The starting point. Le point de départ.

Veganism is the moral baseline, the starting point, of the abolitionist animal rights movement. The main purpose of this blog is to explore animal issues from the perspective of the emerging abolitionist movement.

2007-11-12

Vegan food is awesome

Unfortunately, since there are relatively few vegans, other people seem to have this impression that it's really difficult to be vegan, that it must take a lot of willpower and that you have to be willing to deprive yourself of "good food". Part of the reason for this impression is no doubt because we often see our non-vegan family and friends in situations where we have no control over the food being served, and so all too often end up with a plate of iceberg lettuce and mushy tomatoes or something similarly unappetizing- and unsatisfying-looking in front of us. But those of us who are vegan know that these impressions really couldn't be further from the truth - vegan food is not only good for non-human animals and for our health, but is amazingly delicious. Not to mention the fact that you can re-create a vegan version of just about any dish you liked as a non-vegan - it may not taste exactly the same, this is true, but your taste buds change when you haven't eaten animal products for a while, so that a good "substitute" recipe is just as satisfying as the original. Actually, more so, knowing that no one was harmed to make it. Opposing the property status of animals simply by eating really freaking delicious food; what could be better??

In that vein, I thought I would share a few photos of meals that I've made recently.
This is a vegan version of one of my favourite staple meals from before I was vegan - french toast grilled cheese sandwiches with maple syrup (*someone* that I live with seems to think that this is disgusting, but I'm sure other french-canadians will understand the maple syrup thing!) The french toast soaking liquid has a chickpea flour base. The cheese is also homemade, based on the block uncheese recipes in The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.
Red lentil dal (red lentils, onions, cumin, fennel, mustard seeds, turmeric, chili flakes, garlic, sea salt, cilantro), and greens (spinach, collards, onions, cumin, coriander, dry mustard, ginger, cayenne, garlic, sea salt, lemon juice, coconut) over brown rice. The samosas were store bought.
Vegan tourtière, based on a recipe that was given to me a couple of years ago by Gaia of Live it Up Vegan!, with roasted, curried brussels sprouts and mashed acorn squash.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketSpelt crust pizza with a nutritional yeast /chickpea flour cheese sauce (also based on what I remember from a recipe in The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook), asparagus, mushrooms, onions, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketSweet potato, white potato, collard greens, and chickpea curry, garnished with cilantro and served over mahogany rice. Very very loosely based on Dino's dry-cooked garbanzo recipe from Alternative Vegan.
And now for dessert - I've been on a pie-making kick lately. Here is a vegan banana cream pie. The baseline "recipe" I use for all my cream pies contains silken tofu and agar, among other things.
Raspberry pie made with raspberries from my parents' backyard. Their berries are in season from late August until late October, which from what I hear is unusual, but there you go, they have an unusual variety of raspberry plant.

And finally, two pies that I made for Canadian Thanksgiving back in October - a chocolate hazelnut pie, and a pumpkin pie.
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10 Comments:

At 1:30 PM, Blogger ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Yum, all your food looks delicious!
And French toast-grilled cheese sandwiches sound terrific-- thanks for the idea!

 
At 9:33 AM, Blogger ms. veganorama said...

Maple syrup goes well with *everything*. He just doesn't get it 'cause he's not Canadian. ;)

 
At 1:32 PM, Blogger LizNoVeggieGirl said...

my goodness, look at all this scrumptious, vegan goodness!! I'm especially keen on the french toast-style grilled 'cheese' sandwiches (how innovative!) and pie :0)

great blog you've got here!

 
At 9:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOOOOOL !
Ariix, I'm a french canadian and I do understand the maple syrup thing. I was going to say that I didn't however understand the grilled-cheese part of it UNTIL I remembered that I used to dip pieces of cheddar in maple syrup and it was delicious :D
So I'm sure it's quite good :)

I admit to being in love with all your pies and I have to tell you that the pumpkin pie that I blogged about today, was made using your pie crust method. I used a boxed mélange for the crust but chilled everything before hand and it was the best result I have ever had. Not ONE tear and I did it the first time. So I luuurv you and will be working on the statue :D

 
At 10:49 PM, Blogger Ariix said...

@chocolatecoveredvegan and veggiegirl: Thanks! :)

@ms. veganorama: You are absolutely right! Those American boys eh? ;)

@Gaia: I'm glad the crust method worked out for you! Your pie looks delicious, by the way!!

 
At 4:17 PM, Blogger Roger Yates said...

You are quite right - vegan food is awesome. Those who think they cannot survive as vegans simply lack imagination. Also, and most importantly, there are more and more vegan foods becoming available even though the numbers of vegans is relatively low. Just think of the goodies to come in the future as numbers increase! For example, the are great strides in vegan food provision in Japan at the moment. I once read that there are about 88,000 edible plants in the world. There is no excuse for not being vegan!

RY

 
At 6:42 PM, Blogger Brittany said...

Hi! Any chance you can pass on to me that tourtiere recipe? I have my own favorite version but I'd love to see what this one is like.

 
At 2:10 PM, Blogger Ariix said...

Sure, Squirrel! Here it is:

1/3 cup millet
1 cup water
1/2 c sunflower seeds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 onion, chopped fine
2/3 c grated raw potato
2 tbsp tamari
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1 clove garlic, pressed, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more)
pinch salt
up to 1/3 c water if needed

Cook the millet in the 1 c water in a covered pot (about 20 min).

Grind the sunflower and sesame seeds in a blender or coffee grinder.

Mix together the cooked millet, ground seeds, and all other ingredients, adding up to 1/3 c water if necessary.

Put into the pie crust and cover with a top crust. Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes.

 
At 10:14 PM, Blogger Vegan Vixen said...

Some yummy looking food there!

 
At 1:01 PM, Blogger Luella said...

I just interviewed a vegetarian who leans vegan, but told me he thinks veganism would be hard. He said he just gave up eggs, but doesn't know about giving up milk. Um... weird. Another vegetarian who went gave up all animal products for Lent told me he thinks being vegan on campus is easy, and I also interviewed a vegan who thinks it's easy. So... the meat-eaters obviously think it's hard, and one of the vegetarians thinks it's hard, but not the rest... it's like a split perspective. I should've probed into why that vegetarian thinks it would be hard. Hmm...

 

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