The Greenest Protein: Sustainable Vegan Meat Alternatives
England is a country of around 67 million people. This means that although most people eat meat (though the amount of people who don’t is growing rapidly), there is simply not enough land for everyone to eat free-range meat, from animals that graze outside and have access to cosy indoors barns,
This means that most meats sold in England are either raised in factory farms here, or imported (for instance, most factory-farmed Danish bacon is imported to the UK).
So it’s not ‘harming traditional farmers’ to try faux meats, because people who eat meat will support them anyway by eating free-range meat. But for everyone else, then it’s good to discover some good vegan alternatives. And these are not just animal-kind, but cholesterol-free and not linked to cancers, like many processed meats (bacon is an obvious example, due to nitrates produced when cooked).
Keep faux meats away from pets, due to onion, garlic and salt (avoid sausages for young children and choking hazards – for older children, slice lengthwise and lengthwise again into strips). Also don’t give leftovers to garden birds or wildfowl ((salt is toxic, and fat can smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing and insulation).
Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside doesn’t recycle.
Magpye (vegan meat pies with no palm oil)
Magpye is an amazing company in Northumberland, where a couple make vegan pies (without palm oil) then fill them with vegan steak and chicken, and sometimes vegan steak and blue cheese! They are even made with pastry made from regenerated local wheat.
The range includes:
- Steak & ale (in onion gravy)
- Chick’n, Leek & Bacun (in creamy parsley sauce)
- Mince & Onion (in homemade gravy)
- Mushroom & Roasted garlic
- Roast Chickn’ Dinner (in a pie!)
THIS Isn’t (beef, pork, bacon or chicken!)
THIS is a major brand of plant-based alternatives to meats, sold in all good grocery stores. Just fry in a little oil or grill (not suitable for microwave cooking). Try their recipes for vegan steak in peppercorn sauce.
The range includes:
- THIS Isn’t Pork offers sausages (including flavoured ones) and streaky bacon.
- THIS Isn’t Beef offers burgers, mince and plant-based fillet steak
- THIS Isn’t Lamb Kebabs are ideal with couscous, salad and chips, or on a vegan barbecue. Seasoned to perfection with cumin and mint, and the skewer is even thrown in. Pan-fry for 8 to 10 minutes in a little oil. Or grill (not suitable for microwave cooking).
- THIS Isn’t Chicken Thighs and chicken roast with stuffing.
The No Meat company (vegan sausage rolls with no palm oil)
The No Meat Company is the find you’ve been looking for. Tasty vegan meats all without palm oil (even their sausage rolls). Despite the popularity these days of ‘vegan sausage rolls’, nearly all sold contain palm oil. But these don’t, so are helping to protect habitats of orangutans and other endangered creatures in Borneo and Indonesia.
What’s great is that these products are designed to be affordable. You can find them in Iceland and Food Warehouse along with online at Ocado. All products are cooked from frozen.
As the government is legislating so vegan brands can’t call their products ‘meat’, this company has cleverly just labelled its products as ‘chicken-friendly’, ‘cow-friendly’ and ‘pig-friendly’ to avoid rebranding! The range includes:
- Vegan Sausage Rolls (palm-oil-free pastry) are seasoned with sage and onion. In jumbo size, slice in mini-bites to share. Or eat a whole big one yourself!
- No Chick & Vegetable Pies have no palm oil in the pastry. These seasoned soya chunks with carrots and peas in gravy, are nice with mashed potatoes, broccoli and vegan gravy. Or thick-cut chips and mushy peas.
- No Meat Mince is good in spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, chilli non carne or cottage pie. Serve with garlic bread or a green salad.
- No Meat Crispy Nuggets are good in a wrap with salad, or go traditional and serve with oven chips and peas! Or in a sandwich with lettuce and tomato.
- No Chick Tikka with Rice (chicken-style pieces simmered in spiced tomato sauce with fluffy basmati rice). Serve with warm garlic naan and mango chutney.
Why do Gregg’s use palm oil in vegan sausage rolls?
Almost certainly due to it being cheap (despite being flown thousands of miles across the world to sell here). There are other alternatives (as proved with the The No Meat Co – if they can do it, so can all the others).
And despite sometimes being a mouthy anti-vegan goof, Piers Morgan is right to chastise companies that promote vegan sausage rolls as being ‘animal-friendly’. Because if they contain palm oil, they are not. Greenpeace says there is no such thing as ‘sustainable palm oil‘. It’s just a self-policed term used by industry, to get away with using inferior ingredients for more profit, at the expense of endangered species that are nearing extinction.
When buying baked goods, don’t look for the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) logo. Look for the Palm Oil Free logo instead.
As well as being high in saturated fats, Gregg’s vegan sausage rolls also don’t apparently even taste nice. They are made with Quorn protein and seasoned heavily, but go a funny texture when cold, due to palm oil.
One French man wrote online ‘As I chewed and swallowed, I simply couldn’t understand how something could taste so bland, yet so revolting at the same time’.
Why pigs are brilliant!
Pigs are such wonderful mothers, they sing to their piglets! They are also very clean animals. They will build nests and walk up to a mile to go to the toilet. They are so brainy, they are up there with dolphins and chimpanzees.
They have strong bonds and will sleep nose-to-nose with other pigs. And use their sensitive snouts to forage for food (as eyes are on the sides of their heads, they have poor depth perception though can see a 310 panoramic view).
Pigs can’t sweat, which is why they roll in mud. Only domestic pigs have curly tails! And in the wild, pigs can live to be up to 20 years old.
Vivera (vegan meats from The Netherlands)
Vivera is a Dutch food brand that is sold in UK groceries, mostly based on sustainable tofu, so packed with protein. All items are affordable and easy to cook.
This is quite an interesting story. The brand began (under a different name) as a meat butcher. But as people requested plant foods, it began to add them to the range. Eventually they were so popular, they decided to give up selling meat, now only sells plant-based foods, and changed their name!
Now sold across Europe, the range includes:
- Plant-based steak, mince and bacon
- Plant-based chicken breast & pieces
- Plant-based kebabs
- Plant-based salmon fillets
- Mini protein-bites
Moving Mountains (plant-based burgers and sausages)
Moving Mountains Foods (sold in shops and wholesale to hotels and restaurants) is one of the better brands, made with pea protein and sold in easy-to-recycle packaging. This brand sells burgers and other faux meats like sausages and hot dogs, along with faux fish fillets and fish fingers (as good as the captain’s!)
The brand was founded by a vegetarian entrepreneur, who was told by his GP to give up dairy for his health. He did, and now this brand sells millions of plant-based alternatives to the masses.
Their burgers hold up well for a barbecue or in a pan, always staying tender and moist. You’ll also find faux versions of chicken, beef and pork.
There are also plant-based versions of:
- Beef (including bolognese mince and ‘meatballs’)
- Pork (including hot dog sausages)
- Chicken (including nuggets)
Planted (vegan meats from Switzerland)
Planted is a European brand (from Switzerland) of foods, widely sold in UK grocery stores. This one is setting the standard for ethics, sustainability and taste of faux meats. The brand’s ambassador is meat-loving wrestler Christian Stucki. A passionate amateur chef, he has made this brand uber-popular (the chicken is even now sold in Swiss Subway restaurants).
The range includes:
- Steaks and burgers
- Chicken schnitzel and nuggets
- ‘Pulled pork’ and Bratwurst sausages
- Kebabs and ‘vegan duck’
No Slaughter, High Yield: Benefits of Lab-Grown Meat
Is lab-grown meat real meat, or something else dressed up? It’s normally made by growing animal cells outside the animal in controlled conditions, until they form edible tissue. Although a few don’t use animal cells at all, making ‘meat’ from similar cells from fungi and other ingredients.
Redefine Meat has been making waves, as unlike most lab meats (that uses a few animal cells), this is made with plant ingredients, to create a ‘meat’ that looks, tastes and carves like the real thing.
Apart from for commercial pet foods using it, keep lab-grown meats away from pets due to unsafe ingredients like salt, onion and garlic. Read more on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe for children, pregnancy/nursing and animal friends).
Just bin onion scraps as acids could harm compost creatures (same with rhubarb, tomato and allium scraps – garlic, shallots, leeks, chives). For tinned ingredients, fully remove lid or pop ring-pull over holes before recycling (pinch top closed), to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
What lab-grown meat actually is
It sounds like beakers and white coats, but in fact it’s made a far more hygienic and cleaner environment than real meat (abattoirs) and has none of the blood, bone, guts and poop associated with this cruel industry.
Even if the cells are from animals to cultivate, these are taken gently and without harm. One pig in the USA had her cells removed which have been cultivated and multiplied to make Mission Barns ‘meat’. She is happily running around her farm sanctuary, unaware that she has saved the lives of millions of fellow pig friends!
Lab-grown meat is kind of made in the same was a yoghurt, with a ‘culture’ to start which then keeps on giving.
Some call it ‘fake meat. But it’s important to remember that most meat sold in England is from factory farms (there is not enough land for everyone to eat free range). And lab-grown meats have zero cholesterol, in a country with huge issues for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure.
Lab-grown meats tend to be safer, as there is less chance of disease due to no factory-farmed animals. Rules vary by country, but it’s safe and nutritious, and expected to be on sale in UK shops within a few years. Surveys show that a third of people who eat meat are willing to try it, and some chefs promote it.
How lab-grown meats help animal welfare
Only good news! Lab-grown meats mean far less animal suffering, and less greenhouse gases from livestock farming. Eating animals foods is presently one of the main drivers of climate change, so this is a very exciting field, especially with companies now even making meats without having to take animal cells.
One company in Israel is presently undergoing Kosher certification, showing that lab-grown meats are also an ideal alternative to religious slaughter (no stunning) – though it’s perfectly okay for Jews and Muslims to be vegan, and still follow the rules of their faith.
More incredible lab-grown meats
Juicy Marbles uses natural ingredients (secret recipe!) to create gourmet plant-based steaks and joints, you would not know the difference. Also available for food service, this is super-easy to cook.
BlueNalu is created ‘tuna steaks’ in a lab, by taking cells from one wild endangered bluefin tuna fish. This helps to prevent over-fishing and by-catch (which harms dolphins, seals, whales, sea turtles and sharks that are caught in nets).
Vow (Australia) is already serving fine dining restaurants with its alternative to kangaroo, water buffalo and alpaca meats. It also makes Forged Gras (to replace a pate made by force-feeding ducks and geese, until their livers turn to pate).
Air Protein grows in hours (compared to 2 years for beef or 1 year for soy) using air cultures to create a ‘meat’ that contains all amino acid proteins, and needs no arable land. This brand was created by two doctors (physics and biology) who were inspired by the way astronauts were fed in space during the 1970s.
The Better Meat Co is different in that it’s a complete protein meat alternative, but made from rhiza mycoprotein (the root system of fungi). With more protein than eggs, more iron and zinc than beef, more fibre than oats and more potassium than bananas, it’s made into burgers, steak, chicken, crab, fish, deli slices, hot dogs, foie gras, bacon, meatballs, taco meat and jerky.
Made by fermenting potatoes, rice and corn, this creates a high protein food within hours, with the natural texture of animal meat (though fungi, it’s not mushrooms which are species of fungi).
Using lab-grown meats for pet food
One way that lab-grown meats are helping, is to replace factory-farmed meats for better quality pet food. And give ‘real meat’ for animals that need it (say cats, who are obligate carnivores). And if you run a sanctuary for lions rescued from zoos, they are not going to be happy (or healthy) if you feed them tofu burgers!
Meatly has produced the first ‘chicken’ for the commercial pet food industry, by taking cells from a chicken egg, and growing it in a lab to save 50 billion real chickens slaughtered each year, for the meat industry.
BioCraft is doing the same, a company founded by a biochemist who studied at Stanford University. It has created ‘meat’ from growing animal-cells, to grow cruelty-free ‘chicken, rabbit and mouse meat!’
Beyond the Burger: A Guide to Faux Meat Cookbooks
Smoky vegan hot dogs (Isa Chandra Moskowitz)
Faux meats are very popular these days, and a world away from tastless TVP that you would hydrate in water to make your own sausages or burgers. With natural ingredients such as tempeh, tofu or seitan, there are hundreds of ways to get creative in the kitchen to please reluctant omnivores!
These recipe books are a cut above the rest, offering natural ingredients and innovative techniques to create everything from homemade steaks to roast chicken dinners, all with plants!
Read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Before recycling tins, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to stop wildlife getting trapped.
Although it’s good to compost food scraps, unless you have a food waste bin (turned into biogas), just bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives), citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps and tea/coffee grounds. To avoid too much acid/caffeine affecting compost creatures.
Fake Meat: Real Food for Vegan Appetites
Fake Meat, Real Food offers a book of stunning recipes by the queen of vegan cookery. Learn how to make, prepare and cook faux meats, all packed with taste and protein. From a tasty sandwich to a spin on a hearty chicken dinner, you’ll find many plant-based recipes to choose from.
Recipes include:
- Join the club turki sandwiches
- Pepper jack cheesesteaks
- Classic lentil beet-burgers
- Shredded beef and cabbage salad
- Steak salad with green gorgonzola
- Sausage oatmeal pancakes
Isa Chandra Moskowitz learned to cook while volunteering for Food Not Bombs in a New York park. A TV show for a tiny cable network led to her first cookbook deal. And since then she and her sometimes co-author Terry Hope Romero have sold huge amounts of vegan recipe books worldwide.
Making Vegan Meat: Plant-Based Food Science
Making Vegan Meat offers unique and creative recipes to make your own plant-based meats, from a foodie and food science, who encourages you to step out of your comfort zone and push the boat out!
Make ribs from mushrooms and bacon from daikon radish! Learn how to produce different flavours, textures and aromas, which will have your guests amazed that the meals are made from vegetables.
Recipes include:
- Juicy burgers
- Sizzling BBQ ribs
- Seitan bacon
- Fried chicken
Mark Thompson grew up in Ohio, where he learned to cook. His self-taught experiments encourage others to challenge to cook outside their comfort zone. His mission is to prove that vegan cooking does not have to be boring, but can in fact be a kind of fun science experiment in the kitchen!
