• TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    I cook a lot of vegetarian/vegan meat supplements and they almost always have the same hurdles you have to get over to make them really good.

    For one, most need some kind of fat added during the cooking process. A lot of recipes that are traditionally meat based are relying on fats from the meat to bring the recipe together. Since most meat replacements are mainly just vegetables or bean based, they need a little extra oil in the sauce or when pan frying to make a well rounded dish.

    Another issue is that a lot of them can be texturally homogeneous. To fix this, if the sausages are a little too soft or mushy, you really want to double cook them. I will usually air fry them with a little oil coating them, let them cool back down and then add them into my saute or sauce.

    A simple recipe that I do at home with veggie sausage

    Airfry sausage with a spray of oil

    Slice up an onion and saute in a wok or pan with a neutral oil -high heat

    Once onions are translucent and beginning to brown turn down heat to low/medium and add sauce mixture

    Sauce mixture - amount differs with how much you plan on making

    40ml soy sauce

    200ml water

    15ml sugar

    15ml vinegar

    15ml cornstarch

    15ml sesame oil.

    Once sauce thickens add in sausages

    Add msg to taste.

    Msg is a magical ingredient for vegetarian or vegan cooking because it mimics the umami protein found in meat. It’s especially great for cooking for people who still eat meat.

  • zabadoh@ani.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    That’s weird.

    Usually meat substitutes are over-salted, and should at least taste salty if nothing else.

    Try a different brand or a different product entirely.

    There are plenty of vegetarian meat substitutes out there.

    Otherwise, as others have said, you’re going to have to make up the lack of flavor with some kind of sauce.

    Or just learn to enjoy how vegetarian food tastes different from meat products, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for your health.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      I went through something of a ‘veggie sausage’ phase, but I later got to thinking that they’re probably nowhere near as healthy as they might seem. Not just because of the high salt content, but because they’re also highly-processed, and highly-processed food just isn’t that great nutrition-wise, in general.