Guides

Meat Alternatives for Vegetarians

Most people looking for alternatives for meat for vegetarians do not need one product, they need a rotation. A freezer with nothing but breaded cutlets in it gets boring by the second week. This guide sorts the frozen catalog at Vegan Grandnews into families, matches each one to the meat dish it stands in for, and explains how a case is portioned so you can figure out what a first order should actually contain.

What are the main alternatives for meat for vegetarians?

There are four practical families, and choosing the right family matters more than choosing the right brand. Legume-based items such as falafel bring their own flavor and work as the star of a plate. Extruded protein items -- crumble, meatballs, cutlets, strips -- are built to slot into a recipe that was written for meat. Composed frozen meals replace a whole dish rather than one ingredient. Breaded items cover the fried and handheld end of a menu.

Thinking in families rather than in products keeps a freezer from turning monotonous. Two cases from the same family give you the same dinner twice; two cases from different families give you a week of menus. It also affects storage planning, because loose formats are portioned by weight while formed and composed items are portioned by piece.

• Legume-based: vegan falafel balls
• Extruded protein: ground beef crumble, meatballs, diced chicken, chicken strips
• Composed meals: stuffed cabbage, Italian stuffed shell pasta, moussaka, pot pies
• Breaded: cutlets, nuggets, patties, sesame nuggets, schnitzel

Which alternative replaces which meat dish?

The most useful way to shop is to name the dish you are trying to keep on the table and then pick the format that fits it. A vegetarian who misses tacos needs crumble; a vegetarian who misses a Sunday braise needs a composed meal. Matching by dish rather than by protein name is what stops a household from ordering four cases that all do the same job.

• Ground beef in chili, bolognese or tacos: vegan ground beef crumble
• Meatballs in sauce or a sub: vegan meatball, vegetarian spaghetti and meatballs
• Breaded cutlet or schnitzel: vegan breaded cutlets
• Chicken in a stir-fry, wrap or salad: vegan diced chicken
• A stuffed or braised dish: vegetarian stuffed cabbage, Italian stuffed shell pasta
• A burger on the grill: fully cooked IQF veggie burger
• A falafel plate or wrap: vegan falafel balls

Are these products suitable for both vegetarians and vegans?

The catalog is split between items described as vegan and items described as vegetarian, and the product name says which one you are looking at. Beyond that, the ingredient panel printed on the case is the place to confirm what is in the lot you receive. Formulations are revised between production runs, so read the panel on the box in front of you rather than relying on a category name or on a guide written months earlier.

There is one label distinction worth knowing before you order rather than after. The Mon Cuisine line is the line marked Kosher Parve on the case; the bulk foodservice items are not marked that way. If a kosher kitchen is the buyer, the order should be built from the Mon Cuisine items.

How much does a case feed, and what does an order cost?

Divide case weight by portion size and you have your answer. A 10 lb case is 160 oz, so a 4 oz entree portion is about 40 servings and a 2 oz recipe portion is about 80. For formed and composed items the count runs off pieces instead, which is listed on the product page. Check that page before ordering, since pack sizes move with the catalog.

The order minimum is $300 and it is the same for a restaurant and for a household. In practice that is three to five cases, which is why the family-mix approach works: one loose format, one formed item, one composed meal and one breaded item gets a household through months without repeating a dinner. Orders ship from 1810 76th Street, Brooklyn NY 11214.

• One loose format for recipes you already cook
• One formed item for center of plate with no assembly
• One composed meal for nights nobody wants to cook
• One breaded item for handheld and fried dishes

How do you store and reheat a case?

Keep the case frozen until you need it and follow the heating instructions printed on it. Thaw under refrigeration rather than on the counter, and do not refreeze anything that has fully thawed. These are the only handling rules that apply across every family in the catalog; everything more specific belongs to the individual case panel.

Vacuum-packed portions are what make a case realistic for a two-person household. Because the pieces do not fuse into a single block, you can remove one meal's worth and return the rest to the freezer without compromising it. That is the difference between a case as an inventory and a case as a one-time obligation.

Before you order

Heating instructions, allergen information and certifications are printed on the case label. Always follow the label for the lot you receive: formulations and pack specifications can change between production runs.

What is the difference between the vegetarian and the vegan cases?

The difference is what the case says, and nothing else should be inferred. Some items in this catalog are labeled Vegetarian and others are labeled Vegan, and the ingredient panel printed on the case is the only place that settles which is which for a given production run. A guide cannot do it for you, because formulations are revised between runs and a page written months ago would be quoting an old box.

For a household this matters at the moment of substitution: a vegetarian cooking for a vegan guest, or the reverse, should read the panel rather than the product name. For a kitchen it matters on the menu, because describing a dish one way when the case says another is the kind of mistake that reaches a customer.

How do you switch a household to vegetarian meals without cooking twice?

Swap the ingredient, not the meal. The households that manage the switch without friction start with a loose crumble, because the recipes stay the same and only one component changes, so nobody at the table has to be convinced of anything new. Once that is routine, formed items and composed dishes get added as variety rather than as a negotiation.

• Week one: crumble into a sauce, a chili or a filling everyone already eats
• Week two: a formed center-of-plate item, portioned by piece so servings stay even
• Week three: a composed dish such as stuffed cabbage or stuffed shell pasta, which replaces the whole plan for an evening
• Keep one breaded handheld in the freezer as the fallback for a night nobody wants to cook

Which alternatives work for a vegetarian on a shared kitchen line?

Formats that can be cooked and held separately are the practical answer. Formed and breaded pieces are easy to keep on their own tray and their own pan, while loose crumble ends up mixed into whatever sauce it goes in, which is fine when the whole dish is vegetarian and awkward when it is not. How shared fryers, boards and utensils are handled is a decision your kitchen makes under its own rules; the case label describes the product, not your line.

What should a vegetarian check before buying a full case?

Check the panel, the pack size and the freezer space, in that order. The panel is the only source for ingredients, the pack size on the product page tells you how many meals a case really is, and freezer space is what decides whether a first order should be one case or three. If kosher matters, note that only the Mon Cuisine line carries the Kosher Parve marking on the case, while the bulk foodservice packs do not declare it.

• Ingredient panel on the case, read for the run you actually received
• Pack size and piece count from the product page, not from an old invoice
• Freezer space before the delivery, not after
• Heating instructions on the case; we do not publish times or temperatures
• The $300 order minimum, which can be met by mixing products

Which meat alternative replaces which cut?

Pick the alternative by the shape of the thing it replaces, not by the protein it is made from. A recipe that calls for ground meat wants a loose crumble; a plate that expects a cutlet wants a breaded cutlet; a dish built around a whole course wants a composed tray rather than an ingredient. That mapping is the entire decision, and it is why most kitchens end up carrying two or three formats instead of one.

• Ground meat: Vegan Ground Beef Crumble, or Mon Cuisine Vegan Meat Crumble for a parve menu
• Cutlet or schnitzel: Vegan Breaded Cutlets, Mon Cuisine Vegan Veal Style Shnitzel
• Strips and diced pieces for stir fry, salads and wraps: Vegan Chicken Strips, Vegan Diced Chicken
• Patty: Fully Cooked IQF Veggie Burger, Vegan Breaded Chicken Patties
• Whole course: Mon Cuisine Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage, Mon Cuisine Vegan Italian Stuffed Shell Pasta
• Chickpea route instead of a meat mimic: Vegan Falafel Balls

Is a vegetarian meat alternative the same as a vegan one?

Not necessarily, and the difference lives on the panel. A vegetarian product can be formulated with egg or dairy, while a vegan one is not. In this catalog the product name says which lane an item is in, and the ingredient panel printed on the case you receive is the only place to confirm it, because formulations are revised between production runs. That matters most when you are cooking for someone else's diet, where a wrong assumption is not a matter of preference.

How does a household switch over without a full swap?

Change one meal, not the whole week. The easiest first move is a loose format inside a dish the household already eats, because the sauce, the rice and the routine all stay the same and nobody has to like a new thing on purpose. Formed items come next since they portion themselves, and composed trays last, for the nights when nobody wants to cook at all.

• Week one: swap the ground meat in one familiar recipe for crumble
• Week two: add a formed item that portions itself, such as meatballs, patties or cutlets
• Keep one composed tray in the freezer for the night the plan collapses