A question for Veggies?

bluemoon_3

I've been vegetarian all my adult life, and vegan for the last three years. It would be easy to spend a lot on meat-replacements, but since I'm also an 'old-styler' by nature, I spend very little on those pre-packaged products (and would do also if I was an omni).

I buy tvp from goodness direct - about 3k for £4, which lasts months. We have tofu about once a fortnight - that's about £1.20 for a block - but it's so versatile that I don't mind the expense. I see tofu less as a meat-sub and more as a basic ingredient anyway.

I make my own vegan cheeses, using the recipes in the uncheese cookbook (just made mozzarella and kefir cheese this morning!) and also Bryanna Clark Grogan's 'Melty Pizza Cheese' recipe, which can be used as a sauce, or for cheese on toast and solidifies for slicing in the fridge - this is the one we use most often because it's so quick and simple.

Mayonnaise - I often buy commercial egg-free mayonnaise (£1.30 a jar) for the convenience, but I do have a couple of good mayo recipes that, as a bonus, are only about 10 cals per tablespoon!

TBH, the biggest expense comes from soymilk - the cheapest of which (if you want fortified) is tesco's own brand sweetened for 69p a litre. Other brands are usually over £1 a litre. I buy a few 'specialist' ingredients like engevita nutritional yeast (not the same as brewers yeast), miso, blackstrap molasses and tahini, which aren't 'vegan foods', but ingredients often used in vegan cooking, but they also last for some time so don't need to be bought very often.

I think I spend more on buying fairtrade and organic products than anything specific to being vegan.

As with any other diet, you can spend as much or as little as you want to. Old-styling it makes it cheaper - you just have to look at cooking from a slightly different angle to omnivores.

ETA: I just realised there are a couple of meat-subs we use! Realeat's 'fishless fish cakes' - £1.49 for 4, and sometimes veggie hot dogs, maybe a box every three months or so. I'm also making sausage rolls for christmas with sosmix. But it's certainly not a 'staple' of our diet.

Wizwoo

I used to work in the food industry developing ready meals. Veggie meals in many ways due to the lower sales lost out in terms of the economy of scale. However, I found that the "sales" price of a veggie ready meal was hiked up to improve the overall £% that the store / suppliers made i.e. if a meaty meal wasn't quite making enough of a profit but they didn't want to increase the price they increased the price of the veggie meal (that would generally come in well under) to off set the meaty meal loss.

I've been veggie for nearly twenty years now and rarely use meat substitutes for my meals however my meat loving OH will often us Quorn. My main experience of meat sustitues is when I go visiting others...I mean what do veggies eat?

tr3mor

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

My last Tennertastic break we explored Leicester and found a fantastic Indian buffet place where not a bit of meat was in sight, and none of the huge range of curries or buffer items were pretend/imitation meat dishes.

If you're ever visiting London, there's an indian buffet very similar to this in Chapel Market, about 200 yards from Angel Tube Station. All lovely fresh veg, about 4 different curries, 3 kinds of rice, salads, cold sauces, bhajis/pakoras, popadoms and mini naans/chapatis.

And the best thing about it.......

£2.95 for all you can eat !!! :eek:

thriftlady_2

bluemoon wrote:

Mayonnaise - I often buy commercial egg-free mayonnaise (£1.30 a jar) for the convenience, but I do have a couple of good mayo recipes that, as a bonus, are only about 10 cals per tablespoon!

I buy egg-free mayo for my egg-allergic dd,I'd love a recipe for it bluemoon.I'd really appreciate it if you'd post it here or PM me.TIA

jazzyjustlaw

I spend about £30.00 per week on food and eat meat subs twice a week, i.e. chicken style pieces in a stew and realeat "fake" mince. Most cheeses are veggie. I eat pasta, pizza, bean burgers alsorts. Its about choice and if you have a family its about compromise. I dont spend any more time thinking about food than I used to. I dont really like quorn products although southern fried burgers are nice.

If you go on the Viva website they explain about what people can eat. People ask me if I just eat fruit and vegetables. I also get asked whether I starve. I also get told whats the point in eating fake meat. I just yawn. Yes I dont eat I say. In fact I used to ask veggies that before I became one. I dont like meat because of what happens to it and I hate the greasiness and the grissle. I like fake meat because it doesnt taste like meat but it bulks it out and you dont break your teeth on a linda mcCartney sausage! Oh and I love the taste of the chicken style pieces because I do and no other reason and not because it tastes like meat as it tastes much nicer and it doesnt smell of dead animals.


In fact I spend less money on veggie food than I ever did before.

jazzyjustlaw

And near where I live theres a chinese that does 65 dishes of which you can have a bit of everything and eat as much as you like for £16.00 per person and each dish has a veggie alternative including fake crispy duck and its delicious.

gemmaj

If I didn't eat veggie-sausages and veggie-burgers, what would I put in my rolls at a bbq? OK, so there are hm alternatives, like hm-caulicheese grills and all sorts, but how many of them can be traveled around to a friends house and slung on the bbq, without falling apart? And taste perfect in a roll with all the burger-trimmings?

smayhew

:xmassmile

Blue Moon I would love the recipe for 'Melty Pizza Cheese' if you can post it or tell me where to find it.
Thanks

LumpyCustard_2

I don't buy any substitutes for red meat because it would defeat my reason for avoiding it - I don't like the taste in the first place, so why would I think of purchasing something that pretends to be similar? However, in the past I've bought Quorn instead of chicken and sometimes still do for a low calorie option, but mostly now I just buy chicken as it's quite cheap and fresh.

Bogof_Babe

I am allergic to Quorn and it makes me really ill (will spare you the details _pale_), but I like Sainsburys veggie burgers and hotdogs, and Linda McCartneys sausages are nice too, if a bit pricey. We get a lot of Dalepak vegetable quarter pounders, also their cauliflower cheese grills, which are a good substitute for burgers, and don't contain any "fake meat".

I mention the Quorn thing as it is as well to be aware of this quite common allergy if planning a veggie alternative for guests. Knowing what I now know, I would always check whether they are okay with it. I understand some people can be allergic to soya too, although I don't know much about this.

I had one bite of a Quorn burger at a barbecue by accident once, and was up half the night being ill, so it is quite a nasty reaction for those who are allergic to it.