Vegan, anyone?

So I'm not a vegan, but surprisingly, many of recipes are. Vegan food is so easy, and very nourishing and you don't have to worry about anything being kosher or not, cause all veggies are kosher!

Cooking tonight: veggie tajine
It's very easy. You just need some nourishing vegetables, I put in carrots, green beans and potatoes, some onion and a tomato. Pumkin is great too, as is everything in season.

So you first dice all the vegetables, and you cut the onion in very small pieces.
Then you put a HUGE splash of olive oil in a heavy iron pan, and you first soften the onion. Then you put your other veggies, salt, pepper and spices you like. I put in ras el hanout, quite some cinnamon and ginger and a bit less cumin and coriander. Often I also add chilli powder but not everyone likes to get his tongue burnt! You mix everything a bit with a wooden spoon, and then you put in your tomato, quartered. It is important to put the tomato or your sauce will stay very watery.
Then you cover your pan and you just let everything simmer in a low fire for an hour or so, and enjoy the good smell of spices everywhere in your house. You might want to add some water if your veggies get burnt but in no means add to much, or you'll make...stew. That's not the idea.
Serve with rice or couscous or this rice-couscous like stuff which is actually pasta.

Easy recipe for the sunday evening, I though some might enjoy ^^

I'm not vegan but I don't eat meat except fish (which isn't meat in Judaism but it's still a dead animal). So, vegan recipes are helpful.

Thanks for the recipe, Salvia!

I eat the same as Dena - I don't eat meat except fish, and I eat dairy and eggs regularly.

I've always enjoyed vegan dishes, especially spicy ones!

I often improvise on the basis of food I have in the house currently. Olive oil is never a mistake - whatever I make becomes special with the olive oil and spices! ;)

Seems like you and me cook much in the same way!
There are always spices, olive oil and loads of fresh seasonal veg in the kitchen, as well as rice and dread legumes and such stuff, and with them I improvise I have all these little boxes of the oriental shop, I guess I have at least 25 different spices in my cupboard. And I love all of them!

Although some dishes have become standards, if you like I might post some more of them, vegan and veggie :)
And I love mediterranean food, like in Claudia Roden's Jewish cookbook. I've stolen and adapted quite some of her recipes for my personal repertoire, especially her 'borekas', nom.
I do eat some meat, mostly chicken, but most of the time it's fish or vegetarian :)

Wow! Didn't realize there were that many non meat eaters here!

I myself mostly eat what is known as "whole foods, plant based". If anyone has watched "Forks Over Knives" or read "The China Study", then you'll know what I'm taling about. No meat , no chicken, no dairy, no eggs, no animal products. Very limited if any processed foods, mostly whole grains.

Every once in awhile, I will eat some fish.

I've been doing it for just about a year now and so far so good! Always looking for new recipies so thank you Salvia for starting the thread!

Sarit wrote:

I've always enjoyed vegan dishes, especially spicy ones!

I am obsessed with Indian but I don't like it very spicy. On the scale of like 1-6 hotness, I get the one every time. I'm a wimp.

searchinmyroots wrote:

Wow! Didn't realize there were that many non meat eaters here!

I myself mostly eat what is known as "whole foods, plant based". If anyone has watched "Forks Over Knives" or read "The China Study", then you'll know what I'm taling about. No meat , no chicken, no dairy, no eggs, no animal products. Very limited if any processed foods, mostly whole grains.

Every once in awhile, I will eat some fish.

I've been doing it for just about a year now and so far so good! Always looking for new recipies so thank you Salvia for starting the thread!

I've seen it. I heard the guy who wrote The China Study wrote another book about how he was incorrect. Not sure if that's true. Anyway, I don't eat meat but I certainly eat plenty of butter! I eat eggs almost every day too.

Dena wrote:

Sarit wrote:

I've always enjoyed vegan dishes, especially spicy ones!

I am obsessed with Indian but I don't like it very spicy. On the scale of like 1-6 hotness, I get the one every time. I'm a wimp.

Lol! I grew up on chilli paste, more or less, so I'm the one who takes the hottest dish in the restaurant and then starts irritating her friends with 'you call this hot? naaahhhh...just a bit spicy'. Haha! I'm not a great fan of indian, but I love indonesian food , which is also very spicy.
But at home I most often cook some kind of flexible mediterranean fusion improvisations, which can be hot but are more often spicy without burning your tongue :) Although, if something lacks taste, I still grab for the chilli paste!

A classic at my place: spicy white beans in tomato sauce.
Needing:
A few handfulls of dried white beans, or 'flageolets verts', soaked in water overnight and cooked for at least 30 minutes
A bell pepper
Onion in small pieces
Garlic in small pieces
A bottle of 'passato di pomodoro, tomato sauce without any additives
The juice of one lemon
one or two spoons of sugar
a good sniff of piri piri OR:
A substantial sniff of chilli powder
A bit of coriandre powder
MUCH paprika
a little sniff of cumin

Or a combination iof piri piri powder with those spices.

Recipe is very simple: you chop the onion and garlic, soften them in a splash of olive oil, add the bell pepper and any other veg you like (I often put a carrot or two..). Stir fry this a bit, add the tomato sauce (passato) and a bit water if it is too thick. Then go berserk with your spices. Add the lemon juice and the spoon of sugar, taste, if there's too much lemon to your taste, a bit more sugar, and vice versa. Then add the beans and let simmer until fragrant and soft and yummy.

This is much better than canned beand in tomato sauce and with some bread or rice it's actually meal ;)

Dena wrote:

Sarit wrote:

I've always enjoyed vegan dishes, especially spicy ones!

I am obsessed with Indian but I don't like it very spicy. On the scale of like 1-6 hotness, I get the one every time. I'm a wimp.

Oh, I like to cry while eating! I take 6.

Salvia wrote:

Seems like you and me cook much in the same way!
There are always spices, olive oil and loads of fresh seasonal veg in the kitchen, as well as rice and dread legumes and such stuff, and with them I improvise I have all these little boxes of the oriental shop, I guess I have at least 25 different spices in my cupboard. And I love all of them!

It's definitely the same way of cooking! My kitchen shelves also contain many different boxes of spice. Combining them, even the same dish is never the same - I can always "color" it differently with spices according to my idea or mood! :)

As of the vegetables, I like zucchini very much. Whether in a cream soup (hot or cold) or cooked meal, stewed with a lot of onion/garlic or broiled, they always give the dish that juicy character!

Onion and garlic - those two are also the guarantee for the great taste (if one likes it!).

Thank you for the white beans recipe - can't wait to try it!

Oh, I'm not a great fan of zucchini's, but I guess that in some recipes they must be good (like stewing them with garlic ^^ ). I'm a bit oversensitive to plants like zucchini, aubergine and *snif* tomatoes, and I shouldn't eat them too often...Of course I sin a lot, but I prefer to sin with tomatoes or bell peppers ;)

I'm a great fan of spinach. Spinach from the oven with fresh goat cheese and an egg (this is so not vegan) with mashed potatoes, hmmm, comfort food. Or libanese spinach pasties with a touch of lemon and cinnamon, and loads of pine nuts (this one is vegan). Or spinach risotto with snippets of smoked salmon (very not vegan ;) ). nomnomnom. With a lot of garlic, of course!

Dena wrote:

searchinmyroots wrote:

Wow! Didn't realize there were that many non meat eaters here!

I myself mostly eat what is known as "whole foods, plant based". If anyone has watched "Forks Over Knives" or read "The China Study", then you'll know what I'm taling about. No meat , no chicken, no dairy, no eggs, no animal products. Very limited if any processed foods, mostly whole grains.

Every once in awhile, I will eat some fish.

I've been doing it for just about a year now and so far so good! Always looking for new recipies so thank you Salvia for starting the thread!

I've seen it. I heard the guy who wrote The China Study wrote another book about how he was incorrect. Not sure if that's true. Anyway, I don't eat meat but I certainly eat plenty of butter! I eat eggs almost every day too.

Not sure what you mean by that?

The guy who wrote "The China Study" is Dr. T. Colin Campbell. He is also in the Forks Over Knives movie and books.

So who wrote that what was incorrect?

Searchingmyroots, your diet sounds very much like the so called 'paleo' diet some friends follow...is there a link? I've heard good things about the paleo diet.
.

Salvia wrote:

Searchingmyroots, your diet sounds very much like the so called 'paleo' diet some friends follow...is there a link? I've heard good things about the paleo diet.
.

Salvia,

No, not really. According to their website - http://thepaleodiet.com/what-to-eat-on-the-paleo-diet/ The Paleo Diet allows you to eat certain meats and eggs, plus it promotes "healthful" oils. It also says not to eat potatoes or legumes.

The WFPB (whole food plant based diet) does not include any meat, dairy, or animal products and very limited amounts of oil.

From the Forks over Knives website - http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-fok-diet/

The Diet Defined

The experts in Forks Over Knives advocate a whole-food, plant-based diet. The program is based on whole or minimally processed plants, primarily fruits, vegetables, whole grains, tubers, and legumes. It excludes or minimizes animal-based foods such as meat (including poultry and fish), dairy, and eggs, as well as refined foods like bleached flour, refined sugar, and oil.


So in some ways it may be similar to the Paleo diet, but it definitely has a different direction.

Here is an article about the Paleo diet - http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-paleo-diet-is-uncivilized-and-unhealthy-and-untrue/

It's long but tries to give as much evidence as possible as to why they believe it may not be the best choice.

Thanks for asking!

Thanks for answering!
I'm reading the FOK diet page: sounds like a hard diet to live by! Living plant-based and without any oil, where do you get your energy from? I mean, when I make a plant-based meal it most often contains a lot of olive oil, or legumes, or a combination of the two, simply because the body needs calories to make energy. When I think of it, things like aubergines, bananas and avocados provide lots of energy too, but you can't eat them every day, that would be so boring!

Apparently, not everybody believes FOK is healthful: http://anthonycolpo.com/forks-over-knives-the-latest-vegan-nonsense-dissected-debunked-and-destroyed/
With my apologies for linking a page using rather rude language.
Your link against the paleo diet is interesting, but from what I hear from 'paleo-believers', they mainly eat vegetables and much less meat, precisely because, as the article states, there was much less hunted food than gathered food.


I don't know, paleo, plant-based...I believe in the 'golden middle' (is that an expression in english?), finding a balance between opposites. As an omnivore I believe I need both vegetal and animal based foods, but much less animal than what is regularly consumed nowadays. Not too much dairy, either: dairy has become a part of human diet quite late and it isn't for nothing that so many people are lactose intolerant: it is difficult for our bowels to process milk. So for the most part it comes down to plant-based for me, too.

As we are talking 'weird diets': I'm am TRYING to cut down on histamins, in order to have less allergy, asthma and fever attacks, but as histamin is found in almost everything and it isn't even sure that a low histamin diet can fix a lousy immune system, I am not very strict at it. And cutting down histamin AND being mostly pesco-vegetarian AND trying to eat kosher style...it is a bit much. Although kosher style and vegetarian or even vegan go very well together, as long as it isn't pesach and kitniot aren't prohibited

I must confess that I'm eating far less meat now than when I still ate porc and everything, it is very good to live in a porc-loving country when you try to go vegetarian: you just CAN'T eat the meat so it isn't very difficult not to eat it for societies sake or because it smells good or whatever. Side note: porc is also a major source of histamin, so I AM cutting down on the histamins

Sorry for the long rambling post everyone!

Salvia,

Thanks for the reply and info.

I will read up on Anthony Culpo's webpage. There have been others that have also been in disagreement, but not sure if what they say is based on 40 years of study in over 12 different countries from multiple doctors.

It's not as hard as you may think. Remember, it is about moderation. It doesn't mean you have to eliminate everything. Just to consume as much of a whole food plant based diet as possible. So yes, if the people on the Paleo diet are eating very little meat, then it probably works for them! The problem I see is what we nowadays call "meat". I know here in the States meat isn't the meat it used to be. As a matter of fact, not too much of what the Western World eats is like it used to be

Where do I get my energy from?

FOOD!

Grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables. Most have sufficient protein. You are correct though about the calories. You can eat a lot more food and not consume as much calories.

You might want to ask some of the high performance athletes that adhere to the WFPB way of eating. They have pleanty of energy and participate in Triathlons, MMA, Football (American version) and many other grueling activities. There is plenty of info out there on the internet. Also, some of the strongest animals on the planet that have digestive systems that resemble ours eat 99% plant based! Orangutan's, elephants and other plant eating animals are quite srong!

About dairy - My take is this; look at the animal kingdom. They provide milk for the young until a certain age and then wean off it, never having a need for the rest of their lives. The female body only produces milk for a certain time after birth. Why? If milk was necessary beyond that, wouldn't the Creator of all have women always producing milk?

I think each indiviual needs to be at a speed that they can handle. Of course if there are serious health issues, then extreme measures may need to be taken. I myself am finding more and more people who are either vegan or vegetarian and the population is growing.

I truly believe we "are what we eat"!

Salvia,

Apparently there are a few people out there who have answered Mr. Colpo and what they call "his rants". I would stick with the time tested scientific research. Although not always 100% accurate at least the people doing the research have some credentials.

http://anthonycolpofraud.blogspot.com/

http://www.30bananasaday.com/forum/topics/anthony-colpo-high-carb-is-bad-no-actually-high-carb-is-best?xg_source=activity

http://www.drjanet.com/blog/2012/01/16/my-response-to-anthony-colpo/

http://www.plantpositive.com/42-you-win-anthony-colpo/

http://slowburn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/colpo-continues.html

Another vegan dish for when money's low - very appropiately called 'papatas a lo pobre'. It is a traditional andalusian dish, and very easy to make!

You need, for two persons
3 large potatoes, diced
2 bell peppers, preferably of different colours for more prettiness, in chunks
2 large onions, chopped
1. piece of garlic, chopped
optionally, 1 fresh green chilli pepper (is not traditional as fas as I know, but I like it)
3. laurel leaves
a huge splash of olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large iron pan. First stir-fry the onions and garlic, then add the bell peppers, chilli pepper and the potatoes. You need a lot of olive oil because you are making a kind of sofrito - you're simmering everything in the oil, without water, and you don't want your dish to burn.
So when everything is properly stirr-fried, you add the laurel leaves, some salt and pepper, you put a lid on the pan, and let slowly simmer for an hour. Stir a bit sometimes to be sure nothing will stick to the bottom of the pan.

That's all

Thanks for the recipe.

Quick, easy and I'm sure tastes good!

Thank you, Salvia! Sounds yummy!!

I've often made myself something similar, but instead of potatoes I would add eggs (which makes the dish non-vegan, actually), but now I'm going to try your version! :)

Yesterday I was at my parents' house and I stayed for the lunch. Although my parents know the full range of the food that I usually eat (fish, eggs, milk), for some reason they get the inspiration to make vegan lunches when I'm there. So yesterday we had wonderful light soup with vegetables (little-square chopped carrots, peas and corn, which actually made the soup sweet - and I like salty-sweet dishes!) and after that we had some kind of a "pie" (I don't know how else I should call it ) which included a mixture of olive-oil stewed zucchini, onion, garlic and corn and fusilli cooked "al dente". All that mixture was topped with the tomato sauce, sprinkled with some cumin and nutmeg and then put in the oven to get a little bit crust up and on the sides. It was delicious!

...And the dessert wasn't vegan. It was a plain, good ice cream. :)

And as we are on the vegan topic, I would like to ask you if you have some good recipes for vegan ice-cream! My friend is a vegan and I would like to make her a vegan ice-cream because you still absolutely cannot find and buy vegan ice cream here in Serbia. I would like to surprise her! :)

I'm afraid I have no recipes for ice-cream, I never make it myself...and I'm very fond of (non vegan) Ben&Jerry's :PBut isn't any sorbet vegan? My mom makes a good lemon sorbet, I'll ask her what she puts in it.

With eggs it is not the same dish, it then becomes closer to another spanish dish, which consists of scrambled eggs in tomato sauce with veggies (no potatoes, more bell peppers and aubergine) - I forgot the name, it is huevos 'something' (yes that helps a lot ), my ex made it for me sometimes and it is really good. I heard from a friend she adds eggs to her patatas a lo pobre, together with the potatoes. Must be good, too, but I never tried it!

Another easy and cheap (yes, end of the month) vegan dish (well, for me it is because I always have all these ingredients in the cupboard) lentil-rice pilav!
You need:
a cup of green lentils
a cup of non-sticky rice
a litre of veggie stock (from a cube)
a large carrot, diced
a large onion, chopped
a piece of garlic, chopped
a handful of dried apricots, chopped
a sniff of 'quatre épices' (cinnamon, cloves, ginger and muscat)
a sniff more of ginger powder
ground pepper
optional: pine nuts or sesame seed

Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the carrot, stir, then add rice and lentils and stir a bit more. Add the stock, the spices and the apricot, and let simmer until the stock has been absorbed by the rice and the lentils and everything is done. This takes twenty to thirty minutes. Stir every once in a while. Then add either pine nuts or sesame, or none of these, and NOM NOM NOM!!

Sarit wrote:

And as we are on the vegan topic, I would like to ask you if you have some good recipes for vegan ice-cream! My friend is a vegan and I would like to make her a vegan ice-cream because you still absolutely cannot find and buy vegan ice cream here in Serbia. I would like to surprise her! :)

I know here in the States there are many vegan ice cream options. We have shelves loaded with Coconut milk, Soy milk and Almond milk ice creams.

They don't have any of these options where you live?

No, they don't.

Not long ago they didn't have anything for the sugar-intolerant or lactose-intolerant people. And generally, being someone who eats some specific kind of diet (vegetarian, vegan, kosher, sugar free, gluten free etc) can be quite hard here - first, you don't have the products that are certified for not containing that you don't want it to contain and second, for the strange looks you still get!

For example, I must read every specific element on the package of food to determine if it's kosher or not. Still, I don't know anything about the hard cheeses - they don't write if they make it with rennet or not. We have only one product (a sunflower oil) certified kosher here. Still, we have halal certifications (which can help with sweets - with Turkish delights, jelly sweets etc). You can't buy kosher meat nor wine anywhere (i believe Vienna is the nearest option!) which don't bother me much since I don't eat meat, but it bothers some of my friends. Luckily, our rabbi is a shochet so the kosher kitchen we have by the synagogue offers meals on a daily basis.

Sorry for the digression. :)

As for the vegan ice cream, I can buy some soy milk (which you can find... relatively easy) and use it instead of the animal milk, of course, I didn't think about it! I'll try to find some recipes with the soy milk!

Same here in France. Even vegetarians are looked at as being strange and above all 'difficult' people. In the area where I live the basic sources of protein are pig meat and seafood. I dare you to explain to people here you don't eat pig or shellfish without them feeling insulted! (there is a trick: say you're allergic)...and when you're invited to some event or somewhere where a meal will be served, don't expect people to ask whether there is anything you don't eat. And don't expect any vegetarian dish, either. Bring your own food...which is frowned upon, but that's the moment you play the allergy card.

I found out our supermarket sells some halal meat, but I've heard about halal meatproduction over here: chickens are slaughtered industrially with a cd playing souras from the Quran. Right .
So I buy my meat organic. The most important element for me (and I am happy to be a gentile and able to make this kind of choices...this is really paradoxal) is the respect for the animal and the life that inhabits it. Industrial killing and the torture that comes with it certainly doesn't meet my standards, even if the entire staff of the factory would stand watching it and praying at the same time!
Kosher slaughtering, as I understand it, is mostly about respect for life and its Creator, and organic meat meets these standards more closely than industrial halal meat, even if halal animals are, at least in theory, blessed in the name of G-d and drained of blood. I won't buy any 'bloody' meat anyway and when I find any blood in my meat I salt it.

I have heard of the term 'flexitarian' for people who eat very little meat, I wonder if there exist such a thing as 'flexikosher'

sorry, I am digressing too. But this is the kind of thing that I stumble upon these days and I am happy to discuss it with people who have a bit of the same problems....

Salvia, yes - it's basically the same as here! Oh, my fellow friend!

Salvia wrote:

(there is a trick: say you're allergic)

Does the trick every time (although with getting the strange looks etc)! ;)

When I started to come on Shabbat dinners and Yom Tov meals I had the impression that our rabbi constantly gave me the strange looks about not eating meat but it's getting better over time, I'd say. I hope so.

Actually, last week we had some guests - a choir from Tel Aviv so they joined us at the Shabbat dinner. Actually, around 10 of them were vegetarians and that was a great surprise for the kosher kitchen (of course, nobody asked us if there is someone who don't eat something before the dinner; and they made a kind of a beef paprikash, oy vey!). Seeing so many people not eating meat at the same place, rabbi just shrugged his shoulders and said "oh well, I guess I will have to use to vegetarians nowadays."

So they made us a quick vegetable dish, but still it was delicious!