HALLIE EPHRON: Have you noticed how the recipes that turn up these days in newspapers and magazines are vegetarian? Steak and fish and pork chops are taking a backseat to lentils and beans and pasta and celery root and potatoes. I've been fascinated but wary of the plant-based meats that show up in the meat section of the market.
Last week I bought a package of Beyond Sausage - Italian spicy sausage made with pea protein. No animal gave any part of itself to make those links.
And, an added bonus, the package they rested in was recyclable cardboard, not the usual gonna-be-here-for-centuries Styrofoam they use to package "real" meat.
The ingredients list: Water, pea protein, refined coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavor, contains 2% or less of: rice protein, faba bean protein, potato starch, salt, vegetable juice (for color), apple fiber, methylcellulose, citrus extract (to protect quality), calcuim alginate casing.
No gluten. No soy. No GMOs.
So of course I worried: did that mean "No taste"? And with water as the #1 ingredient, would the "sausage" brown and caramelize?
I decided to try some in a lasagne. I make mine with no-boil lasagne noodles, tomato sauce zuzzhed up with sauteed sausage and mushrooms, layered with ricotta cheese, parmesan and mozzarella. Nothing fancy, just basically following the recipe on the no-boil noodles package.
I'm here to report: I am a convert. The "sausage" did brown nicely. I chopped it up into bits and it added a meatly texture as well as good flavor to my sauce. The lasagne was excellent. I wouldn't have guessed the "meat" in it wasn't meat. Reheated it was still good. Frozen and thawed and reheated? Still good.
If I want a barbecued steak or seared tuna or turkey wing, I'm still going to opt for a dead animal. But I'm happy to report that I'll have no problem cutting back on how much actual animal meat I'm eating. Good for me. Good for the planet.
Have you been enticed by the no-meat meats? What about the plant-based chicken or egg or dairy substitutes? What do you think?
