Hacker News Reader

Comment by ultim8k | Hacker News Reader

Too bad that vegan food is mostly carbs and tasteless stuff like tofu. There are so many tasty and healthy vegetables and great veggie recipes but you have to cook at home because you can't find them outside.

View on HN

If your tofu is tasteless, you're doing it wrong. One of the major perks of tofu is that it absorbs flavor really well.

Tofu by itself is tasteless.

Raw, uncooked tofu may be tasteless, but I'm not really one for grabbing a raw chicken breast either. Marinades go a long way with tofu, as does which method you cook it.

Good raw tofu isn't tasteless. And bad meat doesn't taste good if it's not eaten with sauce or grilled.

At a very superficial level to this omnivore, vegan food appears to be moving away from tofu and more towards Impossible Meat. And that's a step backwards from this omnivore's perspective. I like vegan burgers because they contain lots of tasty ingredients like black beans, corn & cauliflower. I don't want pseudo-meat because I still eat meat occasionally. Hydrolized Pea Protein is not "real food" IMO.

As for tofu: marinate in maple syrup and tamari, then roast. And I first had that at a restaurant.

Couldn't agree more. Inspite of being a hardcore meat-eater, I often enjoy authentic vegan food because of the actual plant based ingredients such as beans, beatroot and corn. The flavors come together quite nicely in an old school veggie bean patty. The trend with impossible meats disappoints me.

It sounds like maybe you've only seen what passes for vegan options at meat-and-potatoes restaurants.

The general rule of thumb is, don't eat a dish that the chef probably isn't eating themself. They probably haven't put any love, or even thought, into it.

> Too bad that vegan food is mostly carbs

That's the one thing that keeps me away from a lot of vegan food, as much as I do admit that vegan food has gotten way better than it used to be.

I have a voracious appetite, and the best way I've been able to prevent myself from gaining weight again is to limit my carb and sugar intake. I'm occasionally tempted by vegan food, but when I find out the nutrition info, I know I can't sustain just consuming a ton of carbs. Maybe if I didn't have a job where I have to sit down in front of a computer all day, things would be different.

Yes, that's my biggest gripe with vegetarian (and even more so vegan) restaurants. Usually most of the menu is hyper-carby unhealthy dishes. At the same time they can easily be more expensive than the normal restaurants nearby -- they're targeting the hip upper-middle-class folk.

You've only had bad tofu, then.

Those "mostly carbs" you're referring to include a ton of fiber, which is something the diehard meat eaters desperately lack in their diet. And the "tasteless stuff like tofu" does as much to demonstrate your lack of knowledge on the subject of veganism entirely, as well as the fact that you've never eaten well-prepared tofu.

Well, I'm on a carb-free diet right now and believe it or not, my food is full of vegetables and greens. The only kinda tasty tofu I had was full of sause (sugars and oils), or fried. I don't think either of them is healthy. My conclusion is that if you want to eat healthy the only option is to cook your own food.

Sounds like you've never tried well prepared vegan food. If the meal you had was mostly carbs, that's the fault of whoever made the dish for not properly balancing the macros. And obviously plain, unseasoned, poorly cooked tofu will be flavorless. Boil a chicken breast, eat it with no seasoning, and let me know how it is. Properly prepared, vegan food can be just as tasty as non-vegan food

Reply on news.ycombinator.com