I chose to be vegan because I love animals, not because I wanted to give up my favourite noms!
I'm a huge fan of things that I like to dub facon=fake bacon, nausage=none sausage, feef=fake beef.
Bot those aren't the only things. One mistake I didn't want to make was to remove animal products and replace them with heavy starches (potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, sugar). Some fun things to try:
1. Put raw cauliflower in a food processor and grind until it is finely chopped (not pureed), and it is a great replacement for rice!
2. Spaghetti squash - This works great instead of pasta noodles!
3. When making things like goulash or shepherds pie, use parsnips and squash instead of potatoes.
Instead of only mashed potatoes, do half mashed potatoes, half mashed (white) beans.
Quinoa...if you haven't tried it, you must rush out and get some. YUM.
I actually don't have an aversion to potatoes, rice, and pasta. I think all in all it's healthier than the highly processed fake meats...though man can I throw back some of those fake sausages.
I am vegetarian and I also have celiac, so I have lots of switches.
Nutritional Yeast for cheese.
TVP for ground beef.
Avacado and/or cottage cheese for mayo.
Roasted chickpeas for nuts
Chia seeds or flax seeds for eggs in baking
I love cauliflower "rice." You can make some awesome sushi if you add some sort of binder to the cauliflower rice (I use cream cheese, but you can also use vegan mayo). I like my low cal sushi with avocado, cucumber, carrot and raddish.
This isn't a straight substitution at all, but a vegan friend of mine refers to avocado as "vegetarian bacon" and in the sense that for most meat eaters bacon= delicious fat that tastes amazing with anything, I think this is absolutely true.
Many of the fake meat substitutes freak me out because they're a little too like meat for my comfort. I much prefer veggie burgers where I can see the beans and corn bits to those grey rubbery boca burgers. But then, I gave up meat because of the carbon footprint issues and because I don't particularly like it to begin with, not for animal rights reasons.
An easier method for this, for those of us who are lazy, is to buy frozen cauliflower, boil it in water for 15-20 mins, drain the water out, and just mash it with a fork. I do this to make my curries.
Yeah, I love frozen cauliflower. I don't boil it though, I just throw it in a bowl and cook it in the microwave.
Instead of only mashed potatoes, do half mashed potatoes, half mashed (white) beans.
Quinoa...if you haven't tried it, you must rush out and get some. YUM.
I actually don't have an aversion to potatoes, rice, and pasta. I think all in all it's healthier than the highly processed fake meats...though man can I throw back some of those fake sausages.
I like the half potato and half beans idea because you'd get more fiber AND protein... but I have to wonder how it would be different from cauliflower in terms of "gassiness", LOL.
What are some of your favourite "switcheroos?"
