How to Spice Up Meatless Mondays With Smoked Spices

Meatless options are sweeping fast food chains—from Burger King’s plant-based Whopper burgers to KFC’s plant-based fried chicken—and big restaurants alike. Some were only available for a short time, but it shows where the future of food is heading.

Two separate Gallup polls in 2019 discovered that one in four Americans have cut back on eating meat, and four out of ten have become familiar with plant-based alternatives. There are various reasons for the change, one being increased awareness of climate change—demand for meat has contributed to deforestation, antibiotic resistance, and greenhouse gas emissions over the decades. 

While it may take some getting used to, meat-free alternatives can be as satisfying as meat—provided the right ingredients. Psychologists at the University of California Los Angeles surveyed 579 meat-eaters in 2019 and found that taste is one of the reasons keeping them from considering meat-free alternatives. Fortunately, there are countless ways to make meat-free dishes delicious. 

One such way is to pick the right spices and mix them in a spice blend. People use these spices for their dry rubs on steaks, so they should also work on meat-free ones. You can pick up the following spices at your local supermarket or online sellers such as Oregano Spices.

Sea Salt

Salt forms the base for various dry rubs, and sea salt is no exception. Sea salt is different from your typical table salt as it comes from evaporated seawater instead of salt mines. Evaporation leaves some trace minerals along with the salt, which can give your meat-free meat a richer flavor. Apart from having slightly larger crystals than common salt, you can use sea salt just the same.

You can also find smoked sea salt—smoking infuses sea salt with the flavor of the wood. The advantage of smoking sea salt is that it makes sure more of the flavor permeates through the meat with the salt. Smoked sea salt can form the base for other smoked spices.

Nutritional Yeast

For a nutty, cheesy taste that vegans will love, consider getting nutritional yeast. It’s regular yeast, but its yeast cells have been rendered inactive during processing, thus its powdery or flaky appearance. It’s a typical replacement for cheese in various recipes, giving dishes a hint of sharp cheddar.

As its name implies, nutritional yeast is chock full of nutrients like fiber and niacin—but take care not to use too much in … Read the rest

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