If vegans do not eat meat or animal products, why do most recipes try to immitate non vegan flavours?

Hi ! :)

Many of us eat it because we like the taste and texture of meat, but we don't want the animals to be brutally mistreated and slaughtered in factory farms just so we can suit our taste buds. For those who grow up around meat eating family or who had been omnivores before, mock meats can be good comfort foods and add some flavor and protein to dishes. They are also good for making a vegan dish that even omnis would love.

Here are some of the best mock meats on the market in my opinion.

"Boca" (super good and tastes like the real thing)

http://www.bocaburger.com/

and

"Gardein" (The best meat substitute! They have the best no chicken strips!)

http://www.gardein.com/index.php

Want some vegan beef jerky? (They are quite delicious and have good texture)

http://www.primalspiritfoods.com/product%E2%80%A6

http://vegandream.com/

There is even vegan seafood substitutes from:

"Yves"

http://www.yvesveggie.com/

"Sophies Kitchen"

http://sophieskitchen.net/index_f.html

You certainly wouldn't want to eat these everytime, but like I said they do make good comfort foods :3

Here is some info about why you would want to and why other people decide to go vegan!

http://www.chooseveg.com/

http://www.compassionoverkilling.com/

http://www.mercyforanimals.com/

http://www.veganoutreach.com/

Personally I've never liked the taste of meat or eggs, so my cooking does not strive to imitate those flavours. None of my recipes aim to recreate non vegan foods. However, many vegans did like eating meat and their recipe repertoire would reflect that. They have given up eating meat because they do not agree with the concept of animals as food factories, not because they were repulsed by the taste. They have moved on from the hedonistic pursuit of flavour at the expense of another living creature (and learnt that you can still eat all your favourite foods without adding animal products). Best of both worlds.

Highly unlikely your friends would get annoyed unless they are pompous.

Basically many people go veg/vegan for ethical reasons, not just because they suddenly got turned off the taste of meat. The imitating fake meats allow one to eat a flavored meat substitute without the animal dying

We vegans and vegetarians are not all about eating animals, its more about the flavor.

Meat tastes good but its unhealthy and sad to kill animals. Lets face it meat has a good taste, so why not eat something that tastes like meat but isn't meat at all? its 'killing' two birds with one stone, but we don't want to kill those birds either lol.

I myself accept it that meat tastes delicious, I stopped eating it for two reasons my health, and the animals. Ever since I stopped I noticed that real meat actually has a heavy bad smell. I can't even look at it anymore :\

Anyway yeah! we do not eat imitation meat because of the wrong reasons, its the flavor we were used to eating for so many years that has us eating it.

I do not consume mock meat as all mock meat is soy based and soy is bad for health. I consume fruits, vegetables, pulses, legumes, grains, seeds and dry fruits.

What's wrong with soy?

Soy beans are naturally toxic to humans, but they're harmless when they go through a fermentation process, which is how we get tofu.

But soy is being used in more and more things these days. Just look through your cabinet. You'll be surprised.

Anyway, most companies aren't putting their soy beans through this process because it takes too much time, and time = money.

Instead, they put it through a chemical process, but this rarely gets rid of the soy's toxicity completely.

Symptoms of a high soy diet are thyroid problems, breast cancer, and other complications.

People get these symptoms because the soy they eat isn't fermented.

If i understand you correctly, it's so vegans can enjoy the flavor of meats, eggs, and other non vegan products without guilt for the animals.

Because some of us ate that before. I think if someone was always a vegan they may not crave that as much. Basically though not eating real animals anymore makes me feel so much better spiritually knowing a sentinent being was not killed for my eating.

i know what you mean, i'm vegan and to me stuff like veggie hot dogs or tofu bacon etc is really off putting. i don't want to eat anything that looks or tastes like an animal..but i think its a misguided attempt to ween people off meat. or to make vegan food more appealing to meat eaters.

It's not that we don't LIKE the taste of meat. It's that we don't want to harm animals as the expense of that. And tofu absorbs flavor like crazy so it actually tastes a lot like meat, but it's soooo much healthier. :)

I think it depends on the person. I love fruits and vegetables so I have never had the goal to make something taste like meat. I have used sauces that are used on meat on veg food. I.E. barbeque sauce.