This is the ultimate guide to using the best vegetarian meat substitute recipe ever. The best part is it is not just vegetarian but also vegan and gluten-free! Here we’ll show you how to make this vegan meat substitute, what you can use it in and other meat substitutes!
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan)
We’ve been making meat replacements for a while in our household. As a celiac most of the vegetarian meat replacement options out there are not gluten-free and therefore we’ve had to make our own! Until recently moving I was able to find ONE gluten-free vegetarian sausage to put in our Vegan Jambalaya but in general the options are limited for us!
We are putting together this ultimate guide with our favorite meat replacements that can be made at home to help our community out!
How to make vegan meat substitutes
So we are gonna start with our favorite meat replacement recipe. You can find the recipe at the bottom of this post. All you need to do is two simple ingredients pulsed together and after cooked down it mimics ground beef rather well.
The recipe below is our favorite and it’s be simply pulsing together mushrooms and cashews with a bit of salt. Cook it down and dinner is served!
What can replace beef for a vegetarian/vegan?
- Our Vegetarian Meat Replacement recipe. See below
- Smashed Lentils
It is THAT easy and actually really tasty! We’ve made our Lentil Sloppy Joes years ago and it is actually what got me realizing that lentils especially are such a fabulous meat replacement option for beef!
We’ve also used this vegetarian meat substitute recipe for our Vegan Sloppy Joes! Super super tasty.
Now if you are not a mushroom fan, you are not alone. R is not a mushroom fan either. We’ve found that as long as the meat substitute is swimming in a sauce like the vegan sloppy joes or our vegan bolognese sauce he doesn’t mind it at all as it hides in the sauces well.
What can replace Chicken meat for a vegetarian/vegan
Our favorite is actually chickpeas! I’ve actually made substitutes chickpeas several times for our Chicken Tikka Masala recipe. I personally am not a chicken fan but R is a chicken addict so several times we have made the sauce and added in the meat or meat replacement in my case after.
Great compromise in my family!
What great recipes to use our vegetarian and vegan meat substitute with.
Here are some tried and true vegetarian (made vegetarian) recipes we’ve made over the years using our favorite meat substitute recipe below to give you some inspiration.
- Vegan Sloppy Joes
- Vegetarian & Vegan Bolognese Sauce
- Vegetarian Meat Tacos
- Shepherds Pie (follow the recipe and simply swap the beef with our meat substitute)
- Picadillo Mexican Beef (follow the recipe and simply swap the beef with our meat substitute or with mashed lentils)
The Ultimate Guide to The Best Vegetarian Meat Substitutes
Main
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan
American
Yield: 4
Prep Time:5 min
Cook Time:13 min
Total Time:18 min
Ingredients:
- 4 cups sliced white button mushrooms
- 1 cup roasted cashews (I like them lightly salted)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (omit if cashews are salted)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
Directions:
- 1. In a food processor, pulse mushrooms, cashews and salt until it creates a crumbly mixture, Pulse apprx 10-12 times. You want to have little bites of cashews and mushroom in the mixture still, do not over process it.
- 2. In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and vegetarian taco meat mixture. Cook 4-5 minutes to heat mixture through, turn heat down to low, cook for another 5-8 minutes. Cashews should have very little 'crunch' to them when tasting the mixture.
- 3. Use this vegetarian meat replacement for any tasty recipe that requires ground meat or our vegan bolognese sauce like the video below.
Author: Linnie
Recipe Video:
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 241
Other nutrition information: Total Fat: 19.5g , Saturated Fat: 3.6g , Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.1g , Monounsaturated Fat: 11.8g , Cholesterol: 0mg , Sodium: 81mg , Potassium: 413mg , Total Carb: 13.5g , Dietary Fiber: 1.9g , Sugars: 3.1g , Protein: 7.4g
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(38 votes, average: 3.66 out of 5)
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Great recipes I’m going to try them all, especially the meat replacement with cashews and mushrooms. Finally I do not have to use soya products to replace meat.
That is 100% the reason why we’ve made this. I also really do not soya in my diet and it’s already added in small amount to many other things. So happy we can help 🙂
I can’t wait to try your mushroom cashew meat. Have you been successful with freezing this and reheating?
In my opinion freezing and reheating it changes the texture a little bit since it has mushrooms but not much so I would still recommend it if it’s going into something like tacos and so on. 🙂
Can you please tell me what you mean by “vegetarian taco meat mixture” that is mentioned in the vegetarian meat substitute recipe? I was planning on making the zucchini boats tonight and saw. I’m not sure what that is.
There is a recipe at the bottom of this that is our vegetarian meat mixture… so right above where you would of had to be to make this comment if that helps. You can really use any vegetarian meat you would like. There are plenty of pre-made options out there.. I just find many of them contain gluten or high in soy so we make our own.
Can’t wait to try this! It’s been on my to do list using walnuts, but I haven’t made it yet. Now I’m thinking roasted cashews would be better! Any thoughts on raw vs roasted cashews? Wondering which nut would have better texture out of all I mentioned here. And your blog looks great!! Everything I want, and don’t want 😉 in my recipes…