Meat Substitutes
Desmond suggests certain ingredients are more carnivore-friendly than others. “Mushroom have a meaty, unctuous mouthfeel to them. Beans are the most fabulous legumers—they’re just so meaty. They’re rich in flavor, texture and nutrients, and they’re so filling.”
To get that meaty flavor, Desmond relies on smoky flavors such as smoked salt and smoked cheeses, as well as chipotle chilis. “I think most people are seduced by bacon, by this smoky flavor—using chipotle in a recipe that calls on those same flavor components, people can fall in love with that just as much as a big slab of bacon.”
Getting familiar with veggies again—real vegetables, the kind that grow in dirt, not processed vegetableish foods—is another tool in eating less meat. “’Fast, Fresh and Green’ is a collection of 90 vegetable side dishes that can be done on a weeknight,” says Middleton. “There is a little bit more prep time [than with processed foods], but if you learn ways to cook them, you can learn, for example, to do a quick sautee of asparagus, ginger and garlic.”
But on the other hand, continues Middleton, “I went and looked at a bag of frozen potatoes and they were more expensive than red potatoes, which take two seconds. You still have to heat up those [frozen] roasted potatoes anyway.”
People are getting smarter about what they eat and how they get their food. We’re used to getting our food—particularly our meat—easily and cheaply. As we realize the high cost of those low prices, though, our priorities are changing. Meat, once an indicator of wealth, represents a lot of what’s wrong with the farming systems in the United States. And moving away from factory-produced meat by using less meat, eating meat of better quality, and eating more vegetables means we’ll have a healthier country, healthier children and healthier lives.
