Vegtember: Quorn Satay Curry

Since mooting the suggestion of doing Vegtember, and explaining some of the reasons why, many people have spoken to me about meat replacement products. Specifically many people have extolled the virtues of Quorn chicken style pieces (other meat replacement products are available).

I have been told on many fronts that the chicken pieces are a perfectly adequate replacement for normal cheap chicken and great for stir-fries and curries etc, with the added advantage of being healthier, cheaper and easier than using chicken.

I must say I was dubious. Ages ago when cooking for a pal who was a veggie I made a meal using Quorn and was distinctly unimpressed. Mind you I was very aggressively scornful of the idea of vegetarianism in those days and had probably already made up my mind to dislike the stuff in advance. Further I wanted in Vegtember to mainly be cooking proper Veggie food rather than simply replacing the meat (though one of the challenges that has been made is to see if I can make a decent Bolognese with soya mince).

Nevertheless after much suggestions, particularly on hootoo I eventually decided I would give Quorn a go. At the bottom is the recipe for the Quorn Chicken Style Satay Curry.

Verdict

So is Quorn any good? Well it certainly does not taste as nice as proper job good quality chicken. But I guess that isn’t really a fair comparison. The fairer comparison would be the cheap rubbish stuff that is “two for five pound” from an awful battery farm, injected with loads of water and tasting of nothing.

By that comparison the Quorn Chicken pieces come out quite well really. They are perfectly tasty enough, they have really improved the consistency since I last got them. And on top of that they are cheap and easy. You can just take them out of the freezer and bang them in and it is ready in 15 minutes.

If you are just going to be having something out of a jar, with some rice I reckon you can do a lot worse than this Quorn frankly. I think I will deffo be using this stuff in the future for quick after work meals.

Quorn Satay Curry

Ingredients

Red Thai Paste

1 Tbps Coriander Seed

1 Tsp Cumin Seed

1 Tsp Paprika

1 Tsp Cayenne

3 Tsp Lemon Grass Paste (better to use fresh I just didnt have any)

1 Inch Ginger

3 Garlic Cloves

Zest and Juice of 1 Lime

Pepper

Tomato Puree

Handful Fresh chopped Coriander

1 Red Onion

1 Tsp Dark Soy Sauce

2 Tsp Nam Pla

For the Rest of the Curry

1 Tin Coconut Milk

2 Red Onions

1 Red Pepper

Peanut butter

300g Quorn Chicken Pieces

For the Red Thai paste first toast the Coriander seeds and then crush. Next add everything to the food processor or blender then whush up. Hey presto. This makes enough for one big batch of curry, but it is well worth making a load on freezing it as it is quite versatile and a million times nicer than stuff out of a jar.

Chop the onions so they are in long stringy bits. Then put some oil in a large pan ( I prefer Sesame or Groundnut for this type of dish) and slowly fry the onion is soft but not caramelised, at which point add the peppers (and any other vegetables you use to bulk this out) and cook for another couple of minutes. Next add the tin of coconut milk, put on a low heat, stirring until it has an even consistency. Add two dessert spoons of peanut butter and all of the red paste. Once heated chuck in the Quorn straight from the packet, frozen and cook for about 15 minutes. Et Viola!

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16. September 2010 by Ralph Ferrett
Categories: Activism, Food | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 comments

Comments (4)

  1. It’s funny, when I first moved to the UK I thought Quorn was amazing. Then I think I ate too much of it or something. The taste and texture get to you after a while. I can’t eat it now.

  2. I shall make a mental note of that! I think what it will be handy for (providing I dont do it to death) is having something I can rustle together really quickly if I am late home from work.

  3. Hi Ralph, great blog as usual. I think you answered one fundamental question of when to use Quorn – use Quorn instead of “… the cheap rubbish stuff that is “two for five pound” from an awful battery farm, injected with loads of water and tasting of nothing” I have never understood why you would pay top dollar for quality chicken and then disguise the taste with sauces and spices. I prefer my meat plain and simple.

    • Cheers Jo,

      I guess the exception would be if it was a delicate sauce, or something in which texture was important. A lot of well done Thai dishes are quite minimalist on sauce and have lots of different vegetables with the meat and the texture is really important.

      I think then I would use proper chicken, and good stuff too…

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