What’s the best veggie substitute for beef mince?

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I am pretty clueless tbh. Husband and I are meat eaters but my children have been making noises about vegetarianism for a while now. I am keen to support them.

I make chilli using a recipe that they love (just the bbc good food one). They have asked for it this weekend but my eldest (8) is in a quandary about the beef (I’m honestly unsure where this is coming from - must be school).

what’s the best replacement?? I googled and there are so many options…

t really is
so delicious
i roast the aubergine in the oven, to burn it

Black bean and quinoa chilli is winner.

Tesco do a good range of own brand frozen meat substitutes. A lot cheaper than Quorn! I use their mega free pieces and mince quite often.

I use green lentils or quorn mince.

And yes canned lentils give the best texture.

I really like Quorn mince and I’m a meat eater. Quorn cottage pie is yummy, I make onion gravy in advance.

I grill it (might try roasting!) and add a chipotle chilli for smokiness.

Puy lentils and finely diced mushrooms are my go to mince alternative.

pre boiling the lentils is a must.

If you want an imitation meat alternative,
avoid quorn like the plague. It’s revolting.
Meatless farms and Richmond mince are both very good.

For me, replacing meat directly with beans, lentils, meat substitute of choice doesn’t work as beef provides a savoury and flavourful base note that the vegetarian version doesn’t. I’ve made a lot of bland veggie chillis from recipes that don’t take this into account. In a lot of vegetarian cooking where you are replacing beef, I tend to look for recipes focussing on umami flavours (Parmesan (veggie)/nutritional yeast, marmite, soy sauce, mushrooms, Henderson’s relish or even a pinch of MSG etc) to built up that savoury flavour that is lost when beef is removed.

This recipe from the Guardian’s How to cook the perfect… series is head and shoulders above every other chilli I’ve tried. There is so much flavour in it, it’s rich and delicious and it’s impressed meat eaters as well as vegetarians. She suggests a mixture of black beans and kidney beans, but you could use any kind of bean you wanted in there. The chilli paste is hot though; I usually use half and freeze the rest for next time.

I don’t bother with meat subs - they generally have odd texture and some can give you tummy upsets.

in chilli I use bulgar wheat as the ‘bull’ and use loads of veggies. In lasagne it’s just loads of veggies (no lentils or grain) and a tonne of cheese sauce.

Richmond mince is really good. It's soya and wheat based though which may not suit everyone. I sometimes half and half it with lentils (washed, but not pre-cooked) and use it for bolognese sauce and "shepherd's" pie too. With different ingredients obviously!

Everything gets at least an hour simmer to get the texture of the whole dish right, just as you would with meat. Mushroom ketchup (vegetarian alternative to Worcester sauce) is my secret ingredient.

This is fantastic, thank you so much for the ideas. I shall peruse.

I do all the beans for veggie chilli. My last one had 8 types of bean! I can't bear quorn, I'm probably doing it wrong but it goes all mushy.

Turkey mince sounds like a good option if she doesn't want beef and doesn't like beans.

I second puy lentils. Irish duo, The Happy Pear have some great veggie and vegan recipes. I use their moussaka base as a straight swop for ground mince in numerous dishes. If you follow them on social media, they regularly post recipes. I got the moussaka one from one of their books.

You can get vegan red OXO cubes that I am sure they taste like the meat ones. I use marmite and soy sauce too. That's if you end up cooking for a veggie.

There's a burnt aubergine chilli on the BBC good foods website. It's the best chilli ever! You genuinely can't tell that there is no meat in it! Ignore the dark chocolate ingredient- not necessary imo.

Our whole family is veggie and we never use the meat substitutes in anything. They really don't taste nice, the texture is often unpleasant and quite frankly I don't want something that's trying to be meat! There are so many wonderful vegetables, pulses, grains and beans out there to use instead. It just seems weird to me to not eat meat on principle but then seek out something that's trying to masquerade (badly) as meat, though I appreciate for some people they really like the substitutes

I’ve tried a lot of mince substitutes and the one that is by far the best imo is by Vivera.
It’s just vastly superior to any of the others:

Vivera

Linda McCartney mince is my favourite. My tween, who usually doesn't like fake meat, likes it too.

Tesco own is also very good and a lot cheaper!