It’s World Meat Free day on Monday, and while I will never promote or prescribe people eliminating anything from their diet (that’s your own choice), it is something that even just thinking about can bring about small changes.

Last month I went to a dinner with Quorn and we made a variety of dishes with Quorn products for a meat free meal.  Being a Quorn Fitness Ambassador this year I’ve been trying a few different Quorn products in my meals here and there and have found them to be OK mostly, nothing too special but also good enough to be a decent meal when needed.

Me thinking… “Can I drink this entire bowl of chocolate?

The starter was a pulled pork sandwich made with Quorn and to be honest it was horrible. The quorn pieces tasted nothing like slow cooked pulled pork in taste or texture. The sauce wasn’t as smoky as it should be and it was served on a bog standard packaged white bun that added nothing to the entire meal. At our end we were saying it just felt like eating a stale piece of white bread with a bit of diluted ketchup.

Don’t waste your time and eat the real thing.

The main was a chicken curry which was a bit better. Not up to my homemade curry standards, but considering we whipped it up in 30 minutes not so bad. This one wasn’t the Quorns fault though as the chicken pieces in the curry were OK and had a somewhat tofu like texture (although didn’t soak up as much flavour as tofu would).

For pudding we had a great chocolate pudding with ice cream and we learned that with the same ingredients you can make a chocolate souffle, a brownie, a sponge and a fondant. Just by changing the ratios.

Being a Quorn evening we were told all about Quorn by the product experts.  In my opinion Quorn is clearly made and marketed as a meat substitute, and those who are looking for something quick and easy to throw into a already planned meat recipe can use it as such.  If it is your first Meat Free Day and you want to try substituting out Meat without any effort then by all means go and try your regular recipes with Quorn. But that said, I think that there are so many great vegetables and non-meat foods out there that you are limiting yourself if you only use Quorn products. This all goes back to the idea of everything in moderation!

I am a Quorn Fitness Ambassador for 2015 and have been asked to share about World Meat Free Day in collaboration with Quorn.