If you want to reduce your carbon footprint and overall environmental impact, eat less meat. Lest your tastebuds despair, fear not! Forgoing meat doesn’t require you to forfeit the flavors, textures, and satisfaction that meat provides. Plant-based meat not only benefits the earth; it also tastes delicious and will satisfy all your meaty cravings. Here are eight of Thistle’s favorite plant-based meat swaps. Enjoy!

Plant-Based Meat Swap #1: Bacon

Bacon is beloved. Some like it crispy, others like it chewy. Everyone loves its amazing smoky-salty-sweet umami flavor and satisfying mouthfeel. It’s a welcome addition to almost any dish: pasta, burgers, sandwiches, casseroles, rice dishes, and salads. 

Is any plant-based meat swap worthy of replacing bacon? Yes! Thanks to salty, savory, and smoky ingredients like liquid smoke, tamari, and smoked paprika, there’s not just one option, but several. Here are some of our faves:

For Crispy Bacon Try: Coconut Flakes

Crispy bacon made with coconut makes a mean BLT (add avocado to make it out of this world!) and is wonderful atop a salad. If you want to get extra fancy and flavorful, try smoking the coconut flakes before adding additional ingredients. Who says food smokers are only for meat eaters? Not us!

For Chewy Bacon Try: Shiitake Mushrooms or Tempeh

If you want strips of bacon on your breakfast plate or on your burger, try chewy plant-based meat options made with either shiitake mushrooms or tempeh. For the former recipe, you get all the health benefits of shiitake mushrooms plus a boost from nutritional yeast. For the latter, tempeh offers tons of plant-based protein plus the healthful benefits fermented soy provides.

For Crumbly Bacon Try: Cool Foods Veggie Bacon

One of the best packaged plant-based meats around – thanks to its short list of super clean ingredients – Cool Foods makes a perfect crumbly bacon. It’s pinto bean-based and made with just five ingredients that don’t require refrigeration. You can find this plant-based meat substitute on Thistle’s menu in our Cobb Salad, Roasted Corn & Bacon Salad, and Loaded Baked Potato Salad.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #2: Chorizo

Calling all flavor seekers. Since chorizo, a sausage often used in Mexican cuisine, is all about the spice, it’s pretty easy to make with a plant-based meat swap. We suggest starting with pea protein to achieve a perfect crumbled sausage texture. Plant-based meat substitute Longeve, which we use on Thistle’s menu, works great.  

Chorizo’s spice blend of chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, cayenne, and so much more will electrify your taste buds. Not only is this spice mixture great for making plant-based chorizo, but it also works wonderfully when added to legume-based dishes like black bean bowls and chickpea tacos.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #3: Fried Chicken

Battered and fried foods are always a delicious indulgence. When plant-based meat swaps stand in for fried chicken, it becomes an earth-friendly indulgence. Excellent plant-based meat swaps for fried chicken include oyster mushrooms, hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, and extra firm tofu torn into one-inch chunks.

To make a super crispy and light gluten-free breading for plant-based fried chicken, try a combo of rice flour and chickpea flour. Other options include crushed corn flakes and crushed nuts. And don’t forget seasoning and saucy accompaniments. Nashville-style hot? Korean? Classic? Japanese? Choose your own adventure! 

Tip: Fry plant-based fried chicken in avocado oil. It has a high smoke point, neutral flavor, and it’s rich in heart healthy unsaturated fats.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #4: Grilled Chicken

Extra firm tofu, a cornerstone of vegetarian cuisine, is an excellent plant-based meat swap for grilled chicken. Hodo Foods is one of our favorite brands. Tofu soaks up marinade flavor and sears beautifully on the grill. Whether it’s Italian or teriyaki flavor you seek, just as you marinate chicken before grilling, do the same for tofu. The only extra step required is to press the tofu beforehand in order to squeeze out extra water so it can absorb maximum flavor. 

Tip: Add a little oil to the marinade or brush some on the grill grates to keep this plant-based meat swap from sticking.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #5: Ground Beef

There’s a wide variety of options for this plant-based meat swap. Take your pick. Whole-food homemade ground beef substitutes include cleverly-prepared lentils, walnuts, mushrooms, crumbled tempeh, or any combo of the above. With some experimentation in the kitchen, you’ll soon find your favorite recipe and technique.

If it’s a beefy veggie burger you crave, give this lentil-based recipe from Oaktown Spice Shop a try. Or consider this plant-based meat recipe which uses both walnuts and mushrooms to create a ground beef swap that can be taken in any number of culinary directions, depending on how you spice it. And while sliced tempeh stands in for bacon, when crumbled it makes a great plant-based alternative to ground beef for dishes like corned “beef” hash and Korean BBQ “beef” rice bowls.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #6: Seafood

For sushi, ceviche, and other tastes of the sea, there are so many surprising plant-based meat recipes. To capture the briny telltale flavor of seafood, turn to kelp powder, seawood like nori or kombu. Next up: Texture. To achieve the mouthfeel and texture of seafood, certain plant-based foods work like magic. 

Substitutes for raw fish dishes like sushi and Hawaiian poke include peeled tomatoes and braised beets – featured in our very own Beet Poke Bowl. With the right flavoring agents (think kombu, chickpea miso, and lime juice), uncanny color, and twinning texture, your senses will be fooled. 

For plant-based meat substitutes of the flaky fish or shellfish variety, recipes often use some combo of mashed chickpeas, jackfruit, or oyster mushrooms to achieve a copycat texture. That means dishes like plant-based crab cakes and vegan shrimp are just a recipe away.

Plant-Based Meat Swap #7: Shredded Meat

Sandwiches, burrito bowls, tacos, and nachos are crowd-pleasing foods made even better by shredded chicken or pulled pork. If you want to reduce your meat intake, here are some great plant-based meat swaps you can invite to the party instead.  

First up is jackfruit. Unripe jackfruit, also known as green jackfruit, has a stringy texture that’s strikingly similar to shredded chicken and pulled pork. With flavorful recipes like jackfruit carnitas, it’s capable of fooling even the staunchest of meat eaters. Next: oyster mushrooms. They have a meaty texture and can be "pulled" similar to how chicken and pork is prepared. Plant-based pulled pork, anyone?

Plant-Based Meat Swap #8: Steak & Gyros

When a craving for steak strikes, portobello mushrooms rise to the occasion. This large, meaty fungi looks impressive on a plate and requires a fork and knife to eat, just like steak. After just a few minutes in a savory marinade, portobello mushrooms taste heavenly grilled, roasted, or seared in a hot skillet. To make this plant-based meat swap extra special, serve it with a chimichurri sauce.

When sliced, portobello mushrooms go from steakhouse to streetfood with options like cheesesteak or gyros. For these dishes, be careful not to overcook the sliced portobellos. You want them tender and slightly-browned, not overly shriveled and tough.

Reducing the environmental impact of your diet requires some adjustment and inspiration. Fortunately, it does not require a sacrifice in flavor and satisfaction. With these eight great plant-based meat swaps, you’ll reduce your meat intake and have fun doing it.

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