Last updated: Saturday, 5th September 2026
We’ve all met someone who tried a terrible bean burger, decided it was grim, and used that as their reference to what vegan food is about.
Vegans, and vegan food in particular, get a lot of slander. The usual spiel is that it’s a strict, joyless diet, that the food’s boring, and that it simply doesn’t taste good.
So does vegan food actually taste bad? In short, no. Food isn’t nice or nasty because it’s vegan; it’s nice or nasty for the ordinary reasons any food is: seasoning, cooking, and who’s making it.
Most of the “nasty vegan food” people remember is a result of poor catering, a lazy menu option, or a plate that was completely under-seasoned.
Here’s the thing worth being honest about. For most people, the issue isn’t really the missing meat..
It’s the belief that going without them means giving up taste and texture, because we’ve spent most of our lives eating the other way. Whilst understandable, those elements aren’t lost in vegan cuisine.
Old habits die hard
I’ve been there. I used to be a glass-of-milk-every-morning, omelette-most-days kind of guy, that was just normal to me.
We’re wired for comfort food. Pizza, burgers, sausages, chicken nuggets. Mostly leaning on animal products, so when I first thought about eating plant-based, my honest reaction was, well, what can you even eat?
That way of thinking doesn’t necessarily come from taste, but habit. When you’ve eaten the same way every day for a long time, change doesn’t come as easy as you may think. That’s typically just a product of routine.
Why do people assume vegetables taste worse?
In short, because most of us were raised that way. “Eat your vegetables” was the chore, and you’ll still always be encouraged to at least finish the meat on your plate. Growing up with that and choosing to be more plant-forward doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s also a case of taste; meat-centric foods tend to fattier and saltier, so a vegan burger may taste underwhelming compared to its meaty counterpart. That said, nowadays you can eat a much better quality vegan burger than what used to be available back in the day.
Now look, I’ve had my share of genuinely bad veggie burgers: crispy little patties of mashed potato and sweetcorn masquerading as a meal. That’s some trust issues right there. It’s like when you reach for a chocolate chip cookie and bite into a raisin.
A lot of modern vegan food has been designed to appeal to the meat eater’s palette, and plenty of the things people assume vegans can’t eat are staples.
How advertising trains our tastebuds
Most of us grew up in front of the TV, where the mum would always nag for her kid to eat their veggies. Plenty of adults never really grew out of it.
Now take a quick walk through your city centre. You’ll smell meat, see a fast food ad, the latest mayo chicken for 99p. It’s so engrained in regular society to get fast food every so often, that you become accustomed to the taste and start to crave it.
It also doesn’t help that burgers are the perfect balance of fat, salt and sugar, providing what is otherwise known as a bliss point, keeping you coming back for more. The food itself spikes your dopamine, ergo making it addictive.
Do vegans just eat “fake food”?
You’ve probably seen a vegan recipe that looks genuinely good, something like a vegan strawberry cheesecake, with comments complaining that the cheesecake didn’t contain real cheese. Meanwhile the cream “cheese” is based on cashews, and somehow that’s a crime.
It usually isn’t really about the ingredients. It’s about attachment to the original. Which is fair enough, but that shouldn’t be a reason to completely write the food off.
In the past decade, plant-based versions have arrived for nearly all the comfort staples people assume are off the table:
- Milk, butter, yoghurt, ice cream
- Burgers, kebabs, mince, sausages
- Even fried “chick’n”
No, these aren’t made from animal products, although they’re often named after them. Most modern vegans grew up eating meat and dairy and stopped for their own reasons, health or ethics or something in between.
These transitional foods are typically made of ingredients like soy, pea protein and vital wheat gluten to capture textures you won’t typically get from fruit, vegetables or beans.
A burger was never really about the beef anyway; Moretime it’s the bun, the toppings, sauce, and the texture that makes that burger-ey taste.
Britain got a live demonstration of this when the Greggs vegan sausage roll first came out. Piers Morgan was famously shocked that Greggs called it a sausage roll without any pork in it, which ironically boosted the growth in consumer sentiment in it. For anyone wandering the Greggs vegan sausage roll is made of Quorn, and actually tastes great.
A lot of people still associate processed vegan food as fake, while treating processed meat and dairy options as natural, despite that being far from the truth.
If you’re going to turn down vegan food, you’ve gotta have a better excuse than quality. Order a decent plant-based burger at a good pub and you won’t notice the difference.
Does vegan food actually have no flavour?
In short, if vegan food is bland, that’s usually a skill issue.
The “vegan food has no flavour” line mostly comes from meeting the food at its worst: the veggie burger at your local chicken shop. A burger spot with one bland looking veggie option.
Go somewhere where they actually put in some effort, a proper vegan restaurant where chefs cook for vegans and meat-eaters alike, it’s a different gravy.
Jackfruit’s the most common example. Done well, it’s brilliant in a veganised pulled “pork” recipe.
Done by a restaurant that found jackfruit on page one of #veganrecipes, you get a jackfruit that tastes like crispy, encrusted mashed potato, and the cycle continues. These specific places aren’t doing vegan food any favours.
That said, it is changing. Chains like Nando’s now have a range of vegan options to choose from. For people to take the vegan option seriously, there’s gotta be some variety.
Why does vegan food taste bland to some people?
In short, most people see vegan food and vegetables as the side of their main dish, and they don’t put in the effort to season their food.
Flavour comes from spices, aromatics, the combinations you build from them. Meat is just really good at absorbing that. Take the seasoning away and your chicken and rice won’t hit the same.
The key is to get comfortable with cooking more. I keep three types of lentils and 10 types of legumes in the pantry. Once you have that and a decent range of spices, you’re good to go.
Nobody’s food tastes of much without seasoning, full stop. Confidence in the kitchen is a skill anyone can, and should pick up. Start with a few go to dishes for different tastes and the rest comes easy.
Vegan food that actually tastes good
Nuff said. Here’s the food that tends to win people over, skeptics included:
- A proper vegan burger
- A rich, lentil stew
- Vegan bangers and mash
- The Greggs vegan sausage roll, still holding its own
- Vegan clam chowder recipe
You won’t miss the meat in any of these.
So, does vegan food actually taste bad?
Vegan food does not taste bad.
That’s coming from a former committed meat-eater who lived for barbecues, burgers, lasagne, and mac and cheese. Are there some odd vegan products out there, and the occasional, genuinely bad one? Of course there is, we do not live in a perfect world.
This is why I started veganising my childhood favourites in the first place: to show curious meat-eaters that trying the food doesn’t have to come as a compromise.
So if there’s a skeptic in your life, take them to a proper vegan restaurant. How’s that for a meat free Monday?
