Sonia Sood asked:


To some people, the phrase “Vegan Cuisine” sounds like an oxymoron. To others, it sounds like the road of a ******** food nutritionist. “Scary,” was the word used by my roommate when I announced I was going to try to become a vegan. What most people don’t realize is that it’s very possible, indeed even probable, for a creative chef to make vegan food just as exciting and full of variety as any other type of cuisine.

What is veganism, first of all? Strictly put, veganism is a diet which contains no animal byproducts. Not only do vegans not eat meat, like vegetarians, but they also do not consume any food created by animals. No milk, no eggs, no dairy of any kind. No pasta derived from eggs. No gelatin. When you stop to think, it is surprising how much of the typical American diet is animal-derived.

All of this, I admit, can sound rather scary to the typical meat and milk lover, and certainly to the typical American who is surrounded by fast-food hamburgers and bologna sandwiches from a young age. But veganism is not as intimidating as it sounds. In fact, when the right choices in recipe and menu are made, it can be extraordinarily flavorful and rewarding.

Think of it this way: Vegan cuisine can’t rely on heavy, flavorful ingredients like meat and dairy to get its flavor and substance. So what do they do instead? They replace those ingredients in a way that makes you never even miss them- with fresh vegetables, heady spices, wonderful texture combinations and delicate wheat-based starches.

One of the most uniquely vegan foods on the market, and the one that tends to scare the layperson the most, is tofu. Tofu is basically a soybean curd with a sponge-like consistency and a bland taste that absorbs whatever flavors are around it. Am I tempting you yet?

Wait. Let’s try this. Imagine a dish of Italian stuffed shells, loaded with tomato sauce and basil, garlic, and oregano. Now imagine that instead of cheese, the shells were stuffed with a mixture of soft tofu, blended with fresh spinach. The tofu absorbs the Italian spices and has a delicate, creamy flavor all its own. Would you notice the absence of the cheese? Sure. Would you miss it? Not likely.

There are many recipes unique to vegan cuisine that are truly surprising in their variety and tastiness. Curry is one of the darlings of vegan cuisine, and is available in all forms and flavors. Other wonderful vegan dishes include several types of stir-fry, swimming in soy sauces and fresh vegetables; salads overflowing with fresh beans and sweet oil dressings, and many spicy and exciting side dishes and appetizers. Many people, for example, love the wonderful garlicky zing of hummus and do not realize that it’s a distinctly vegan food.

Give vegan cuisine a try. Once you stop relying on meat and milk for your flavor and fullness, you might just discover a whole new world out there, where spices are abundant and soybean curd can be delicious.



Erin

Nicholas Tan asked:


If you aren’t a vegetarian now and haven’t been one in the past, you probably also haven’t eaten tofu many times. In fact, the only time most people hear about tofu it is in jokes aimed at vegetarians.

So why is it that vegetarians eat this stuff all the time? Is is it simply because they have no other choice?

The answer is both yes and no.

Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you have to eat tofu. In fact, there are many vegetarians who never eat tofu or any popular meat-replacement dishes–such as “veggie burgers” or “tofurkey”–for that matter.

As long as they research and create meal plans, vegetarians can maintain a healthy diet eating traditional meals or ethnic dishes.

Tofu is often cited as something exclusively vegetarian because it is a versatile, highly-nutritional, and can be used to replace meat dishes.

Not only can it be created in textures, consistencies, and flavors that simulate a range of meats–from turkey to hamburg–but it can also actually replace and far exceed the nutritional value of similar meat dishes.

While vegetarians do not actually need to consume tofu, doing so is often a wise dietary choice–and also the next best thing to eating similar meat products (for those who enjoyed meat dishes before they became vegetarians).

Tofu is a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie food made out of steamed and compressed soy beans. Not only is it a great source of protein–which many vegetarians lack–but it is also heart-healthy and has been linked to a decreased

risk in cancer.

In addition to being served as a meat alternative, tofu is also served in a number of spicy and ethnic dishes, which were never intended to contain meat. Many ethnic Indian dishes contain large amounts of tofu cooked and spiced

in different ways.

So here is my suggestion to you: If you aren’t already a vegetarian, but want to become one, don’t let tofu get in your way. You can maintain a healthy vegetarian diet without ever eating it. However, if you already are a vegetarian, but haven’t tried tofu, I highly suggest you do. It is both nutritional and versatile – and it might not taste as bad as you think.



Johnny

Sean Carter asked:


What comes to your mind when you first think of Thanksgiving? The big fat golden-brown turkey? To millions, a Vegetarian Thanksgiving would mean no heaps of turkey meat at their dining table to feast on, but to the turkeys it would mean freedom to LIVE.

Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks to God for blessings received during the year. It is usually a family day, celebrated with joyous reunions, feastings and prayers. Families and friends come together to enjoy the Macey’s Thanksgiving Parade and Football. Although it is a major celebration in the United States and Canada, other countries like Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Laos, Liberia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, etc also celebrate this joyous holiday.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving is a term which has slowly become popular all over, not only with the vegetarians but also among the non vegetarians. Being veg. is a journey, not a destination – even with its back roads, detours and speed bumps. Thanksgiving used to be a vegetarian’s worst nightmare, but no longer. More and more vegetarian groups are holding dinners and celebrations, and there are even caterers and food companies specializing in a wide selection of meatless alternatives.

The living and the dead! If turkeys were our companions, we would be terribly upset with the death of any one of them; but because they are “food”, we are indifferent to their death. Thousands of free-range turkeys are raised in a single warehouse-like structure forced to stand on accumulated fecal waste and breathe in ammonia fumes. These turkeys are then taken to the slaughterhouse through transport containers where they are hung upside down in shackles. There they cry out in fear and pain as they await their own slaughter. Think of how much it hurts when we get a little speck in our eye, and we might understand the degree of suffering that the turkeys are been forced to endure day after day. When left the way God intended turkeys to be, they have a wonderful and close family life. It is not human to deprive them of this gift from God.

There is a lot more to explore at a thanksgiving dinner table than just turkeys. Some food items that I can suggest, which I found from some great recipe sites, would be:

APPETIZERS/STARTERS

Guacamole, a Relish plate of sliced vegetables (Crudités) and White wine.

MAIN COURSE

Vegan Nut Roast à la PeTA

Ingredients:

‘The roast’:

Two tablespoons oil or margarine

2 large onions, chopped fine

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups raw cashews

1 1/2 cups bread

1 cup soup stock (or water)

Salt and pepper

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons lemon juice

‘The stuffing’:

3 cups bread cubes, toasted

Two tablespoons margarine, melted but not hot

1/2 to 3/4 cup finely-chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon sage

3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Salt to taste

Method:

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil or margarine until tender, and remove from the heat.

Chop the cashews by hand or in a food processor; cut up the bread as well. Add the cashews and bread to the onion, then add the vegetable stock, salt and pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Put half of this mixture into a small, non-stick loaf pan. Mix together all the ingredients from the second list. Put the mixture on top of the stuff in the loaf pan, and add the rest of the first mixture so that there are three layers of food in the pan. Place the pan on a baking sheet or in a larger loaf pan, and bake at 400 degrees F for half an hour. The top should be browned. Let the roast cool for a few minutes, then turn the pan over and serve the roast on a plate. Serve with gravy if desired, keeping in mind that it is a very rich dish.

Notes:

The roast will take about an hour to prepare. This recipe makes roughly six servings.

Other main courses items could be: Home-made bread, Salad, Steamed carrots and green beans, Mashed potatoes, rolls, Bread stuffing, Red wine, Vegan Bisquits, Vegan Nut Roast with Stuffing à la PeTA, Vegan Gravy and Simple Cranberry Sauce.

DESERT

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1 350-g box of silken firm tofu, drained

1 heaping cup of cooked or canned pumpkin

1 to 1 1/4 cups brown or golden sugar, not packed tight

dash salt

4 teaspoons blended “pumpkin pie spice” OR:

1 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground dry ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoons nutmeg

1 pie crust

Method:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Blend the tofu in a food processor or with a blender until smooth and cream-like, for about four minutes. Stop the machine every once in a while to scrape large pieces of tofu down into the machine’s blades. Add the cooked pumpkin and blend some more, again stopping the machine and scraping the mixture down. The result should be a light orange-colored paste with no lumps of tofu. Put the paste into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar, salt, and spices. Mix well and spoon it into the pie crust; decorate with cheerful shapes of leftover crust, if desired. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until the crusts are dark brown. Serve warm or chilled, plain or topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

Notes:

This pie takes about two hours to prepare. A single good-sized sugar pie pumpkin will usually yield enough material for two pies: the recipe doubles easily. The pie refrigerates and freezes well.

Other Desert items could be: hot cocoa, Vegan Pumpkin Pie and Butter Tarts.

You can wish your friends and family a Vegetarian Thanksgiving with a simple Ecard from sites such as 123Greetings.com



Suzanne

Jesus Smay asked:


If you aren’t a vegetarian now and haven’t been one in the past, you probably also haven’t eaten tofu many times. In fact, the only time most people hear about tofu it is in jokes aimed at vegetarians.

So why is it that vegetarians eat this stuff all the time? Is is it simply because they have no other choice?

The answer is both yes and no.

Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you have to eat tofu. In fact, there are many vegetarians who never eat tofu or any popular meat-replacement dishes–such as “veggie burgers” or “tofurkey”–for that matter.

As long as they research and create meal plans, vegetarians can maintain a healthy diet eating traditional meals or ethnic dishes.

Tofu is often cited as something exclusively vegetarian because it is a versatile, highly-nutritional, and can be used to replace meat dishes.

Not only can it be created in textures, consistencies, and flavors that simulate a range of meats–from turkey to hamburg–but it can also actually replace and far exceed the nutritional value of similar meat dishes.

While vegetarians do not actually need to consume tofu, doing so is often a wise dietary choice–and also the next best thing to eating similar meat products (for those who enjoyed meat dishes before they became vegetarians).

Tofu is a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie food made out of steamed and compressed soy beans. Not only is it a great source of protein–which many vegetarians lack–but it is also heart-healthy and has been linked to a decreased risk in cancer.

In addition to being served as a meat alternative, tofu is also served in a number of spicy and ethnic dishes, which were never intended to contain meat. Many ethnic Indian dishes contain large amounts of tofu cooked and spiced in different ways.

So here is my suggestion to you: If you aren’t already a vegetarian, but want to become one, don’t let tofu get in your way. You can maintain a healthy vegetarian diet without ever eating it. However, if you already are a vegetarian, but haven’t tried tofu, I highly suggest you do. It is both nutritional and versatile – and it might not taste as bad as you think.



Joy

& asked:


I am having a dinner party on Sunday, and a woman I’m friends with and her husband are both vegetarians. I wanted to make them a delicious tofu dish, but I don’t know any good tofu recipes. Do you have any delicious and healthy tofu recipes for me?

Allison