h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having been a veggie myself since the dawn of time (about 1989, just after a particularly carnivorous tea-time) I never can understand why some veggies don't 'do' meat substitutes. Admittedly, most of those other postings were back in 2004 (and things have moved on a little since then) but there's a perfectly good place for meat substitutes, and, I'm afraid, it is for meat eaters.

What we long-term carrot-crunchers so often forget, is meat eaters are used to the squingy (cross between spongy and squidgy) texture of meat. So many non-veggies I've fed on beautiful and totally un-meatlike creations, say they feel hungry afterwards. They aren't, of course, but because they're expecting a certain type of protein, they're noticing its lack.

Take my boyf. as a case in point. Could anyone be less veggie than him? (Rhetorical - no gruesome detail needed). When we moved in together and I insisted that I would only cook veggie meals, I thought I'd have a revolution on my hand. Thank zarquon for Quorn and similar meat-textured products.

At this point, I will put my hands up and admit that no, they don't taste a lot like meat (so far as I remember, at any rate). But what they do achieve is a pleasant squingy texture. Much as I love tofu, it ain't quite the badger when it comes to a hearty meal. (Although the deep fried sort does head towards squingy in its own special way).

TVP, Quorn and similar, on the other hand, are very much the black and white striped nocturnal mammal. Great for feeding to meat-eaters, and equally grand for encouraging meat-eaters to cook for you (because of the similar usage in recipes), they may not do everything meat does, but they're pretty damned fab all the same. When it comes to shove-it-in-a-saucepan-and-pour-sauce-on-it cuisine (my favourite for busy weeknights) these meat substitutes are a Godsend.

For the record, my boyfriend loves Quorn curries of all descriptions (makhani, balti, mossala, dhanzak... you name it (we do eat a lot of curry)) - I use the fillets, pan-fried with cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs, or marinade them in teriyaki sauce, bake and slice on top of a stir-fry. I make chilli con carne or lasagne with vegetarian mince (not the dried stuff, but the straight from the freezer variety) or spice and sauce it up and serve it in fajitas. When we're having a fry-up, we have big veggie cumberland sausages, and snip veggie bacon into the beans (a synthetic but nice flavour in this context). I've managed to keep my weight far steadier since buying Quorn's deli slices for my sarnies (remembering that previously, vegetarian sandwich fillings tended to be cheese, egg or something covered in oil (eg roast veg))

To be honest, I couldn't feed the carnivore without these wonderful advances in vegetarian ingredients. We do eat non-substitute meals of all cuisines, probably two to three times a week, but if I want to get a big hug and a thank you after dinner, I can guarantee that a meat-like meal will do the trick. Some of the newest products are really ideal. Fajita strips that just need stir-frying and serving up in a tortilla with guacamole and sour cream, lemon-flavoured chunks that make a good basis for a pan-fry of vegetables, or our current favourite, cheese and broccoli-topped, breaded fillets, that taste great with steamed veg.

Most of this is slightly divergent from the main point, but I don't think you can write an appropriate guide entry on feeding non-veggies without giving these foods the respect they deserve!

Blink, blink, pinkety blink.
Pink .x.

It's funny as my other half prefers veggie mince to the real stuff, even though I'm more than happy to go down the butcher's for him - but there ya go