Hey y'all, just in the posting mood today! I was writing another post and thought about my love for good vegan alternatives. I am not personally vegan, but as someone who takes great pride and pleasure as a cook serving other people food, I want to serve my vegan comrades as best as I can, so I try to taste test a lot of vegan stuff. I'm not a carnist who believes that the vegan option can never taste as good, I just have a lot of allergies so I have to be cautious about eating things that aren't meat. However I've tasted and heard from vegans, certain things like cheese simply aren't as good as the non-vegan counter part. I feel like we hear about this stuff way too much though, as there are so many interesting flavors vegans use that carnists don't.
My personal pick for this topic is coconut aminos. Soy sauce is a great way to add umami flavor into almost anything you're making, so I was disheartened at first when I heard that soy sauce wasn't vegan. But one of my vegan friends got me a bottle of coconut aminos to try, and it blew my mind. The extra sweetness in it makes so many things you'd use soy sauce for way better. Teriyaki sauce should always be made with coconut aminos, fried rice gets a slight sweetness that really lends well to the veggies in it, it's so fucking good.
Anything that uses ground beef, I substitute firm tofu. It soaks up the flavors so much better. You can do it any style. I make Asian "beef" bowls and Mexican taco meat like this.
How do you season it? In my experience, ground beef/pork has no substitute that gets even close.
Press it to get most of the water out. Toss it in a pan on medium low heat with some olive oil and just salt and pepper, then cook till it gets light gold. If you heat it up too much, it'll stick to the pan. It takes a good 25 minutes of low power to get the consistency right. Once it's gold, you can do whatever you want, but I recommend wet seasonings for max flavor (think taco seasoning packets you add water to and simmer). I won't go so far as to say it tastes like meat, but I genuinely like the taste better than ground beef.