Many of the non vegetarians who cannot imagine turning themselves away from meat for too long a time sometimes do so by virtue of the dearth of options they have as an alternative to meat. There are so many ways that you can have meat that it is almost useless to look for other options when you have so many varieties with meat itself. There are so many ways you can have meat that if I were to list all of them here that itself would take up the entire space. But no, that is not why I have chosen to write this article. In fact, I must make it clear from the very beginning that this is not an article for people who are happy non vegetarians and love the flesh of dead animals. This is for the people who want to quit no veg food and yet are not being able to do because they do not have as many choices with vegetables.
It should be a primary need here to state the case of people who may be non vegetarians and are desperately looking for a way to quit. Now you may wonder why someone would want to do that. Well the answer lies in the very core of your conscience where these animals are brutally killed every day to meet our demands of meat. The death takes place without the use of anaesthesia, violating the established protocols on animal rights and some of them even go through the horrid pain of being skinned alive. Though these may be just the lines you read through every day, I insist that you go through the intricate details of the process involved by actually imagining yourself to be in their place. A merciless killing is not the last thing about their lives. The cattle is raised in inhumane conditions where they are not allowed enough space to even stand on their feet, while they are crowded with other animals and end up hurting each other even trying to change sides. No wonder, some of them develop dangerous diseases and have open wounds which no one finds the need of getting treated as they are going to die anyway. I remember this discussion happening between two of the many protagonists of the film Ship of Theseus, where a young chap asked a man who was protesting against animal cruelty, that if the cattle are destined to die eventually then why make such a hue and cry about their life and how they live because in the end you are just going to butcher them and eat. To this the man answered that the very fact that they are destined to be killed for food does not mean that they should have a painful and torturous life when there is an option of making it easy on them.
So that was to answer the point of why not meat and why some people would be willing to quit while most of us are happy to be a non vegetarians. Next, the alternatives as you know are tons of vegetables but I am certain that you are not looking for that. You want to have an option that can come closest to being a replacement for meat. This is where I think I find it most suitable to bring in the case of Manchurian, packed with a number of vegetables, pick what you like and mix it up because everything is good enough for a ball of Manchurian to carry and then when you fry them, heavenly! It becomes your meat. You can cook it any way you would want your meat to be prepared and trust me if not like meat, it will taste multiple times better with all those flavours inside. Though there is a traditional Chinese way of having Manchurian, you can just prepare it like the famous dish in India, chilli chicken. The Machurian will fit right in and with the chicken out of the dish, imagine how many lives you will be saving. So here is a solid chance of having a yummy dish and also earning some good karma. It hardly ever gets better than this. And if you are not so fond of the famous chilli chicken flavor, then you can also have fried Manchurian or prepare them some other way. Nothing will be too bad for the Manchurian.
Again, by virtue of Indian cuisine you will only be too happy to be blessed with paneer. Now the recipes we have in this area will give your meat dishes a run for their lives as it is exhausting, believe me. Some of the most famous ones are butter paneer, palak paneer, paneer masala, paneer tikka and lots more. If you are looking for an alternative to meat then look no more because you have found the perfect ingredient in paneer which will replace your meat anywhere you want it to. Last but not the least is, mushrooms! Yes, we love them. This super live saver too can find its way into all your meat dishes as a replacement to meat and they taste amazing. With all these items frequenting your kitchen, it will be more than easy now to say goodbye to meat. Bye Bye Meat!
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