The Many Great Choices of Vegetarian Meats and Their Cost Effectiveness
Today, being a vegetarian has become an easier and much tastier task, due to the wide range market of vegetarian meat-like products sold in the grocery stores. Though the prices are a bit on the higher end for some of these products’ much of the quality of these meat like products has grown considerably over the years. The vast array of meat like choices for today’s vegetarians has become such a delight that being a vegetarian today is similar to more of a diet shift, than an overhaul of all foods in a diet. The vegetarian meat like products are often pre-prepared and many are similar to hamburger patties, chicken patties, hot dogs, steak strips, bacon strips and the like. While the price for these foods are more costly then just a decade ago, their quality and taste have markedly increased, and they still are cheaper then their real meat counterparts.
Many of these simulated meats, use soy based products or a blended brown rice mixture as their base. With many of the vegetarian meat like products they are filled with seasonings and distinct flavorings that make it very difficult to tell that the product is not actually meat based. The highest quality and best tasting ones are usually made with a soy base that has flavoring added to make it taste like a regular beef, chicken or pork product.
Many of these can be readily added to any meat recipe. However the one difference to be considered with any meat recipe and the simulated meat products is that people need to be aware that these products cook at a much faster rate and on a much lower heat than traditional meat products.
The many advantages of the soy and brown rice products is that they are lean, and offer a high protein content. This is especially true with the soy products. With the many long term health risks of using regular meat on a daily basis and the many advantages of using soy based products; these vegetarian meat like alternatives have become popular not just among vegetarians, but also among heart patients, earth conscious people and dieters alike.
The mastering of the flavor enhancements of the vegetarian meat like products has literally made many avid meat eaters unable to tell the difference in many recipes like chili, goulash, shepherd’s pie, stuffed pepper’s, meatloaf, Bolognese sauce and sloppy joe’s. For the most part the main stream manufacturer’s of these meat like products have mastered not only taste, but look, feel and texture of their traditional meat counterparts.
Additionally, the vegetarian poultry like breaded Chix Pattie’s are a perfect substitute for their chicken patty counterparts and are easily used for chicken parmesan, and chicken cordon bleu and come out tasting fabulous. For the avid meat eaters, many of them can more readily accept the concept when the understand those bacon bits they love and adore are made from soy, not bacon. Once they acknowledge that a mainstream food item they are familiar with and have probably tried is soy based, they are less likely to be squeamish about trying these very healthy alternatives. For people with soy allergies there are plenty of brown rice alternatives as well. In fact many restaurants like Burger King, Subway and Sonic use the brown rice based vegetarian burgers on their menu and they are quite good and very popular.