As a vegetarian who loves the taste of meat, I suggest you stay away from Boca products. My girlfriend loves them because she wants “meaty” foods that don’t have meaty flavor. If you’re like me and enjoy the taste, I strongly suggest virtually any other brand. My personal favorites are Morning Star Farms (found in just about any grocery store in the civilized world) and Gardein (harder to find but their Chipotle Lime Chicken is ohmygoddelicious). I strongly recommend you give them a shot.
Meatatarian here: FWIW, you get used to the “No Meat” feeling after a while.
I’ve been trying to “sans the meat” for my lunches at work. Salads and what not.
And like the OP, I walk away from those luches feeling like I’ve missed out on something.
It’s getting better tho’. The other day I had a salad for lunch and then for dinner I had some spinach ravioli.
It wasn’t until I went to bed that night that it occurred to me I went the entire day with out eating meat!!
At 42, I think that’s the first time in my life I went an entire day with out eating meat. !
tofu and textured soy can be made very meat like in texture and taste. it can be part of a dish in chucks and it will be similar enough.
Aye, Boca products suck. The only thing worse is Quorn products.
Morningstar Farms is very good (their Crumbles rock; try them in chili or tomato sauce).
The Gardein stuff is uniformly excellent. I use the Beefless Tips and various “chicken” products nearly every day.
I can also recommend Yves and Lightlife, particularly for sandwich stuff.
Seitan is another good meat substitute and is available at Whole Foods and the like.
ETA: And as mentioned up thread, portabello mushrooms are your friends.
I like cooking with Textured Vegetable Protein. It’s not meat, but it’s basically all protein. You reconstitute it with hot water and bullion (if you want, you can just use water but it’s pretty flavorless). You can use eggs and breadcrumbs to form it into patties and make little cakes (like tuna cakes). You can use it in lasagna. You can use it as taco filling. Or just put it in a stew.
It’s versatile stuff and pretty impossible to screw up.
Yes, I know the feeling the OP is talking about, and I don’t think you can get it without meat, but you can get it with far less meat.
I make a dish with great northern beans, herbs and spices, stock, and two smoked pork shanks in a cast iron pot in the oven for a few hours. There is not much meat on a pork shank and even less on hocks, but the fatty porky goodness of the skin, marrow, and meat soak into to those thirsty beans in a magical way. When the beans are done, remove the shanks and strip the meat off of them and stir it back in. The entire dish tastes of smoked / cured hog.
This is why some of us can eat a bushel basket full of produce and still feel empty after.
I have tried adding Braggs Amino Liquids to things like soup that gives it a much more rich depth of flavor.
This makes ALL the difference. Put in just the right amount and it is perfect. Its my secret ingredient.
In that case I think you are under-spicing your meal. I’m a total meat junkie, but a good vegetarian Thai meal fills me up just fine while simultaneously blowing my ears off.
Oyster sauce?
Spices do the opposite to making you feel full. At least, for me, a burning tummy is part of feeling hungry.
Anyways, I’d tell the OP to add soy sauce. That’s what I do to my veggie soup. Heck, soy sauce and canned mixed veggies are enough.
A soup from some meat stock. Put in some mushrooms to provide the resistant chewing solid. Eat it with bread and cheese for extra stomach cram.
Glutamates. Parmesan cheese is great (the good stuff), as is soy sauce. Add Sazon Goya to broths and one pot meals.
Boca brats aren’t bad, but we’re going to have words about the Quorn thing. However, Gardein makes most veg products look like sad little wannabees. My very omnivorous husband had the Mandarin “chicken” on a stirfry and was astonished that it wasn’t real chicken.
I’m not sure if it’s spicing–that doesn’t really make me feel any fuller, but what the composition of the dish is. If I have plenty of fat and protein along with the carbs, I feel as satiated as having eaten meat. For me, that’s cheese, butter, cream, chickpeas, beans, etc. Those fill me up. Potatoes and other starchy vegetables, too. I’m not a huge fan of TVP and other meat-like substitutes. If I want meat, I’ll eat meat. I find that vegetable dishes can be just as filling as satisfying, provided there’s plenty of fat and protein to balance the carbs.
Marmite, that English tar in a jar, makes an excellent vegetarian meat flavoring. I make vegetarian Hungarian goulash by first marinating tofu cubes in a solution of Marmite and soy sauce, and I swear, it makes the meatiest DIY vegetarian goulash you can imagine. It is best with Szeged sweet paprika plus some cayenne. On top of homemade whole-wheat egg pasta, it’s as filling and satisfying as anything you can think of.
I stuff my vegetarian stromboli with panelle, a Sicilian version of falafel made of fried strips of chickpea flour dough. It delivers the savory proteinaceous zing that is sought after.
This thing looks fun and I will investigate it or possibly local alternatives; never heard of anything like it before but it’s basically (from the sound of it) what I am after
If you’ve ever seen a Marmite ad… let’s just say I don’t love it.
Jeez… now I am dying for a Five Guys burger.