As a current omnivore but a former vegetarian then vegan for many years, I’d like to come to the defense of meat analogues. Personally, I don’t really understand why they would be disgusting to vegetarians just as I don’t understand how it can be confounding to omnivores that vegetarians would like them. I can certainly comprehend how a person who just simply doesn’t like meat wouldn’t like them.
I’ve never been a big fan of the processed stuff you can buy in the stores like fake chicken nuggets and burgers that are similar to meat (not the grain veggie burgers) but I do love to have dishes from the homemade seitan (beef or chicken style) that I make myself such as vegan cheese “steak” sandwiches. I actually prefer vegan style to the real meat version.
Sometimes when I was a vegetarian, I would miss comfort foods from my childhood like sloppy Joe’s, taco salad, sweet and sour chicken etc. etc. Fake meats scratched that itch. Sure you can make some of the comfort foods with lentils and other beans but shredded seitan is a great stand in if you want to get closer to authenticity for things like taco salad.
I don’t think vegetarians find the actual dish offensive, just what it took to get there, whether it’s for environmental or humane reasons. I’m guessing someone that is offended by a seitan “steak” sandwich is a pretty unreasonable and immature person. Personally I’ve never encountered one of these kinds of silly people in real life but I have gotten whiffs of them on the internet for sure.
