Your Mock Meat Guide

Over recent years a wide range of high-quality, vegan meat substitutes has arrived on the Australian food market. Gone are the days when vegans had to scour the aisles to find tasty meat alternatives. Today, the growing range of mock meat brands means it can sometimes be hard for vegans to know where to start, when it comes to selecting the right vegan meats and how to cook them. Here’s our mock meat guide to help vegans (both young and old) understand the nutritional benefits, flavours, and the wide range of cooking uses of fake meat. We’ll even include some tasty recipes to help get you started!

Vegan Meat - Healthy and Tasty meat replacements

Are mock meats healthy? A recent review conducted by Translational Psychiatry found that a plant-based diet could have many positive effects on the body and brain. A plant-based diet was found to be beneficial for managing diabetes, weight gain, and results suggested that it could also be effective at preventing health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension. A vegan diet has been shown to prevent heart disease. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also found convincing evidence that consuming red and processed animal meat is linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Vegan meats include a wide range of products that are made to mimic animal meat, and they are largely made from plant-based materials, which often include: vegetable, soy, seitan, pea protein, potato starch, coconut oil, legumes, nuts, and seeds. 

Of course, the ingredients for each vegan meat product can vary, depending on the brand. Vegan junk food definitely does exist, and therefore consumers need to exercise moderation when shopping for such treats.  

The mock meat market has grown and evolved exponentially in recent years, and so have the flavours! We now have anything ranging from fake chicken to fish, all of which are seasoned with various tasty flavours. Alternative meats for vegans now come in a seemingly endless range of flavours (anything from Italian sundried tomato sausages to cheesy kale and cashew sausages). And thanks to mock meat pioneers such as Beyond Meat, fake beef meat burgers are now tastier and more convincing in flavour than ever before. 

Vegan Chicken Products & Recipes

There are some delicious vegan chicken products on the market.

• VBites: whether you’re making a sandwich or tasty mock chicken salad, these slices offer a great alternative to regular chicken meat.

• Delicious Plant-Based Chicken: this dry plant mix comes in a variety of mock meat flavours and can be added to water or oil to create a highly versatile mince that can be shaped and incorporated into various delicious recipes.

Vegans worldwide will be happy to know that firm tofu can be coated in flour, spices, and breadcrumbs to make tasty vegan chicken nuggets. Why don’t you test out Jessica In The Kitchen’s fantastic vegan chicken nugget recipe? To make these nuggets extra special, add some of our vegan Classic Chicken Flavor Sprinkles once you’re done.

There are many creative vegan fish alternatives for you to incorporate into recipes.

• Nature’s Charm - Marinated Banana Blossom: this is a natural vegan fish substitute. It can be effectively battered and turned into a hearty meal of fish and chips. 

• Seaweed: can be used to add a naturally fishy flavour to your vegan dishes. Seaweed works particularly well when used to make vegan ramen. You can also wrap some cubes of firm tofu in seaweed to create yummy little fish bites!

• Sophie’s Kitchen - Vegan Smoked Salmon: is a healthy vegan fish alternative made by using Konjac powder (a traditional Asian ingredient).

This tasty linguine pasta recipe is made by creating a creamy, vegan sauce and utilises the flavour and charm of substitute scallops (which are made from special mushrooms). Why not combine both Nature’s Charm - Vegan Scallops, and Nature’s Charm Vegan Calamari, with some of our luxurious Vegan Dairy garlic sage butter to make this recipe easier, yet more delicious?

There have been a variety of vegan beef products that have recently hit our shores. 

• Delicious Plant-Based Beef: this is a dry plant mix where you add water & oil to create a versatile mince which you shape into anything and use in your favourite beef recipe. You can easily use this natural, salt-free plant mix to make tasty, healthy vegan beef patties and tacos.

• Make a wonderfully tasty burger during your next family bbq by using either The Beyond Burger (which can easily be mistaken for real beef in both flavour and appearance), or try our Quorn Vegan Gourmet Burger. Both of these mock meat patties are also soy-free.  

This wonderful fake beef meat salad recipe is super fresh, healthy, and packed with flavour. It can easily be made by using our Delicious Plant-Based Beef and gluten-free, teriyaki sauce.

It can be tricky to capture the texture and sweetness of pork meat. Some excellent vegan pork substitutes include:

• Nature’s Charm - Young Green Jackfruit: this fruit offers a texture and sweetness that is very similar to the consistency of pulled pork. You can use Jackfruit to make very tasty vegan pulled pork sandwiches and stir-fries.

• Delicious Plant-Based Pork: can be shaped into various dishes by simply adding water or oil. This plant-based pork is a much healthier alternative to real pork meat and has 70% less fat, 35 % fewer calories, and more protein, fibre, and iron.

Chinese Sweet and Sour “Pork” (Vegan Recipe)

This satisfying recipe was created by The Foodie Takes Flight, and can easily be made by using firm tofu, or our incredibly versatile Delicious Plant-Based Pork.

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