"meatless" news and stories

Summer means grilling season -- burgers, steaks, hot dogs, and chicken are the usual suspects. So what's a vegetarian to do? The good news is that there are lots of meat-free products on the market -- from "hot dogs" to garden burgers, even faux chicken patties. Problem is, they can vary wildly in how good they are.

We invited a few friends over, fired up the grill and taste-tested meat-free burgers and dogs. We opened up 16 products: a mix of varieties and brands.

Our top nine picks are below (including our favorite), taking into consideration the texture, flavors, seasonings and overall taste in each.

Keep reading for the seven products that did not pass our taste test -- and why.

It's a shame that I didn't see this vegan turkey recipe before I tried making the rather... interesting... Tofurkey shortly before this past Thanksgiving. The Tofurkey was a tofu-based "roast" with a wild rice stuffing and a faux-giblet gravy on the side. The vegan turkey from Two Vegan sisters almost reverses the order of ingredients, ending up with something that sounds much more appetizing. At the center of their "turkey," they used seitan, a wheat-based meat substitute, and covered it in a layer of stuffing that was shaped into a turkey-like mass and had turkey/stuffing legs added. The whole construction was covered with a layer of homemade (vegan) puff pastry and baked until golden. A turkey and stuffing savory pastry? It seems hard to go wrong with that!

And if you're not a vegan, this idea could still work for you. I can picture sausages or even real turkey in the center of this faux bird. It would certainly be an interesting take on the traditional bird at your next family dinner!

[via the ppk blog]

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Nancy Zaslavsky is a James Beard Award winning writer that loves Mexican food and shares her passion for and knowledge of authentic, regional techniques and flavors from across the country in Meatless Mexican Home Cooking. Every dish is vegetarian and many have been collected directly from home cooks, not just adapted from meat-based recipes.

Like any book that is intended to give an overview of a whole cuisine, this one starts with a thorough introduction to chilies before getting on to the recipes. And even once you get to the recipe section, it starts with the simple techniques for tortilla-making before jumping into slightly more complex, although not difficult, dishes. The recipes are arranged in chapters that include sauces, tamales, soups, main dishes, egg dishes, desserts and drinks. For the convenience of anyone unfamiliar with the cuisine (or with Spanish) each recipe comes with a translation of the name, so Rajas con Crema also lists "roasted chilies with onions and cream" for clarity. Other dishes include Salsa Chile Habanero ("neon-orange liquid fire salsa"), Tamales Dulces ("sweet tamales"), Huevos Mexicanos ("scrambled eggs with fabulous flavors") and Chocolate-Chile Mole Brownies.

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Forget the Tofurkey. Susan, the amazing vegan cook behind Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, has come up with a much more appetizing vegan alternative to the omnivore's turkey dinner. She made Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing. The dish has the classic elements of stuffing and gravy, but is missing, of course, the meat. Susan marinates her tofu so that it absorbs some flavor before cooking, but it is pretty clear that the bulk of the flavor comes from what is inside the tofu. The stuffing has rosemary, sage, garlic and onion, along with nutty brown rice and mushrooms. The gravy is thickened with tofu, but has similar seasonings, along with a bit of nutritional yeast, which is often added to vegan dishes to give them an ever-so-slightly cheesy flavor. Her post also includes detailed photo instructions for cutting the pockets in the tofu to hold the stuffing.

Vegan or not - this sounds like an appealing fall meal for any Sunday dinner.

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For years, the "Tofurkey" seemed like some sort of make-believe food item and I pictured blocks of tofu stuck together and carved into a giant turkey shape. This particular mental image was smashed the day I first spotted an actual Tofurkey at the market. The product is a 100% vegan roast made out of tofu and vital wheat gluten (this is the combination, with seasonings, is known as "Tofurkey"), stuffed with a brown rice stuffing and accompanied by a side of "giblet and mushroom gravy," which contains more Tofurkey, mushrooms and a variety of seasonings, oils and thickeners.

I decided that I'd give it a try and see what it was like. After all - how bad could it be?