From convincing “bleeding” burgers to the recent online trend of making “chicken” with flour (see Seitan below), there’s plenty of meat substitutes on the market. However, with so many options becoming more and more readily available, this comes with an increasing amount of products and ingredients to keep track of. Whether you’ve got beef with beef or you just want to know what you’re ordering the next time you go to that hip restaurant with your vegan friend, here are a few common meat substitutes and what they’re made of.
Seitan
Seitan (say-tan) is a fairly common meat substitute made from gluten, a protein in wheat. If you’ve seen the viral videos of people “washing” flour and water, that’s removing the starch from the flour to create seitan or something similar. Seitan can also be made with purchased wheat gluten, which skips a few steps. It tends to have a fairly dense and chewy texture, lending itself to meatless sausages and chicken.
Mycoprotein
Mycoprotein was arguably popularized by the company Quorn, known for meat substitutes such as meatless nuggets and fishless sticks. According to the company, mycoprotein is made by fermenting fungi and is considered to be sustainable due to the lower amount of land and water required to produce it. However, there are some reported problems with the consumption of mycoproteins associated with allergic reactions.
TVP
TVP, a common name for “textured vegetable protein,” is a complete protein made from defatted soy flour, according to Bob’s Red Mill, a popular brand for meat substitute ingredients. It usually comes dried and requires rehydration and seasoning, but the result is similar to a ground meat texture. It’s great in dishes like tacos and casseroles or it can be turned into burgers.
Tempeh
Tempeh is made from fermented soybeans. Unlike tofu, which normally has a pretty homogenous texture, you’ll find you can usually identify the beans in a block of tempeh. It usually has a bit more bite, and when marinated, can somewhat mimic bacon or can be crumbled to resemble ground meat. However, tempeh is also great seasoned as its own ingredient.
Tofu
This may be controversial, but perhaps the most commonly known “meat substitute” isn’t really always meant to mimic meat. Tofu is great on its own as its own ingredient. Many haters of tofu cite the texture as a reason for their dislike, and oftentimes, tofu frankly isn’t that similar to meat. While there are plenty of methods to better mock meat, like freezing or draining it, it’s great on its own, fried, scrambled or grilled.
