Protein intake from meat is crucial for our bodies, but it gets overwhelming when on a vegan diet. Vegans avoid dairy, fish, meat, and eggs, all of which are rich protein sources. While there’s plenty of plant-based alternatives for you to look at, you need to settle on soy-free ingredients. Soy is known to cause numerous health issues, mainly due to its phytoestrogens and antinutrient composition. Besides, soy-based meats are highly processed and contain large amounts of additives, making them unreliable.
Below are the best soy-free meat alternatives from which you can choose.
Veggie Bacon Bits and Dips
The food product from Cool Foods combines sunflower oil, vitamin E, natural flavors, yeast extracts, and pinto to create a soy-free, gluten-free diet. They derive the name from their bacon-like pieces, which come with the exact meat flavor. The lack of added sugar provides an advantage for vegans.
Veggie Burger
Veggie burgers from Amy’s kitchen come in two different forms. The Organic Summer Harvest relies on onions, brown rice flour, quinoa, carrots, and kales. The other option is the Sonoma Veggie burger that uses walnuts, potatoes, quinoa, garbanzo, and oats. Although these alternatives are a bit lower in protein, you only need 4 grams of the food for sufficient nutrients present in meat.
Burger Patties
They come frozen in boxes and are certified and verified by USDA organic non-GMO Project. The common types of sunshine burgers use sunflower seeds and brown rice as the source of protein. They include the Garden Herb that comes with a mellow flavor and offers 10 grams of protein and 17 grams of carbs per patty. The southwest burger includes jalapeno, cilantro, and black beans. There’s also the Shiitake mushroom-heavy burger that incorporates quinoa for carbs and protein.
Neat Meat Replacement Mix
The Atlantic Natural Food product is a perfect alternative for ground beef. It comprises garbanzo beans and pecans as the primary protein sources and comes in Italian mix, Mexican mix, Southwest mix, and the Original mix flavors. The difference in flavors results from the use of different ingredients and spices.
Field Roast Plant-Based Sausages
The sausages come in different flavors, including Apple & Maple and Italian Garlic. The plant-based product comprises crucial ingredients that provide a meat-like texture and flavor. The natural ingredients include shiitake mushrooms, celery, yellow pea flour, and sea salt. Field Roast meat alternatives are entirely plant-based and are soy-free.
Seitan
Wheat gluten is hydrated and used to make seitan which works perfectly as a meat substitute thanks to its high protein levels. Most Seitan products are soy-free, but you always need to check the label since companies add ingredients. Seitan’s reliance on gluten makes the alternative impractical if you have gluten sensitivity.
While most of these meat alternatives report lower protein levels, you still get enough for most situations. The substitutes provide the meat’s appealing flavor and nutrient content while preventing health conditions causes by soy intake. Conduct an in-depth analysis on your preferred product to choose the best that works for you.
