One of the most common arguments, that I seem to get embroiled in over the last few months is due to this statement
“Why do vegans/vegetarians want to eat mock meat products? “
To me it makes perfect sense, I think it possibly helps if one of your children are Vegan and to have watched their journey.
People become vegan for various reason, some for health reasons, some to help save the planet, some because they just don’t like the taste of meat and then the most common reason, because they don’t want an animal killed just to provide their food and/or provide footwear or a handbag.
I make the point quite clearly here that I am still a carnivore but equally enjoy meat free food a few times a week.
For health reasons, my wonderful husband’s Asthma reacts to dairy, our home fridge is full of plant alternatives, oat crème fraiche, oat milk, vegan cheese of all kinds and we are generally, other than some Red Leicester, my childhood cheese, a plant based non-dairy house, even our parmesan is vegan. No one ever asks why Vegans want to eat/drink plant based cheeses or milk, it has just become normal for all our favourite coffee shops to offer an array of milks. As an aside I did buy some Pea milk for my daughter, a pea fanatic, mainly out of curiosity but there was a distinct pea taste to the coffee though it would be great to add a creamy flavour to a vegan soup, needless to say it winged it’s way to her flat in London.
Yet in exactly the same way as still having milk on your coffee and cheese on your toast, most vegans liked the taste of meat so therefore being able to still enjoy the taste and texture of meat without killing anything surely can’t be a bad thing, the beauty of so many new products are simply creating meat flavours using natural ingredients, herbs & spices. As a caterer we have embraced the challenge and created new dishes with jackfruit instead of pulled pork, banana blossom instead of fish, tem-peh instead of chicken and now seitan which can replicate most meats.
Being able to extend your menus is great and we have a whole section of Vegan to Vegetarian within our menus. Therefore not food full of chemicals in a science lab but increasing a demand for crops. I listen to discussions about farmers livelihoods etc but with our increasing population we would struggle to maintain animal farming at the levels required so by everyone cutting down on meat & don’t get me started on dwindling fish stocks..we will all help our planet.
I have heard arguments that we were created Hunters and designed to eat meat, but once we didn’t stand upright, read or write but look at us now, I believe ‘in my opinion ‘ it’s all about evolution.
We suggest that if our wedding couples or party hosts are Vegan/Vegetarian couples then their entire menu on the day should be so too and we like to offer a balance between great vegetable dishes and a bit of mock meat in there too, asking someone who wouldn’t want an animal killed for their dinner at home surely shouldn’t kill a few to feed 100 plus guests on the day.
Our menus equally have amazing meat dishes, our job is simply to make everyone smile with the food on their plate, whatever their preferences.