when the good people at quorn got in touch asking if we'd like to try a meat free, healthy protein diet, i was hesitant. boyfriend is a 'meat and three veg' kinda guy, and he protests to the mainly-asian menu that i keep him fed on so it was a certainty that he wouldn't be on board with this. i didn't tell him what i had planned for us until the day it arrived. even after he saw it and worked out what was going on, i was sure he wasn't going to be as ok with it as he was...
we started with the meat-free sausages; bangers and mash, with plenty of gravy to hide the taste if he didn't like it. for me, the taste was ok - i don't really like the taste of sausages anyway, only the texture. weird, i know. so i did like the taste of the quorn, but the texture was all wrong for what it was trying to be; they were too soft and smooth where sausages are normally chewy and a bit hard in places.
so i think while these are a fine visual substitution, they aren't a great textural or flavoursome one. plus, boyfriend only complained mildly and not about anything in particular - his main protest was that the mash was lumpy, so i guess that one was passable. will we have these again? considering these are a much healthier option than regular sausages and we quite enjoy a sausage and mash, or weekend fry up, then i definitely would buy these again.
and then on sunday night we tried the meat-free chicken pieces. besides the totally redundant name (i get it, but no; call them 'meat free chicken subs' or something less likely to confuse my other half: "if they want chicken, why don't they eat chicken?" because they're vegetarian. "yeah but if they're eating meat free chicken, it's still chicken". except it's not chicken meat. "so why say it is?" i really don't know.
dear quorn; please don't make me have that conversation ever again. thanks.
this time cooked up with a korma, and again, well hidden in sauce just.in.case. the texture was spot on to regular chicken, but the taste was a little bland. boyfriend kept comparing it to tofu but i quite like tofu (when it's cooked right), and tofu can be more squidgy when over cooked. that's the thing about the quorn; you never really know when or if it's cooked - it doesn't change colour or anything, haha. will we have these again? yeah, probably. i'd prefer real chicken though.
not pictured but also tried was the meat-free mince which we had in a yummy slimming-world friendly pasta bolognaise type dish. now, the mince i liked. i hate regular mince - even when you get it lean it's too fatty, so am happy to report that the quorn mince was tasty, not oily and was the perfect mince substitute. will we have this again? heck yes. boyfriend reckons it's crumblier than normal mince, but he's a mince meat fiend. i reckon i could sneak it in again without him knowing though. watch this space.
have you tried any of the quorn products? which was your favourite?
