Do you ever buy Vegan Food Alternatives just to try them out?

[ProstatePuncher]

Every meat substitute I've tried just sucks ass. I'm fine with stuff like bean burgers and that though. I find it very odd you'd want to create a product that tries to resemble meat. They're expensive as fuck and just aren't anywhere near matching meat.

If its an "honest" vegan item and doesn't try to approximate meat, I usually find it good. My girlfriend goes on weird health benders all the time, imagining cutting gluten from her diet will make her healthier despite not being a celiac, so we are always going to the local vegan eateries so she can avoid eating the latest fad food.

 

[djplaeskool]

I actually like black bean or mushroom-based burgers.
Will sometimes go that route just to mix it up.

 

[Amnixia]

Every day!

Spoiler

Hi, I'm a vegan!

 

[Deleted member 42]

Before when I was super poor, no
Now when I am just poor, I'll try a few things

 

[kittens]

Yeah some times. I love tempeh and textured vegetable protein. But I don't really think of them as vegan food, it's just food that happens to be vegan.

 

[Akira86]

tried and it never works out. taste differences, or alternative ingredients that I am allergic to.

 

[killdatninja]

I don't really go for meat substitutes, I have not had one thing where it looked and tasted like the real thing. I do on occasion try alternatives (the ones that aren't pretending to be meat flavored), especially since I'm trying to cut down on overall meat consumption. I am interested in trying out the impossible burger to see how far the meat flavored substitutes have gone.

 

[Rag]

My fiance is vegan, so yes, we try different things all the time haha. We've pretty much nailed the Beyond Meat burger, and I now prefer it to beef patties. It's juicy, flavorful, and filling but I don't feel miserable after eating it.



Don't use those patties for a general ground beef alternative where you have to season it heavily, like with tacos. The only time we used them for anything other than a burger was for stuffing at Thanksgiving, and the flavor of the patties mixed well with the seasoning for the stuffing. If you want to make tacos with a Beyond Meat product, they have "beef" crumbles in the frozen food section. Those work much better for general ground beef recipes.

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Awesome! I'll keep that in mind. Yeah, the patties got super disgusting, and no amount of seasoning made them taste right.

 

[Deleted member 2802]

All the time.

If it tastes good and is environmentally better it's my new food

The only thing I haven't done is cricket powder, it's way too expensive

 

[Bane]

Sure. In fact the last time I was at Joella's Chicken I ordered the vegan chicken patty to try as a side thing. It was pretty good. The taste isn't 100% there but it was pretty close and the texture was like a processed chicken nugget or patty.

 

[stupei]

I'm curious about the impossible burger but one interesting thing for me is how many vegans I know who dislike it. Most of them have characterized it as being something for meat eaters to use as an alternative, because it's too similar and they've said they find that too unsettling. I can get that, but I do wonder, as someone who regularly eats meat still, if I would actually find it very similar at all.

 

[Pwnz]

There's some frozen vegan brand of basically hot pockets that mimick Cuban sandwiches but full of 20 different legumes and veggies. It is surprisingly good. Otherwise outside of Indian or Ethiopian foods that have mastered vegetarian I don't seek it out because its usually a culinary disaster.

 

[bmdubya]

Awesome! I'll keep that in mind. Yeah, the patties got super disgusting, and no amount of seasoning made them taste right.

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Yeah, it's all the stuff they are seasoned with already. I had a friend make meatballs with them, and while edible, I didn't enjoy them that much.

I'm curious about the impossible burger but one interesting thing for me is how many vegans I know who dislike it. Most of them have characterized it as being something for meat eaters to use as an alternative, because it's too similar and they've said they find that too unsettling. I can get that, but I do wonder, as someone who regularly eats meat still, if I would actually find it very similar at all.

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As someone who still eats meat even though my diet consists of mainly vegetarian or vegan dishes, it's incredibly similar. I couldn't tell it wasn't beef when I had it.

 

[stupei]

Yeah, it's all the stuff they are seasoned with already. I had a friend make meatballs with them, and while edible, I didn't enjoy them that much.

As someone who still eats meat even though my diet consists of mainly vegetarian or vegan dishes, it's incredibly similar. I couldn't tell it wasn't beef when I had it.

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I'm definitely going to have to try it. I'm really curious. I just have to pick which restaurant is going to be my first place to give it a go; I'm leaning toward Umami, since I already like their burgers in general.

 

[Fright Zone]

Morning Star bacon for BLT's is awesome. I don't know if it's vegan or not but it's meat free and damn delicious.

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I miss this stuff SO much. They can't sell it in the UK any more as it has GMO ingredients. I ate so much of it 15-20 years ago, and then poof, it was gone.
I had it again for the first time in a decade when I visited the US a couple of years ago and it was as good as I remember.
As a lifelong vegetarian I've never tried real bacon so that is the best 'bacon' I have ever had, by far.
I wish I had a US connect who could post me some occasionally haha.

If you're in the UK try Iceland's No Bull range.

Pretty cheap. Example: £2 for two burgers. 1/4 pounders.

Also delicious. Fooled a couple of meat eaters with them.

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Yeah those are really good, one of the best veggie burgers I've had.
With the recent explosion of veganism the meat free options are getting better and better, but I still haven't found a bacon substitute as amazing as the Morningstar stuff.

No. Vegan food is vile and oily.

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Yeah, sure, ALL vegan food is oily.

 

[Sir Hound]

I do actually! I'm not gonna make a clean break but I'd like to transition to pescatarianism, with occasional beef.

Linda McCartney's vegan meatballs are excellent, maybe better than the real thing. I had some soy chicken that was rank. I'd love to try the impossible burger but it's still not readily available here.

 

[Rampage]

I visit vegan restaurants. And I buy the occasional vegan microwave meal. I like tofu, jack fruit, and tempeh. "Meat" products range from okay to good. Starting to sample vegan cheese- it is interesting.

Sometimes I want a meat, sometime I don't. Having choice is great.

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

Seitan is derived from wheat, not soy. Soy doesn't have gluten. But if you don't have soy allergies or celiac, there's not a compelling reason to avoid either.

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Right mixed it up

A reason to avoid is that much gluten is going to hit you hard from a digestive standpoint. You're inevitably going to crash

 

[Deleted member 13148]

Right mixed it up

A reason to avoid is that much gluten is going to hit you hard from a digestive standpoint. You're inevitably going to crash

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While I don't tend to eat much seitan these days, since I'm trying to stick with only whole plant foods, I've never had a crash from eating too much gluten, even when I ate tons of it. Can you point to any peer-reviewed studies showing any problems with too much wheat protein?

 

[TarpitCarnivore]

While I don't tend to eat much seitan these days, since I'm trying to stick with only whole plant foods, I've never had a crash from eating too much gluten, even when I ate tons of it. Can you point to any peer-reviewed studies showing any problems with too much wheat protein?

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I've had ups and downs from gluten heavy diet during my vegetarian days and my friends all went through similar issues. It's similar in how a lot of carbs can cause a crash/fatigue effect. I'm on my phone but I def recall reading about impact of gluten/carb on insulin levels and up/down feel that can cause.

Obviously our bodies all act differently, but I think solely relying on mock meats that are heavily gluten based is just a bad way to go for vegetarians. Have it as an occassional replacement/substance aspect but don't rely on them for every single meal of your day.

 

[Fat4all]

i get those boca spicy 'chicken' patties, they pretty good, remind me of ramen

 

[genjiZERO]

Yeah, sure, ALL vegan food is oily.

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A higher percentage than non vegan food is. When I was in law school I used to study at this vegan coffee joint (All Saints shout out). I loved the place to death, but damn was the food bad (and oily).

 

[One Eyed Willy]

I have but I don't do it too often.

 

[flatearthpandas]

Yeah, vegan stuff is normally pretty alright but its mad expensive here and rare. If i lived somewhere where it was cheap and accessible I'd probably eat a lot more but not sure I could completely switch. Soy milk is very common here and it's probably been about two years now since I drank normal milk and I used to drink like a gallon a week by myself though.

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

The majority of meat alternatives are not bought by vegans or vegetarians. Hopefully this trend continues and more people try the ever-growing range of vegan foods on the market.

 

[27 Burritos]

I had a veggie burger that was actually really good. Sometimes, I even make sandwiches and leave out the meat. For instance, say you were going to make a ham sandwich with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato, it's actually pretty good just eating the veggies without the ham.

 

[tokyostomp]

I tried a muffin at a hipster coffee place once. It wasn't bad.

I generally dislike meat replacements So I never buy them. I'd rather have a giant "burger" where the patty is swapped for a portobello.

 

[JustinP]

Yeah. Some of it is tasty even if it doesn't taste like meat. Couple of my favorite restaurants are vegan.

 

[Fright Zone]

A higher percentage than non vegan food is. When I was in law school I used to study at this vegan coffee joint (All Saints shout out). I loved the place to death, but damn was the food bad (and oily).

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Cool, so, what you meant to say was 'the vegan food at this one place I used to frequent was bad and oily and now I assume all vegan food is like that'.

 

[Min]

I hear vegan mayo is pretty good but I've had an allergic reaction to pea shoots before, which can apparently be related to an allergy to peanuts. I don't have a reaction to green peas but there's no way to test for a reaction to straight condensed pea protein, so the doctor just suggested bringing some vegan mayo into her office and eating small amounts to see if I start to die.

I hope my girlfriend appreciates that I'm actually considering it just so I can make us garlic aoili we can both eat.

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I think it's indistinguishable from non-vegan mayo, maybe a little lighter which sits better with me.

I'm hoping for the best for you with that doctor's visit. And also if you got a vegan garlic aioli recipe you want to share, slide into my DMs!

 

[rainz]

I find it very odd you'd want to create a product that tries to resemble meat.

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No one said meat tasted bad. Thats not why people go vegan.

If they can recreate the taste/texture of a tasty food without killing animals in the process then why not?

To answer the OP yeah, Field Roast is my jam along with Gardein. In Aus most Quorn is being changed to vegan now also. Vegan bacon/egg muffins are crazy good too.

 

[genjiZERO]

Cool, so, what you meant to say was 'the vegan food at this one place I used to frequent was bad and oily and now I assume all vegan food is like that'.

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No it like that every where else I go too. It's oily and mushy.

But I mean things that are usually non-vegan made vegan. Things that are natively non-vegan aren't like that.

 

[Tanerian]

I recently spent way too much money on those 'Beyond Meat' burger patties to see if I could make vegetarian tacos that taste as good as beef, and they were gnarly. My wife and I couldn't finish our plates. I'm still open to trying other things, but I really didn't like the Beyond Meat ones.

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I've never seen the word Gnarly used as a negative. Always a positive.

 

[Kenai]

I do like to try them if I have the chance. I'll probably never go vegan due to pricing issues and enjoying chicken stuff and ice cream stuff too much, but I can appreciate it being more environmentally friendly. Was quite surprised and happy by an Impossible burger last year but it's a bit far (30 min drive one way through pretty annoying traffic) to go on a whim and it's the only place "near" me. Sometims I also find random veggie cheese that pleasantly surprises me (usually not-mozzarella for some reason) but it's always been pretty expensive.

 

[ZeroX]

Yes. Well, generally vegetarian not vegan. Vegan stuff is pretty awful.

Some vegetarian stuff is decent to good but never tastier than the alternative to be worth paying extra.

 

[aerie]

Yes, all the time, but I also don't eat a lot of meat. There are lots of great veggie and vegan foods.

 

[Nostremitus]

I tried the Impossible Burger last week. It was good.

 

[Big-E]

I don't eat replacement foods. I am not going to buy the thing it is trying to imitate when I can just eat the thing. I am all for vegetarian foods and don't always eat meat. To me good vegetarian food needs to be its own thing. Tofu for example is great, just don't turn it into a hotdog.

 

[Keikaku]

Never. I eat veggies too but meat tastes too good.

 

[Rag]

I've never seen the word Gnarly used as a negative. Always a positive.

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Maybe it's a regional use of the word around here, but I use it both as a positive and a negative.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

No but my friend his gf is a vegan so they eat on a vegan diet mostly and they offer sometimes for me to eat along.

I gotta admit some vegan food does actually really taste like some meat and good.

 

[farmland]

Most mock meats are pretty awful for you and loaded with seitan (literal gluten derived from soy). They should not be seen as healthy alternatives and ideally serve more as a substitute for protein/texture in a meal.

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Just a correction, soy doesn't contain gluten and seitan is made from vital wheat gluten.

 

[RestEerie]

The likelihood of me going vegan is equivalent to crocodile growing a pair of feathered wings.

 

[laminated]

I still need to try the impossible burger.

 

[Midramble]

Just bought some beyond burgers, so gonna give that a try.

 

[Kapryov]

Hell yeah, it made it easy to transition into a vegetarian diet for a few years.
Not vegetarian anymore but I still buy them now on occasion. If it tastes good then it tastes good.

My favourite ever restaurant is a vegetarian place with mock meat, it was the best. I still dream about their noodles and wish it wasn't so far away from me now :(

 

[farmland]

I guess this answer is disingenuous, but I always try the vegan option as I'm vegan. Honestly I do enjoy mock meats but I don't have them very often, I generally get my protein from legumes and grains. The only "meat" replacement I have frequently is textured soy protein as I find it can be really tasty if seasoned correctly, especially when mixed with some lentils.

 

[painey]

sometimes instead of heading to hardees on the way home from work I just pull up to the park and forage for some acorns

 

[DavidDesu]

UK here. My gf won a vegan hamper at Xmas time. Vegan bacon was like a weird floppy leather, not all that enjoyable to eat. There was a brand of cream cheese called "S'cheese" (terrible name) but my god it tasted basically like Philadelphia spread. I was impressed.

Quorn do a couple of purely vegan things in the UK too but I don't think I've tried them, most of their other products must have dairy/eggs to some degree but if you're vegetarian at least then Quorn products come highly recommended.

 

[ty_hot]

I refuse to try vegan food that pretends to be animal-food - like those burgers or sausages.

If I want to have a vegan meal I will go with mushrooms and add stuff from there.