There are vegans and vegetarians who like the taste of animal products but choose not to eat them for ethical reasons alone. I don’t think it’s strange or wrong to want to replicate a familiar and enjoyable recipe. That being said, there are many times where I would prefer a recipe that was created with whole plant-based ingredients than eat ultra-processed, artificial tasting animal product substitutes.

Sometimes you want to try a recipe and it’s so tied to the meat (texture usually) that a substitute works better (or at least makes it so you don’t have to muck around to find the right texture/taste).

I’ll give tacos as an example. As a kid we’d just ask to sub beans into the taco. And they were okay. Then one day, I tried it with Beyond Beef, and I suddenly understood why people liked tacos so much.

For me only diced mushrooms came close, but even that texture was inferior, compared to the Beyond Beef. Flavor was just as good though.

Because I want the flavor without the cruelty.

Nah, I'm definitely enjoying it to the point where the only thing left that's meat that I kind of like is fried chicken, but even that's only for the coating, not the meat itself.

Go get yourself to a top vegan/vegetarian restaurant and you'll see what I mean.