TVP: Are You Eating It?

I am a vegetarian and i have to say i hate tvp as i find it has a very strange texture and taste. I find that most of meals don’t need a meat substitute but if you do like to have something similar then i find quorn far far better, it comes in different forms like mince meat of chicken peices. It is far more like meat and and much better tasting. It may be a little more expensive than tvp but you don’t have to add too much per meal and if is very satisfing.

EW!!! This stuff is GROSS! It doesn’t taste like meat at all. It has a bitter after taste sort of bites you back!!!
Where I live steak is still a pretty good sell! I bought several packages for $1.88 a pound! I suppose some day I will be forced to eat TVP but until then I will still eat my meat and veggies!

TVP is not good. TVP is yuck. TVP has the consistency of soggy cardboard no matter how I’ve even tried to prepare it. I’m all for going meatless (though the boy is adamantly opposed), but beans and brown rices with some veggies and spices provide good nutrition and they have the structure and flavor of actual food.

I have to agree with the commenters above, I found it unpalatable. In theory, it seemed too good to just give up on, so I tried every conceivable way to prepare it. No success, even my dog wouldn’t eat it.

It’s yucky and it triggers migraines in me!

TVP rocks. When properly seasoned, it works great in certain dishes. I’m not a vegetarian, but eat very limited meat. I’ve added it successfully to my vegetarian chili & spaghetti sauce. You can find it in big chunk form also (more like a texture of ground meat). I use both. I have also added it to my turkey meatloaf. It’s still a great value and helps stretch my grocery budget since, when hydrated, is still cheaper than ground meat. Keep trying various recipes until you find ones that work for you and your family.

I am a vegan i have eaten TVP it does need to have good flavouring or seasonings. were i live i can buy frozen TVP mince it is not as cheap as the unflavoured dried varieties but it tastes better. I am concered however about it being used too much in the vegetarian/vegan diet and while it may be cheap at the moment i do not se that continuing to be so as only this morning i heard about floods destroying the soya bean crop in America.

Read the ingredients in TVP. There is not ANYTHING healthy or good for your body in TVP. Don’t forget to read and understand the labels on everything you eat. It is a matter of life and death -yours and your family’s.

I’m sorry to say that soy is not all it’s cracked up to be. Soy is not a good food for humans, with the exceptions of well-fermemented products like tamari, miso, and tofu, but even these in small amounts. Soy’s estrogenic properties make it a female carcinogen and I would not recommend the use of soy to anyone! Here’s a link for more info:
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/ploy.html

Read it and decide for yourself!

Not only does the stuff taste bad, it is BAD for you. Go to the Weston Price Association website and read their piece called ‘Soy Alert’. You are in for some BIG surprises.

Oh, please, soy is not bad for you. Meat is bad for you. But I don’t like TVP either. If you want to read an unbiased article about soy, try this: http://www.womentowomen.com/nutritionandweightloss/soycontroversy.aspx

I use bulgar wheat in my beef dishes, quinoa in chicken. If you bloom it in broth it takes on the flavor and stretches the dish and a little goes a long way. My family don’t realize it’s even in there. I also blend up veggies in as many sauces as I can to add nutrients since my children are picky.

Let’s not forget that plenty if not most soy grown in the U.S. is genetically modified, and how appetizing is that?

I think tvp tastes ok when seasoned well in ground beef recipes, but since I learned that unfermented soy products are harmful to the thyroid I have stopped using it.

Yep, soggy cardboard is a very accurate description. I took two bites, the second only because I had to be sure it was really that bad. Yep, it’s bad! In the trash it went.

I have used TVP for a while and I find that if I make a tea of herbs, like savory, bay, garlic, thyme, etc… or soak it in yogurt and tandoori seasonings after doing a tandoori seasonings tea soak, that it improves immensely. I usually do not bother and just eat beans and whole foods or foods that I have processed myself like tempeh and soymilk. Making soymilk at home is very very cheap. Ditto for tempeh.

I really love TVP — but we don’t ever eat it plain. I think that would be kind of like eating *flour* out of the bag.

TVP plain? Ugh!

I use it frequently in ground beef recipes — spaghetti, chili, etc. I even made TVP sloppy joes one time and the kids didn’t know the difference!

The secret? Soy sauce! TVP is too light-colored. Soak it in a little soy sauce for a few minutes before cooking with it. That also embeds some flavor (namely salt) in the TVP.

If you’re not completely vegetarian, you can also use beef boullion to give it more flavor.

Well as JACK LALANE SAYS “If it is man made ,i wont have it “,because it is not found in nature ,and probably your body does not recognize it as food!

I use TVP and I think it’s brilliant. Properly prepared with good spices and flavourings it is indistinguishable from meat – better for you – much cheaper than meat – and a whole lot kinder to animals and to the planet. Keep experimenting – Mexican, Indian and Italian flavours are good to start with. Lots of garlic and herbs, tomato paste and onion – and even a dash of wine – make it superb! Love it!

Like anything else, TVP included, educate yourself about the product with information from medical journals or other legitimate sources–not by reading hundreds of peoples personal opinions–and then make your choices. As with most everything, TVP is good for some, not for others–so many factors determine such results. Done!

TVP has no taste in its re-hydrated form, one must use skilful techniques of shadow-boxing to flavour TVP. steps to success:
1. re-hydrate, then wrinse THOROUGHLY
2. take by the handful and squeeze excess ‘juice’
3. sear (on high-heat) in olive oil with spices, garlic etc- until browned on the outside; crispy on the edges
4. re-hydrate with a well-flavoured concotion + veggies
5. allow dressing to be absorbed yet keeping the firm consitency by cooking on a high heat. stir your pot regularly.
6. serve
7. digest

We use on third to one half tvp instead of ground beef in spicy and seared beef dishes. Perhaps a total vegetarian would find the texture objectionable but for us it works and is lower in cost as well as lower fat.Lots of information out there regarding food safety….hit snopes for some fact-checking.