Meat Your Meat Substitutes: Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages

Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage

Like every vegetarian I know, I am very familiar with ready made vegetarian sausages - Cauldron are probably my favourite - but I have never made my own. The Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage is something that is a bit of both. For my Meat Your Meat Substitutes review of Granose's Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages I got down to business with a couple of recipes. The first was using them in the way that Granose intended, that is for sausages, and the second was getting creative with a recipe that was originally intended for pork. But how did it all work out...

'Meatiness':
This is essentially a sausage mixture. Each box comes with two sachets of mix, each of which contains enough portions for two people. I found that eating it did not give me a heavy feeling like eating meat meaning that though I found it satisfying, it wasn't that filling. Rolling it into sausages I found it difficult to make proper banger shapes, I could only manage a chipolata style.

Rolled, uncooked Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages

Texture:
Once you add water, the texture is a like mince and is a bit sticky. When you cook it up, as a sausage it won't quite brown as a meat would, and can look a bit dry in the pan, so it might be worth adding some oil or margarine to the pan. Biting into it the mixture, which is made mostly of wheat rusk and soy, it is a bit mushy rather than firm.

Taste:
The taste is very subtle and  clearly designed to be embellished while you're cooking.  But this is a good thing. When I used it for the sausages it was the perfect compliment to a good old fashioned fry up. But when I used it in the spring rolls it soaked up all of the flavours like a treat.

Five Spice Vegan Spring Rolls with Kung Fu Collard Greens

Versatility:
I used the mix first as a straight sausage, following the helpful instructions on the back of the box. I was also able to use the mix in a very tasty, if I don't say so myself, recipe for Vegan Chinese Five Spice Spring Rolls.

Vegan Recipe: Chinese Five Spice Spring Rolls

Vegan Five Spice Spring Rolls

Chinese Five Spice is easily one of my favourite seasonings and I've always been a big fan of spring rolls, so when I came across Nigel Slater's recipe for Five-Spiced Pork Buns in his Real Fast Food book, I couldn't resist putting a vegan spring roll spin on it. And since I'm looking at Granose's Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausages for my Meet Your Meat Substitutes series, it seemed like a great opportunity to put the mix to the test.

The sausage mix is highly absorbent with a neutral flavouring making it perfect for Nigel's rich seasoning and really easy to work with as spring roll filling.

On this occasion I munched the spring rolls as my dinner with a nice side of Kung Fu Collard Greens, but I'm confident that these would also make an amazing wow factor vegan dinner party canape or starter.

Vegan Chinese Five Spice Spring Rolls Recipe

1 sachet of Granose Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage Mix
143 ml water
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of five spice powder
2 tablespoons of runny honey
fresh black pepper
10 - 15 rice paper spring roll shells
2-3 cups of water
1 cup of bean sprouts (This could easily work with cooked carrots or cabbage or both as well)
Vegetable oil for frying

1. Pour the sausage mix into a bowl, add 143ml of water and let stand for 10 mins.
2. In the mean time, finely chop your garlic add to the mix with soy sauce, lemon juice, fives spice powder, honey and a pinch of pepper. Mix until all the flavours are evenly distributed.
3. Saute the bean sprouts until they're soft and then add into to mixture.
4. Grab a tray and fill it with just enough water to submerge one rice paper sheet at a time. Place one sheet in the water until it's fully wet, about 5 seconds, then place on to clean flat surface for filling. Scoop out one tablespoon of filling and lay left of centre in a short line. Now fold your spring rolls like a...spring roll or a tiny burrito. Wet the corners to seal.
5. Deep fry spring rolls in oil (don't use Olive Oil - it makes everything extremely oily) until brown.
6. Remove and place on a towel or rack while you cook the rest.
7. Repeat until you've got about a dozen rolls.

Meet Your Meat Substitutes: Mock Duck Review

When I started on my Meet Your Meat Substitutes journey to try out high protein vegan and vegetarian meat replacements, I knew that one day, a duck would cross my path, specifically a Mock Duck. I won't deny it, I was little bit scared of this one. Alternatives to mince, chicken, burgers, and sausages have become so common place that we take them for granted, but something as gamey as duck...and in a can? That is a bold ask. But, MYMS is about trying new things, expanding my palette and trying what's tasty, so here we go.

First question: what exactly is Mock Duck? Well, it's wheat gluten marinated in a soy based sauce and shaped into duck style pieces for use as a duck meat replacement. It was originally developed by Chinese monks and it is now available throughout the UK courtesy of the fine folks at GranoVita. And it's vegan.

Now to answer the next question: is it any good?

Review: Good
'Meatiness':
The meatiness of this meat substitute is most manifested by the it's fibrous texture, which I'll get to in a bit, and the fact that it's quite filling. It looks delicate but it's actually got a lot of body and can be marinated overnight like one would with chicken. This, combined with the dark colour of the pieces, pretty much explains where the 'duck' reference comes from.

Yep, mock duck out of the tin looks like it's been plucked!

Texture:
I have two words for you on this: Plucked duck. Yes. It's true. Your pieces of mock duck will look as if they have been plucked before they were canned. At first, I found this to be both perplexing and off putting, but as this has been a part of the mock duck experience since it was a specialty item in Chinatown supermarkets, I've decided that it's charming. Once you get past the 'skin', the fibrous texture of the gluten is similar to what you would expect when you pull apart poultry. And each piece is firm and bouncy to the touch.

Taste:
Discussion on the web about Mock Duck seems to show it as a bit of a marmite meat substitute: some people love it and some people just hate it.  And like I said, I was a little bit nervous about this one. But after the first bite, the mystery was over because the truth is that mock duck tastes almost exactly like tinned Braised Tofu. And if you've never had braised tofu, then I should explain that it's got a smokey salty almost mushroomy taste. I like it, but it might not be your thing.

Mock Duck Kebabs with Grilled Mushroom on the side

Versatility:
I was having a bit of busy week and so tried mock duck in a little Grilled Mock Duck Kebab meal and in a Quick Mock Duck Coconut Stir Fry.  Both recipes are quick and easy. For the kebabs, I added the some of the marinade from the tin, soy sauce, pepper and garlic. Then I stuck them onto wet skewers, and put them on the grill. Voila! For the Stir fry, I sauteed mock duck, onions, peppers garlic and mushrooms until the onions were soft and then smothered the whole thing in coconut milk. It took about ten minutes and was mighty nice. If you've got more time, there are lots of good recipes across the web for things like Mock Duck Pancakes, Mock Duck Cashew Stir Fry, or Granovita's own Mock Duck Ragu. Fried, steamed, stewed, there are tons of things that can be done with mock duck, so it definitely scores highly there.

Overall, I was surprised by mock duck because I wasn't really expecting to like it. But it's pretty good and I'm actually looking forward to trying out the pancakes sometime soon.

Tempeh Recipe: Carmelised Tempeh Pieces over Summer Salad

I got this tempeh recipe from the bloke at one of my favourite whole food shops, Seasons in Exeter. I told him about my plan tor try a selection of meat substitutes for Meet Your Meat Substitutes and he said that I must try this recipe for a great salad topper. The marinade - a mix of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar - might sound like an unlikely pairing but it is absolutely delicious and brings out a beautiful colour in the tempeh.

Carmelised Tempeh Pieces over Summer Salad

Ingredients
12 -15  cubes of  tempeh
2 tbsp of Balsamic Vineager
2 tbsp of Soy Sauce
Salt & Pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 bowl of 'summer salad'

 Directions

1. Cut tempeh into bite sized chunks.
2. Mix balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and pepper together in a bowl.
3. Mix tempeh into sauce until evenly coated and leave to marinate while you...
4. Prepare your summer salad in a different bowl. This can be anything you want really. I mixed some leaves with tomato and avocado which is always good.
5. Heat oil in a skillet and saute the tempeh until it's gone a lovely carmelised colour with some crispy edges.
6. Remove tempeh from heat and leave to rest for a moment on the chopping board or on a towel.
7. Plate up your salad and add the tempeh to the top, drizzling any extra marinated onto the rest of the salad.

Tempeh

Tempeh Marinating

Out of the pan and resting...

Carmelised Tempeh Over Summer Salad