If you are still eating dairy and eggs you should be getting enough vitamin b12 but do a bit of homework just to be sure. Good luck!

Quorn, Worthington, Tofurky, Amy's Kitchen, Annie's Homegrown, Yves, Tofutti, Boca, Morningstar Farms, and Lightlife are brands of vegetarian products that can be found at Pathmark, Stop & Shop, Shop Rite, and whole food stores/health food stores.

My favorite mock meat is from Quorn. They make great imitation "chick'n" cutlets, and they have a great imitation "turk'y" roast.
Worthington also makes great imitation "steak" and a dinner roast that tastes like turkey.
Amy's Kitchen's vegan macaroni and cheese is good, too.

Morningstar Farms is very inconsistent with the quality of their food. About 50% of their products are delicious and 50% of their products are nasty.

All of the other brands I mentioned are very consistent with their products, so you'll probably like most of them.

Vegetarian

I'm with you. Those fake soy substitutes are yukky. Remember, though that you should not build your diet around soy. The attached link from VeganHealth talks about health concerns in eating soy, but it is safe in moderation. Just don't make it the centerpiece of your diet.

Illinois started feeding all their prison inmates soy products and made many of them sick. http://chicagoist.com/2009/12/21/illinoi…

Moderation is the key. Besides it tastes yukky!

http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/soym…

You've had decades to decide on which omnivorous foods you like. You just need time to discover the vegetarian foods you like, too.

Start experimenting with Meatless Monday. Try something new each week. You won't like everything, but soon you'll have enough veggie foods you like, you can go veg and never look back.

Finely chopped cauliflower is one of my favorite substitutes. It has a satisfying texture, but no protein to speak of, so pair it with a side of whole grain, nuts, seeds, or legumes for balance.

I don't know, but eating a substitute for something that you could buy and get nutrition from is funny to me. It's like a sick joke, depriving yourself of delicious crispy crunchy bacon and getting a nasty substitute, when the real thing is right in front of you at the store, and probably cheaper too.

I use a lot of Quorn and TVP (dunno what that's branded as in the US, sorry). Tofu is popular too. All three are very different textures. Hot dogs can be almost indistinguishable from their meaty bretheren.

There's no reason you -have- to use these. Some people don't eat 'fake meat' at all.

To Mint and anyone else who thinks they're clever: Burgers, sausages, mince, chunks are all just convenient ways of packaging protein. You choose to do that from a meat source, we choose not to. It's not because we "really want to eat meat," it's just familiar packaging.

I think it's eggs, please because nutrition is rich in protein to be also many.

neutrella...... the best substitutes

Beans are a good substitute.