Vegetarian & Vegan food

Houmous.

Roasted almonds are nice and make your house / flat smell amazing for a few days

hippy's house always smells amazing.

#inb4hippy

Stenchjacketofdoom

If GT85 and stale beer counts as amazing.

I still have that. It's in one of the offices. Pity the archeological team that digs it out of post-Brexit London rubble.

What kind of pies are you having?

Higgidy, twee fucking marketing but they taste good and microwave in a minute in their little tray while the economy holds up. Might be downgrading to Sainsburys own brand soon.

Has anyone who stopped eating meat when they were Young (or doesn't like the taste of meat), started eating some meat?

If so any suggestions for types of meat and methods of cooking for non-meat eaters?

Hey @hugo7 - I was a vegetarian from birth to 18. 18 by coincidence, not because it's when I became an adult. I distinctly remember eating pretty overcooked meat, as for it to not seem half alive. E.g. well done burgers or steak. Over time, it became more normal and now I'll happily eat steak rare, burgers medium rare and so on.

Coincidentally, I stumbled upon this thread as I am thinking of revisiting vegetarianism. I cooked a lamb shank the other day and it resembled the shape of my dogs leg, far too much for me to not be freaked out. How can I love dogs and claim to be an animal lover but eat meat? I'm not sure I can anymore. Back in 2011 or so when I started eating meat, vegetarian food was still pretty limited when eating out but it's come on leaps and bounds.

80% of the protein I eat at home is still some form of meat substitute, so I am thinking of just going the whole hog. Unfortunately I do still love a burger.

With that said, we've started eating Beyond Meat burgers and, I'm not sure on their UK availability, but they're marvelous. Even my hardcore meat eating fiance said she has no need to eat meat burgers at home now that these exist.

How can I love dogs and claim to be an animal lover but eat meat?

100% this. That's pretty much why I went veggie and then vegan this exact ethical conundrum. Theres no need to eat meat at all when impossible / beyond meat / vivera exist. Vegan cheese has come along way as well with people conducting some kind of wizardry with cashew nuts and abit of flavourings. Enjoy the new wave of veggie!

Yeah. Quite. No way I'm gonna be going vegan though - I don't really eat much cheese, I use alternative milks and I only buy pasture raised well expensive eggs.

Cheers man, that's helpful. I was also wondering about pork loin, or chicken breast say in things like fajitas, as there's plenty else in there to mask the taste.

I'm impressed, you've found so many options. I really struggled to find the sort of accessable range in NYC compared to LDN. Maybe it was a product familiarity thing, but a lot of it seemed a bit grim. Although tbh it's was made harder by my other half's dislike of "fake meat" (asides from quorn). One thing that smashed the UK tho was Trader Joe's huge and cheap range of tofu - I got quite into drying the firm one, cutting into slices, over seasoning it, then almost dry frying it to have in sandwiches, or just on the side of meals.

I don't really want to get into the ethics of it, but loving dogs doesn't really impact on whether you eat cows. Just work out what you're happy with. Ultimately any reduction is a good thing.

Yeah, exactly. And Quorn is so similar to real chicken in many ways that the transition from Quorn to chicken isn't that big of a deal. It was the things that had no real substitute that I struggled and still struggle with. If someone were to try and give me pork belly as an example, I wouldn't be able to eat it.

There are definitely some veggie things that are like crack though and I choose to eat them over their meat counterpart. E.g. Quorn escalopes - oh my god - pure drugs.

Yes, TJs is great for veggie stuff - I'll take a look at the tofu. Maybe it'll change my mind as to how I feel about tofu!

I know, I know. It's more the principle of not ever wanting to harm an animal who has no voice - but yes - not hear to discuss the ethics!