Vegan meat Oumph the Chunk - nice texture/bland taste - suggestions wanted

Cafe Society
1

I’m not vegan, but I’m trying to generally lower my meat consumption. Try to use max 100 g pr dinner, usually less, and occasionally meat less. I’m not sold on meat substitutes, I try to get my proteins by using high protein vegetables when cooking meatless.

But I saw a big bag of these cheap in a local supermarket. I’ve never heard about them that I remember, but Oumph the Chunk is apparently a swedish soybean based meat substitute, that comes in several flavours. Not the package I bought, however. First attempt I salted them a bit and braised them on a pan, then added some broccoli/cauliflower/carrot mix and some sauce and after some more heating ate them with some pasta or hummus, I think.

They have a convincing chicken like texture, but bland taste. I had added salt/pepper/oregano/chilli(?) and it made the stew tasty but the “meat” was still bland.

Any suggestions? Should I add more spices while braising?

2

I’ve never tried that specific product but likely the same basic principle applies as to other soy protein products: they are a fairly neutral sponge for whatever you sauté them in. So for example a basic tofu stir fry is first heating up ginger and garlic in the oil, cooking the tofu chunks in that, with some salt and pepper, and then adding your vegetables of choice with the tamari.

3

Pretty much this. They are near tasteless on their own. You need herbs and sauces and other things to make them tasty.

This is one of my go-to vegetarian dishes (I like meat too):

4

I used garlic and chillipowder last night, worked well when heated in the oil before I added the chunks. Will try ginger next time.

5

I handle it a little differently. Ginger and garlic will burn long before tofu gets a sear, so I fry up the tofu, and add the ginger and garlic to a sauce that I add near the end. My sauce is usually something like:

  • Tamari
  • Ginger
  • Garlic
  • Rice vinegar
  • Brown sugar
  • Corn starch

and then I add a dollop of sesame oil as a final bit.

6

I suppose there are two different ways to go with this:

  1. make it taste more like meat
  2. just make it taste nice

If you want it to taste more meaty, then probably glutamates are the way- either in the form of refined monosodium glutamate powder or as naturally-occurring glutamates in things like yeast extract, mushroom powder, tomato paste, etc.

Making it taste nice probably includes a broader range of options as 2 is probably a superset of 1. Garlic and ginger is a really good combo; smoked paprika is great; crispy fried onions (as an ingredient) are pretty powerfully tasty.

7

Have you tried TVP? I don’t recall the brand but I’ve had one so much like ground beef that it was a big hit for us and our vegan friend when I used it for chili.

8

Sounds like a fat cat Instagram page :rofl: