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The girlfriend recently went vegetarian, and as a show of moral support, I decided to sample all of the different Quorn products with her. For those of you who don't know, quorn is a meat substitute made from mycoprotein, a kind of mushroom fungus stuffed full of nutrients and woven into the appropriate shape/size. I thought I'd post up a few brief reviews here for those of you so veggie inclined.

Quorn chicken nuggets:- Surprisingly good. Certainly no different in taste or texture to any of the real ones.
Quorn deli chicken slices:- Dire. Texture is non-existent, flavour is worse. Avoid.
Quorn chicken escalopes:- Tated about the same as most cheap chicken in breadcrumb ready meals sold by most supermarkets. In other words, not a patch on actual chicken, but not bad to eat.
Quorn steak pie:- Decent pastry, slightly overpeppered gravy. The meat substiute itself has the wrong texture for steak, it's not nearly chewy enough, and is so soft that it makes you think of jellied cat food or somesuch. Overall, an alright pie, but not as good as the real thing.
Tesco Soya Bacon:- Looks nothing like bacon out of the packet. When cooked, it has a pretty good approximation of bacon texture, but only the slightest hint of actual bacon taste. So good for adding to things (burgers, etc) where the flavour doesn't need to be strong, but not something to have along with eggs for breakfast.
Quorn Chicken Burgers:- Much like the escalopes, it has that cheap chicken taste/texture down pat. It's like those slightly naff chicken burgers you'd get from a kebab shop. So in the same way one of those can be just what you need at three in the morning, or in the way you can make one of those taste pretty good with added cheese, lettuce, mayo, etc, it's not bad. But still not as good as chicken breast, or anywhere near.
Quorn Gammon:- Surprisingly good. They're about 80% to the way to the flavour of gammon, and 90% of the way to the texture. Add some honey or barbecue sauce, and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.
Quorn mince:- Gives terrible wind, I've found. Only about halfway there. Lacks the richness of flavour of actual meat. Even with added veg and seasoning, a poor substitute.

Tomorrow, I'll be sampling the quorn lasagne. Wish me luck!

Doing the science we need.

Godspeed my friend. I don't envy your journey in the slightest.

You said "mushroom". You're dead to me.

Moral of the story from what it seems so far: While some of these items don't come off as awful, there's mushroom for improvement.

Speaking as a vegetarian, the best meat substitutes are not the one that tastes like meat. It's the one that actually taste better than meat so even non-vegetarian people end up adding them to their own meals too!
Obviously I cannot know which one are better than actual meat because, well, I don't eat meat, but I have know plenty of non-vegetarian people order “vegetarian steak with bacon” subs at the Subway, for instance. Though it's true Subway is not really the highest quality food anyway…

 Ketara wrote:
Tomorrow, I'll be sampling the quorn lasagne. Wish me luck!

I can cook pretty good vegetarian lasagna that requires no specific substitute if you want a recipe. I use mostly spinach, tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, Mozzarella cheese (for the nice melted cheese strings every time you take a bit of lasagna ) and mushrooms. The hardest part of the recipe is cooking up some Béchamel sauce, everything else is easy, and the end result is oh so delicious.

Quorn. Veggies for the veggie god.

Their sausage rolls are very pleasant. All the benefits of a sausage roll with none of the gristle. Savoury snack eggs are good, too.

I've also eaten everything on the list above, and I've got to say that I'd rather eat something that wasn't pretending to be meat, so there's no direct comparison. Your mind is always going to be on what it could be.

Also it used to give me cracking headaches, so I just swapped to fish. Whatever fats and such it cuts out, there's clearly something I was missing.

I have been a vegetarian for over 10 years and use Quorn pretty exclusively for dishes that require meat.

We get fewer options here in the States than you guys have in the UK, but I've found the chicken products are the most realistic, with the beef products being hit and miss.

For chicken the cutlets, nuggets and "chunks" (i.e. cubed chicken) are staples in my freezer.

My favorite beef product are the meatballs. They work great in sauces, on kabobs, and hold their shape well through cooking even when on the BBQ.

I don't care for the breakfast meats overall. Their "bacon" is not American bacon and tasted rather abysmal to me. Their sausage links were good, though, but hard to find here.


For any men considering a veggie diet, try and limit your soy intake. It is full of estrogen and can have negative effects on a male's system if eaten in large quantities. I've switched to Quorn mainly because typical vegetarian "meat" is soy-based and I get enough soy from other products (they put that crap in everything!).

 2BlackJack1 wrote:
Moral of the story from what it seems so far: While some of these items don't come off as awful, there's mushroom for improvement.

You are such a Fungi

 2BlackJack1 wrote:
Moral of the story from what it seems so far: While some of these items don't come off as awful, there's mushroom for improvement.

haha nice!

Is it like tofu? I totally love tofu.

 djphranq wrote:

 2BlackJack1 wrote:
Moral of the story from what it seems so far: While some of these items don't come off as awful, there's mushroom for improvement.

haha nice!

Is it like tofu? I totally love tofu.

Tofu is actually delicious, if prepared correctly. It's one of those foods that is super easy to screw up, but is amazing when you don't. My dad makes good tofu. It's kind of like Brussels sprouts. Amazing when done properly, but so many people mess them up that they're not very popular (I blame grandparents who boil them instead of cooking them LITERALLY any other way: fry, deep fry, BBQ, roast...anything).

having been a vegetarian for over 25 years, i have tried a lot of the "not-meat" products...
Quorn i find best for the alternative white meat stuff, like chicken and turkey...
Morningstar is good for not-chicken, too, but even better for not-beef...

from Quorn, i really like the chicken chunks with taco seasoning for some chicken tacos or burritos, which is what i have been eating for the last two days...
there Guyere Schnitzel is top notch in a sandwich with some crusty bread, avacado, lettuce, tomato, mayo and spicy mustard...

everything else, i prefer Morningstar, but it is a soy product...
their veggie sausage patties, mince, buffalo wings, spicy chicken patties, and ribletts are amazing...

any kind of fake bacon or deli slice has been a disappointment in my experience...

good luck in your discoveries...
you are a brave man!!!

cheers
jah

I think it;s awesome that you are doing this as a show of support for your lady. Speaks highly of your character. I wish you luck.



As for me, I think I'll stick with old fashioned methods of protein. Never been one for going the substitute route.

 2BlackJack1 wrote:
Moral of the story from what it seems so far: While some of these items don't come off as awful, there's mushroom for improvement.

There's a fungus among us

 Ketara wrote:
The girlfriend recently went vegetarian

Oh you poor bastard. God speed.

I've found the diced quorn to be a really good substitute for chicken in curry.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Speaking as a vegetarian, the best meat substitutes are not the one that tastes like meat. It's the one that actually taste better than meat so even non-vegetarian people end up adding them to their own meals too!.

Ha ha ha.........nothing tastes better than meat.

A lot of the vegan and vegetarian stuff is great actually!

I actually like the veggie seafood like faux shrimps a lot better then the real thing, but the chicken/redmeats dont do it justice.

I would never willingly cut red meat from my diet though, too tasty and healthy!

 easysauce wrote:
A lot of the vegan and vegetarian stuff is great actually!

The problem is rarely the food, it is often the practitioners.

 Ketara wrote:
The girlfriend recently went vegetarian, and as a show of moral support, I decided to sample all of the different Quorn products with her. For those of you who don't know, quorn is a meat substitute made from mycoprotein, a kind of mushroom fungus stuffed full of nutrients and woven into the appropriate shape/size. I thought I'd post up a few brief reviews here for those of you so veggie inclined.

Quorn chicken nuggets:- Surprisingly good. Certainly no different in taste or texture to any of the real ones.
Quorn deli chicken slices:- Dire. Texture is non-existent, flavour is worse. Avoid.
Quorn chicken escalopes:- Tated about the same as most cheap chicken in breadcrumb ready meals sold by most supermarkets. In other words, not a patch on actual chicken, but not bad to eat.
Quorn steak pie:- Decent pastry, slightly overpeppered gravy. The meat substiute itself has the wrong texture for steak, it's not nearly chewy enough, and is so soft that it makes you think of jellied cat food or somesuch. Overall, an alright pie, but not as good as the real thing.
Tesco Soya Bacon:- Looks nothing like bacon out of the packet. When cooked, it has a pretty good approximation of bacon texture, but only the slightest hint of actual bacon taste. So good for adding to things (burgers, etc) where the flavour doesn't need to be strong, but not something to have along with eggs for breakfast.
Quorn Chicken Burgers:- Much like the escalopes, it has that cheap chicken taste/texture down pat. It's like those slightly naff chicken burgers you'd get from a kebab shop. So in the same way one of those can be just what you need at three in the morning, or in the way you can make one of those taste pretty good with added cheese, lettuce, mayo, etc, it's not bad. But still not as good as chicken breast, or anywhere near.
Quorn Gammon:- Surprisingly good. They're about 80% to the way to the flavour of gammon, and 90% of the way to the texture. Add some honey or barbecue sauce, and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.
Quorn mince:- Gives terrible wind, I've found. Only about halfway there. Lacks the richness of flavour of actual meat. Even with added veg and seasoning, a poor substitute.

Tomorrow, I'll be sampling the quorn lasagne. Wish me luck!

I was a veggy for several years.
Some vegetarian foods are amazing! Some, um, yeah.
Biggest pet-peeve was when I would order a vegetarian sandwich and they would give me lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mushrooms, and mayo.

Portobella mushroom sandwiches, mmmmm!

Indian food was a heaven sent. The things they can do with vegetables, damn!

I always said the key to good vegetarian/vegan food is to make the person not miss meat.

 Ahtman wrote:

 easysauce wrote:
A lot of the vegan and vegetarian stuff is great actually!

The problem is rarely the food, it is often the practitioners.

It would be a mistake to disregard the correlation.

I wish I could remember the brand, but we once found a fake bacon that tasted better than the real thing (or at least better than turkey bacon, which I personally prefer). I only bought it in the first place because my son pointed at the picture on the package and said,"Want. Want that." I tried explaining it wasn't really bacon, but he insisted, and I figured he needed to learn some lessons the hard way. But when we cooked it and ate it, we were pleasantly surprised.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
but we once found a fake bacon that tasted better than the real thing.

I am afraid you will need to turn in your Inquisitorial Rosette and be subjected to strict penance at the temple of baconation, where you will care for the sacred pigs for 100 years.

I really want to be a vegetarian, but I keep failing my Hellish (-60) WP checks to resist meat.

You're a braver man than me Ben.

Don't blame us if you turn into an Ork.

Sometimes, I prefer Quorn to regular meat.....



I can't replaces Burgers in my life however, that would be a fate worse than death.

Ouze wrote:Doing the science we need.

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:Speaking as a vegetarian, the best meat substitutes are not the one that tastes like meat. It's the one that actually taste better than meat so even non-vegetarian people end up adding them to their own meals too!

The thing is, I'm generally quite the carnivore. Big meat eater. I don't intend to give that up fully ever (at least, not until they can make bacon that tastes like the real thing, dammit!), but for ease of meal preparation, dining out, etc, the more things we can eat together, the better. So I'm actively searching through and testing as many of these veggie products as I can to pick out what stuff is closest to the real deal.

I have to say, so far, the impression I'm getting is that they've mastered the cheap processed meat substitute, but the rest needs a bit of work. It's certainly edible, but it makes you miss 'real' meat, as it just lacks the flavour/texture of properly prepared and well cooked pork/chicken. The gammon was the closest thing I've had so far, and even that was only as good as a mediocre cut.

I hear something on the radio where they did a comparison between Hotdogs and Meat-free Hotdogs and there was either no discernible difference or a preference for the Meat-free ones.

Of course a meat-free Hotdog seems like an oxymoron to me but there you go...

Quorn Sausages and Swedish Meatballs are fantastic. I find Lindt McCartney products to taste horrible, apart from the mozzarella burgers which are amazing.