Wow, well, I disappeared for a bit there, didn’t I? I work in a production plant and since it centers around stuff people want for the holidays, we were slammed with a lot more orders than we were expecting. That said, I decided this year to try out two different holiday roasts by Quorn and Tofurky, respectively.
I purchased two roasts at the same time since they were on sale, and I have to say I wouldn’t purchase them again if they weren’t on sale. Not to say they weren’t worth the price, but I definitely don’t have spare cash lying around. That is one of my nitpicks with the vegan/vegetarian meat substitutes. Even tofu can be expensive if you want a certain kind. If it’s made with plants, why is it so expensive? Well, the more processed it is, the more it costs, right? Except not always. I’ve noticed animal product… products don’t have the same issue. Boxes of macaroni and cheese can be purchased for less than a dollar, while Daiya (which I’m not all too fond of, if I’m honest), is usually above 2 or 3 dollars. I know there are homemade versions of a lot of the processed vegetarian foods, but I’m all about convenience. I know this has nothing to do with what I said I’d talk about, so let me get back to the topic at hand.
I bought the Quorn turkey style roast for Thanksgiving. It looks like this (image borrowed from amazon.com):
Rating: 6/10
The texture was pretty spot on for how I remember turkey. I know there are vegetarians who don’t like the texture of meat, so if you’re one of those people, I’d avoid this. It’s got the flavor of cafeteria turkey sandwiches from high school. It didn’t really remind me of turkey flavor too much, as from what I remember, turkey’s pretty bland unless you brine it or put a ton of gravy/cranberry sauce on it.
This roast isn’t vegan (they used dehydrated egg whites), or at least here where I live it isn’t. I know the Quorn brand does make some vegan foods, but where I am, unless I travel to a bigger city, I don’t get that option.
The Tofurky brand roast was . . . interesting. It looks a little bit like this (image taken from Vegan Essentials):
Rating: 7/10
This one was interesting because as you can see on the package, it shows a little bit of stuffing in the center, with a lot of, well, meat. Mine was mostly stuffing, which wouldn’t have been too bad except I didn’t find the stuffing to be particularly good. I wanted more of the turkey. I’d say if the roast had the texture of Quorn’s, but the flavor of Tofurky, it would have been perfect.
There are a lot of vegetarians who say Tofurky has a distinct flavor to it, and it does. It’s got that vital wheat gluten flavor in the background, because while they do produce mostly soy stuff, the gluten gives it the texture of meat. Much like a seitan.
I did have leftovers from both, and while the Quorn roast was all right on day two, I made the most epic leftover sandwich with the Tofurky after I sliced it. I used the So Delicious Cheddar Jack and some Veganaise on two slices of Dave’s Killer Bread (with some Sweet Baby Ray’s to round it out). Best sandwich I’ve had as a vegetarian. No lie.
If I had to choose between the two, I’d go with the Tofurky one. Both had issues for me that would make it difficult to repurchase either one, but if I was told I had to, it’d be Tofurky.
Changing gears a little bit, I’m going to discuss my food plan for the month of January. Please pardon me if this post gets a bit lengthy. Food is something I have a weird relationship with, as I’m sure a lot of people do.
For January, I’ve challenged myself to participate in Veganuary. For those who don’t know, Veganuary is where you spend the month of January living the vegan way, which is more easily explained on the Veganuary website. You can sign up to pledge, get a starter kit, and there’s just a whole lot of information you can get there.
My goal is to maintain a strict vegetarian diet, and eat far less processed sugar. I know that’s literally not vegan, but I don’t consider myself a vegan. I consider myself a vegetarian. So for me, the challenge will be eating little to no animal products such as eggs and/dairy. I say little to no because I purchased some meat free sausage recently that has egg whites in it. I’m not going to throw away food I already have because that seems a bit un-vegan to me (in the low waste sense).
I’m not a vegan because I use plastic bags and paper towels at home. I have sometimes eaten cheese and eggs. My reasons for this are my own, and I feel like a lot of people judge others for the way they eat which is really disturbing to me. Like I said, I work in a production plant and not very many people know I’m vegetarian. I don’t go around spouting it because it’s my personal business and if we happen to have a free food day where there’s nothing I want to eat, then I don’t eat it. I don’t stand in line saying it’s rude they don’t have food for me.
It really is something appalling when I watch my favorite YouTubers and the comments are filled with people saying “I can’t believe you call yourself vegan when you _______.”
Who are we to judge other people for how they live their lives? It all goes back to the whole treat others the way you want to be treated, and it reflects poorly on ourselves if we say we’re all about saving the world when we’re horrid to each other over something as simple as food.
So, my personal goal, like I said, is to stick to a purely vegetarian diet. I’m excited to try it out and see how far I can go. Who knows, I might be able to keep it going after January.
TL;DR — Tofurky’s better, I’m doing Veganuary on my own terms.
salisbury.fake 