Researchers have newly discovered a surprising and potentially significant reason why eating foods frequently cooked at high temperatures, such as red meat and deep-fried fare, elevates cancer risk. The alleged culprit: DNA within the food that's been damaged by the cooking process.
Would recommend trying some of the new plant-based meat products while you’re at it. Stuff from Impossible and Beyond Foods are pretty much taste-alikes for burgers. Morningstar has the same with appetizer items like chicken nuggets. Gardein is cheaper and usually marketed as healthy (lower saturated fat and sodium), but isn’t as good for said healthy reasons. I still buy that because of the low cost though. Places like Aldi have their own products that are the cheapest of them all and pretty decent tasting ngl.
Heads up: long rambly comment!
Personally I do still eat meat, but I eat much less than I used to. I quite like Beyond’s sausage products (links and breakfast-style). I was using a lot of their ground beef for a while, but it continues to be not quite beef-like enough to be a 100% substitute for me. I feel like they went for something that would taste really good as a burger at the expense of tasting a little weird as, for example, a bolognese. Still, I do continue to buy it.
I haven’t tried any substitute chicken nuggets or anything, but that’s also not really the kind of thing I cook anyway. A good chicken substitute for me personally would have to be one that holds up well in a soup, and I see that as being probably pretty tricky!
One that I just tried for the first time this week was the beefless bulgogi that Trader Joe’s sells. It was delicious, really excellent with some rice! Texture isn’t quite the same but not in a bad way.
Another thing I’ve had my eye on is plant-based seafood substitutes, mostly from a sustainability point of view, but it seems like most of the ones out there are trying to replicate fish that are already fairly sustainable, like shrimp and salmon.
Long comments are good comments in my opinion lol.
If you’re looking for a chicken substitute that holds up, look no further than Sweet Earth’s “Chik’n” strips. I tried Morningstar’s and I didn’t find it to be the right texture. Sweet earth somehow figured out the perfect non-breaded chicken strip. I’d use that jazz in anything if I wasn’t trying to conserve my budget.
Also, idk if you’ve tried it yet, but (Gardein)[https://www.gardein.com/soups-chilis/soups/plant-based-chickn-noodl-soup] makes a great “chick’n” noodle soup for lazy days.
I wish the seafood substitutes were there. The breaded stuff like fish and chips are great and there are a few brands of tuna substitutes I like, but I haven’t seen a shrimp or salmon substitute. For sushi or smoked salmon bits, sure, there are lots of things that have a similar taste, but I haven’t found anything like something you’d get in a restaurant. If you like to cook, (sauce stache)[https://youtu.be/T8MaZXj9N-U] always comes through with surprisingly good tasting recipes.
Thanks for the references! Next time I’m at the grocery store I’ll poke around and see if I can find any of those chicken substitutes! A lazy chicken soup actually sounds pretty appealing: the from-scratch method gives great results, but it does take a surprisingly long time!