Andersen - Plant-Based Seafood Cookbook: The Complete Cookbook with Easy and Tasty Recipes for Vegan and Seafood Lovers. Learn How to Eat

Did you know that fish and sea animals feel pain?

Humans, for generations, have fed on sea creatures, creating a storm in ensuring their existence fades away. The flesh of sea creatures can contain high levels of chemical residues and are toxic to humans, hence becoming hazardous to the environment.

Treat these sea creatures and fish like humans: these are complex beings who communicate using squeaks and squeals and other types of body language, have social relationships, and have longer attention spans than humans. Imagine for a second that they did not exist, how would aquatic life be?

To contain the extinction, companies such as Beyond Meat, Upton's Naturals, and Tofurky have introduced plant-based alternatives to seafood animals, quickly expanding their portfolio. You dont have to eat fish when you can enjoy one of the many vegan seafood products that are available online or in grocery stores across the continents in the modern world.

It started in 2011 by introducing a range of fish fillets, shrimps, and canned tuna. Sophies kitchen bases its products on natural ingredients.

These ingredients include:

Konjac powder

Pea starch

Potato starch

Sea salt

Organic agave nectar

Seaweed powder

Alginate

As for the products, Sophies Kitchen produces crab cakes, scallops, smoked salmon tuna, and coconut shrimp.

Created by Master Chef James Corwell, Ocean Hugger Foods specializes in perfecting the alternative to raw tuna, called Ahimi.

It is healthy and safe to eat an imitation of tuna made from tomatoes. This first product aimed at dishes like sashimi, nigiri, poke, tartare, and ceviche.

In the US, Ahimi is already popular and is sold as a food service ingredient for the B2B food retail market rather than a packaged food product for the end consumer.

Currently, Ocean Hugger Foods are developing additional plant-based seafood alternatives such as Sakimi, which is a carrot-based salmon alternative, and Umami, an alternative based on eggplant.

This company was founded in 2016 and aims to offer seafood without sacrifice. Good Catch products contain algal oil, lentils, navy, chickpeas, and fava beans, which resemble the texture of tuna and are a great source of plant-based protein. Their product includes fish-free tuna in different flavors, fish-free burgers, and crab-free cakes.

This company develops algae and plant-based shrimp alternatives after being accepted at Indie Bio, the world's largest biotech accelerator.

It also sells its products in the US as a B2B product and is in the process of expanding.

According to Pilis et al., there is plenty of support for the association that vegetarian diets are a form of a healthy lifestyle in western society: a properly applied vegetarian diet can reduce body mass, improve ones plasma lipid profile, decrease the incidence of high arterial blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome, arteriosclerosis, with the chance for improved insulin sensitivity and lower rates of diabetes and cancer.

Despite some nutrient deficiencies that are possible from a vegetarian diet, it can be resolved that the beneficial effects of a vegan diet significantly outweigh the adverse ones. Considering the surging rates of obesity in the US, vegetarianism is becoming a remedy to many unhealthy tropes related to meat-based fast-food diets.

The benefits of a plant-based seafood substitute diet are unfortunately not widely known. Plant-based seafood offers additional dietary choices where there was none. For people with seafood allergies, these products can be a welcome addition to their diets and offer nutritional benefits as well.

Forbes indicated that plant-based seafood producers boast zero mercury, no fishy smell, no concern of micro-plastics, and a relaxing way to address global overfishing concerns.

Sustainably-sourced seafood can be hard to find and expensive. Plant-based seafood offers an alternative route for seafood lovers who want to do a little less research before digging into a tuna melt or some smoked salmon.

The Food and Agriculture Organization recorded a 122% increase in the amount of fish consumed between 1990 and 2018. In 2017, 17% of animal protein eaten worldwide was seafood, indicating that there is a sizeable place for fish-free alternatives so that fish lovers can still consume the tastes they love, even as seafood continues to increase in demand along with the growing global population of Earth.

You might want to store more vegetarian-friendly protein sources if you intend to cut out meat. These are the common vegetarian foods that you will need for plant-based seafood:

Tofu

Seitan

Tempeh

Beans

Eggplant

Chickpea

Cauliflower

Carrots

Tahini

Lime

Coconut milk

Garlic

Coriander

Turmeric

Tomatoes

Legumes

Vegetarian protein powder

Nuts

Lemon

Dairy and egg alternatives :

Plant-based egg replacers: often come in liquid and powder form

Plant-based cheese

Nutritional yeast

Flaxseed; used in place of eggs for most vegan baking recipes

Non-dairy milk

Coconut oil or vegetable shortening

Fresh produce :

Fruits

Lettuce, kale, and other greens

Colorful seasonal vegetables

Fresh herbs

Pantry :

Bread

Canned fruits and vegetables

Quinoa, brown rice, pasta for grains

Jackfruit

Nut butter

Condiments, extract from ketchup and mustard to spicy salsa

Vegetable broth

Chia seeds and sunflower kernels

Crackers, chips, and pretzels

Oatmeal

Oil

Hummus

Dried fruit

Spices and seasonings