How to Go Vegan | Step 1 Go Meat Free
If you’re wondering how to go vegan with your family, I recommend doing it gradually, step by step. The first and most obvious step, is to go meat free. In this post, I’ll teach you how to drop the meat, and what are the best vegan protein sources.
For some, this can be as easy as simply deciding you don’t eat meat anymore. For others, it can be a huge change. It can be particularly hard for older kids (and husbands) who are very used to eating meat.
I know your first question will be, what are the best vegan protein sources? Well, you’ll be glad to know that contrary to what the media often tells us, it’s actually easy to get protein from a vegan diet. You can check out my post on vegan protein here, and you’ll find out that kids (and adults) can get all the protein that they need from plant based foods.
Secondly, why should you go meat free? Well, for starters going meat free is great for your health. Eating meat has been associated with an increased risk of heart disease, cancer and stroke. And then there’s the cruelty to animals. If we don’t need meat, then why torture and kill animals to get it?
How Do You Go Meat Free?
Going meat free can feel really overwhelming. There’s a whole world of meat substitutions out there, and wow it can be a lot to take in. There’s eggplant bacon, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh, TVP, seitan (yep, pronounced like the King of Hell, Satan), carrot bacon (what is it with vegans trying to turn vegetables into bacon??), Beyond Burgers, Impossible Burgers, the list goes on.
And then if you look for plain vegetarian foods, you get a whole lot of other ingredients that you really aren’t sure your family will actually eat. And anyway, how do you cook half of these things? Eggplant? Giant Mushrooms? Cauliflower Wings? Quinoa?
It’s ok. You don’t need to worry about those things until you’re further into your meat free journey. For now you can stick with simpler vegan protein options.
The easiest way to give up meat is to list all of your family’s favourite meals, and then replace the meat in each of them. That way you aren’t having to learn whole new recipes and flavours, on top of how to cook meat free substitutes. Unfortunately this won’t work for all recipes, but you should be able to come up with at least 10 vegan options to start with.
When I first went vegan, I stuck with pastas, curries and stir fries with some vegan schnitzels mixed in, because that’s what we normally ate as a family. I slowly branched out into Mexican and European flavours as I got better at cooking vegan food. It took me over 2 years before I tried out Seitan, so don’t feel like you have to do it all to start with!
Substitutions to Go Meat Free
So what can you use if you take the meat out? Here is a list of ways that you can replace each type of meat in your diet.
How to Go Vegan and Replace Chicken
Let’s start with chicken as it’s definitely the most popular meat, especially with kids.
- Nuggets – You should be able to find vegan nuggets in the freezer section of your supermarket. My favourite brand are the Fry’s ones, but there are a few others like Gardein, and Veggie Delights that are good, too.
- Burgers and Schnitzels – There are a lot of vegan crumbed chicken options around now, too. You’ll find them in both the freezer section, and the meat section.
- Chicken Breast – These days there are a number of seitan based (a meat replacement made from wheat protein) chicken breast replacements on the market. Unfortunately, they’re often only stocked at vegan specialty stores, and they can be quite expensive. Hopefully as meat free diets become more popular, these will become more readily available and cheaper. For me personally, I tend to use firm tofu as a chicken replacement in most recipes. It soaks up sauces and marinades well, and is quite neutral in flavour. I’ve even marinated large pieces as a whole chicken breast replacement. You can also make your own seitan as a chicken replacement. I have a great seitan chicken recipe in my vegan membership – Nourish and Grow.
- Chickpeas – These are my go to chicken replacement in curries, stews and casseroles. I normally use a “chicken-style” stock powder, and cook them in that. You can see how I use them in my Chickpea Korma recipe.
How to Replace Mince
- Lentils – I normally use tinned brown lentils as a vegan mince replacement. You can just rinse and drain them, and throw them into whatever you’d put mince into. I find they work particularly well in bolognese sauce, like in my Lentil Bolognese recipe.
- TVP – It took me a while to get into Textured Vegetable Protein. It sounds a bit scary, but it’s actually really easy to use. TVP is actually dehydrated soy protein (so not suitable if you have a soy allergy). Just rehydrate it in hot water or stock until it’s soft again, and use it in place of mince. TVP has a chewy texture, so tastes similar to meat. I do find that I need to cook it for longer to make sure it absorbs the flavour. If you can still taste the soy, you just need to cook it for longer.
- Vegan Mince – These days you can buy plant based mince at the supermarket. Each of the brands taste different, with some better than others. They’re generally made from soy or pea protein. I personally prefer TVP, and find it’s cheaper, but definitely try out some of the different brands to see what you like best if you’re interested.
- Walnuts, oats and cauliflower – These are often used in meat replacements. I like to add ground walnuts and oats in with lentils to add extra texture. Just don’t grind them too finely, or they turn into a paste.
- Tofu Crumbles – My favourite meat substitution is crumbled tofu. I normally just crumble up a block of tofu, and then either marinade it in some stock and meaty flavours like soy and vegan Worcestershire sauce, or just use it straight in whatever I’m cooking.
How to Make Your Burgers Meat Free
I wasn’t a huge burger pattie fan before I went vegan, but I certainly eat them more now. Burger patties work for a lot more than just burgers – they replace rissoles, steak, or you can even break them up and put them in a stew or use them as meatballs in pasta. They are definitely useful!
There are a number of different options for vegan burger patties. You can get the more realistic tasting ones like the Beyond and Impossible burgers. For me, personally, they are a bit too meat tasting. But I think they work really well for people who might be missing the taste of meat. If you’re not looking for a really meaty tasting burger, there are many veggie burger patties available in supermarkets.
You’ll find burger pattie recipes using just about every bean and meat substitute. My go to is this Burger Pattie recipe, using kidney beans as a base.
Options for Meat Free Sausages and Hot Dogs
These days you have so many options when it comes to sausages and hot dogs. There are some really authentic tasting ones that you can get in the meat fridges – they even come with sausage skins! And then there are the more hot dog like ones that are in the fridges. All of the different brands taste different, so it really is a case of trying then to see which ones you like.
You can also make some homemade sausage replacements out of beans, seitan or TVP. If I’m after an easy sausage alternative, I have shaped my burger patties into sausage shapes. You can also make a more pork style sausage with my favourite flavour combination fennel and sage, or even make your own from seitan.
Vegan Steak Options
We finally have some vegan steak options available in supermarkets these days! This is quite exciting because up until recently we vegans either had to make our own, or substitute with burger patties.
These steak options tend to be made from seitan (a protein from wheat), and can be on the pricier side. So I tend to keep them for special meals, rather than using them in stir fries, casseroles and stews. I’ve put some good options for those further down.
How to Make Your Casseroles and Stews Meat Free
Casseroles and Stews are so easy to make vegan, because you have so many great flavours to play with. The great thing about these recipes is that its the other flavours that make them taste great, not the meat.
So, to make a casserole vegan, I just replace the meat with a bean or legume. I tend to use black beans and kidney beans for dark meats, and chickpeas and cannellini beans for chicken and fish. Then I just increase the other flavours.
I also use a few other great ingredients to get a meaty flavour to my casseroles and stews.
- Meat style stocks – these are not actual meat stocks, they are just meat style (a very important distinction). I always have the Massels beef style and chicken style stocks in my pantry. The only issue with these is that they’re quite high in salt, so just be careful how much extra salt you add to your dish.
- Vegan Worcestershire Sauce – You should be able to find a vegan worcestershire sauce in your supermarket. Traditional worcestershire sauce has anchovies in it, so just check the ingredients to make sure they aren’t there. This sauce is great for meaty stews, savoury mince, burger patties – anywhere that you want a nice rich flavour.
- Soy Sauce – Soy Sauce adds a savoury flavour to dishes. It is quite salty, though, so I often balance it out with the sweetness of worcestershire sauce.
How to Replace Meat in Your Stir Fries
It is really easy to replace meat in your stir fries. There are new some vegan chicken and beef strips that you can get from the supermarket. My favourite vegan protein to use in stir fries is firm tofu. I also really love to use marinated tofu from the supermarket for extra flavour.
How to Make Vegan Roasts
Who doesn’t love Sunday Roasts? The whole family gathered together to enjoy a meal together. Well, guess what? You can still do this one meat free. There are a number of meat free roasts on the market (although they can be a little expensive) or you can make your own. Two of our favourites are the Sweet Mustard Glazed Roast, and the Wellington. Both are easy enough for a weekly meal, but fancy enough to serve as a centrepiece to your holiday celebrations.
How to Get Meat Free Pork
There are a number of ways you can replace pork in your meals. There are some vegan bbq pork substitutes available, but you need to get them from a vegan specialty store or Asian supermarket.
If you’re after a pulled pork substitutue, then marinated jackfruit works really well. I just use tinned jackfruit from the international foods section of the supermarket, and let it marinate in bbq sauce overnight. You can also get premarinated jackfruit in variety of flavours. We find it works really well in burgers and on pizzas.
I find that you can generally use the chicken replacement options for pork as well. They don’t taste exactly the same, but you can use the extra flavours in the dish to get the general idea. I find that ingredients like dijon mustard, maple syrup, fennel and sage make recipes feel more pork-like.
Bacon
Okay, let’s talk about Bacon. Are you one of those people who says “I’d go vegetarian if i wasn’t for bacon….”. Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, there isn’t a magical amazing bacon replacement that tastes exactly the same. The good news is that your taste buds regenerate every couple of weeks, so you’ll forget what bacon actually tastes like, and start to really enjoy the substitutes.
There are now a number of vegan bacon substitutes that you can buy at the supermarket. They all do taste a bit different, so I suggest trying them all until you find one you like.
There are so many ways people have tried to replicate bacon. There’s rice paper bacon, eggplant bacon, tofu bacon, carrot bacon. Basically, you find something that gives you the texture of bacon, marinate it in bacon flavours, and then cook it. For me, personally, I love using my chickpea bacon. If you don’t like chickpeas, you can use still use the marinade from that recipe over whichever bacon alternative you like.
Fish and Seafood
I think that seafood is the one meat that we’re still waiting on good vegan options for. There are a couple of vegan crumbed fish options from Gardein and Frys, but they are more suggestions of fish, rather than a true replacement.
There are also some options for vegan smoked salmon, but you normally need to get these from vegan specialty stores. My favourites are carrot based! (Yep, smoked carrot is a thing!).
I tend to use tofu in place of fish in stir fries and curries. It certainly doesn’t taste the same, but it gives you an option if you’re missing a fish dish. You can add a fishy flavour by using chopped nori or other seaweed.
Chickpeas are also a popular replacement for tuna in things like tuna salad or tuna mornay. You can mix them in with mayo or white sauce, and add some seaweed flakes for a fishy flavour.
Vegan Lunch Meat
Most supermarkets now stock vegan lunch meat options. You can get meat free ham, meat free salami, meat free chicken slices, meat free beef slices! You’ll find plenty of options in the vegan section.
If you’re after a more DIY option, you can alsos make a roast like my Sweet Mustard Roast, and then carve it up into meat slices.
Where Can I Find These Meat Free Options?
So it’s great that I’ve listed all of these meat free options, but where do you find them? Well, these days you can actually find many of them in your supermarket. I do find that different supermarkets stock different brands, so you might have to shop around a bit.
You can also find a great range of vegan meat options in health food shops, and organics shops. If you’re lucky enough to have a vegan grocery store in your city, you’ll be sure to find a heap of options there. Asian food stores often have a lot of meat replacement options – and they tend to be cheaper than the specialty stores, too!
If you don’t have any success in supermarkets, you can also look online. In Australia, the Cruelty Free shop does online orders.
Now if this all feels overwhelming, remember you don’t have to do it all at once! You can even pick one type of meat to replace this week, and another next week. Or you could even just replace half of the meat in a dish to start with. Every little bit counts!
Want More Help on How to Go Vegan?
Check out the rest of the posts in my How to Go Vegan Series!
