Vegan
What's the thing about "vegan" food?
Don't take me wrong, I eat more veg than anyone else. Including beans, soy, lentils, etc. They taste great, healthy, good for the planet, and are ridicolosly low-cost.
And next there's "vegan", or fake meat. BTW why do you need overpriced "fake meat"? What for? Just eat meat or fish or veg. No?
So my teenager, in her growing up phase that she no longer even knows who she is, what she likes/dislikes, or in which universe she inhabits, she went for vegetarian. Actually, a meat-eating vegetarian, but never mind...
We decided to defrost the freezer, so now consuming the last leftovers vegan food that happened to be there.
Wow, this "vegan" taste so bad. Basically, what the industry does is: take crazy cheap but super tasty ingredients, turn them in disgusting overpriced stuff, add the label "vegan" (btw was it not vegan before they messed with it?), and sell it at x10 the cost. And people even buy it.
Smart, innit?
Rant over.
Comments
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Agree completely about fake meat. Plenty of good recipes for veg patties, falafel etc , I don’t understand why you would want it to look or taste vaguely like animal.
On the subject of veg food - most of the people I know get very confused if I order a veg main - apparently only dedicated vegetarians are allowed to do this
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Yep, sometimes the veggy option is the best thing on the menu.
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Everything I cook is either vegetarian or vegan without even trying. Its just what we eat.
Rarely have anything that's been processed. However stick a 'Vegan' label to something and they'll even manage to suck all the joy and flavour out of a stick of celery!
Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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The Joy Of Celery could be the next big thing.
I did once spend a long time, under the guidance of a vegan I was hosting, just how small I had to chop all the vegetables to mimic the mince of a shepherds pie (by his expression I could tell my efforts weren't up to standard), and on eating it I decided it really hadn't been worth the effort... it would have tasted just as nice without millimetre cubes. I do find the mimicking of meat textures slightly weird in vegan cookery, but each to his/her own.
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Bacon.
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Celery is not food.
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This. In a world where bacon exists, I could never go vegan or veggie.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
A lot of people seem to confuse eating a plant based diet with being vegan. There’s so much more to being vegan than not eating animal products. I could fairly happily eat a plant based diet (although I’d rather keep fish and dairy) but I’m far too lazy to attempt a vegan lifestyle let alone debate that choice with everyone who can’t get their head around other people’s choices “what about honey is that OK?” “would you eat venison from a wild deer that had been hit by a car?” etc. (militant vegans are also annoying).
Where I used to work we had several vegans including the owner for a while so used to have socials at vegan restaurants. I was amazed how bad the stuff was considering it was their supposed specialty. The smell of vegan ‘bacon’ nearly made me sick and the taste was worse. The ‘cheese’ on the pizzas was horrendous too.
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My wife bought vegan bacon on the advice of a vegan colleague (with the usual claim that 'you can't tell the difference'), was completely inedible, tasted more like mackerel and had a weird smooth, dense consistency. None of us ate more than a bite before binning it.
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I agree "vegan bacon" is very disguting.
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Not a Vegan though do seem to have reduced by choice the amount of meat I consume over past several years. I have tried vegan type ready meals a few times, when noticed in the 'reduced to clear' area, and have found them quite disappointing. Mind you 'normal' ready meals are quite bland as well... 🤔
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I'm very not veggie (probably wouldn't be the worst thing to change honestly) but I will give props to the (?) Linda McCartney something and mozzarella burgers. Genuinely tasty alternative in a bun with salad and sauce etc.
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver1 -
Was it Bacon?
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No, I honestly can't remember. I know where they are in the local Waitrose and just grab them for freezer emergency meals every now and again...
Edit, in fact I think I've made them into a bacon (pork based) burger before now... 🙃
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver1 -
Avoid the McCartney 'sausages'. Made the mistake of keeping those when they were accidentally included in the shopping delivery. I have a strong aversion to leaving any food on a plate, but I couldn't finish these.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
i'm not a veggie, but the cauldron cumberland sausages are actually good, both texture and taste, i'll happily put away a pack with some salad
my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
As pointed out above, there is a difference between a vegan diet (or predominantly vegan one) and aiming for an entirely vegan lifestyle.
I would agree that vegan meat products are largely pointless now. I think they came out of the early days of vegan food where people making the switch that had previously eaten meat had less knowledge of plant based recipes so meat free options helped bridge the gap.
I think if you have a bit of knowledge of food and cookery it is pretty easy to follow a fully vegan diet now. I have to admit that vegan substitutes for things like dairy have improved significantly (I am not vegan BTW!). Years ago I could not eat any of them but now a lot of coffee shops I visit will have vegan cakes and I cannot tell the difference. My local is 100% vegan and things like cake frosting taste identical to dairy options.
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I'd get away with being plant based tomorrow if it wasn't for those pesky kids. It's frustrating that those in my family have most to gain from a plant based lifestyle are the ones who resist it most.
On the subject of frosting, I took a look at the ingredients on some that we bought to do cupcakes with. Plant based, yes, vegan.....depends on whether the orangutans were rehoused successfully for the palm oil plantation.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
Why would your kids benefit from a plant based lifecycle?
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More fibre, fewer emissions <insert your own counter argument here>.
I'd be willing to make an exception for wild venison: up here I think we almost have a moral obligation to eat it.
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
My Mrs has been vegan for years (or at least observes a plant based diet). As there's only the two of us at home, it doesn't make sense to make a vegan and a non-vegan meal every night and consequently, I eat lots of vegan food. I am in no way vegan but if I was told that I had to adopt a plant based diet, I don't think I'd be too worried. Eggs for breakfast and milk in my tea would probably be the things I'd find hardest to forgo.
We rarely eat "made to be like meat" products as they're mostly shit and vegan cheese is f***ing awful.
BOSH! is a company founded and run by a couple of blokes who have published dozens of recipes in books and online all of which involve cooking vegan meals "from scratch" and I'm rarely disappointed with any of these - if you're thinking of going down this route, I would recommend their recipe books as a great starting point.
Wilier Izoard XP0 -
Have you been living in a bubble?
An extract from seven ways to help save the planet:https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241231-seven-proven-ways-to-help-the-planet
Number 1:
Eat a plant-based diet By 2033, it's thought that there will be almost two billion cattle, one billion pigs, 32 billion poultry, and nearly three billion sheep on our small blue-green planet – that's some 38 billion individual animals. As they go about their lives, all will be releasing the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide – molecules which have effects 28 and 265 times stronger at warming the planet than carbon dioxide, respectively. That's not to mention the vast amounts of land and water required to keep them.
As a result, it's widely agreed among the scientific community that to rescue the global climate from ever-warming temperatures, one of the most impactful ways our species can change its behaviour is to eat less meat. According to one UK study, vegans have diets that emit just 25% of the carbon emissions of the most carnivorous meat-eaters, while both vegetarians and vegans have significantly lower water use and cause less harm to biodiversity than omnivorous ones.
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I have to concur that these are particularly tasty and we have them on occasions where neither of us CBA to cook. Usually a Saturday night with a few curly fries. The LMcC sausages are rather nice too. In fact we had both of these on Christmas Day when we went to the Sister in Law for lunch. We usually take our own 'mains' that we can easily pop into her Aga without too much fuss as she has enough to do.
Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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That's an argument in favour of less meat and, in particular, less red meat. Kids also need a balanced diet which is possible from plants, but much harder and requires a level of effort that some parents won't go to. On top of this, animals help fertilise the soil which is deteriorating in quality.
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The article wasn’t addressing nutrition, just the fact the livestock industry has a huge negative impact on the environment and climate. That includes soil too. Intensive farming, tractors and animals destroy soil structure/health and slurry ends up in the rivers. In rewilded areas soils become ‘alive’ again.
The benefit for kids is to have a viable future.
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The future is fewer kids.
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And bacon.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
Any chef who produces a vegan meal and calls it a Cauliflower steak should be shot without waiting for dawn.
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Especially if it is as expensive as the real steak on the menu.
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I wouldn’t mind if it was something special. However it’s usually a lump of cauliflower with some spices on it. So unless it was wrapped in Saffron it’s a rip off.
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