Want to go half veggie

Lotus-eater

tinktinktinkerbell wrote: »

lol @ half veggie, no such thing

I love it when people don't read the thread, but just have to comment anyway

misskool

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Just had a look at the Redwood foods site and some of the stuff looks really nice, if a bit pricey. Do any shops sell it?
And this brings me to another thing, Asda where I shop doesn't seem to have much veggie stuff at all, almost nothing tbh.
Where do you all shop for your alternative milks and tufu/quorn etc?

I shop in a chinese supermarket a lot. you can freeze milks/tofu.

Quorn is normally on special offer at asda

Don't forget the Asian supermarket for your pulses and beans (if you don't grow enough).

I'm not vegetarian though, some things just taste better with meat.

pineapple

lostinrates wrote: »

Dairy and egg production, does involve animal death.

The main issue for me is how they are kept. I only buy free range and I do know they are free range. Unlike a free range 'farm' near me that looks like a factory unit.

Justamum

misskool wrote: »

I shop in a chinese supermarket a lot. you can freeze milks/tofu.

You can freeze tofu, but it changes texture and therefore usage. If you want to use it for puddings for instance where it's whizzed up you can't do that if it's been frozen. You can buy the tetrapak type which keeps for ages - I've used some long past the sell by date before now.

SpikyHedgehog

I think others have already said this but the ready made veggie stuff, especially Quorn can be pricy (and not always that yummy...) You also have to be careful with the protein as some of the veggie burgers are literally vegetable burgers - perfectly suitable for vegetarians, just not a great source of protein. (When my boys are off camping with Scouts/school, I always feed them up before & after as they don't get the most balanced diet there. But that's my choice & my responsibilty to make sure they are well fed vegetarians.)

I do try to avoid Quron (though we had it tonight in fajitas) as I find it very boring unless it's got lots of sauce in the pack - and then I think 'I could have done my own sauce better than this'. Plus my mum's a vegan & DS2's best friend is allergic to eggs, so they can't have quorn. I think the supermarkets seem to be offereing less variety of their own vegetarian products since quorn became so popular.

On the other hand, getting a bag of dried pulses costs very little and goes a long way. I used a bag of chick peas at the weekend, soaked the whole bag overnight & cooked them all up (missing my super big stockpot that was so good for that). When cooked, I filled 2 margarine tubs with cooked chick peas & froze them, made chick pea cobbler with the rest which did enough for 2 helpings each for me & DS1, and 1 helping for DS2. There was enough of that left over for a pie on Monday, so I guess we ate about half each time.

lostinrates

pineapple wrote: »

The main issue for me is how they are kept. I only buy free range and I do know they are free range. Unlike a free range 'farm' near me that looks like a factory unit.

fair enough. That's more or less what we do, though I go to some length to do this to the best of my ability.

Its much easier to do this in UK IME, and almost impossible when we're elsewhere, where I confess I sometimes fail.

misskool

Justamum wrote: »

You can freeze tofu, but it changes texture and therefore usage. If you want to use it for puddings for instance where it's whizzed up you can't do that if it's been frozen. You can buy the tetrapak type which keeps for ages - I've used some long past the sell by date before now.

I don't make puddings with tofu and I mostly buy the drier version (like tofu skins or the little puffball type things), which freeze well. If I buy silken tofu, that will be eaten fresh. Blanch with hot water, a garnish of fried onion, century eggs, oyster sauce, spring onions. nom nom.

You can buy sheets of dried tofu and you can use that as wraps.

Justamum

misskool wrote: »

I don't make puddings with tofu and I mostly buy the drier version (like tofu skins or the little puffball type things), which freeze well. If I buy silken tofu, that will be eaten fresh. Blanch with hot water, a garnish of fried onion, century eggs, oyster sauce, spring onions. nom nom.

You can buy sheets of dried tofu and you can use that as wraps.

I've never seen tofu skins, puffpall tofu or dried tofu. Where can you buy them from?

misskool

Justamum wrote: »

I've never seen tofu skins, puffpall tofu or dried tofu. Where can you buy them from?

A good chinese supermarket should have them.

Dried beancurd sheets, these can be rehydrated by soaking in water and then shredding into meals or use as a spring roll wrapper. You can deep fry the sheets when they are rehydrated to make a crunchy snack (but it's really not v healthy)


You can buy them as dried sticks


deep fried beancurd, these are my puffball beancurd, this one freezes well. It's a bit hollow in the middle so you can stuff with veg etc


freeze dried beancurd (this is a bit more difficult to find) kouya tofu
http://www.justhungry.com/handbook/just-hungry-reference-handbooks/kouya-dofu-or-kohya-dofu-freeze-dried-tofu


you can also get fermented soya beans in a block as tempeh


You can also buy fermented bean curd (chao do fu = smelly beancurd). It's very savory and spicy, works well in rice dishes. This is an acquired taste!! Beware. Good chinese supermarkets stock this in jars.

erdd2

I love veg and the suggestions here are great "food for thought"

I still get confused but not bothered as to the definitions of vegetarian and vegan and the lack of use of "non meat eater"

Thanks OP, great thread!