When Did You Last Try Quorn?
Let me talk to you about Quorn! My husband has been working with them for a little while now so we’ve chatted about it with family and friends and we keep getting the same old comments from people.
It generally goes along the lines of “oh no, I tried it once and I just couldn’t get away with the texture” Dig a little deeper and you discover that they tried it once 20 years ago and only ever the mince. Until recently I probably would have joined those people in that opinion. I can remember cooking a spaghetti bolognese and as I fried the mince the kitchen was filled with what can only be described as a burnt biscuit sort of smell. Not a great first experience!
Fast-forward 20 years and my opinion on Quorn has massively changed. The range is so varied from the mince alternative everyone associates it with. Found both in the chiller and the frozen aisle you can literally fill your boots with delicious options. First stop for us was to revisit the mince. We made a lasagne where we also replaced the pasta with butternut squash sheets to make it even more Weight Watcher friendly. My first observation was that the smell of burnt biscuit wasn’t there in the slightest! We used fry light spray instead of olive oil and other than adding a little water from the kettle (which I do with virtually everything I fry), the Quorn cooked beautifully in the pan without the need for any additional oil. Result!
The myth about the weird texture of Quorn is exactly that, a myth. I hate chewy meat which is why I have to slow cook everything and I have to admit the oven baked Quorn lasagne definitely came on par with a slow cooked pack of beef mince for both texture and flavour.
As we nurture our children and prepare them for their future, it’s quite shocking to learn that meat production causes more Greenhouse Gases than all of the vehicles on earth put together. Humans are damaging the planet and if we all do a little something about it, we can make a change!
We, as a family, are trying to substitute one meal a week with a Quorn alternative so next on the menu was sausages.
This was a much bigger hit with the kids. They both devoured their roast dinner which of course I use the term lightly with Adam as I’m not sure sausage, Yorkshire puddings and tomato ketchup really constitutes a roast dinner! We didn’t tell them they were eating Quorn sausages as we know from experience they can make their mind up on something before they’ve even had a mouthful. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them tuck in!
We decided to have our sausages for breakfast and served them with an egg in an English muffin. I have to confirm, they were delicious! For me the added bonus is that Quorn products are generally really low in Weight Watchers points and in some instances even zero points. Total winner for me.
As well as substituting the meat from one of our meals each week, we’re also trying really hard to eat together as a family more often. Paul and I eat quite late so an 8pm meal isn’t an uncommon thing for us. For our family though, this works. The kids have a bedtime routine, which means they’re usually both in bed by 7pm so they tend to have their tea at 4:30pm. As they get older and their bedtime gets later, I’m sure we’ll eat our evening meals together but until then we enjoy cooking together once the kids have gone to bed and actually eating in peace. It’s OK for us parents to be selfish sometimes too! We have been eating breakfast together more regularly though and weekend lunches around the kitchen table have become a much more sociable event for us.
Quorn pieces and burgers are on the menu next and I’m really looking forward to trying them.
When was the last time you tried a Quorn product?
*Disclaimer: This was a collaborative post with Quorn. All words and opinions are my own.
