Cooking with Plant-based Meat Substitutes

Live Fruitfully x Good Food People x Green Monday

Being a wholefoods plant-based chef for a while meant I was always turning my nose up at plant-based meat products in the frozen food aisle. But it wasn’t until I started working with Green Monday that I realized that these products certainly have their worth in today’s ever-evolving food culture. With plant-based meat products on the rise globally, we are certainly living on the other side of the spectrum now!

IThe rise of all the vegan meat alternative products out there has actually led to another hurdle: knowing which ones to buy and how to cook them and what to use them for. If you’re new to plant-based eating, the options can be overwhelming. 

So when Good Food People , an online platform selling a wide-variety of some of the best plant-based meat alternatives on the market right now approached me to come up with some recipes for home cooks, I was game for the challenge. Their brief to me was challenging at first glance: no more than 20 mins prep, less than 8 ingredients, yummy and nutritious. Game on! 

But first, nutrition. I get asked that very often about these faux meats. When you’re shopping for meat alternative products, whether it’s chicken, pork, or beef, the first question to ask yourself is if you’re looking for an alternative that’s as healthy as possible or as close to tasting like meat as possible.

If it’s nutrition you’re after, scan the ingredients list and see if the product is made with healthy whole foods (like soy, lentils, and veggies). Then, eye the protein content —this is important since you will be using it in place of meat, which is the primary protein source in many meals—and check that it’s low in sodium and saturated fat. Meat substitute products higher in saturated fat will taste more like real meat, but aren’t as healthy because too much saturated fat is not good for cardiovascular health.

That said, plant-based meat products have come a long way and most of the time, you can use them as an easy swap-in for whatever you were going to use meat for. But if you’re skeptical, start slow. You don’t have to completely overhaul your whole diet at once. Incorporate the products into recipes with ingredients you already know and love, see what works and what you like, and go from there. For these recipes, I used Beyond Meat minced, patties, sausages, OmniMeat and Heura products. So start cooking! Look for the complete recipes on Good Food People.