r/HonestHotTakes • u/Beautiful-Guava-7692 • 19h ago
casual hot take Vegan food doesn’t taste as good as regular food
I tried vegan meat and other vegan stuff once and it’s honestly not that good . Sure some people might say animals are being treated badly . But I think it would be better if we just improved their living conditions instead of completely getting rid of our natural nutrition. What do you think ?
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u/cold-vein 19h ago edited 18h ago
Ok so first of all, vegan food is regular food. Do you like beans on toast? Maybe not if you're not English, but that's vegan. A lot of indian food is vegan. Falafel & sides is usually a vegan meal. Point is, if you're trying to recreate a dish that has a lot of meat or butter or cream, you won't probably get a vegan version tasting exactly the same. So don't do it? Concentrate on dishes that work as vegan.
You're misusing the word natural. Everything we eat is natural. Humans have had different diets throughout history. Our current diet has little in common with the diet of pre-industrialization humans, much less if we go back further. We eat WAY too much meat and other animal products, basically before WW2 those were luxury items that people didn't eat daily anywhere in the world.
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u/MidorriMeltdown 18h ago
Hi, Aussie here, not vegan, I love beans on toast. We take it to the next level, with beans in a jaffle. It's like a vegan pie, and you don't even have to be vegan to enjoy it.
Mashed potato made with macadamia milk, who needs dairy?
Indian food can be a really good example of food that is inherently vegetarian/vegan.
Go back to Tudor England, and most people were eating a lot of vegetarian and vegan meals. Pottage is a one pot meal that typically would contain grains and/or legumes, plus whatever was growing in the garden, or roots stored for the winter. During lent most people were eating a vegan diet, most of the time, unless they had access to fish.
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u/memeleta 18h ago
You tried vegan food ONCE??? You haven't eaten a piece of fruit more than once in your life? Or bread? Potatoes? Really?
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u/I_Dont_Speak_Anymore 19h ago
When people say "vegan food is bad" they're just admitting they're a bad cook. I'm not even a vegan but vegan food can be as banging as any other food.
You're just a part of the majority who scoff at vegan food and veganism.
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u/cold-vein 18h ago
Vegan food is just food. It's just food. It's as good as the cook who made it.
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u/Actual-Bandicoot6947 18h ago
I meal prep my lunches each week and 90% of the time it's vegan by accident. I don't always have butter on hand so I use oil and my doctor recommended more beans, so I don't use meat unless we have leftovers from dinner. It's so easy to make it delicious
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u/heywoodjablomie69420 15h ago
I’m not vegan, but I have vegan friends that come to my bbqs. Compliments on my meat are great and all, but I feel like a true master when my vegan dishes get rave reviews. Bad vegan food is definitely a skill issue.
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u/Formal_Evidence_4094 18h ago
i feel it is obvious they mean vegan substitutes for normal food , that is why they said vegan "meat". Everyone on this planets knows a vegan patty tastes worse than a chicken patty , I don't even think that is a mild take.
Salads , soups and curries that do not contain animal products have been a thing since forever and have been tasty too
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u/I_Dont_Speak_Anymore 18h ago
Don't be fooled. This guy only posted to shit on the ethics of veganism. They don't give a shit about the food at all.
Also, he said "vegan meat and other vegan stuff", so... yeah.
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u/Brittnee_X 18h ago
a HonestHotTake post that is basically a dogwhistle?? Woah who could have seen that coming.
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u/awfulcrowded117 17h ago
If you hear "dogwhistles" everywhere, I've got bad news for you, you're the dog
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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 15h ago
Its obvious that op either have no idea what he/she is talking about or is trying to be misleading to score some imaginary point against the imaginary scarcrow.
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u/Whiskeymyers75 17h ago
Except I’ve actually had plenty of the vegan food that vegans rant and rave about, and quite honestly, a lot of it sucks.
And I’m not talking about normal everyday food that everyone eats, including omnivores. Salads, vegetable stir-fries, pasta dishes, roasted vegetables, etc. You can walk into practically any regular restaurant that doesn’t advertise itself as vegan and find dishes like that. I love vegetables and eat plenty of them.
I’m talking about the actual vegan substitutes and specialty foods. Impossible burgers, Beyond Meat, tofu dishes, tempeh, seitan, textured soy protein, cashew cheese, nutritional yeast pretending to be Parmesan, and all the other stuff that’s supposed to replace animal products. I’ve tried plenty of it, including stuff that vegans swear is amazing. Sorry, but a lot of it tastes like shit to me. The textures are often just as bad.
And let’s not pretend all this stuff is healthy just because it’s plant-based. Some of these imitation meats are heavily processed and loaded with sodium and saturated fat. You’re not automatically eating healthier because you replaced a beef burger with something manufactured to taste like one.
Not liking that stuff doesn’t mean someone can’t cook. It means they don’t like it. I can enjoy a good vegetable dish without pretending a bunch of processed soy and pea protein tastes just like meat.
Why is it so difficult for some vegans to understand that people can enjoy vegetables without enjoying vegan substitutes?
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u/Pristine-Bison3198 15h ago
I'm not vegan, but nutritional yeast is bomb, tofu is incredibly versatile and able to be made good in any dish. I don't like meat substitute, personally, but there are good vegan products.
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u/voldin91 17h ago
That's fine but I would still call those vegetable dishes vegan food
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u/sleazepleeze 11h ago
I would point out that some of those things (tofu, tempeh, seitan) are not “meat substitutes” but just non meat traditional foods. Nutritional yeast is great. I think you’re mostly mad about them being called “meat alternatives” as if it somehow insists on you not being able to tell the difference. They are just different foods and many are eaten every day by non vegan people (like me) around the world.
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u/Puzzled-Peppers 33m ago
I want to like nutritional yeast. I want to like it so so bad. But the smell is repungnant to me 😭
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u/Fantastic_Remote1385 15h ago
So you like vegan food. Just not everything vegan.
Vegan = food without animals. The salad and pasta and such is vegan. Simple as that.
Its like saying i dont like meat because I only eat the normal food omnovores eat, and dont eat ox balls and fish eyes.
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u/Whiskeymyers75 15h ago edited 15h ago
Nope. Vegan is an ideology. Not a cuisine.
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u/ArtAndHotsauce 13h ago
It’s both, obviously.
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u/Whiskeymyers75 13h ago
Nope. Thats a cope
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u/ArtAndHotsauce 3h ago
"A cope".
I pine for the days people had a vocabulary outside of random buzzwords they've heard on the internet.
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u/Puzzled-Peppers 35m ago
Yeah to me this just sounds like tofu and seitan aren’t up your alley, not that you can’t cook or whatever. I personally love em (crispy fried tofu my beloved) To each their own!
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u/Action_Limp 14h ago
I'm half agreeing with you. A good cook knows how to cook veg. However it's a more restrictive diet so a skilled chef can produce more diverse ingredients
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u/legohamsterlp 18h ago
there is a difference between store bought or self cooked. the store stuff is often shit
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u/I_Dont_Speak_Anymore 18h ago
Well, yeah. Mass produced food often is whether it's vegan or not. This is not news.
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u/somethinkstings 17h ago
Dunno, went to this new vegan restaurant that opened near my work because I like to try new things and I'm pretty open minded with food. I'm the main cook for my family and make vegetarian dishes for the family once a week (usually just pasta type dishes), so I'm not one of those "if it doesn't have meat, it's not food!" types
I had the vegan BBQ jackfruit sandwich. Supposed to be like pulled pork or something. It looked good.
It was so awful. Like absolutely awful. I couldn't even force myself to eat to it. The sauce was awful. The jackfruit was awful the bread was even awful.
I have no issues with "naturally vegan" foods, but when vegan cooking tries to replicate meat based foods, it never compares and it can be from the best chef ever.
There's something about animal fats that makes food delicious to us humans.
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u/PositiveShoulder406 18h ago
Yes. If I put a dog on a cage foe months, as long as its bigger than a tiny cage its fine. But actually its fine if they cant turn around/wag their tail
If I beat a dog 5 times a week instead of 7 its fine
If I burn alive and suffocated a dog to desth in a gas chamber its fine because someone says iy is, it coukd be worse
No, animal cruelty is not fine, and welfare is to make you, the abuser feel better, not yje victim
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u/Agile_Button_815 15h ago
This is the coldest take I have ever heard. 99% of people are not vegan, and it’s not because they think factory farms are beautiful places
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u/ovulationchamber 18h ago
Vegan substitutes =/= vegan food.
There are some REALLY GOOD vegan options for certain meats. Jackfruit for pulled pork and apparently meatballs, but I can't vouch for that. Seitan for chicken. But they require work and know-how.
Stuff you pull out of a package and throw into an oven like "Chicken nuggets" etc. aren't going to be as good 9 out of 10 times. But that's just lazy food the same way microwaving a hot dog is. It's not exactly a gret example of non-vegan food either. What I'm saying is that you're taking the worst things and making a sweeping generization about it.
If you took a life long vegan and fed them the microwaved hot dog and used that as your example for being non vegan, they're going to react the exact same way that you are after trying tofurkey.
Try actual Vegan food made by some one who knows how to cook.
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u/Frewdy1 18h ago
Jackfruit “pulled pork” tacos are STRAIGHT FIRE.
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u/ovulationchamber 18h ago
I did it like 3 times and only once did I not like it. But I think that jackfruit was too full of seeds or something, the texture was just ASS.
Jackfruit pulled pork is genuinely fantastic though.
I recommend learning how to do seitan properly too. If you put in the effort, you get a really good "meat-y" texture.
Also for tofu, if you want a "chicken" substitute for ramen or something do this:
Take your tofu out of the package. Lay on a baking sheet. Throw in the freezer over night. Take it out. Let it thaw and let the water come out. Flip it. Freeze it for like 8-12 hours again. Take it out. Let it thaw. The ice crystals and thawing gives it a GREAT chicken like texture.
Now use corn and potato starch to "bread it" and shallow fry it. As the outside crisps and it's almost done, do a few slices in it to let some of your oil get in there.
Legitimately 10/10. One of the few things that I might not catch as not being chicken if I didn't know already.
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u/Ultarthalas 14h ago
Also the substitutes win with lazy food sometimes. I'm no vegan or vegetarian, but I only buy the Impossible frozen chicken because it's waaaaaaay better than any of the real frozen chicken I've ever had. It doesn't beat hand breading your own breasts, but that's hardly a fair comparison.
And if I'm eating at a new restaurant, I'll almost always do tofu over meat because it's just more reliable. The difference in quality between a bad tofu experience and a bad chicken experience is pretty huge in favor of tofu.
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u/Pristine-Bison3198 15h ago
I think vegan food is fantastic, and I'm not vegan. Imitation meat isn't great, but all you have to do is not use animal products while you're cooking. There are so many recipes that never had animal products to begin with that are great!
As far as natural nutrition, beans, lentils, legumes, seeds and nuts, grains, etc. are all natural protein sources. We don't NEED meat. Personally, I enjoy it, but you can have a very natural diet without.
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u/Top_History9604 19h ago
I like a lot of vegan substitutes, but I mostly just eat dishes that are vegan anyway. I try to reduce my animal product consumption generally.
I'm not even morally against killing other species for resources, but let's be real: do you think you can get the industry to give their livestock good living conditions, while also filling the global demand?
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u/Leggerity 18h ago
You're comparing vegan food that replicates non-vegan food. It's a copy, and copies are almost always inferior.
There are just normal foods that vegans eat. Those are good. Eat those.
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u/stranqe1 18h ago
Have you tried a vegan banana or a vegan apple? Are they as good as a regular banana and regular apple? 🙄
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u/0degreevenus 17h ago
I had two vegan roommates and it changed my life. I was never against veganism or anything, I actually support the cause, but too lazy to ever commit to it. However, they would both cook me food or let me try theirs all the time and now I regularly make those meals, still fire. One of my fiance's (not vegan or vegeterian) favorite meals of mine is my honey sriracha tofu lol. You just haven't had well-made vegan food, and I'm not sure that you know what all that can entail.
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u/0degreevenus 17h ago
Also - vegan chicken nuggets or chicken patties are pretty awesome if you are like me and get turned off by the whole meal when you find a chewy piece in real chicken lol
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u/Inevitable_Silver_13 12h ago
I think vegan food tastes great when it isn't trying to imitate meat, but I agree most meat substitutes fall flat. Soyrizo is a notable exception.
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u/Happy_Cry286 11h ago
This. The issue with "vegan meat" is that it's just a shitty excuse for low commitment, trend chaser vegan wannabes to eat meat equivalents to completely undo the personal sacrifice of meat abstinence. Actual vegan food that's not trying to pretend to be meat can be delicious.
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u/Haroldsdininghotspot 18h ago
Plenty of vegan food tastes MUCH better. Explore different cultures and their cusine. I had this vegan ramen at Team Labs it was AMAZING. It was beyond delicious.
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u/LordXenusEvilMinion 18h ago
Tbh I'm not vegan but I've seen some delicious meals made from beans. Large white beans that you dip bread into. Millenials been pushing that fiber cause we seem to have the highest risk of colon cancer.
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u/Actual-Bandicoot6947 19h ago
I think people who eat vegan meat substitutes and expect it to taste like meat are going to be disappointed. Vegan foods can be delicious, you just have to find what you like, same as with "regular" food. It's often more about the recipe and preparation than anything else.
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u/newishDomnewersub 18h ago
It depends. Food that happens to be vegan because there are no animal ingredients taste way better than food that wouldnt be vegan but theyre made with all kinds of substitutions.
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u/Rinnme 18h ago
If by "vegan food" you mean meat and dairy replacements that are supposed to taste like the real thing, then you are right. I've never had a good vegan burger/hot dog/shwarma.
But food can be plant based and taste great, like indian cousine. It just doesn't need to pretend to be something it's not.
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u/ThrowRArainmakers 2h ago
jackfruit "meat" alternatives are amazing, i put off trying it because ive never grown a liking for meat subs. but damn i just kept with the jackfruit stuff
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u/GEEK-IP 18h ago
Vegetables can taste good. Meat can taste good. It's when they try to disguise vegetables as meat that things get nasty. A bowl of black bean soup tastes better than a black bean "burger."
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u/Agile_Button_815 15h ago
A black bean burger is just a patty made of black beans and some seasoning. If you expect it to taste like a beef burger, you’re gonna have a bad time. I expect it to taste like seasoned beans, and I love it.
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u/Geschak 17h ago
You are 100% being influenced by anti-vegan bias. Most likely if you ate something vegan without knowing it, you would rate it as more delicious than if you knew it was vegan.
A Swiss newspaper called Watson did a social experiment where they gave people cheese fondue to try but claimed it was vegan fondue. Pretty much all people said it was disgusting or tasted worse than the "real one" even though it was literally the real one. But the expectation that it's vegan and thus must taste bad made them think it tastes bad.
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u/rambolonewolf 16h ago
If you're taking about the substitute like the impossible stuff I agree. But a bean and rice burrito from Taco Bell hits hard.
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u/PettyTrashPanda 14h ago
If you mean soy meat substitutes, then fine, many taste like cardboard, but vegan dishes can be incredibly tasty, and I say that as a meat eater and dairy eater.
Veggie masala and rice, Veggie patties, Portobello mushroom sandwich (with adeya cheese, which actually melts really well), Oat milk latte, BBQ jackfruit salad, fruit smoothies, baked potatoes, pasta marinara... All tasty when cooked properly.
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u/ShopEducational6572 19h ago
Vegetables taste like vegetables. Legumes taste like legumes, fruits taste like fruits, nuts taste like nuts, bread tastes like bread. These are all vegan foods, and so are oreos and lots of kinds of chips.
If you mean processed vegan foods that are meant to imitate meat and cheese, this is not at all a hot take. The stuff tastes like crap. Plenty of vegans won't touch it. Some of the "milks" (almond, oat) are pretty good. I'm a lapsed vegan but I still prefer those over regular milk.
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u/HaggisPope 18h ago
Veggie haggis is vegan and delicious. Mushrooms are great with garlic. Beans are good. Mexican food can be vegan easily. Indian food too. A lot from the Middle East, and veg rice dishes.
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u/ChocolateCake16 18h ago edited 18h ago
Vegan food isn't as good when it's trying to imitate non-vegan food, but when it just exists as a standalone dish, it can be pretty good. Barring inclusions or an egg wash, most bread is vegan. And delicious. Salads are also vegan, assuming they don't contain eggs, cheese, bacon, or dairy-based dressing. They're also pretty good. I've made vegan chili before (just by virtue of not having ground beef and using vegetable stock because I was out of beef stock) and it's also pretty good.
On the other hand, I've had a ground beef substitute because my step-dad can't eat meat aside from fish, and it wasn't awful, but it also wasn't as good as beef. The same was true when I tried a chicken substitute. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as actual chicken.
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u/Accomplished-Yam-959 18h ago
i like meat better than i like salad. But meat with some good salad on the side tastes much better than meat alone.
Most people who are not vegan eat a ton on vegan foods. Vegan food is just regular food. But if you compare multiple full dishes with the same macros, non vegan dishes will win most of the time for most people. There's a reason why most people are not vegans.
And if you are talking about meat substitutes and stuff, yeah the real deal tastes better. Even most vegans will say that. They just want something good enough as long as they are not consuming animal products
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u/troopersjp 18h ago
I'm not Vegan, but have lots of Vegan Friends. Over in Los Angeles there was this Vegan restaurant I'd go to with them called Real Food Daily, and let me tell you, their seitan tacos were delicious. There are a lot of super delicious vegan meals.
I figure if you don't like vegan food, don't eat it.
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u/Silent-Victory-3861 18h ago
Orange is vegan food. Do you think oranges are bad? Potatoes are vegan food. Do you think potatoes are bad? Coca-cola is vegan food. Do you think coca-cola is bad?
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u/TrenForCosplay 18h ago
No clue where you live, but in NYC I went to a few vegan restaurants on vacation under the "city roots hospitality" umbrella, such as anixi and the food was phenomenal. Im a bodybuilding nerd who eats 1.5-2 lb of meat and 4 eggs a day, but I can recognize when food is just flat out good, no matter what my normal diet is.
Also natural nutrition? Fuck outta here with that clown ass mindset. There's no "natural" for humans. We have evolved our diets so much over the past few hundred years, that there is no normal/natural for us. Bread, cheese, butter, dairy, many fish, farm raised meats, all of the vegetables and fruits we eat are all modern creations. By definition kale isn't natural, bananas aren't natural, farm raised beef isn't natural, a glass of juice isn't natural. So you can accept that someone doesn't eat one class of food, when you probably don't eat at least one or two classes of food as well.
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u/olbers--paradox 15h ago
NYC vegans are spoiled. I spent three years vegan in a Texas suburb — the only vegan restaurant was an hour away. In NYC, there are so many vegan places I’d struggle to try them all.
If anyone happens to be looking for vegan places in the city: Bodhi Kosher Vegan Dimsum is cheap and tasty, Reverie is decidedly not cheap but tastes phenomenal, to the point where multiple non-vegan friends list it as one of their favorite places to eat.
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u/Spare_Assumption_334 17h ago
Tbh im a meat eater but I love tofu. Especially a pan fried tofu. I always keep some in the fridge bc it’s so cheap and easy. I also make a lot of meals without meat bc I have a tiny fridge and beans are easier to store than freezing meat. I don’t love freezing red meat anyways bc I think it messes with the texture some.
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u/Artistic-Can3562 17h ago
You’re right. I can’t live without Elwood’s dog meat. So delicious, but also free range and organic. Since they are raised with love and humanely slaughtered, there is no guilt, just ethical delicious protein! Some animals might be treated badly but not Elwood’s, they’ve improved living conditions and humane slaughter is a model the rest of the industry could learn from.
Nothing like a dinner of dog steaks and potatoes after a long day at work.
Vegan food? Yuck. Dog meat? Yummy and natural.
Vegans need to get over themselves and realize these dogs are bred specifically for food and humans need meat to survive and thrive.
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u/FeverFocus 15h ago
I enjoy eating meat. I eat it a lot. Steak, burgers, bacon, sausage, chicken wings, all of it. I've had vegetarian/vegan food that is absolutely amazing.
The problem is when people trying to substitute meat with imitation meat or advertise a dish as not being able to tell the difference. With a few rare occasions, your can always tell the difference, it's obvious when there's no meat in a dish that is supposed to have meat.
Vegan/vegetarian dishes that were created as a vegan/vegetarian dish and not as a substitute for or imitation of a meat dish are just as good as any meat dish.
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u/Apprehensive_Cap4463 15h ago
You've got a great point. Daiya cheese slicsz don't quite taste right. Sounds like a good reason to perpetuate the mass rape and and torture of millions of cows forever. I'm sure we'll never find a better way to eat!
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u/looksthatkale 14h ago
This is so funny to me; If you went to a restaurant and got a burger, and the burger was bad, would you exclaim that all burgers taste bad? You said you tasted one type of vegan meat once and you didn't like it🤦🏻♀️ grow up. There are thousands of others.
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u/RingarrTheBarbarian 13h ago
Go to an Indian Restaurant and try their vegan options. If there is one cuisine that can make me a vegan, it's Indian Food.
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u/Mischiefmanaged715 13h ago
I can promise you you probably eat something vegan every day. Ever had a pb&j, oatmeal, spaghetti & tomato sauce, storebought ramen, hummus, fruit, rice & beans, etc etc etc...?
People say "vegan food" to usually mean like mock meat. Which isn't even something most vegans eat all the time. Unless you are on some sort of carnivore diet, probably some of what you eat on a normal basis is vegan (or at the very least vegetarian). Which is why this is kinda a false dichotomy you set up (vegan food vs non-vegan food).
And lol, you tried vegan mock meat "once" and decided that nothing in the world that didnt have meat or diary in it could possibly taste good. Come on dude, that is just utterly ridiculous. That encompasses so many types of possible foods, many of which you have probably eaten at some point but didn't think of them as "vegan."
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u/ponyboycurtis1980 12h ago
You are conflating vegan food with fake food. I am neither vegan or vegetarian, but for environmental and personal health reasons I have greatly reduced my meat and dairy consumption. I refuse to eat any fake food that is trying to impersonate a different food. It all tastes like sad AI imitations. But a ton of the vegan dishes cook that don't try to pretend they are meat are among my favorites.
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u/Fishwitch-66 6h ago
the trick to good vegan food is to stop trying to make it taste like animal product. Good vegan food doesn’t advertise itself as vegan.
Falafel is vegan and that shit slaps. french fries and oreos are vegan. Getting rice noodles instead of egg noodles with your chinese takeout is like 95% as good
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u/jeophys152 4h ago
Gotta be careful with fries. A lot of places will use beef tallow or bullion on them. McDonald’s being one of them.
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u/Common_Window1224 18h ago
Imitation meats taste like imitations. If you tried to make an apple out of meat it wouldn't taste like an apple.:)
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u/BenchPressJournalist 18h ago
It's subjective and a matter of personal taste. I'm vegetarian, but I don't consume vegan meat. I simply go for tofu and homemade veggie patties made with basic ingredients such as lentils. Almond milk and other plant based milks are also a matter of personal taste. I know many non vegan people who prefer almond milk in their coffee. Personally, I find soy yoghurt pretty yum. If you don't like the taste of certain products, simply don't consume it.
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u/stabby- 18h ago
I didn’t used to consume the fake meat, because I generally don’t care for the texture anyway. I hate the fake chicken the most. But then I tried the gardein fake meatballs and those are SO good.
My non-vegetarian husband even likes them.
I’m not a vegan, but I do like the vanilla almond milk better than the regular stuff now too. I originally just started using it to cut some unnecessary calories, but now I hate regular milk lol.
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u/BenchPressJournalist 18h ago
Exactly! I’m also not a fan of the taste of most fake meats, especially 'chicken.' But some products can be really good. Garden Gourmet’s veggie balls in France are one of my go to products. If you ever get the chance to try them, I highly recommend them!
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u/Equivalent-Split-527 18h ago
A lot Indian Food is Veggie/Vegan and is regarded as one of the best cuisines In the world. It's all about the seasoning, spices and flavour. You don't need eggs/milk/meat to make a dish great
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u/LuciusCaeser 18h ago
incorrect. Vegan food that pretends to be meat, is often not very good. But lots of vegan food is fantastic. I hate vegan fake beef burgers... but give me a beetroot burger any day. (and I eat and love meat btw)
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 18h ago
Beetroot is good. My partner is vegan. I am not. But looking forward to celeriac and beetroot wellington for Xmas dinner. I am not keen on turkey anyway but will be having all the meat trimmings.
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u/EMPgoggles 18h ago
"vegan meat" is not the only vegan food.
i'm not vegan and i'm not vegetarian, but i find that vegan/vegetarian menu options are often WAY better than the other menu options (at any half-decent restaurant) because it feels like the restaurant is trying to compensate (or even overcompensate) for the lack of meat.
it's delicious. it's filling. and the best part is it tends to leave you feeling light and easy. (many meat lovers don't even realize how heavy their meals consistently leave them -- or if they do, they think it's just the natural result of eating.)
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u/refusedisposable 17h ago
Not a hot take at all. Actually a pretty common view.
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u/Beautiful-Guava-7692 17h ago
Bro I got so much hate for it so it kinda is hot take
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u/refusedisposable 17h ago
Vegans/vegetarians are just an overly vocal minority. If you ask 100 random people if they prefer “normal” food or vegan food, at least 90 would honestly reply in favor of normal food. Vegans/vegetarians are notoriously demonstrative. Also, those in favor of a diet that includes meat are far less likely to reply or comment here. You’re just catching negative reactions because those who agree will keep scrolling.
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u/AbolishedExistence 16h ago
I prefer normal food. To me, vegan food is normal. Animal corpses are not.
If you didn't know already, veganism simply means: stop exploiting animals.
How could one not be vocal about being against abuse...
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u/According_to_Piglet 17h ago
Most cultures have banging vegan options because, for the majority of our existence, meats and dairies in large supply were not really an option.
Like a lentil daal, tofu cashew stir fry, falafels with hummus, pasta di napolitana, Mexican rice and refried beans, etc.
We can’t just treat animals better because the current rate at which people, primarily in the West, eat meat means there is simply not enough space and the costs are too high. Overfishing is also a big problem. If we all cut down our meat consumption, that would be an easier answer.
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u/olbers--paradox 15h ago
Note on the refried beans: many are made with lard (or, in my Mexican household, bacon grease). They’re still very tasty vegan, though.
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u/Segat280 15h ago
I'm celiac and I can't tell you how much is pisses me off that companies offering gluten free food also insist on making it vegan. Why the fuck do I have to eat tastleless mince pies made with palm oil at Christmas because companies can't be arsed with more than one dietary need? As if being gluten free wasn't depressing enough.
And to be fair, it's a medical necessity, and veganism is a lifestyle choice- which pisses me off even more.
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u/Mischiefmanaged715 13h ago
.... I am not a celiac and am totally cool with vegan gluten free stuff because inclusivity is good and I am glad when something is being made available to more people. 🤷♀️ veganism is a moral belief system, not a lifestyle choice. Your dismissiveness is rude af. Sorry you are clearly so salty about your dietary restrictions. I make a lot of gluten free stuff at home, which is far better than most of the commercial options.
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u/Any-Safe763 16h ago
Vegan substitute food? Absolutely.
Vegan food?? Have you actually been to an Indian restaurant?? Vegan being vegan is awesome!!
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u/BusyBeeBridgette 18h ago
Yeah substitute meats generally aren't nice. Not compared to what they are trying to visually imitate. I doubt I could go vegan, bacon is something I crave often.
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u/Sastora20XX 18h ago
I think this is mathematically true in a way that doesn’t matter.
Vegan food is part of the overall set of all food. So… yeah, sure. You’ll see more extremes because vegan food is literally part of a smaller set under that umbrella.
The reason it doesn’t matter is because we have more recipes and ingredients than you could ever realistically have in your entire lifetime.
Additionally, imitations should probably taste like imitations. If your brain wants milk and drinks not-milk, you’ll be disappointed subjectively. If you want gluten-free pasta then you might just think “I wish this was regular pasta”. But is gluten-free pasta actually better than like… Idk, a rice bowl or stir fry?
In practice, vegan food is comparable. Replacements are usually comparable.
And I’m pretty sure the only two flavors that isn’t an acquired taste is salty and sweet so none of this matters anyway. Some angry redditor will correct me if I’m wrong tho lmao
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u/EntrepreneurCivil178 17h ago
I think you mean that fake meat is bad. As a former vegetarian (now pescatarian), I would agree. However, there are plenty of tasty, nutritious plant-based meals that aren't just bad imitations of meat-based meals.
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u/Hillbillygeek1981 17h ago
Fake vegan meat products are almost universally terrible, but actual vegan food that's not pretending to be something non vegan can be delicious. I'm absolutely not vegan in any way and find the preachy subset of vegans obnoxious, but don't judge good vegetarian food based on a bunch of soy sculptures of bacon and hamburger patties.
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u/NightmareEyes707 15h ago
I’ve never had vegan food I’ve liked. To each their own I guess but they act like it’s the objectively better choice for everybody.
I agree that animals’ living conditions need to be much better before they’re slaughtered but yeah, I’d never go vegan personally and it’s sort of ignorant for vegans to think that eating meat is something they can stop other people from doing.
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u/Maiace124 14h ago
In my opinion, it's fine as a portion of my diet, but vegan food is often trying too hard to be something it's not. A simple salad with some Italian dressing? Delicious. A bean burger they're trying to convince you tastes like meat? No.
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u/Spotted_Storm_26 14h ago
Idk, I love meat, but there's some good vegan options. I used to eat boca chicken sandwiches as a kid cause they were marketed as healthier and tasted really good to me. My whole family liked them.
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 14h ago
I think this misses the entire point of these foods and discussion.
On a side note, Soy milk rocks for example
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u/SteWaxleyLemon 14h ago
Vegan meat-substitutes will never taste as good as the real thing - especially to a meat-eater anyway.
But vegan cooking is more than just replacing meat with meat-substitutes.
Some of the best and most creative meals I've had were from vegan restaurants.
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u/Original-Body-5794 14h ago
This is a very cold take lmfao. Vegan "meat" is meant to be a replacement because it's more ethical not because it tastes better or even as good. I think most vegans will admit it tastes worse than real meat, they just refuse to eat it because it requires an animal to be killed.
It's meant to satisfy a craving for meat without actually having to eat it or to help people reduce their meat consumption by using substitutes. It's probably more tolerable if you haven't eaten actual meat in a while so you don't have a fresh comparison.
And as others said, there's plenty of vegan food that does not use replacements.
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u/Over_Pizza_2578 13h ago
Tbh, 1:1 replacements like vegan salami, vegan bits of chicken, etc aren't as good as the original. This doesn't mean vegan cant taste good. For example on a vegan/vegetarian burger i dont make a patty from vegan ground meat or bought patties, i instead make something that isn't trying to replicate meat. My current favourite would be falafel, same goes for döner kebap meat.
Obviously there are better imitations and worse ones. I find that vegan chicken is usually better than vegan beef or pork, including sausages. Most vegan ground beef is usable as well, in most dishes i cook with it the heavy lifting is done by herbs and spices anyway
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u/WWGHIAFTC 13h ago
Wait, you started off with Vegan 'food' then started talking about meat substitutes.
So are you just talking about meat substitutes not being good, or vegan food?
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u/TimeDuke 12h ago
It depends what you're eating. Some of the meat substitutes are nice--I can fuck with a vegan sausage, for example--and others not so much--I struggle with tofu. That said, I had some fantastic vegan curries and stews. Because they often take more thought, a really well-made vegan recipe can really hit in a way that would surprise you.
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u/boatsnho35 10h ago
This is just wrong lol. A lot of food is naturally vegan. I’m korean and grew up eating a lot of vegan food bc we were poor so my mom wouldn’t add in stuff like shrimp paste or fish sauce and it was still just as tasty.
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u/hematite2 9h ago
Vegan food is delicious. I just don't find fake meat good, but that's a small subset of vegan food.
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u/SeaSnowAndSorrow 8h ago
I'm someone who legitimately dislikes the taste of meat. I've tended vegetarian my whole life becuase I just find meat really unappealing. I don't miss it.
So my perspective is the opposite. I'll take beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu, seitan, etc. over beef, pork, or chicken any day.
Just to head this off, I don't do "meat replacement" dishes where you use TVP in place of meat in recipes made for meat. I tend to eat recipes made around a non-meat protein instead because I'm not replacing meat. I'm eating non-meat dishes.
That said, some of the vegan dairy and egg options just don't work so well for me. Nut milks generally do, but something like aquafaba in place of meringue or any sort of cheese-substitute does not. I have yet to find a vegan cheese that isn't dreadful.
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u/ggsimsarah333 7h ago
You’ve just not had good vegan food. Where do you live so we can recommend some good places to try?
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u/No_Cap_6806 4h ago
Venture away from ultra processed vegan food designed to mimic meat. It’s junk. There is a whole world of delicious plant-based food out there.
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u/jeophys152 4h ago
I thought most of it actually tasted better even when I ate meat. It made it easy to become a vegetarian. As far as natural nutrition, you don’t need specific foods, but specific nutrients and it doesn’t really matter how you get them.
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u/Objective_Praline482 3h ago
Vegan substitutes make bland cuisine blander.
That’s why foods that are already vegan without calling it such are ok by itself.
Not everything one eats is non-vegan.
It’s more a comment on your preferred cuisine.
So I’d explore cuisines with a more extensive menu of vegan dishes. They’re usually less bland.
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u/Odd_Measurement4106 2h ago
Is this a hot take? Maybe it’s just because of where I live but this feels like an almost universally agreed upon take. Even the one vegan I actually speak to agrees on this.
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u/ThrowRArainmakers 2h ago
ah. the ole' processed substitutes- i tell you, i dont think whey protein powder is very good either. have you ever had tikka masala? curry? vegetable phõ? chowder? it doesnt sound like you tried vegan dishes, rather, you tried meat substitutes, i eat meat and these dishes are amazing and less than 1% of vegan dishes.
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u/Puzzled-Peppers 37m ago
Taste is subjective. I personally prefer vegan alternatives that aren’t trying to be meaty, like black bean burgers or Morningstar’s garden patty; the taste and texture of vegetable protein is genuinely pleasurable to me. I also like tofu, especially pressed, marinated, and fried until crispy.
But other than fake hotdogs, which do genuinely taste like normal hotdogs to me, or products that rely a lot on spices or breading (like ‘chicken’ nuggets) I’ve never tried a fake meat and thought it tasted like the real thing.
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u/Kitchen-Phone-170 18h ago edited 18h ago
Strong disagree...except for cheese. Vegan cheese is not as good as regular cheese. But the rest of it (vegetables! Grains! Beans and nuts! Plant milk! Yum!) is at least as good if not better, in my opinion.
And I guess that's the key here, my opinion. Food tastes are very personal.
I also agree with the people who've said that vegan food that's trying to imitate meat usually doesn't taste exactly like meat, and when it tries to replicate the taste of meat exactly, it generally gets worse.
I love veggie burgers. They don't taste like beef, and they're not supposed to. Like, I can barely choke down an Impossible Burger or a Beyond Burger, and those are the ones that basically taste like beef (almost). But a good veggie burger that actually tastes like beans and grains and spices is, in my opinion, much better than a beef burger. If your standard/preference for a veggie burger is "tastes like a meat burger," then yeah, you won't like bean burgers. But a lot of people do.
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u/purplepotatocookies 18h ago
Plant based foods don’t taste bad, but I’ve seen way too many Westerners do terrible things to tofu. It’s horrifying.
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u/ashairz 18h ago
So what the hell is regular food? Meat? Because vegan food does not mean vegan meat that's supposed to pretend to be meat. Like, maybe eat vegetables and fruit and mushrooms and berries and beans and not that processed shit that would be pretty much just as bad as if it was plain processed meat.
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u/Working_Cucumber_437 16h ago
You can be vegan and not eat any meat/dairy substitutes. It absolutely can be delicious if you’re a good cook.
But people who are vegan do it either because it’s healthy or because it’s ethical (or both).
You’ll never fix the conditions for animals because it would raise meat prices. And vegans are against animal cruelty and killing animals for no reason. Since we can survive without eating meat, the only reason we do it is flavor. Which honestly is a pretty weak, lame reason to end a life.
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u/taxiecabbie 16h ago
My issue is that vegan food is more effort than other food.
Not if you're just making something dead-simple like... you know, a marinara with pasta or something. That's fine, but it's also very dull.
But homemade bean burgers verses homemade fish, beef, or chicken burgers? The bean burgers are more work.
I make a really good vegan meal with cauliflower steaks, Romesco sauce, and black lentils.
Takes a long time, lol. Much longer than actual steak.
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u/KeterClassKitten 14h ago
Apples are vegan food.
The issue isn't that vegan food takes more effort. It's that there are vegan dishes that try to compensate for the lack of a meat. Totally the wrong way to go about it, in my opinion.
Plenty of dishes that are vegan are simple and delicious. Letting the produce shine is much better than trying to turn it into something that it's not.
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u/Moist-Cheesecake-314 11h ago
Don’t try to replicate non-vegan dishes.
Korean cuisine has a lot of vegan dishes, because they’re so heavy in vegetables. Also the monks don’t consume any animal product so many Korean staples have a “monk version” that uses plant replacements, like replacing anchovy extract with seaweed extract for kimchi.
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u/olbers--paradox 15h ago
Depends on the recipe/your preferences. I eat a lot of beans+rice, which isn’t hard. Cooking pinto beans with garlic imparts a ton of flavor, and combined with pico de gallo and lime, I can bulk cook dinner for most of the week. For variety, add tortillas (most are vegan).
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u/taxiecabbie 15h ago
Yeah, but I don't want to eat beans+rice all the time.
Most vegans I know do what you're suggesting, though. They basically have a food that they eat 90% of the time and stick with it. I know one who's huge on pasta and marinara, one who does tofu with tamari, one who does a specific curry, one who does frozen veggies with peanut butter and pumpkin oil...
Yeah, I can't eat the same thing for days on end.
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u/DunamesDarkWitch 14h ago
You can make pretty much any dish vegan unless the “dish” is literally just a steak.
A buffalo tofu burger is no more effort than a buffalo chicken burger. Less, in fact. Then the next day you can make a completely different tofu dish. And as a bonus of convenience, you can buy bulk tofu that stays good for weeks in the fridge, instead of days for meat.
TVP works great to replace ground beef in dishes like chili or tacos, where the flavor of the meat is dictated by the spices even in the beef versions. One my favorite meals is a tvp shepherds pie that does not take any more time or effort than a non-vegan version.
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u/taxiecabbie 14h ago
A buffalo tofu burger is no more effort than a buffalo chicken burger.
Maybe, but while I like tofu plenty, I have no interest in eating a buffalo tofu burger, lol. That sounds... awful.
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u/DunamesDarkWitch 14h ago
If you know how to cook tofu into a crunchy crispy patty it’s certainly not awful. Unless you just don’t like buffalo, then fair enough.
But you don’t just stick an entire raw block of tofu between some buns and call it burger. Slice it into thin squares, fry or bake until crispy, coat in sauce. Breadcrumbs optional if you want the extra crunch and texture.
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u/taxiecabbie 14h ago
I know how to cook tofu like that. I do it all the time for various Asian dishes.
Using it as a burger sub does not sound appealing in the least.
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u/DunamesDarkWitch 14h ago
Interesting. I’ve never cooked tofu into a breadcrumb covered baked patty for an Asian dish.
It’s a chicken patty sub, not beef. For a “classic” burger I’d just buy impossible
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u/olbers--paradox 14h ago
Just offering an example. Even within legume+rice, there are a lot of flavor options that make it not boring in my opinion. Another go-to for me is mujaddara, a dish of lentils, caramelized onions, and rice cooked in vegetable stock (or imitation chicken stock, which is my preference). Or stewed black beans (tomato, garlic, onion, cumin) on rice. Or rice with chickpeas (Trader Joe’s makes spiced chickpeas that work great here), spinach, and lemon. And that’s before getting into your soup options…
You can use canned beans for most things (I prefer fresh pinto beans and lentils, but I’ll use canned lentils sometimes), which takes a lot of the effort out. If you have a rice cooker, even easier. The chickpea recipe can use all canned/frozen ingredients, and the stewed black beans and mujaddara just need you to chop an onion. I have narcolepsy and before I was able to get medicated, the chickpea recipe and stewed black beans were a huge part of me being able to keep myself fed.
I do think that if you’re not willing to repeat meals, you’ll have to put more effort into cooking whether or not you’re vegan. Bulk cooking is just easier, and it seems like the most common approach to lower-effort home cooking.
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u/toiletcleaner999 16h ago
My nephew is a chef and he made me vegan Chinese food. Everything tasted amazing. You couldnt tell the deep fried shrimp was actually vegan. But I have a friend who tried making vegan food for a dinner she threw ,that had some vegans attending and NOPE. lol So I think it all depends on who is cooking it.
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u/Blindmelon99 16h ago
Oh like you tried once? I wouldn't jump to any conclusions based on that one try but some people do. That is a fact that animals are treated very badly, not just some people's opinion.
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u/Short-Source-8492 13h ago
So rice, beans, grains, pasta, fruits and vegetables aren't real food and don't taste good to you?
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u/Environmental_Ant268 16h ago
Agreed, i was vegan (exept cheese) for many years and i never wanted to try these artificial weird stuff vegas want to push, it's not natural. I'm against factory farming and mass producing low quality foods including meat, i never really cared for animals in abstract and i never told people about it, only that i don't prefer meat right now, and until now i don't eat beef but I'm all for local and free range products.
All this artificial meats are just a fad though, it's virtue signalling.
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u/AbolishedExistence 16h ago
There is no "vegan (except xyz". Veganism means to not exploit animals, the dairy industry exploits animals.
Local and free range farms still exploit and abuse animals, similar to factory farms, just with a possibility of a little bit more space. Their food is still supplemented, they are still treated like slaves, they still die suffering.
Animal sausage, salami, milk, yoghurt are all highly processed products.
Supermarkets, hospitals, drugs, computers are all unnatural.
Plant-based meat lookalikes are unnecessary, they solely exist for profits to lure animal abusers.
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u/Environmental_Ant268 15h ago
I don't care about what you call it, i eat everything now and I'm fine with it, i hated factory farming and over adding chemicals to foods in general and i still avoit them at much as possible but i won't bother myself with it so much
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u/Prometheus_Twin 16h ago
As someone who loves a good steak, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Also vegan food is real food. Learn to cook and try to eat more vegetables.
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u/BrilliantEconomics77 19h ago
Vegan foods tastes wonderful if you add some meat and fat to it.
Im being serious, had a mate who's sister was vegan, they cooked vegan meals for her, then just fried up a bit of meat and added it afterwards for the rest of the family.
Some of the best food, because they realy ahve to work hard on texture and flavours, so its got a fantastic start.
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18h ago edited 18h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HonestHotTakes-ModTeam 13h ago
Hot Takes about NSFW topics are allowed. However, we are drawing a hard line on the following topics:
Gore or graphic descriptions of injury/death, sexual violence, intentionally repulsive content, politics, other topics at moderator discretion.
Keep it spicy, not sickening.
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u/Outrageous_Pie_5640 18h ago
I eat a lot vegan meals and love veggies, tofu, starches, etc. but i agree on meat substitutes. I’ve tried many, and non are very good. Falafel is typically fried which is a nope from me and tempeh sucks and it’s not a skill issue, I’ve gone to top vegan restaurants and tempeh tasted rancid to me.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 18h ago
If you think of vegan food as meat and cheese substitutes, then I agree. If you think of as alternative proteins and avoid the hyper processed stuff, then vegan food can be as good as meat-based food. All this putting aside fact that many standard side dishes are vegan already.
A mushroom broth, a dahl curry, tofu in miso or falafel burgers are all very good food. Nut roasts need work and hydration to taste good.
I eat both and think eating less meat but better quality way to go. It actually takes us closer to historic eating patterns where meat was a luxury. Chicken only got cheap as factory farming was subsidised to help returning soldiers find work post the World Wars. Heritage breeds produced slowly taste better too.
It's a toss-up for which tastes worse to me. Flabby chicken breast pumped with water from a bird designed to die at 6 weeks and unable to move properly due to growing too quickly for legs to keep up. Exercise makes meat taste better. Or synthetic flavours and textures to make soya taste like meat.
Texturised vegetable protein tastes ok in self so why pretend it is mince?
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u/Stunning-Assistant13 16h ago
taste is not a good justification for exploitation and killing of animals
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u/MagicTick 15h ago
~80 billion animals are slaughtered each year, funded by the personal tastes of people like you. This is nowhere near a hot take.
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u/Specialist_Cow_7092 15h ago
Things tasting good to you is entirely about exposure and experience. I thought that was like common sense.
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u/ninjette847 19h ago
You can be vegan without eating vegan meat. Most vegans I know don't use substitutes. You don't like rice and beans? Pasta with marinara sauce? PB&J?