So What Do You Eat Then?
  • So What Do You Eat Then?
  • The Recipes
    • Savoury >
      • Full Meals >
        • Aubergine Stuffed Peppers
        • Aubergine and Sweet Potato Tagine
        • Bean Stew with Herby Dumplings
        • Carrot and Mushroom Flan
        • Chickpea Curry
        • Chinese Style Vegetable Skewers
        • Grilled Polenta with Butternut Squash
        • Lentil Soup
        • Mock Duck Stirfry
        • Mushroom and Asparagus Tartlets
        • Mushroom Plait
        • Mushroom Risotto
        • Mushroom and Tofu Parcels
        • Pizza
        • Quiche
        • Raw Creamy Nut & Mushroom Soup
        • Roast Pumpkin
        • Sauerkraut with Sausage and Roasties
        • Sausage Casserole
        • Shepless Pie
        • Slow-Cooked Paella
        • Spaghetti Bolognese
        • Spicy Bean Pasties
        • Spring Stew
        • Stuffed Marrow
        • Three Bean Chilli
        • Tofurkey and Stuffing Roll
      • Snacks, Light Meals, Sides and Starters >
        • Avocado and Butternut Salad
        • Coleslaw
        • Creamy Vegetable Soup
        • Falafel
        • Green Lentil and Couscous Salad
        • Herby Potato Salad
        • Houmous
        • Japanese Style Dumplings
        • Jenny's Sticky Tofu
        • Jenny's Sweet Green Bean Soup
        • Lime Pickle
        • Mediterranean Soup with Black Olive Tapenade
        • Mini Pizza Grills
        • Moroccan Style Leeks
        • Nettle Soup
        • Nomelette
        • Not-Cheese
        • Onion Bhaji
        • Pâté de Faux Gras
        • Pitta Bread
        • Raw Linseed Crackers
        • Red Pepper and Two Butter Soup
        • Samosas
        • Scamiar
        • Seaweed Salad
        • Seedy Cornbread
        • Shanxi Style Cucumber Salad
        • Split Pea and Mushroom Patties
        • Sushi
        • Tomato Bread
        • Tzatziki
        • Winter Rainbow Salad
    • Sweet >
      • Cakes and Biscuits >
        • Apple and Elderberry Cookies
        • Apple Cake
        • Battenburg Cake
        • Blackberry Muffins
        • Blueberry Muffins
        • Buried Treasure Brownies
        • Carrot Cake >
          • Raw Carrot Cake
        • Cashew and Apricot Rawkies
        • Cherry Bakewells
        • Cherry and Chocolate Sponge
        • Chocolate Cookies
        • Christmas Cake
        • Coconut Macaroons
        • Fig Rolls
        • Gugelhupf
        • Fondant Fancies
        • Fruit Choc Crispies
        • Gingernuts
        • Half-Moon Coffee Cake
        • Jam Tarts
        • Lavender Scones
        • Meg's Bicycling Banana Bread
        • Millionaire's Shortbread
        • Mince Pies >
          • Mincemeat
        • Mocha Recovery balls
        • Pepparkakor
        • Pineapple Upsidedown Cake
        • Popcorn Cakes
        • Spiced Pear Slices
        • Strawberry Citrus Cupcakes
        • Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits
        • Summer Celebration Cake
        • Tropical Jack Flaps
      • Chocolat >
        • Aztec Chocolate Orange Cake
        • Caramel Cups
        • Celebration Platter
        • 'F**k Off, I'm Fabulous' Fondants
        • Notgat
        • Spiced Hot Chocolate
        • Strawberry Creams
      • Desserts >
        • Apple Crumble Icefu
        • Autumn Equinox Pie
        • Baked Apple
        • Banchocado
        • Banoffee Pie
        • Blackberry and Apple Lattice
        • Cherry and Chocolate Not-Cheesecake
        • Chocolate Pots
        • Fruit Chaat
        • Fruit Crumble
        • Ginger and Lemon Not-Cheesecake
        • Ginger and Rhubarb Tart
        • Green Bean Ices
        • Lemon Tart
        • Meringue
        • Mini Strawberry Not-Cheesecakes
        • Orange and Blackberry Fool
        • Pancakes
        • Pineapple Pudding
        • Polenta Passion Pudding
        • Pumpkin Pie
        • Raspberry Crumble Pie
        • Spiced Vanilla Stars
        • Strawberry and Chocolate UpsideCrumble
        • Strawberry Icefu with Frozen Fruit Skewers
        • Summer Pudding
        • Trifle
        • Triple Choccy Muffins
    • Breakfast >
      • Apple Spread
      • Apple Turnovers
      • Apricot Puffs
      • Crumpets
      • Elderberry Syrup
      • Fruit Loaf
      • Lemon Curd
      • Quick Strawberry Jam
      • Rowan Jelly
      • Spiced Apple Porridge
    • Seasonal Suggestions
  • The Components
    • Not-Meat
    • Not-Eggs
    • Not-Dairy

In Greedy Ants...

Not-Meat
Not-Eggs
Not-Dairy
I have a bit of an issue with the concept of ‘substitutes’ in animal-free cooking as that seems to undermine what are actually perfectly good foods in their own right whilst simultaneously setting up omnivores for an inevitable disappointment.

The Chinese have been cooking with bean curd for over 2000 years and don’t consider it to be a substitute for anything. Dishes will quite often involve tofu as well as meat and soya based milk drinks frequently seem to have a bit of cow juice chucked in for good luck. Most of the ‘substitutes’ available on the western market appear to be aimed at people who don’t really want to give up meat but for some reason think they should… hence flaccid pieces of vegetable protein painted with pink stripes and called ‘veggie bacon’. Don’t bother knocking yourself up a BLT with this stuff, you’ll only find it a let-down.  Having said that, these products all have their places and many of them are actually pretty tasty if you approach them without an expectation that they are going to be like something else. You probably wouldn’t give someone chicken telling them it was a substitute for beef after all.

Aside from these reservations, I understand that most people find it easiest to think in these terms and you are going to need certain ingredients which are used and marketed as substitutes, especially in efforts such as baking. The above pages aim to give you an introduction to a few easily obtainable basic bits and pieces that you’ll need 'in place' of more conventional foods for many of these recipes…

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