Feeding vegans

With vegan guests coming over this weekend I'm looking through cookbooks -- am reminded how much I like Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.

Good website, too - http://www.thekindlife.com/

Note: this isn't a commercial pitch but rather a post of appreciation. Nothing wrong with serving good plain veggies to people, but it's fun to go beyond that and explore the larger universe of tasty vegan dishes.

Lise

Don't know if you've ever heard or used the "Quorn" products, or if they are available whereever you are. They will enliven many vegetarian dishes, from Chinese "Chicken" Salad to ...............well, whatever comes to mind for Chicken Substitutes. Not sure if they are totally Vegan, you will have to check.

will do, thanks Brigitte - I have seen Quorn products in the freezer case and will give them a test run. I'm in northern CA and live fairly close to decent-sized grocers that stock veg products, thank goodness.

Being vegetarian, I can easily relate to vegans. Most of us are happy with the soy substitute products so long as they don't look or taste too much like meat -

:-) For some years since Quorn first came out, I checked the labels and saw reference to egg albumin; but as we know, things can change. So I googled today...

From http://www.quorn.com/FAQs/: "Since all Quorn products contain a small amount of egg white, and most also contain milk ingredients, they are not suitable for vegans."

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn: "In 2011 Quorn Foods launched a 'vegan burger' into the USA market - the binder being potato protein, replacing egg albumen, to confer vegan status."

I guess you'll need to make sure you have the right specs (if necessary) to read those labels, Lise! (-:

I know, the print is so tiny on the sides of those boxes. Thank you both for the head's up on ingredients.

An aside, I noticed recently that a mass-produced brand of frozen puff pastry sheets (Pepperidge Farms in the U.S.) is vegan-friendly. The things you can make with puff pasty! it takes my breath away. Potato/pea samosas, sausage rolls, spanikopita (sp?). Sigh.

Since you mentioned puff pastry... again, these are surprisingly easy to make, are incredibly yummy, and since I made them they are surely fool-proof:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/vegetables/mushrooms/wild-mushrooms-in-madeira-en-croute-with-foaming-hollandaise-sauce.html

Edit: sorry I just realised that I posted that on the vegan thread and that there's dairy in the recipe. I am of firm conviction however that adequate substitutes can be found. Speaking of substitutes, this is a great site for finding substitutes for funny-sounding stuff... www.foodsubs.com.

Very true, this could easily be made vegan. Edited to say, I've never tried a Hollandaise sauce but I see there are tons of vegan recipes for it.

It's fun to find good substitutes. I live for the day when soy- or rice-based cheese tastes like real cheese, esp. Parmesan and Cheddar. And isn't it nice when labels say "microbial rennet" and we don't have to guess whether cow rennet is hiding in there somewhere.

I live for the day when things are called what they are. Forget 'beef, pork, bacon and cheese'. What we're really eating is cows, pigs, pigs' bottoms and fermented cowjuice. Or better yet, we're eating sentient beings presumably without their permission.

1) Goes nicely with strawberries: Mix equal volumes of (preferably organic) coconut cream and maple-syrup;

2) Agave syrup also goes well with strawberries;


3) 'Dressed' nut-paste:
Mix'n'mash the following ingredients...
Almond or cashew nut-butter: 1½-2 tablespoons (alas peanut-butter tastes weird with this mix)
French dressing: 1 dessertspoon (dsp)
Lecithin granules (optional): 1 teaspoon (tsp)
Lemon juice: 1 dsp
Soyabean flakes (e.g Zwicky): 1 dsp
Yeast extract: ½ tsp
(The above is for a small-to-medium single portion)

Makes a good base for a mixed salad, e.g shredded lettuce with diced avocado, beetroot, cucumber, red pepper, salad onion, tomato, plus a few sultanas, sweetcorn kernels and chopped pickled olives.

oooh, I love cashews -- this sounds lovely.

Isn't it fun to pour things on fruit and see what happens? I've used peach nectar (found in the Mexican food aisle), melted jam, or a spoonful of melted vanilla ice cream. Just a little, so it's barely sweeter. Fruit mixed with a liquid seems to sparkle more, esp. red and purple berries. And then a sprinkling of cinnamon and cayenne pepper on top . . .

Who else is going to the farmer's market this weekend? I think it's time to make a tart.