"Honestly: Do you think vegan food is as tasty as the food you ate before?"

[Staffy]

Yeah i've given up my taste for human flesh, they are animals too you know! It should read "Once you cut out all the processed rubbish you can't eat ANYWAY once your vegan, everything tastes better, especially since there's good odds you made it yourself."

[Essy Strudel]

^ Hehe.

[RainInStarlight]

Vegan food is better than the food I ate before. I appreciate it more...and the appreciation helps in the taste. Also, I put more time and effort into making things taste good, so that could help! (I used to just microwave everything...lol)

Cheers!

[MoonDance]

When you are forced to experiment with different food and spices etc, I think that your taste buds change. Vegan things taste much, much better. IDK, things just seem ... better. :o

[rxseeeyse]

yes, vegan foods vegan foods vegan foods, I just wish I know more recipes!

[upior]

By the way, when I said that it's the same as before, I wasn't comparing it to meat. Meat has been out of my life for over five years now and I really don't see it as food anymore, just as a dead animal. :( I was comparing vegan food that I eat now to the foods containing dairy and eggs that I used to eat.

Hasha, I did the same as I was a vegetarian for about 17 years before becoming a vegan. If I had to compare vegan food with the food I was eating as a carnivore, vegan food would be much tastier.
The only vegan foods I don't like are the chocolates. They are bitter and taste really owful. I bought few in the past which I enjoyed but I do not remember the name, so I just stopped eating chocolate, but I really enjoy marzipan and fruit cakes so I'm all right with sweets. I also eat much more fruits at the moment so I do not need as much sweets as I used to eat.

[twinkle toes]

Hasha, I did the same as I was a vegetarian for about 17 years before becoming a vegan. If I had to compare vegan food with the food I was eating as a carnivore, vegan food would be much tastier.
The only vegan foods I don't like are the chocolates. They are bitter and taste really owful. I bought few in the past which I enjoyed but I do not remember the name, so I just stopped eating chocolate, but I really enjoy marzipan and fruit cakes so I'm all right with sweets. I also eat much more fruits at the moment so I do not need as much sweets as I used to eat.

i was thinking that today actually :/ about chocolate. a girl my dad works with has recently gone vegan and she is beginning to miss chocolate. when my dad asked me what vegan chocolate was like all i could think of was 'umm yes well did you ever eat dog chocolates when you were a kid'. but no, i'm not really bothered about sweets and chocolate any more :/ having said that though, the new nakd bars are amazing amazing amazing (the cocoa/orange ones). . . . .

[rxseeeyse]

uh, I love chocolate as vegan food...I think they taste much better without all the milk in them....I usually buy 100% dark chocolate and make mousse with soft tofu and natural sweetener, they tastes great! And chocolate muffin tastes very good too, just need some cocoa powder for this. So yea, although I don't eat plain chocolate, but I think chocolate is very good with everything else and without all those excess sugar and milk in them!

[harpy]

when my dad asked me what vegan chocolate was like all i could think of was 'umm yes well did you ever eat dog chocolates when you were a kid'.

I never did try doggie chocs but I'm surprised to hear they're like vegan chocolate, some of which seems pretty good to me. Maybe you should work your way through the ones in the chocoholics threads just to check you don't like it? ;)

If you don't like dark chocolate you could try the Organica Couverture Bar -(think it's called something like that. They often have it in the allergy section of Waitrose and it's is a passable imitation of milk chocolate. There is even a fruit and nut version, seen here ttp://www.animalaidshop.org.uk/chocbars.htm

[powerlifer]

I would say vegan food i eat now is much tastier than most of the stuff i ate before.

For most of my meals i need to cook fresh so they contain many more ingredients and spices rather than laden with salt and preservetives.

[Christopher]

I love vegan food. I always had to have ridiculous amounts of meat on everything I ate before I turned vegan. It's all about how you make it. To me, a gigantic slice of avocado with some spinach, tomato, vegenaise, mustard, and red hot sauce in a wheat bun sounds so amazing right now. Mmmm! :thumbsup:

[Stuart]

I've still only a limited repetoire when it comes to cooking, so it's more a case of whether I miss dairy/honey/egg based foods within my eating, and I don't think I do overly, if at all. As well as not missing these foods, I have now tried new things i'd never have before: black beluga lentils, quinoa... Nakd bars! Much that I like. Soya milk was the one thing I wasn't so keen on at first, but would now choose over milk were it a viable choice, and cheese the one big thing I thought i'd never go without (along with milk chocolate!) but have gone just fine. :)

I don't know why I lacked the faith to become a vegan, i'd never lapsed or suffered an overwhelming temptation to go back as a veggie, and just the same has been true here.

[twinkle toes]

I never did try doggie chocs but I'm surprised to hear they're like vegan chocolate, some of which seems pretty good to me. Maybe you should work your way through the ones in the chocoholics threads just to check you don't like it? ;)

If you don't like dark chocolate you could try the Organica Couverture Bar -(think it's called something like that. They often have it in the allergy section of Waitrose and it's is a passable imitation of milk chocolate. There is even a fruit and nut version, seen here ttp://www.animalaidshop.org.uk/chocbars.htm

you never tried dog chocolate harpy?? well it tastes like ordinary milk chocolate only sort of weird and powdery and dry and flavourless!

ohh yeah i'm sure there is nice vegan friendly chocolate, and dark chocolate is usually pretty nice too it's just that now i don't eat chocolate all the time like i used to (milk chocolate) i don't really get cravings for it or feel like eating it. oh my god actually i have just remembered another vegan friendly chocolate product which is really really nice - those alpro dark chocolate flavour yoghurts :heart:

[colleengirl95]

I think that vegan food is tastier than the food i've eaten before. I think making or cooking vegan food is like exploring the different vegetables and tastes that i thought never existed before i went vegan.

[Ruth]

I think it tastes nicer. Although that might be also to do with the fact that since I became vegan, I have started to cook healthier foods and appreciate them more, and my tastebuds have changed. I find myself enjoying foods now that I didn't used to like (peppers, tomatoes, olives). I think without heavy foods like cheese and milk and all the processed stuff I ate when I was just veggie my tastebuds have become more sensitive to the delicate flavours in some foods.

I also think you can make things just as tasty. Like in baking, eggs don't add flavour, they merely bind. So if you replace them it makes no different to the taste.

I don't think it matters whether or not the food I eat now is objectively tastier/less tasty. A meat-eater might try the food I eat in a day and say it is bland, or boring, or tasteless and that might be their perception. But what matters is that I enjoy it. The only thing is when they try vegan food and think it tastes bland, then develop a negative view of veganism as a result. So I always try to make food for non-vegans as tasty and impressive as possible to show that you can eat food that is just as flavourful without animal products.

Also, I find that since the majority of products on offer are off limits, I have to be more creative to make non-vegan foods edible. And when I find, for example, vegan gummy bears or vegan whipped cream, it's SUCH a treat! Way better than just picking them up from the supermarket. Or I have to bake things myself. So after months of drooling over non-vegan cupcakes, I made some myself. And I enjoyed them that much more having gone to the effort of making them myself. It stops you from over-indulging, and participating in the excessive consumption that seems to be the norm now.

[Becky9679]

The best way to answer this is (oddly enough) to talk about eating out which is generally a difficult subject for most vegans. With food I've cooked at home there really is very little difference between pre and post vegan, mostly because I'm a lazy cook, I just shove stuff in a pan without much thought.

However I have discovered that vegan food CAN taste much better than non vegan through visiting my favourite cafe/restaurant - The Alley Cafe in Nottingham. Generally whenever I go out to a restaurant I feel that I've been overcharged and could have had something I liked just as much if not more at home much more cheaply. That never ever happens when I eat at The Alley Cafe!!! As well as giving huge portions all their food is absolutely divine. Last week I had a blended soy ice cream 'milk' shake from there at a price of about £2.50 and this is without a doubt the best milkshake I've had in my life, dairy or not. I would love to have the time, energy and knowhow to cook like they do in there.

In case people are wondering, I'm not being bribed by The Alley Cafe to sing their praises I truly do love them this much!!!

[Elfwin]

Ever since i moved out from my parent's house i've dabbled in cooking & quite enjoy it. When i was a vegetarian i just tended to buy frozen stuff & bung it in the oven, but now because there aren't many quick frozen vegan eats (like Quorn for instance) then i find myslef making more from scratch. So, yes things do taste better, but whether that's because it's the food or whether it's because i'm actually putting in the effort now i'm not sure!

[convectuoso]

i always though meat tasted like nothing unless it was covered in fats and sauces
paper had more taste than chicken

[Tishy]

Going vegan made me far more creative and therefore all my food I now make is soooo much tastier! Usually when I make food at a party, it's the first to go ;) Meat and dairy limits your imagination on how to cook or bake. Once you start replacing to susbstitute dairy or meat, you then start to experiment with these new found ingredients. And then it just gets interesting! I used to have to have sauce on all my food when i was an omni, now I don't need to! Because its waaaay too tasty! :)

[Sooky]

I voted for yes. In fact, before I was vegan, I constantly had the feeling that I was eating the same thing every day and was getting infinitely bored of it, but that might be because I was half in a depression and on the verge of getting into an eating disorder. Becoming vegan was seriously the best thing I've ever done in my life. I have developed the ability to differentiate between fresh food and packaged food, I know the differences between the growing conditions of the vegetables and fruit I eat. I can't enjoy strawberries from far away anymore because they simply taste awful and I scream of joy for the local ones in season. I have grown to prepare food freshly, eat seasonal vegetables and fruit. For comparison: I used to eat normal Ketchup even as a vegan, but recently I tried it again and it was horrible. There was no taste of Tomatoes at all.
Before I became vegan, at least for a few years (8-13 yo; before that I enjoyed mostly vegetarian/vegan fresh korean food by my loving mother) I didn't enjoy food at all, it was mostly about stuffing it inside and feeling all guilty and full and horrible inside but still continuing to eat because you don't feel satiated. As a vegan, I haven't experienced this. Food has never been a problem since and most days I don't even realise I'm vegan until someone tells me. It feels natural. It feels good. I can finally be happy when I see all those fresh, green leaves and stuff on my plate and it makes me joyful to prepare the food. :bigsmile: So... I guess that's the reason why I said yes. And it's as honest as can be.
Looking back, I remember times I thought my hot chocolate was disgusting but kept drinking it just because "it's supposed to be delicious". And got it next time again. Because everyone else thought it was great. I remember many times I didn't eat because I genuinely liked the food but because it was the sort of thing that the cool european kids, my schoolmates, the other people ate. And I desperately tried to fit in. ...I guess the lactose-intolerant, veggie-loving part of me was more dominant in the end. And since I've had and made incredibly delicious, scrumptious vegan Cake, I don't miss anything at all.

[Eat Y'self Fitter]

I never ate much fruit before I went vegan. Now I realize how tasty it is. The food I ate was boring until I became vegan.

[RhegHimself]

I think that vegan food is tastier because as a vegan you have to learn to veganise dishes, so you have to cook them yourself, so can tweak them till they are exactly to your taste.

[emzy1985]

I think that over time I've gained more and more cooking and raw preparation knowledge that food naturally just tastes better. :D

[mmmorgans]

There are some vegan items that I find to be less tasty than the orginal thing but overall I eat food that tastes good to me therefor I chose there is no difference to me.

[RhegHimself]

i've actually forgotten what a lot of non vegan food tastes like, is it just me or has it happened to anybody else?