Tofu usually. Soya de carne when I’m making mexican dishes.

I got my tofu game on lock, genuinely better than meat for certain dishes. Freeze it, cut it, dehydrate it, marinade it, dry it, then fry it. Freezing it gives it texture and makes it easier to soak up marinade and dehydrating it allows the marinade to soak in fuller.

It really depends on the dish. I think for a burrito bowl, probably tofu. You don’t really need to press it that much if you’re just going to crumble and pan fry. If you can find a superfirm especially, just crumble and fry. You can just cook out the moisture.

I finally tried that pumpkin seed tofu the other day (chorizo spiced). It’s way too expensive, but damn it makes such a good crumble. It’s fattier than soy tofu, so it really lends itself to something like chorizo. I hope it catches on because I’d like to see the price drop.

Tempeh is the only one of the three that doesn’t seem to have a Hexbear emote yet.

Here’s how to make god-tier TVP Obviously you don’t need to follow it all the way through to make the meatballs though.

TVP requires lots of flavouring. Did you soak it in a very concentrated broth? If not, then it’s a bit like eating unseasoned tofu. You can reduce the sawdusty taste of TVP by putting it into a sieve and shaking it lightly to get rid of the defatted soy flour, that way the flavour won’t be all through your dish.

You can press tofu by hand in a minute if you’re careful. It’s the only way I do it these days. Freezing it is supposed to be a good alternative but I haven’t tried it (I know Kenji has talked about it).

That said I think seitan is a good option, but IMO it’s not worth the price of buying it. You can make it from powdered wheat gluten, or AP flour with a little more effort.

I use tofu as a meat substitute all the time. Extra firm unpressed crumbled in a large skillet with some peanut oil then once very lightly browned I add a taco seasoning packet. Couldn’t be easier. Can be eaten hot or cold in burritos, tacos, salads or nachos.

TVP seems to be better if it is heavily flavored imo and very moist like a bolognese.

I was into seitan for a few months but it’s a lot of work and takes a lot of tinkering to get it right. Local stores ran out of my preferred brand of vital wheat gluten so I had to get it online and the quality was different so I once again had to experiment and gave up after a couple meh results.

I prefer tofu, I haven’t found it essential to press it but maybe some varieties you need to. I cut open the edge of the pack and squeeze it a little before taking out the tofu to get some water out though. Super simple and no saw dust vibes. If you do press it it’s not very troublesome, it just takes a little extra time but not more than half an hour.

I worked in a ramen restaurant and didn’t press or even cook the tofu, I thought it was odd at first but it became my favorite way to do it because it’s so easy and has a nice texture but it depends on the type. I can’t find the brand we used that I really enjoyed but some have a much less pleasant flavor IMO and probably need more draining.

Sometimes i just get a big block of tempeh from the asian supermarket and put it in every meal until it’s used up, but then i’m done with tempeh again for a while.

I prefer tofu, and you def don’t need to press it typically, although some recipes call for it. I have skipped that step before out of impatience and it can be fine

Seitan is my fave but it’s completely unavailable at stores. Tempeh I don’t really like the nuttiness but I should probably try it in an Indonesian recipe. Tofu is versatile and easily acquired. So, tofu I guess.

I have the perfect recipe for exactly that sort of thing: get extra firm tofu, slice short ways across the brick into slices maybe 1cm thick (I actually just halve it, then halve the half, then halve that as well, because that gives a clear visual indicator and gets them all roughly even), lightly press those slices by hand, then stack them and cut them into thin strips. Fry these on medium high in a pan with some oil, topped with mix of salt, sugar (a small amount, maybe half a teaspoon), ginger, and garlic, with or without additional chopped aromatics like onions, fresh garlic, ginger root, etc, stirring regularly once you can see them starting to brown on the sides because it’s a pain to flip these strips compared to larger cubes so just continuously poking at and flipping them is needed to get them done evenly. Once they’ve got a golden brown finish to both sides they’re ready to mix into whatever.

If you can’t get them all touching the metal in the pan, do it in two batches, because they won’t get a good finish on the outside without direct contact with the pan/hot oil.

Honestly? Tofu is nice as a staple, and it really doesn’t need to be pressed IMO. But for burrito bowls, I almost always just use beans and rice, and maybe mushrooms.

Tempeh is nice from time to time, and seitan is better if you miss meat dearly, but honestly tofu is nice and cheap (though it’s best in curries and mapo tofu or soon dubu style recipes, yum)

Tofu scamble goes really well with breetos. MIght do ok as a bowl.

Pressing tofu doesn’t do much I like all three but seitan seems to be the most diverse if you can consistently make it. Tempeh seems like the hardest to get nonvegan people to like I usually have to make some citrus or vinaigrette to cover it’s bitterness.

TVP is great to add protein to something already flavorful. My favorite use of it is in a chili. I wouldn’t use it as the main star of a dish. Tofu needs good prep/seasoning. Seitan is tastier than tempeh IMO but both are great.