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until bean manufacturers 'dial back production' like the chicken people above. this whole thing is fucked, its happening here in australia too, corps simply do not give a fuck and are hitting the cheaper foods with the biggest price rises
And it's happened here in Canada as well. They've seen how well it works. They are purposefully doing this to raise prices and screw people all over the world.
I'm not even a vegetarian, but most of America is really sleeping on tofu. It's delicious, versatile and affordable. I love cooking with it.
There are multiple meals I genuinely prefer tofu to the original protein.
I eat plenty of tofu and would still rather have most anything else.
Honestly, that’s probably how you’re preparing it or a personal quirk. Over a billion people eat it regularly, it’s probably in a huge number of peoples favorite meals, it absolutely can be prepared so that most people enjoy it well enough to eat regularly without going nuts
I believe you are wrong. It's all personal preference and if you didn't grow up eating it regularly then you're probably not going to enjoy it as a substitute long term.
I like it and use it in a variety of things. I'm also aware enough to know that I like and prefer other things more. Typically meat but sometimes mushroom, depending on the dish.
Same way I like chicken, beef, pork, and other meats. I have preferences and preferring one over any other doesn't mean I'm making the others wrong.
Absolutely not, it could be a personal quirk. I have literally over a hundred recipes for zucchini, and I’ve won multiple awards for one of my zucchini dishes. Zucchini is always going to be meh at best for me, because it’s a personal preference. Maybe tofu is like that for you, but it’s not true for everyone.
I tried tofu for the first time as a teenager and didn’t eat it regularly until my 20s. It’s now in several of my favorite things to eat. However, it can be finicky, and I don’t always like how others prepare it. I’m obviously also not representative of every person, but it’s not an impossible thing to learn to like or even rare for adult vegetarians/vegans to develop a serious taste for.
Agreed, I've tried and tried with tofu, and I'm a good cook. It's definitely an acquired taste and texture.
It's like saying "Well the French eat snails so everyone should". Yeah they eat them absolutely slathered in butter and garlic for a reason
Well yeah, you should also add fat and spices to tofu. You wouldn’t eat just plain cooked noodles, but that’s not because they’re bad.
Edit: Also, if you want to like it, can I ask what kind you got? Texture is key and there’s lots of different consistencies. I tend to like the two extremes: silken tofu and smoked tofu. The silken makes sauces so incredibly creamy, but you have to spice it carefully. The smoked tofu brand I’ve been into lately, on the other hand, is so dense, it works well as a tougher protein cut and holds up well to stewing. I basically only need to salt it.
You might not like it as much as you like other things, it’s still a matter of preference. It just can be enjoyable for most people. I don’t always use it like a meat, and I think that makes a difference.
Na. I grew up eating the standard American diet and have been vegan for nearly 3 years now. I eat a ton of tofu. It took a few tries to get it right but after that, I love the stuff. I've come to understand that I like seasoning/taste, not necessarily meat/animal products itself.
Two billion people eat insects and mealworms. Doesn't mean I'm about to start.
That’s fine, but you recognize that insects aren’t an inherently “bad” food source, right? They’re not even fundamentally different from shellfish.
I don’t want to eat insects either, but I also don’t want to eat chicken wings (probably for the same reason most people don’t want to eat insects, I’m squeamish). I don’t believe that chicken wings are objectively a bad food, though. They’re obviously not, because so many people love them.
Yeah, it's all food. But there's enough things out there that I already like, that I don't need to delve into a world of weird shit for sustenance.
Also, I like chicken but the figure up there in the article of 100lb a year seems astronomical to me. I doubt I even eat a third of that.
Perfectly understandable. I just get annoyed when people act like tofu is inherently bad or must taste shitty.
For the number of meals in a year, there's 1095 (365 * 3), not including forth meals, snacks, etc. For 100 pounds, let's convert it to ounces, so 1600 oz.
Assuming 8 oz (half pound) for a single meal meal. Normal weight of a single chicken breast is 6 ounces, but there are some factors I'm not sure about (is bone weight included, raw or cooked weight, etc), so rounding up to 8 to cover those.
That works out to 200 meals with 8 oz chicken to reach the 100 pounds goal. This means not even a quarter of the usual 1095 meals in a year, but rather only around 18% is chicken based. I was a bit skeptical as well, but this seems easier to reach than I thought.
This in some ways justifies all those pounds of meat from hunting I accrued in playing Oregon Trail lol.
Ignoring the idea for a second that a whole chicken breast could be considered breakfast food, that's still eating a big portion of chicken 4 days a week.
That would only sound reasonable to me if the only meat source in the country was chicken, but looking at the stats Americans also eat an average of 125lb of red meat a year on top of that. Probably not a lot of fish.
And that's before all the snacks and junk food. I'm starting to see why obesity rates are as high as they are.
It's hard to get in certain places and people don't understand the different varieties. If anyone reading this wants to try it, check your local Asian grocer if you're lucky enough to have one.
IMO Thai food does vegetarian better than anyone.
I think Indian and Korean food can beat Thai
Indian food is next level when done correctly. It's so good that it replaced a large chunk of British food for the British after they invaded India and realised that the Indians were on to something
Most ignorant comment you'll regularly see - "The Brits colonised the world for spices then never used them"
Lol most of the curries you'll try are British varients of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes
Being vegan during the COVID shortages was a breeze. Especially in my area of Texas (you don't find many vegans there, to say the least).
"My" shelves were always stocked.
The most expensive ingredient in my falafel burgers is the cardamom. Small price to pay considering how dirt cheap all the other ingredients are and that they're mad delicious 😋😋😋
Everytime I've tried Falafel I've found it to be more or less like a ball of dry oatmeal with about the same flavour. Am I just being real unlucky?
Yes, most definitely. Dry and tasteless are not words I associate with falafel, it sounds like something went horribly wrong there
The base taste is pretty mild, like a baked potato, but then you add spices and eat it along with other things
Dry falafel is the worst. Yes, it can be better, but also you need to have a yogurt sauce, some cucumbers, tomatoes, and tabbouleh. You don't eat a hamburger patty plain, right?
Ah that sounds like the key to what I've been missing. I didn't realize it was meant to be mixed with anything else. Thanks I'll have to try it again.
Uh. Am I not supposed to eat a hamburger patty plain? Lol. It's just a flattened meatball after all...
You can, but if you're doing that, you should be mixing stuff into the meat. Personally I like to make them plain so that I can make a bunch, freeze them, and put different toppings on.
So not with my hands like a neanderthal? Hmm...
It's way better if you feed all the ingredients through a meat grinder (the irony is not lost on me), rather than a food processor. Think corn meal texture vs flour texture.
Also, deep fry it. Baking it just isn't nearly as good.
You've had falafel that tasted as good as oatmeal?
You lucky bastard.
Depends. You do a lot better price-wise with dry beans.
If you consider drained weight, canned beans are usually about $1 for a 15oz can in my area, which yields about half a pound of drained beans. So, $2/lb
Chicken is anywhere from $1 to $8/lb but I've been averaging about $2/lb. It's our main protein source and I watch for sales and stock up.
Fresh plants that we've bought from all of our local stores do not keep, even in the fridge. Anything fresh we have found needs to be eaten within 2-3 days before it starts turning. I'm not about to go to multiple stores 2-3 times a week to get what I need, only to waste money if I don't have the time or energy to make a fresh meal every day of the week.
Anything plant based that's pre-prepared and/or frozen tends to be anywhere from $6-12 per "meal". I'm over 6'2" and 215lbs and the "meals" are more like half a meal for me.
Unless you are ONLY eating beans or rice. Yes, from what I've seen, eating plant based diets is very expensive.
I am interested in the one comment mentioning replacing chicken with tofu though. Some of the pre-made tofu meals I've had were pretty good. I've never cooked with it though. My family hasn't really eaten beef or pork in years since all of the studies came out linking red meat to cancer. I also have a liver condition that docs recommend avoiding red meat entirely as well.
There are actually a lot of canned and frozen plants other than beans and rice. Tofu is really good (also rising in price, but still not as bad as meat), and keeps an extremely long time in the fridge. I get a bunch of no salt added canned vegetables for super cheap because I have disabilities and I cannot prepare everything from scratch, and make a really good vegetable soup full of protein from peas and beans, for really cheap. The reason I get no salt added is because then I can add bouillon and spices to make my own broth, which would be grossly salty if I also used salted canned food. Although the number of cans vary, we call it 9 Can Soup. Because that's what it had the first time. I also use fresh potatoes if I have any on hand. One of the cans are usually tomato sauce. Sometimes I'll add a few cans of salted veggies if I got them from a food bank, I just rinse them.
Yeah man Tofu is a great complete protein! But is tricky to cook and if you don't do something special with it, it will taste like nothing and feels mushy. This is why tofu gets a bad rap.
If you are interested in cooking with tofu! Here is a killer tofu marinade I do. I am in love with this tofu and would eat it like cereal every morning if I could. This goes well with any Asian, rice or veggie dish:
Ginger-seseme tofu:
Firm or extra firm tofu
Take the package of tofu and cut it open with a knife, it looks like you can open it with your hands but you cannot. Keep this package as a marinade binn for later
drain all the water from the package and squeeze the water out of the tofu by placing it between some heavy things or even with your hands, the more water out the more flavor in but try to keep the shape intact
Now mix together the marinade in a bowl with:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon siracha
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cloves garlic minced
Cut up the freshly squeezed tofu into dice sized cubes and place them back into the original container
Add the marinade into the container with the tofu and put into a fridge, let sit anywhere from 30mins - 4 hrs
Finally, bake in an oven set to 425f or air fryer set to high for 30mins flipping half way.
Protip! - freeze and thaw the package of tofu. Something about freezing tofu alters it's structure, this allows wore water to be drained and more marinade to be absorbed, almost 2x more!
If you try hope you enjoy!
I know that was a lot so if you want quick foolproof tofu that solves the texture problem but relies on the flooring of what it is put with:
Press water out of the tofu like above
Cut the tofu into the same dice sized cubes or shred it into a mixing bowl with your hands
Toss with 1.5 tablespoons of cornstarch
Fry tofu in oil, flipping until golden brown
Phew' this was all phone typed, hope it makes sense. <3
Edit: fix formatting
Baked tofu is really good. I will press it and cut it into cubes, combine with potato starch, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and a pinch of MSG and bake that on parchment paper. It's quick and easy to add some nice protein to bean and cheese burritos (rice, cabbage, salsa, lime, whatever else you have), or throw it in a store bought salad for extra calories.
The cut raw cubes will keep in a container in the refrigerator for at least a few days so I'll cut it all up on Monday and maybe prep a sauce or two and use the tofu and the sauce in different dishes in the week.
Since you mentioned being interested in using tofu, my favorite (by far) vegan youtuber Nisha just published a video all about tofu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCq3fir5pw
That's called "shopping". It's very common.
How many times a week do you go grocery shopping and how many different stores do you go to? Personally, I don't know anyone who goes grocery shopping more than once a week, or MAYBE twice if their regular grocery store doesn't have what they need.
Europe would shock you to your core. There are people who go to multiple stores every day.
I often stop at the grocery store on my way home from work.
I'd love to be able to walk to both, but we're not quite there yet.
Someone gave you a thoughtful response from their personal experience, and THAT is your reply?
Typical spoiled person response. "I can do it, why can't everyone else in the world?"
Cool solution to the problem.
You're OG comment insinuated that eating plants is cheap, yet you didn't take into account the possibility that you either a) make more than others. b) live in a lower cost of living area than others. c) live in a great area that has many options for food diversity. d) that every store near you always has stock of everything you want and maybe other places aren't so fortunate.
Our area is so over populated, we have to go to like 5 grocery stores throughout the county every week to get everything we want/need.
Maybe don't be so close minded and consider that where you live and what you pay is available to everyone.