Plant Based Crumbles
- Thread starter MoReese
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Bitser
Senior Cook
My wife has shifted to veggie stuff and I use crumbles and also veg sausage links pretty often.
Giving the crumbles a gentle fry in oil helps to hold them together in a stewed dish such as chili.
Giving the crumbles a gentle fry in oil helps to hold them together in a stewed dish such as chili.
What are crumbles? Vegetable or not.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
For vegetarians, they're fake ground meat.
Bitser
Senior Cook
Exactly. A vegetarian equivalent of ground meat.
You can find them in plain (ground beef), Italian sausage, and chorizo. There are also products that don't imitate meat, such as spicy black bean flavor, which I like. Probably other flavors as well.
Thank you all!
Had no idea replacing ground beef for a vegetarian substitute was called 'Crumbles'. Cute name.
Had no idea replacing ground beef for a vegetarian substitute was called 'Crumbles'. Cute name.
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
crumbles can be made from wheat gluten (Seitan) or soy proteins (textured vegetable proteins, or TVP) These meat replacement proteins have little flavor, and absorb other flavors that they are cooked with, I have made seitan by grinding whole wheat berries, washing away the bran, and starches. The bran was made into cereal flakes, while the starch water was given to the chickens. The mass of seitan was then used in chili, and various soup preparations, adding a nice, meaty texture. Seitan can be flavored with Sauce De Poisson, Worcestershire, Maggi, and other such flavorings. There are some very good mushroom broths that are vegetarian as well. Seitan is also a good addition to legume based soups, and in ragu, or Bolognese sauce. Crumbles are also great for vegetarian Sloppy Joes.
TVP does have a flavor that can be off putting, and needs to be paired with other strong flavors.
Hope this helps.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
TVP does have a flavor that can be off putting, and needs to be paired with other strong flavors.
Hope this helps.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Last edited:
larry_stewart
Master Chef
Thats what I do. I quick fry, not necessarily to brown, but just to get to temp before adding whatever you're going to add.
I usually fry them up, then add the chili spice packet ( I cheat, occasionally I make my own mix, but usually take a short cut.).
After adding the spices, usually add a few splashes of water just to make sure the spices get hydrated and mix evenly in the crumbles. At that point I add the tomato base ...
If I choose to use veggies like onions, garlic, peppers ... ll fry them up first, then add the crumbles then continue was above.
My go to are the morning star farm crumbles as pictured in a previous post, for chili, tacos, lasagna, sloppy joe.
If making stuffed cabbage, use the Gardein chopped fake meat, as it holds together better and the consistency is better for that.
the other day I had to use the Boca crumbles the tacos I was making, as I had them pushed in the back of the freezer and didnt have any more of the morning star. They werent bada, but the morning star is better for chili in my opinion.
None bind together like real chopped meat will, so to make meatballs, would have to add cheese, eggs ... There is a restaurant in Boston which makes great vegetarian meatballs out of the beyond meat chopped meat. Probably one of the best vegetarian meatballs Ive tasted.
The morning star crumbles do have a taste to them along with some salt, so be aware when seasoning . Maybe taste a little before adding so you know before hand what you're dealing with.
larry_stewart
Master Chef
As a side note, the crumbles are now Vegan ( they used to be vegetarian, was they had egg whites in them, but they recently converted)
Thanks for the response. I made my chili and added the veg crumbles to the onion-pepper saute. Then added the spices with a small amount of broth. It came out very good.
One note: This was my second time using veg crumbles and I learned from the first (tacoes) that 1/2 pound of crumbles is about 1 1/2 the volume of 1/2 pound of ground meat.
One note: This was my second time using veg crumbles and I learned from the first (tacoes) that 1/2 pound of crumbles is about 1 1/2 the volume of 1/2 pound of ground meat.
