For those who use crumbles in recipes (such as Morningstar) do you have any recommendations or warnings of brands to choose or avoid? I've never used them, and have found several bean casseroles that call for sausage. I thought I'd replace them with crumbles. Thank you in advance!

For overall taste and *gasp* calories I prefer Gimme Lean sausage. I have found that they pretty much all work in chili where the dominant flavors come from the spices and veggies. In that case I use whatever is on sale. We stick with the lower carb count varieties because of DW's diabetes. Frankly Morningstar just has the longest list of weird ingredients and highest fat so much as I love the taste (and probably the fat) I don't use a lot of their products. That's more a personal thing though.

Thank you, Cyndi. I have a few friends who love Morningstar -- the high fat may well be the reason!

I make my own crumbles. That way I know what's in it.
I did notice at walmart the other day where they had cooked ground beef in the freezer case and it had nothing added in it. Just 100% cooked ground beef. I couldn't tell you what brand it was though.

I also make my own "crumbles," with tvp, and other ingredients, all using dry tvp (textured vegetable protein, also calued textured soy protein) granules (dry it looks like grapenuts cereal or beige gravel).

TVP is available in most health food stores and even most standard supermarkets now (and if you can find it in the scoop-your-own bulk-bins, that's usually the cheapest). It's usually in the "health food" aisle of most grocery stores. Bob's Red Mill is one of the more common brands - and usually sells for about $4 for 12 ounces (and 12 ounces of tvp is equivalent to about 2.5 to 3 lbs of raw ground beef, browned and drained).

At it's simplest, you just add equal parts tvp and hot water - and wait a few minutes for the tvp to soften. That's it.

Or you can add the dry tvp directly to chili, spaghetti sauce or other flavorful wet ingredients (depending on how "wet" the sauce is, you may or may not have to add more liquid).

Or you can rehydrate the tvp with a flavored broth.


Dear hubby wasn't a fan of my purely vegetarian uses of tvp, so I started making "meat crumbles" that were only half (or less) meat. I would brown cheap (fattier) ground beef with (fat free) tvp, to make the equivalent of 95 to 98% lean beef. I started, I was using 85% lean beef and tvp. I'd brown the ground beef and the tvp together (not adding the liquid until after the ground beef was cooked, so that the tvp would absorb all the meat juices and flavor) and I'd brown it with any seasoning veggies I had on hand (onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery, mushroom, garlic, cilantro...)

Then when the meat was browned, I'd add the water (still about the same amount of water as tvp used - cup for cup). And would simmer until the meat mixture had the consistency I wanted.

I've used other meats too - ground pork, chorizo, italian sausage, bulk breakfast sausage...

I kept experimenting with different combinations and different meat to tvp ratios. What was awesome is that I could create a ground beef mixture that was similar in fat and calories to 98% lean ground beef for less per serving than the price of the cheapest ground beef (because tvp is fat free, I could use 80 and even 70% lean burger to make the meat mixture. I just had to use more tvp than meat).

I freeze it in ziploc bags and as it is freezing, "smoosh" the bag around every half hour or so that the mixture freezes in "crumbles."


If you like the plain tvp, it's the cheapest and the lowest fat way to go, but also the blandest. But taste-wise, even plain tvp reconstituted with plain hot water tastes better than some of the crumble brands (and the price difference is rather ridiculous).

So as a first try I'd recommend the dry tvp (and I'd recommend reconstituting it with a broth you like, if you're going to eat it relatively plain. For chilis and soups and sauces, you can just throw in the dry tvp and you might or , might not have to add more water).

Thank you, hypnocat and kaplods! Kaplods, your experiments are always amazing -- and so thorough!!

I'm kind of obsessive about "experimenting," as in mad-scientist obsessive.

Right now, I'm experimenting with recipes using greek yogurt and whey protein (not necessarily together).

You could be an action hero, then. Think of it -- a series! Mad Scientist in the Kitchen. You're a very generous Mad Scientist too, so I know you'll share

Ooh action hero, you know that means I'm entitled to a shiny, form-fitting lycra bodysuit under my lab coat (I choose teal - my favorite color).

Doesn't the fact that I would enjoy wearing a shiny, form-fitting, teal lycra bodysuit at my size, make me ineligible for action hero? I kind of think it does, but that's ok, it works either way... action hero or super villain....."Try my tasty, low-calorie concoctions, or I will remove my labcoat.... and dance so that my jiggliness will disturb and frighten you, Waaarrrrghh Haarrrghh Haarrgh (my interpretation of an evil laugh).

Amy Daczyzn of the Tightwad Gazette did an experiment with higher content beef - she browned it into crumbles, put it in a strainer, rinsed it 2x with warm water put into the browning pot (so some of the juices were 'rinsed' over the meat again). It basically reduced the fat content of the beef to almost zero and this is what I do when I use ground beef in recipes (which is almost never these days). Of course, this only works if you are not a vegetarian.