{Guest Post} 5 Of The Best Meat Substitutes for Vegetarians

5 Of The Best Meat Substitutes for Vegetarians

I cook a lot of different foods and often, I have friends round for dinner too. Now, I am not a vegetarian myself but I like to think I have a decent knowledge of different foods (even if I do say so myself) and I have a couple of friends who are vegetarian. It is because of this that I usually end up making a substitute in many of my meals for my friends, and some of them have ended up pretty tasty.

I have rounded up a list of what I think are some of the best, healthiest and tastiest meat substitutes out there for vegetarians and hopefully, I will open your eyes to some new ideas.

Nuts

Now, you don’t have to be a vegetarian to use this substitute and I absolutely love nuts myself. However, there are a lot of meals where you can easily substitute meat for nuts. For example, you might want to use nuts in meals such as stir fry’s or salad’s that usually contain meat. Nuts are high in protein so area great substitute health-wise too!

Tofu

This is something that is not used as much as it should be in my opinion. I can see why most people tend not to like this as at first glance, it is just a soft tasteless block. However, when you start incorporating it into some interesting meals, you will find that the meals actually do all of the work for you. Fried or grilled tofu will taste best so long as its seasoned right.

I actually made kebab’s last summer with tofu as a meat substitute and they went down a treat, even with the most manly meat eaters that I had there. Tofu is once again full of protein so a perfect replacement for chicken, beef or any other meat.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are wonderful! And again, not enough people eat these in my opinion. Mushrooms can be used in a number of ways as a meat substitute and in particular, Portobello mushrooms are excellent as a substitute for large chunks of meat (.e.g steak). Mushrooms are also healthier than meats like beef or fatty pork as they are low in fat.

Grilled mushrooms are a particular favourite of mine and taste fantastic with a little bit of olive oil.

Beans

Unfortunately, when people hear beans these days, they are more likely to think of the baked beans that you get in the tins at the supermarket. Although these are still great and can be quite interesting in some meals, there are tonnes of other fantastic beans out there. For example, green beans are delicious, as are kidney beans and once again, are a great meat substitute as they are packed with protein.

My advice with beans is to keep it pretty simple. With kidney beans, they are great when popped in a pressure cooker for a stew or a chilli and with green beans, they are actually great when just fried in butter with seasoning.

Soy

My last substitute on the list is perhaps the most obvious; Soy. Soy is probably already part of most vegetarians diets and perhaps even some meat eaters. The great thing about Soy is that there are just so many things that you can do with it. You can buy soy burgers, hot dogs, everything these days so you won’t be short of things to eat.

Soy is also great as it is packed with protein and has been found to have caner fighting properties too. A great all-rounder.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you should be incorporating some of these into your diet whether you are a vegetarian, vegan or meat-eater as they are all delicious and healthy. Give them a try!

Bio: David loves to cook and regularly cooks for his family and friends at home, often making up recipes as he goes along. David also owns a Pressure Cooker Recipes website, dedicated to providing great, tasty recipes perfect for pressure cookers.