thoughts on vegie food
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert
I've recently been considering.
I should start this out by saying that I'm what you might call a
"part-time vegetarian" -- I like vegetarian food and eat vegetarian
food a lot of the time, but I do also eat meat. So what I'm saying
has more to do with the style of food than with any deeper issues
about vegetarianism (political, health, etc).
Basically, I've come to the conclusion that I don't like
"vegetarian" food nearly as much as I like food which just happens
to be vegetarian. As I see it, vegie food comes into two categories:
* stuff that has evolved from 1960s western counter-culture, and
* stuff that has evolved elsewhere
The former has the following characteristics, IMHO: stodgy, tasteless,
obsessed with healthiness, inappropriate flavourings, attempts to
mimic meat dishes. It's typified by things like 'lentil burgers'
and fake dairy and meat products made from soy protein.
The stuff that's evolved elsewhere, again IMHO, tends to be tastier.
I'm thinking of things like middle eastern, african, south american
or asian cooking where vegetable dishes are not some kind of
emasculated meat dish, but are complete dishes in themselves. They
tend to better understand where grains and legumes can be used to
good effect; they tend to include a range of nutrients without
having to try too hard; they mix flavours in ways that really work.
And you don't feel like you're missing out on anything by eating them.
I've got a housemate who's a confirmed carnivore and really dislikes
any meal that doesn't include meat. However, he'll fairly happily
eat certain really well-balanced ethnic vegetarian dishes and hardly
notice the lack of dead animal.
On a slightly different note, if I'm dining out with vegetarian
friends I'll usually try to get them to go to an ethnic restaurant
with a good vegetarian selection rather than a restaurant that
specialises in vegetarian food. The food just always seems to be
better.
Do other people agree with me on this?
K.
--
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert
http://www.netizen.com.au/
christian mock
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert <skud+...@netizen.com.au> wrote:
> I should start this out by saying that I'm what you might call a
> "part-time vegetarian" -- I like vegetarian food and eat vegetarian
Mee too -- my SO is vegetarian, so I get to eat all that nice stuff
she cooks, and I just eat meat when I'm at a restaurant (partly
because the veggie stuff in "normal" restaurants is quite
disappointing).
That probably has to do with our culture's fixation on "a meal has to
contain meat to be a real meal", so most "veggie" stuff in restaurants
is mostly garnishing without too much taste of its own.
> On a slightly different note, if I'm dining out with vegetarian
> friends I'll usually try to get them to go to an ethnic restaurant
> with a good vegetarian selection rather than a restaurant that
> specialises in vegetarian food. The food just always seems to be
> better.
I've once been to what is said to be vienna's best vegetarian
(non-ethnic) restaurant, and there I got the best salad I ever had --
made in a way that you could taste that every single component
actually tastes different... chinese and indian places certainly do
better than most viennese places, but in the "alternative" scene
almost every restaurant has got good veggie stuff on the menu.
regards,
cm.
--
christian mock @ home in vienna, austria
sind fremdcancels strafbar? -> http://www.tahina.priv.at/bincancel/
Those silly RFCs are all that separate us from the animals!
-- Kevin Rodgers in a.r.e
Georg Bauer
skud+...@netizen.com.au (Kirrily 'Skud' Robert) wrote:
>Do other people agree with me on this?
I do. With those "healthy" vegetarian dishes, often something seems to be
missing, while things that just happen to be without meat are much more
"complete".
Although I think that often you can get quite decent meals by just
removing the meat from a meal, at least this works for me with standard
german food. And sometimes you can use a "supplement" for the meat: for
example it works quite good with cheese or "Auberginen" (don't know how
they are called in english). At least this works at our favorite hangout
(turkish cook).
bye, Georg
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert
"Auberginen" is almost certainly the vegetable known as the eggplant
in Australia, and aubergine in most parts of Europe. It's a largish
vegetable with a dark purple skin and spongy, light-green interior.
I agree wholeheartedly, btw.
And since this is nfv.cookery, here's my favourite recipe for turkish
lentil and spinach soup that actually has heaps of flavour. This is
the one that thorfy (housemate) likes despite being a carnivore :)
Ingredients:
1 tblsp oil
garlic, minced (1-10 cloves, according to personal preference)
1 onion, diced
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chilli powder
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup cracked wheat (aka bulgur, bourgul, etc)
1 cup red lentils
2L vegetable stock
1 tin tomatoes, chopped/mashed/pureed (whatever you like)
1 bunch spinach, de-stemmed and roughly chopped
rosemary - at least 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped
juice of one lemon
Put vegie stock and lentils in a smallish saucepan and bring to
boil. Simmer for approx 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a larger pot,
saute garlic, cayenne and onion in oil until onion is transparent.
Add cracked wheat and parsley and mix through. Add tomatoes and
mix, allowing the cracked wheat to absorb the juices. The lentils
should be looking cooked-ish by now, so upend the lentil/stock mix
into the big pot.
You now have your base soup, to which you should add the lemon and
rosemary and allow to simmer for at least 15 minutes. The flavours
will mix through - adjust for taste by adding lemon, rosemary or
more chilli as desired. If you're using dried rosemary, leave it
a little longer so that it has time to let its flavour out. Add
water if you think it's too thick; the cracked wheat will tend to
bulk out and make it a bit porridge-like if you don't have enough
liquid.
Just before serving, mix the spinach through the soup. It should
only just wilt.
Serve with crusty bread. Feeds 4-6.
Georg Bauer
skud+...@netizen.com.au (Kirrily 'Skud' Robert) wrote:
>"Auberginen" is almost certainly the vegetable known as the eggplant
>in Australia, and aubergine in most parts of Europe. It's a largish
>vegetable with a dark purple skin and spongy, light-green interior.
Yup, that's the one.
>And since this is nfv.cookery, here's my favourite recipe for turkish
>lentil and spinach soup that actually has heaps of flavour. This is
Good that I am visiting that exact favorite hangout in about 1 1/2 hour -
because otherwise I would have had a problem with this now, because a
watering mouth and only stale bread in the house don't work out that good
;-)
Rakel Igland Diesen
this view on vegetarian food. I've been reading some other veggie ng's and
they seem totaly dominated by meat-substitude fans, it's all soyburgers,
tofu, veggie-tuna and what-not. And I don't get it. There's so many great
vegetarian dishes one can make without trying to copy a carnivores diet.
-rakel
Rakel Igland Diesen
> While I agree with your sentiments I should point out that tofu, otherwise
> known as beancurd, is not really a meat substitute. AFAIR it originated from
> eastern cusine and is based on the curd from soya beans. It may well be used
> as a meat substitute these days as it doesn't have much of a flavour itself
> and so takes a meat flavour quite easily
I am sorry that I didn't express myself more clearly, when I mentioned tofu I didn't mean tofu
in general, but the way tofu, TVP, tempeh and similar products are used to simulate meat. I was
quite shocked when I first realised all theese fake-meats exsisted (we don't have them in
Norway) pre-fab. veggie all kinds of meat substitudes doesn't go well with my idea of a
vegetarian diet. I don't mean to judge anyone but I really belived that giving up meat was part
of being veggie. I don't know, seems I just can't understand the point of it all...
When it comes to nutroast it is what I've allways eaten for christmas, so I guess I'll go with
mummys this year to (and it's not dry -promise. She has apples and prunes in it, it might sound
strange, but it works out wonderfully, and keeps it from beeing dry), but your looked good,
maybee I'll try it on a suitable occation.
-rakel
Who's feels a bit guilty for not having shared any of my fav. recepies yet, but I'll get to it
soon.
Rakel Igland Diesen
> That idea, certainly with tofu, has existed for quite a while. Budhist monks
> in Vietnam used to make meat-like dishes for their guests using tofu so that
> they wouldn't go against their religious beliefs by killing an animal, but
> wouldn't offend their guests by not offering them meat.
I didn't know this, I was under the impression that using tofu as meat was a newer thing, I
stand corrected.
>
> Things like quorn and veggie mince are quite useful if you want to make a
> quick meal and usually survive quite well in a freezer. I'm making something
> up I prefer to use fresh vegetables and sometimes I just don't have time to
> do that *sigh* the joys of a nasty job :(
This I'm not sure I follow, why should it be simpler to whip up something quick if it's
veggie-mince or similar things, and lots of things survive well in the freezer.
>
> It all depends on *why* someone became a veggie. Personally, I switched to a
> vegetarian diet as my body was doing nasty things to me when I ate
> meat. To me, taking your idea further essentially leads to being a vegan where now
> animal products are consumed.
I'm a veggie by upbringing so originally it wasn't even my own choise. I have remained a veggie
for several reasons: I don't support factory farming, it's healthy, I thew up when I tried to
eat meat in my teens, I like the food and so on. I don't have a problem with consuming animal
product like milk and eggs as long as they're not a result of factory farming. I'm not
considering becoming a vegan, I'm to fond of cheese :)
-rakel