Vegetarians Unite...And Make Delicious, Economical And Nutritious Food

[DianeB]

The poor, starving college student would be me

I am trying to convert some recipes to vegetarian. Figure this is cheaper than buying new cookbooks. Right now, I am usually use butter of margarine, liquid smoke and vegetarian beef or chicken boullion to get the bacon or having flavoring. It seems to work great. The difficult part is trying to get down what the particular flavors are of a type of dish or cuisine. So that I know that the meat could just be left out without affecting the overall dish.

Also, I want to figure out how to make my own meat substitutes flavorings from basic ingredients. Veggie boullion and powders can be a bit pricey, but pretty sure they are easy to make. I am thinking either soy or garbanzo bean flour base for poultry and cocoa-paprika mix as a base for beef. Maybe put some tumeric, nutritional yeast and poultry herb seasoning mix for chicken. Mace, nutritional yeast and beef herb seasoning mix for beef. Pork seems to be a bit trickier. Perhaps I can use chicken as a base or combine the beef and chicken flavoring. Add some ground cloves and nutmeg or some type of spice that is both earthy and sweet. Maybe add small amount of brown sugar.

Also, I could toast or carmelize brown sugar on the stove to add to the beef or pork flavoring. Liquid smoke, soy sauce, molasses, oil, butter or magarine could be added to recipe to intensify certain seasonings.

 

[dragonlaurel]

What about those people that analyze foods so they can make copycat recipes? It might be on one of their sites already. Read the back of the veggie substitute boullions too. Might get lucky on one.

 

[DianeB]

I've tried and can't find any. Even looked over the VegWeb recipes and forum. Nothing! I'll try to look some more. Maybe I am too cheap and others don't think this is too expensive. $5.12 for a canister of Chin'sh seems pretty dear to me. Also, bouillon is about two to three dollars for a pack of 6 cubes. That is for what is in the stores. If I have to buy online, the price would be more like eight to ten dollars with shipping. Figure if I can make at home from on hand, wholesome ingredients it would be nice and less expensive. Some of the ingredients on the boullion package does not look that great.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Most bouillon has some junky ingredients. I hope you can make your own version. It's overpriced buying those cubes.
I buy bulk spices at the health food store and they have a "chicken" one that tastes good. Pretty sure it's Red Star nutritional yeast with whatever else. I don't miss the taste of meat though, so it doesn't need to taste realistic for me.
Don't think I've tried the "Chickenish". How big is the canister and how many servings do you get from it?

 

[DianeB]

It is 11 oz and has 114 one teaspoon serivngs. One teaspoon is really not enough so end up adding about a TBSP or two. The brand is Bill's Best.

I like to use boullion and powder not because I miss meat. Never really liked the taste to begin with except for maybe ham or bacon. It just makes dishes must tastier. Most vegetarian bean and grain dishes are bland unless it is seasoned and prepared just right. It is sad but true.

Most of the ingredients I am thinking of using are pretty inexpensive and available in bulk. Figure if I can crack the code, I can make a lot for very little.

Oh, on the canister it says $5.89 not $5.12. You can see the problem.

 

[dragonlaurel]

You actually get 30-35 servings maybe - for close to 20 cents each. You decide if that's okay or not based on budget and how much you like it.
I use miso instead of bouillon. Yummy and better for me. It's not really cheap but it goes a long way.

 

[sylvie]

I use Vegit for seasoning like bouillon. I originally tried it as a salt substitute but like it so much that I eat it plain with a spoon! I buy the big box for about $7 and it lasts months with heavy use.

I use smoked sun dried tomatoes or else chipotles for smoked flavors, depending how much heat I want. The tomatoes are a good substitute for bacon in some recipes.

The World Market has great deals on spices.

 

[DianeB]

For chicken flavoring: I figure a pound of soy or garbanzo bean flour is about $1.20 #(will only use like 1/4 pound), nutritional yeast (if using it) is about $12 # (probably use about 1/8 cup or like .10 #), tumeric and other spices will be less than 40 cents. That should be about 85 cents to a dollar for the equivielent of a $6 canister. Also, I like using ingredients to make things I can use elsewhere.

For beef: If make a more concentrated flavoring, I can leave out the flour and use a cocoa base. I believe the canister is about three dollars. The cocoa canister is about 2 1/2 times that of the Bill's Best seasoning. If cocoa is too strong of a base, I can cut it with less expensive soy flour or leave it concentrated and use less at a time. Either way it will further reduce the cost. Paprika is about is around $3 a pound in bulk. Probably won't use much of this. Say 35 cents or a 1/4 cup. brown sugar (which I can carmelize myself) is only like $1.70 to $2 per pound. Already have this on hand. Will only use like a few TBSP. So lets say less than 10 cents. The other seasonings if bought in bulk may add up to 40 to 60 cents. All total, with the cocoa base is about $4. This would be very concentrated and last several times longer than the poultry seasoning. With the soy flour base, it should be about $1.57 for a $8+ canister.

Pork seasoning should come out to the same cost as the beef seasoning. It may seem like pennies, but it adds up fast. I cook at home all the time and always using bouillon.

P.S. You make me sound so cheap and ridiculous. I like to play recipe code cracker all the time. (We had little money growing up and I had almost none in college. Spendt a lot of time recreating restaurant food at home.) My sister was going to buy me some faux chicken strips at Trader Joes. I looked at the back of the package at the ingredients. Told I could make that for much less. Even had the stuff at home to make it. I am pretty sure the food industry hates people like me. Refuse to pay outrageous prices for a few ingredients in a fancy package.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Vegit is great!
Didn't mean to make you feel weird.
I used to have to pinch pennies till Lincoln screamed Mercy. I do the math as a habit.
Figuring out copycats sounds like math and chemistry class put together. I never learned how but it works for you. At least somebody can do it.

I play around with recipes to cut the sugar a lot and fat content some. Usually start with ones that are vegetarian or had very little meat to make it a easy switch. I also switch ingredients to get around allergies or stuff I just don't like.

 

[DianeB]

In the case of Chik'nish, I am really not cracking much of a code. The ingredients on the back are: Soy flour, Salt, Food Yeast (probably brewser's yeast), Garlic, Parsley, Celery (all in powder form) plus unique blend of vegetables and herbs. Doesn't seem too difficult to mix. Even have empty canisters to store it in.

I have to pinch pennies. College was expensive and have to make it up, soon.

BTW, if I don't seem to make since, its because I hit my head today. Seriously.