[Sca-cooks] And now for... UnTurkey

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

Interesting.  I, too, no longer eat fully vegetarian, though I did for a
long time.  I agree with you about fake meat products - I never really
saw the point.  The closest I came was wanting entire meals in a certain
style, like tacos, and would use TVP.  But, I didn't really want it to
*taste* like beef, just have that basic texture so the meal would work
out.  I was happy making up my own flavor.  Or, wanting something that
heated up and fit nicely in a sandwich.  Once veggie-burger companies
stopped trying to make them taste like meat they became wonderful
things.  I used to make walnut lentil burgers, from Moosewood Cookbook,
rather than subject myself to commercial veggie "fake meat" veggie
burgers.  These days, though, commercial veggie burgers are great - they
come in so many different flavors that have nothing to do with
pretending to be meat, they're great to heat up and throw on a roll with
mustard.

Anyway, it looks like the only thing about the UnTurkey that was really
bad was the gravy.  Might I suggest to anyone who wishes to try this,
Fantastic Foods makes a vegetarian chicken-style soup stock.  It's very
good.  Friends of mine use it regularly as a pareve ingredient in milk
meals, and I use it as a chicken stock replacement in dishes to take to
my in-laws Thanksgiving dinner, since two strict veggies attend.  I'd
try to make my own gravy out of that.  Basically, just that and
arrowroot or flour, plus some herbs, salt and pepper, maybe a veggie
bullion cube if you find it too weak.

-Magdalena

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

<snip>
> In the interest of science, well, ok, my curiosity, for Christmas i
> bought an UnTurkey. I will spare you and won't go into the same
> detail as i did with the Tofurkey.
<snip>
> It came with a container of gravy, some damp spongy stuff like the
> Tofurkey "Giblet" Gravy. I heated it in a microwave. Like the
> Tofurkey gravy, i had to put a little elbow grease into it, but it
> did get soft much more quickly and with less effort. It wasn't like
> real gravy - and i think the Tofurkey gravy tasted better - but it
> was acceptable, if a bit thick.
<snip>
> I'm no vegan, and i'm not even a vegetarian any more. But when i was
> a vegetarian i did NOT want my chief protein sources to be fake-meat
> substitutes. I hated the fake hot dogs i bought once because they
> tasted too much like actual hot dogs for me. When i made my own meals
> i didn't cook dishes that were like meat dishes - well, ok, so i made
> moussaka with ground soy stuff and made taco filling with it, but i
> didn't want it to taste like meat, and it didn't. I made a wide
> variety of foods from a wide variety of cultures and seasoned it all
> well - i've never understood when people have complained, "Vegetarian
> food is bland". It only means that whoever was cooking just didn't
> season it well.
<snip>
> One of these "turkey substitutes" might be good for vegetarians
> nostalgic for the old family meal. And it might be good for omnivores
> feeding several vegetarians or vegans at a holiday meal. If anyone on
> this list finds themselves in this sort of situation, and really
> wants something that vaguely resembles turkey, i recommend the
> "UnTurkey", which, i'm given to understand from the label, is
> available for sale around the US.

<snip>