Animal Writings

[Updated 7/15/2008, 10:50pm]

This will be a multi-parter...

OK, show of hands. To the vegans—and perhaps anyone who abstains, even partially, from meat and/or dairy: Has this happened to you...

You make a recipe for some function, maybe it's an office potluck. You bake brownies or make a cheesecake. It's delicious. It uses tofu. You bring it to the function, you unveil it; it looks beautiful. You mention that it has tofu. "Eww!! Tofu!!" at least one person says—or shrieks. As if it came from the bathroom floor, or was devised by a mad scientist. Now, mind you, these same people might eat hot dogs, which may contain snouts, feet, viscera, and assorted body parts—some with tumors and pus-filled sores—from slaughterhouses that brutally killed suffering animals. But they run from tofu—made from plants—as though it were some life-sapping poison. Why the fear and drama?

The scenario continues. The next week or month—maybe for the same people!—you make the exact same dish. You don't mention a word about tofu. If someone asks, you compliment them on their tie or fingernail polish, or make a witty remark about The Office, starring Steve Carrell. Or you lie; "No tofu," you tell them. Everyone loves your dish; there's not a bite left.

Here's another, related scenario. You bake some cookies for a party or get-together. You label them "vegan." Some people avoid the cookies because they say "vegan." The cookies might not have tofu, or soymilk, or Earth Balance, or anything even slightly unfamiliar to people in them.

You have another function the next night. Mixed crowd, as before. You make the exact same recipe. No label this time. You just put the cookies out there. Everyone eats them.

Here's a less dramatic situation. You make dinner for a friend, or for your partner, spouse, or roommate. It has some new ingredients to him/her, but not even tofu, just some new vegetables, maybe kale and Swiss Chard. Maybe some coconut milk. You serve it — voila. He/she says "Mmm, smells good. what's in it?" You decide not to tell him/her until after dinner; you say "Just some vegetables and spices. Go ahead, it's getting cold." You decide to delay revealing the ingredients because you know—maybe from past experience—that the other person might very well "decide" beforehand that they don't like it, or will develop instant skepticism, solely on the the basis of hearing that there are unfamiliar ingredients in the dish.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

I once saw someone refuse a raffle prize of "vegan dark chocolates." Her reason? "I'm not vegan."

Okay...Why the irrational, and sometimes over the top reactions?

A full exploration would require many posts and lots of discussion. So here are the first two explanations that come to mind:

• Fear of new foods, of leaving a comfort zone. Sometimes this may be manifested as stubbornness or close-mindedness.


• For conspicuously vegan foods like tofu...A combination of guilt, a deep vestment in meat-eating, a desire to be part of the accepted group and not be seen as too different, and preserving a self-image that is built in part on eating meat. I tend to think that the person who makes a show of rejecting tofu is actually afraid that they'll like it—and that will upset their world. Will their friends laugh at them? Will they have to eat their words? Will it be tougher to put down and make fun of veganism? I guess basically this reason mostly boils down to fear, also. And some intertwined willful ignorance and insecurity.

What else?

How can we help people overcome these fears and self-imposed limitations? Again, a full discussion would eventually delve into animal advocacy strategies, anthro-sociological analysis, and whatnot. For now, let me take a stab at some practical options. This is not meant to be exhaustive, and I welcome your contributions.

• Fear of new foods
  
  
  • From the point of view of the person trying to introduce others to new foods...
    
    
    • If you have any sort of relationship with the other person(s) (spouse, roommate, significant other, parent, friend, co-worker, etc.), see if you can let them be part of the discovery process, rather than having foods (from their viewpoint) foisted upon them. Tell them about various meat substitutes, finished products, non-animal baking baking ingredients, restaurants in the area with vegan dishes, things you;d like to cook—and ask them what they'd like to try. True, they still might balk, but havig the choice might might make the new foods seem more inviting and less daunting. Maybe even interesting or I daresay exciting.
    
    
    • A variation on this technique with which I'he had some success is: "I want to make four different versions of vegan cheesecake (or whatever). I want you to be the official taste panel. Tell me what you like and don't like; criticize and make suggestions; be brutally honest." This might work because there's little or no pressure to like a dish, because it's sort of a game; and because the skeptics know their opinions will matter.
    
    
    • If you feel comfortable doing this...Ask why the skeptic is afraid. Not like an interrogation or to put the skeptic on the spot, just out of concern, since there's so much to be gained by trying vegan foods and finding out you like them. You could mention that the new food is just plants. That you eat it and you're fine; that you didn't need to re-train your taste buds.
    
    
    • Not that you're trying to lay on a guilt trip, but you could point out that you spent quite a bit of time putting together the dish, and you were hoping some people would sample the result of your efforts.
    
    
    • Use humor. Again, this is a play-it-by-ear technique. You might ask person A if s/he had a bad experience with bok choy as a child and s/he'll think it's funny, but person B will just get annoyed.
    
    
  • From the point of view of the person avoiding the new foods...
    
    
    • The person who made the food may have put considerable effort into preparing the dish. S/he probably won't say this, but if people don't at least sample the dish, s/he'll be disappointed and her/his feelings will be hurt. Even if s/he just bought the food rather than made it from scratch, s/he bought it hoping you'll try it and like it. Simply on the basis of politeness, have a bite. You might really enjoy it!
    
    
    • Here's a compromise. Maybe there;'s something about the new food right now that's turning you off. As an alternative, mention a new food that you would like to try—a food that the other person would approve of, of course. Maybe s/he brought tempeh bacon, and that freaks you out, but you'd be willing to try pre-packaged veggie bacon. Or you'd rather try veggie dogs more anonymously, at a picnic with lots of other dishes, rather than rather plain, and where you might feel like you're under pressure. ("Try some, you'll like it" might dredge up unpleasant memories from childhood!) Or offer to go to a restaurant, where you'll have a wide selection of dishes from which to choose, and promise to try a new food.
    
    
    • Think about what it is that's keeping you from trying something new. It may be some irrational fear. I know that is not you want to hear, and it's not an attribute people often like to apply to themselves. But it's also human nature. It's also human nature not to admit certain fears—it's usually acceptable to admit fear when going into battle but people tend not to admit or even realize that they have a fear of being rejected, for example. Our decisions of which foods to eat are not just chemical process; they're not mindless acts. At a very basic level, they are surprisingly fraught with emotion. This is a little off-topic, but that's why in so many important activities—courtship, holidays, weddings, funerals—food plays a major role. Our emotional ties to food are why we have "comfort foods." Whatever the barrier is, chances are that trying one piece or one bite won't kill you, and there's a very good chance that you'll like what you try. There are a ton of good foods out there, and most people only try a tiny sliver of them in their lifetime. You may not know what you're missing!
    
    
    • In general, the more types of healthy foods you eat, the healthier and less disease-prone you will be. There's no one miracle food, there's no one miracle fruit or vegetable. By expanding your repertoire of healthy foods, you may be doing your body a world of good.
    
    
    • This may not always work, but imagining yourself in a Pink Panther movie as you're doing something stressful often takes the edge off.
    
    


• Fear of tofu and "vegan stuff"
  
  
  • To the avoider...
    
    
    • Do you ever eat hot dogs? The hot dogs you eat may contain rodent fragments—legally. Many of the pigs whose flesh was processed into your hot dogs had tumors and sores covering their legs, the result of inactivity, stressful deprivation, and forced obesity. Some of the pigs died en route to the slaughterhouse, coughing and foaming at the mouth—crammed in with other suffering pigs who were denied food, water, and any comfort.
      
      Some of your hamburgers may contain the ground-up flesh of cows who were too weak to walk and were pulled, shoved, and prodded into the slaughterhouse. Actually your hamburger may have come from the remains of a hundred cows, mixed together. Many of the cows had severe, pus-filled udder infections. Some of the cows had their fetuses inside them when they were slaughtered. Some were improperly stunned and writhed and moaned in pain as their sides were split open.
      
      And you think tofu is gross?
      
      Tofu is not made with misery, either.
    
    
    • You may have this notion, especially if you're a guy—and it may be very subtle yet always there—that "real men eat meat." Or that we need meat. If we needed meat, I'd be dead. At least unhealthy. Ditto for my wife. We haven't eaten meat for years and we're thriving. On a more global scale, populations that consume sufficient calories but get a very small percentage of them from animal sources tend to have far lower rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and a host of other debilitating or deadly conditions. There is evidence that meat-eating may be linked to Alzheimer's disease and erectile dysfunction also.
      
      Our bodies are not well-designed to handle meat. Real carnivores have short intestinal tracts so they can push the meat out before it putrefies. They have ultra-strong stomach acids to break down the meat. We're not built like that. The ability to consume meat probably was an evolutionary advantage when food was scarce but it's killing us now and current levels of meat-eating are wreaking havoc on the planet.
      
      There's nothing "manly" about eating the flesh of a six-week old chicken who was brutally killed in a slaughterhouse. Or eating the flesh of a worn-out five-year old osteoporatic dairy cow from whom we stole her babies. Such behavior is rotten, abusive, and cowardly.
      
      The flip side of the whole macho meat-eating thing is putting down "vegetarian" food. It's an artificial, meaningless way to deny the moral, health, and environmental value of giving up meat and other products of animal exploitation.
      
      There are more peaceful and productive ways to gain esteem, and to maintain a self-image and an image to present to others. Veganism is, among other things, about character. It's being kind to chickens, and cows, and turkeys, and other farmed animals, no matter how much others may ridicule you or the concept. There is nothing more cool or more enduring than kindness. As weird as it may sound, you can practice kindness in a very meaningful way by trying a dish made with tofu, or ordering a veggie burger, or buying soy or almond milk. Those simple decisions are profound, and a key to true inner peace and—by extension—a magnificently peaceful and just world.
    
    
    • I do think our taste buds, and probably our bodies— not to mention our minds—conform, sort of like memory foam, to the dietary regime we use year after year. But they adapt when our diets change. At first, when you try soy milk or tofu dishes, your taste buds and your brain might be telling you "this isn't quite what we're used to." And there definitely is some comfort in eating what you're used to. In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if, in a subtle psychological way, people feel like breakfast is missing something, doesn't feel quite right, if the beverage they pour over their cereal doesn't come out of something that looks like a milk carton. I think that's one of the reasons Silk soy milk is so popular—it's packaged like milk. It may seem silly, but having been a vegan food advocate for several years now I find that often people are very hesitant to change even one little thing about their food habits. Emotions and psychology are deeply tied to food choices and eating habits.
      
      Here's the wonderful news. In time, and usually before you know it, your taste buds, your body, and your mind all adapt. Soy milk (or rice milk or almond milk, whatever you choose) becomes the new milk. Smart BBQ becomes a Monday night tradition, and you develop a favorite way to have it. You acquire favorite veg restaurants and veg dishes at restaurants you already know. You develop a taste for some new greens, like kale or mustard greens (which I think are fabulous).
      
      So by "adapt," I don't mean you resign yourself to second-best. I mean in a few months—a year at the outside—you get just as much fulfillment and satisfaction from the new veg foods as you do from most of the foods you ate up to that point. In fact, since plant-based (vegan) foods do not have the legacy of animal cruelty that you get with almost all animal-sourced foods, and you do not have to hide from or lie to yourself about any of the processing steps of plant-based foods, your experience will probably be like most people's: You will find that meals never tasted so good. No matter how good you are at suppressing it, willful participation in cruelty always leaves a bitter aftertaste; it will affect you one way or another. Removing yourself from that clears your head and improves your digestion.
    
    
    • Your friends, family members, and co-workers who heckle you for trying tofu or soy milk...after a while, it will fade. For the most part, they'll get tired of giving you a hard time and most will come around to admire your conviction and independence. Some will actually try a veggie dish themselves; you'll have made that choice more legitimate.
      
      When people do give you a bad time, it will largely be because they feel guilty, maybe a bit envious. Go easy on them. You'll see a reflection of yourself in them. The cycle continues. Although each iteration of the cycle gets better. As more people eat vegan foods, those foods become more popular and mainstream. The quality keeps improving. As more people transition to vegan diets, the stigma wears off and so does the ostracizing. Eventually, it will be the meat-eaters who feel marginalized—and eventually despised and shunned, because society will get past flesh-eating and it will start to seem gross, detestable, anachronistic, and wrong.
    
    
    • Your attitude can play a role in whether you like foods. Granted, for each of us, there are some foods that we just don't like. There's probably a chemical basis for that. But for other foods, a positive or negative outlook can influence how much you'll enjoy them. If you tell yourself you're not going to like something, chances increase that you won't. Mind over matter. Conversely, if you tell yourself "OK, I'm going to make this work. I'm going to approach this with an open mind. I'll find ways to expand my tastes," you almost definitely will.
      
      This ability to convince one's self that something tastes good or bad is a big reason why so many people say "yuck" when they taste a tofu cheesecake but say "yum" when they have the same cheesecake but don't know it's made with tofu.
      
      So, to a large degree, whether you like a particular food, or class of foods, or a cuisine, is up to you.

Next: A vegan meat substitute that can fool almost anyone when used in recipes and can work nicely in almost any meat-eater's menu.

To be continued...

Labels: diet, food, new foods, psychology, tofu

Sweet Potatoes (Or Yams)
For our purposes, sweet potatoes and yams are the same thing. They're also the last vegetable in this part of the series. And they're mighty tasty. And nutritious.

The easiest way to cook sweet potatoes is to nuke them. Scrub the potatoes, poke them several times with a fork, place them on the microwave rack wrapped in paper towels, cook for a few minutes, depending on your microwave. You want the potatoes steaming hot and nice and tender.

Take out the potatoes, and top with Earth Balance. Smush it in there a little. Don't overdo it—tempting as it is.

You can also top the potatoes with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, or allspice. Here's a nice variation: Add some pineapple rings during the last 30-60 seconds of cooking. Yum! Super super-simple, ultra-tasty, *packed* with nutrition, goes with anything. There's no reason not to have a sweet potato or two or three this week.


Sweet Potato Fries—Three Ways!
I downsized this recipe to two servings. One large or two medium sweet potatoes will do the trick. I peeled the potatoes because I don't care for sweet potato skin, but in doing so I missed out on some valuable nutrients in the skin, so—your call.

Hey—don't forget to preheat the oven to 400°F.

The thinner you slice the sweet potatoes, the quicker they'll cook; that's the tradeoff. I cut mine into average-sized french fry pieces.

A lot of the reviwers of this recipe recommended shortening the microvwave pre-cook time and lengthening the oven cook time, so I went with that. I nuked the sweet potato pieces for 3 minutes. Then the fun begins.

I spread the fries-to-be (even though I was baking, not frying) on a baking sheet and drizzled some olive oil on them. Then I roughly divided the fries into three groups. For the first group, I added the spices as prescribed in the recipe. For the second group and third groups I added spice blends recommended by two respective reviewers. The idea was to try all three variations of seasonings.

On group 2, I added salt, pepper, paprika, and chilli powder. For group 3, I sprinkled on garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley. Both of these were reviewer's suggestions.

After 45 minutes, the potatoes were ready. They were crisp on the outside and mushy in the middle. Which seems to be how sweet potato wedges bake.

The verdict? All three groups tasted great, and we had no trouble polishing them all off. My favorite was group 2. I liked the hint of hotness. My wife liked group 1 and 3. There you have it.

This ends our vegetable-by-vegetable section. Next, I'll post a quick index to each of the vegetable posts in this section. Then, it's onto whole grains, with a few diversions to mix it up.

To be continued...

Labels: cooking, food, sweet potatoes, vegetables, yams

Cauliflower
There's a lot you can do with cauliflower. We're going to come out swinging with a vegan version of mashed cauliflower. I'll tell you right off the bat...The recipe calls for an immersion blender. Forget about that. Just use a plain old potato masher.

Later that night...


Mashed Cauliflower
This was a very tasty alternative to mashed potatoes. Easy to make, too. Ok, here are some notes and tips...


• Buy a head of cauliflower. Just kidding. The two choices for our purposes are frozen cauliflower or fresh already-cut florets—I used the former. Half of a 20-ounce bag to be precise. It took about 12 minutes to steam them until they were really tender.


• Instead of cow's milk you can use soy milk or almond milk. For a richer taste, you can use soy creamer. I used soy milk since that's most widely available.
  
  If you haven't tried plant-based milks, now's as good a time as any. There are several popular varieties of soy milk, as well as rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, and hemp milk. Remember that dairy is even more deadly to animals than meat: Not only is the cow killed when only five years old (her lifespan is 25 years), but so are all her babies that she's forced to have every year starting at shortly past one year old so that she produces ungodly amounts of milk during most of her short adult life. Also keep in mind that the populations of countries where dairy is hardly ever consumed have bones that are as healthy or healthier than ours. Many if not most varieties of non-dairy milk are now fortified with calcium and vitamin D.


• For "butter," I used my favorite margarine-type spread, Earth Balance.


• If you're not used to seasoning with crushed red pepper (which you find in the spice aisle, by the way), start off easy. I literally put only about 15 flakes into the mix. I don't like hot stuff but I love spicing things with a little red pepper. Paradoxical? Hardly. If you add just a touch of red pepper, its firey-ness is in the background, and it infuses a faint "bite" or "kick" into food without overpowering it.


• A minute of manual mashing, besides building forearm strength, mixes everything well enough. It won't be quite smooth—it will have some lumps—but I think that makes it more interesting. If you want a creamier texture you can add some more milk.

Anyway, this is an easy dish. I thought I'd start off with something a little different than steamed cauliflower.

Addendum 1: I forgot to mention... The recipe says use a separate pot for the "sauce" ingredients. But what I did was a) remove the steamer once the cauliflower was cooked enough, so the steamer basket became a temporary holder for the cauliflower, b) pour out the water from the pot, c) add the soy milk and so forth to the same pot, d) add the cauliflower back to the pot. This worked out fine, and it was one less dish to wash.

Addendum 2: In this recipe, we substituted margarine for butter and non-dairy milk for cow's milk. These are very easy substitutions that will become a common pattern. In certain recipes, one type of non-dairy milk may be preferred over another; for instance, coconut milk works well in many Asian dishes and rich sauces, and rice milk gives a little sweeter taste. By using these perfectly acceptable non-animal alternatives in recipes, you're making a positive impact, the animals thank you, and you deserve a pat on the back and kudos.

Basically, no animals were deliberately harmed in the making of these recipes and other recipes that avoid animal-derived ingredients. Of course it's impossible to have zero-impact; some animals will be killed or displaced in growing grain crops (half of which go to livestock, by the way) and during transportation. But at least you've started to divest from contributing to the violence of slaughterhouses and factory farms, not to mention mutilations—without painkillers—of animals shortly after birth, and intensive genetic engineering that grotesquely distorts animals' bodies or forces their systems into permanent overdrive. Your diet is becoming more peaceful and your relationship with animals more honest. This brings peace of mind and buoyancy of spirit. If you can buy organic and locally-grown ingredients from time to time (or more often), you'll decrease your environmental footprint even more. You're doing great things.

Addendum 3: This dish makes great leftovers.

Now onto roasting...


Roasted Cauliflower
We're going to make this recipe. Only four ingredients! How can something so ultra-simple and spartan taste be tasty? We'll find out...soon!

To be continued...

Labels: cauliflower, cooking, food, vegetables

Beets
If you rarely cook, it's a safe bet that you don't buy fresh beets when you're at the store. In fact, the thought may have never crossed your mind. But canned beets—that's different. Just pour them out of the can, add a few ingredients, and you have a delicious side dish that's a break from the normal routine. No chopping necessary.

Like their neighbor (in this series) the asparagus, beets are a good natural source of folic acid, which your body needs every day. And the redness of beets is almost surreal.

So let's explore a few easy beet recipes, suitable for non-cooks, starting with this one. "Harvard Beets" is a classic dish in beet lore. I'm going to show you two variations. Each one requires minimal time and effort but produces very pleasing flavors and colors on the plate.

First let me say that one of the great things about online recipes is that so many of them are accompanied by reviews—by regular people, not food critics. I recommend perusing the reviews not only to see how much people liked the recipe, but also for cooking tips, variations, and possible pitfalls (and how to prevent them). When you try an online recipe, you may want to give back to the community by adding your thoughts and advice—and kudos to the author, if applicable—in the form of a review.


Harvard Beets (According to the Linked Recipe, Above)

Here's how I did it...


• "Medium saucepan" translates to a 2-quart pot.


• Pour the liquid into the pot and gaze into its hypnotic luminescence, as though it were a volcanic pool from another world. Sorry, getting poetic on you. Use medium heat.


• It's nice that we're using plain old white vinegar. If you cook much, you'll eventually build up a collection of more high-falutin' vinegars: red wine, apple cider, rice, balsamic, and more exotic flavors. It's nice to return to plain white vinegar—the people's vinegar.


• I cut back on the sugar. I used a 1/2 cup. Really, you don't need more sugar than that. Beets are already powerfully sweet.


• I under-salted as usual. A couple quick shakes.


• Corn starch is somewhat magical in its ability to turn thin liquid into a thick sauce. Plus you can run your car on it. Kidding. Following some reviewers' suggestions, I upped the amount of corn starch to 1 1/2 tablespoons.
  
  Here's how I like to add corn starch, so that it's a smooth paste. Put the 1.5 tablespoons of corn starch into a tall measuring cup or bowl that's taller than you think you'll need. Add about the same amount of water. With a small wire whisk (preferred) or fork, vigorously mix the corn starch and water until all the corn starch is dissolved. If it's too thick to stir, add a tad more water. Then pour the mixture into your uber-red beet thing going on. (The reason for the tall cup or bowl was so nothing spilled out when we mixed the stuff inside.)


• Again following the wisdom of reviewers, let the liquid get to a full boil before lowering the heat to simmer. I lowered the heat to where the primordial sauce was still boiling steadily but mildly. Somewhere just south of medium-low.


• Add the beets. Slowly and carefully. Don't get too excited.


• Stir about every 30 seconds for the next several minutes or until the sauce is thick enough for you. About halfway between liquid and solid. In fact, it should resemble cranberry sauce. While you're doing this, you can throw a veggie burger on another pan, slightly oiled, and the buns in the toaster. Put the dinner plates on top of the toaster to warm up.


• Sidebar: After you flip the burger, put a slice of onion on top of the patty. At some stores you can even buy onion already cut up if you're really pressed for time or don't want to get a knife and cutting board dirty. Another thing you can do is: Whenever you need, say, half an onion, slice the rest of it before putting it back.


• Taking my own advice, I had a serving of beets first. I turned off the heat for the veggie burger, scooped the beet concoction onto a plate, and had a taste. Mmm! The tartness of the vinegar and the sugariness of everything else combined into a delightful sweet-and-sour glaze. So simple but so tasty.


• Barbecue sauce is also sweet and soury, so I went with that theme and put that on the burger instead of ketchup. I cut a couple of cherry tomatoes in half and added those as well, put everything on a bun, got another helping of Harvard Beets and was good to go.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did. Let me know.


Trivia Question
Why are they called Harvard Beets? (No cheating, please)


A Variation
This is a combination of reviewers' suggestions and some improv:


• Instead of the vinegar, use 1/2 cup orange juice.


• If you can swing it, grate an orange a few times and add the "zest" (the grated peel) to the mix.


• Because orange juice is sweet, reduce the sugar to a heaping 1/3 of a cup.


• Add in a pinch of ground cloves. Not too much, just a couple small shakes. More if you really like cloves.

Basically, cook the dish like you did before. I added all the liquids, cornstarch mixture, and spices, including the grated orange peel, to the bubbling hot cauldron, lowered the heat after it boiled, and dropped in the beets. Remember to stir frequently.

The orange and cloves gave this variation a festive, wintry aroma. It was slightly milder than the vinegar version. Pleasantly sweet but with a little tang. I would probably make this around the holidays.


Mandarin-Glazed Beets
I continued the orange and red theme with this recipe. It's even quicker than the Harvard Beets: The liquid ingredients come to a boil in about a minute, and in two more minutes everything's thickened up and ready to serve.


Beet Fact
The standard beet can is 11 ounces; that's what I've been using. You can also buy small cans of beets that are 8.5 ounces.
Like one of the reviewers, I halved the recipe except for the mandarin oranges (I used a full 11-ounce can). Instead of butter, I used Smart Balance light, which I bought at my regular grocery store. That way, I'm not contributing to stealing baby calves from their mothers, killing them, killing the mothers, and grossly manipulating the mothers' bodies. It's a less violent choice than butter. It's also lower lower in overall fat than butter yet contains an ample dose of Omega-3 fatty acids. I used fresh lemon juice (since I had a lemon around), and added a touch of grated orange peel at the end. Without the orange zest and using bottled lemon juice, you could make this dish in 5 minutes.

I added the sugar, corn starch, and lemon juice to the pot as instructed, then turned the heat on to medium-low. I stirred constantly at first, to fully mix the corn starch; it reminded me of making a roux for gumbo. After that it was practically auto-pilot.

This was the mildest of the three recipes. The mandarin oranges blended beautifully with the beets, both in terms of looks and taste.


Summary
Okay, that should do it for beets for now. You may have overlooked this vegetable in the past, but hopefully in the future you'll buy them from time to time and create simple, healthy, and flavorful accompaniments to your main courses.

Health groups and dietitians across the world urge eaters to include as many colors as possible in their daily meals; the rich pigmentations of fruits and vegetables usually signify powerful disease-fighting chemicals inside. Beets, with their deep blush hues, fit well into a program of increasing color in your diet.

Next: Encore performance...

Labels: beets, cooking, food, vegetables

Not every suggestion here will please, or be relevant to, everybody. We each have individual tastes and unique time, budget, and accessibility constraints. What I'm going to try do, for most of this series, is present suggestions and recommendations that will be applicable to most people, most of the time.

Every reader is going to already know some of what I say here. My hope, and my goal, is that there is enough new—and usable—information in this series to make it worth your while.

Feel free to comment (or email me) on this series. I try to answer all non-spam correspondence.

For the most part, and within reason, I'm going to ignore cost. In general, you can feed yourself with nutritious food and be perfectly satisfied more cheaply on a vegetarian diet than on a meat-heavy diet. And that's before you get into the long term costs from increased risk of obesity and deteriorating cardiovascular function when you eat too much meat and cheese—heart bypass surgery and lifetime prescriptions are expensive.

But there's something to said for convenience, for which you usually pay a premium, so I'm not going to overlook items such as takeout meals, frozen dinners, and prepared dishes from the deli.

There are a few general rules for saving money on food purchases:

• Eat at home more. Even instant meals are cheaper than most restaurant meals.


• Eat more of these foods: Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts. With few exceptions, these are extraordinary values.


• Use up what you buy. A giant bag of mixed greens may look like a great bargain, but not if you end up throwing half of it out. I'll provide hints later in the series on how to easily prevent waste.


• If you never cook, reconsider. You may enjoy it and have an aptitude for it. Also, the more you do it, the better—and more efficient—you get at it. There are additional potential advantages to cooking, which I'll get into later.

• Watch less TV. At least change the channel or get up and do something when commercials air. TV food advertising during prime-time and sporting events is dominated by fatty, unhealthy products. (There are also lots of advertisements for heartburn medications and erectile dysfunction medications, to partially offset the effects of eating too many bacon cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizzas.)
  
  The advertisers use every technique possible in TV commercials—including camera angles, lighting, backgrounds, facial expressions, use of likeable personalities, music, carefully crafted dialog, and excruciating attention to detail in how the food is presented—to draw you in. McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other corporations spend huge sums on TV advertising because it works; it increases demand. You may not be as immune to these schemes as you think.


• Start each dinner with a salad. A healthy salad, that is, with lots of greens and other vegetables. Aim for a pleasing variety of colors, flavors, and textures.
  
  The fiber from the salad fills you up and is a hedge against gorging later in the meal.
  
  The bag-o-prewashed-salad products that have become popular in recent years may be a godsend to salads. Just pull the stuff out of the bag and you're ready to go. You don't have to eat a huge salad, but please eat something bigger than a dinky "side salad." For one thing, you're more likely to use up the salad ingredients before they go bad that way.
  
  You can add all sorts of healthy ingredients to salads that work really well: walnuts, dried cherries, steamed asparagus, orange and grapefruit sections, avocado slices, olives stuffed with pimientos—you name it. I'll go into more detail on salads further down.
  
  If you're pressed for time, use the salad bar at your local grocery store. In fact, shop around; some salad bars have much more healthy variety than others. Resist the temptation to add mayo-saturated options to your salad; that nearly defeats the purpose. On the other hand, the salad bar is a great place to try new food selections, or partake of foods that you like only in small doses or on an occasional basis. You can add one beet to your salad, or one cube of fried tofu.
  
  At restaurants, order a salad and, if need be, ask that it come out before the main course. Pass on the parmesan cheese and ranch or blue cheese dressing. While we're on the subject, try not to fill up on bread, either. However, at a Mexican restaurant, you could do a lot worse than eating a bowlful of chips and salsa that they typically give you as soon as you sit down. The chips tend to be fried and fairly limited in nutritional value, but salsa is actually very healthy.


• Where feasible, hang out with people who eat better than you do, especially at mealtimes or at events where food is involved. The influence rubs off.


• Prefer, or at least try out, restaurants with more than the average proportion of vegetarian selections. Ethnic restaurants, especially Asian or Indian, are often a good bet. Greek and Mideast restaurants will usually have a range of vegetarian offerings, including falafels, hummus, and babaganoush—all of which I'll explain later. You can always get pasta with marinara sauce, and sometimes other meatless tomato-based sauces, at Italian restaurants. A couple of chain Mexican restaurants that come to mind that make mighty good burritos free of animal ingredients are Baja Fresh and Chipotle.
  
  If you live in a large metropolitan area or college town, you probably have access to one or more restaurants that cater to vegetarians. Please consider these. In some cases, they are real eye-openers. You may be able to try vegan versions of quiche, General Tso's chicken, steak and cheese subs, cheesecake, and a thousand other dishes that may or may not have a meat and/or dairy counterpart. Some areas of the country, such as DC , Baltimore, Illinois, and Ohio, have guides to veg-friendly eateries, markets, and bakeries in that area. Often you can order a free or cheap printed version of the guide. These are really handy to have in your car, brief case, or coat pocket. Highly recommended.
  
  If you live or are traveling elsewhere, just search on the web for "vegetarian restaurant" and the name of the city or region in which you're interested, and you're almost certain to get back results that point you in the right direction. Frequently—especially for establishments in larger cities—you'll be able to read reviews as well.
  
  If you're not used to dining at vegetarian restaurants, feel free to tell your server that you're new to this, and you like such-and-such types of foods, and ask what he or she would recommend.

Next: Overall tips to increase the amount of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, respectively, in your diet.

To be continued...

Labels: cooking, diet, food, fruit, legumes, meat, restaurants, vegetables, whole-grains

Latkes are sort of like a Jewish version of potatoes O'Brien, and they are a traditional food at Hannukah. There's about three-quarters of a shopping day left before the end of Hannukah, so just in the nick of time I found Isa's recipe for latkes. They were super-tasty and filling and my wife and I had them with applesauce. I made a simple spinach salad for something green, and for dessert we split a big chocolate chip cookie, which actually looked like a latke from about ten feet away.

Labels: food, Hannukah, latkes

I'm all for sharing tasty vegan creations with non-vegans as a form of gentle activism; it can really change skeptics' opinions about vegan food. It sort of completes the circle: You may tell someone about the horrors of factory farms and the moral wrongness of killing sentient beings for pleasure. In your outreach, you may even address how people cling to eating habits and fear any large-scale change in their diets, especially one which may generate criticism from family and peers. But unless the person to whom you're advocating veganism is confident that a vegan diet is tasty and satisfying, he or she may stick to familiar, well-known, comfortable eating patterns. Wonderful dishes from your vegan kitchen may shatter others' preconceptions that vegan food is bland and boring or lacking in variety or substance.

By the same token, I totally support lending out vegan recipe books and pointing people to vegan recipes on the Net. Cooking vegan food is fun on the surface and meaningful deep down: You create tasty meals and to the fullest extent possible refrain from participating in violence. Vegan dishes also tend to be "green." Vegan meals are peaceful and deeply satisfying. And diverse: If inclined, you could cook something substantially different for every meal.

But what about folks who don't cook much, either because they don't like to or because they don't have time? While your fancy dish may impress them, and even convince them that vegan food can be delicious and filling, if they're not ever going to make it or anything like it, some of the value of the outreach is lost. It doesn't do too much good to lend a vegan cookbook to a non-cook, either.

I know a lot of people who rarely cook, whose dinner choices typically rotate among microwaved frozen meals, carry-out, sandwiches, super-easy staples like pasta with a jar of sauce, and cereal. Their cookbooks sit on the shelf. It's important that we address this constituency, too.

So --

• Share no-brainer vegan sandwiches made from easy-to-find ingredients that expand your friends' and colleagues' vegan food opportunities. For example, if you like a certain flavor of Tofurky deli slices, make a couple of sandwiches from that, Veganaise, mustard, lettuce, and tomato. Bring them into work, eat one yourself, and give the other to your co-worker. Explain that the sandwich took five minutes to make and that everything in it is available at almost any grocery store. Don't use items that are hard to find or only sold in specialty shops or through mail-order.
  
  One of my favorite quickie vegan meals to show people is SmartLife Smart BBQ on a bun, perhaps with a slice of red onion and/or tomato. The product tastes great and couldn't be simpler to prepare: You tear open the foil pouch and nuke it for a minute and a half in the microwave. It's rich and flavorful, and the texture is very barbecue-like—just the right amount of chewiness. For an instant food, it's not even that high in salt. Excellent for a weekday dinner or office lunch.
  
  Granted, although vegan deli meats tend to be healthier than their animal-derived counterparts, they're not health foods. I always try to mention that; I don't want to give the impression that faux meats are on the same plane with fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. They're vegan convenience foods.


• If you work in a place with a shared refrigerator, you can bring in some Silk creamer and put a note on it saying anyone can use it. It's a fairly easy sell; it tastes way better than the usual office "non-dairy" creamer (which probably contains casein anyway and thus is not really non-dairy).


• You can be popular by picking up bagels and Toffuti "Better Than Cream Cheese" on your way into work and putting them in the kitchen, possibly with a note saying "Help yourself to bagels!" One rule of workplaces seems to be: If there is free food available, it will get eaten.


• Just a few of the many other almost-instant vegan lunch/dinners you can share: Store-bought veggie chili over a baked potato, BLTs with lightly toasted fake bacon bits (tastier than you think), spaghetti with a jar of sauce and veggie hamburger crumbles that you heat up together in the microwave, lentils and rice topped with Earth Balance and soy sauce (one of the cheapest meals you can make).


• Let interested people know about vegan frozen waffles and "accidentally vegan" off-the-shelf desserts like Oreos and (some) graham crackers.


• Purely Decadent non-dairy ice cream. People should know about this. Tofutti Cuties are not too bad, either. (Try the peanut butter flavor.)


• Invite a friend over to your place, order some delivery pizza sans cheese, and if you want, add a little vegan Parmesan to the pizza after it arrives. Order from a place that you know won't mess up your "no cheese" request. (Tip that works for me: I order extra sauce. Another tip: Expressing appreciation to the pizza place for putting together a vegan pizza.)


• Take a friend or office-mate to a vegan-friendly restaurant in the area that you know is good. Feel free to make suggestions or order more than you know you'll both eat, so your dinner companion can sample various dishes and take home the leftovers.

Yes, this is all rather pedestrian (except for the restaurant option). There won't be any pretty pictures of these foods in cookbooks or gourmet food blogs. But most of the people I know—especially the non-vegans—more or less eat this way and no change is in sight. We have to meet people on their home turf. The harried office worker and parent, the "Lean Cuisine" crowd -- we're talking huge numbers of people, and they deserve our attention, too. They don't have the time or inclination to be chopping vegetables or greasing a casserole dish and putting it in the oven after a long, hard day. Instead, they open the freezer door and look for something instant, or stop at the takeout place on the way home. Cookbooks and recipes with more than half a dozen ingredients or that take more than a half hour will be ignored—no matter how scrumptious the result.

Rule of thumb: Only share stuff with skeptics or the uninitiated that you think is delicious. Since many non-vegans are predisposed to think that vegan food is lacking in taste or is otherwise unfulfilling, the last thing you want to do is give them reason to confirm their suspicions. Granted, this is a generalization and there are many exceptions to the rule. For example, if you've already opened a colleague's eyes to the glory of vegan food and he or she has long since dropped misconceptions about vegan diets, it's okay to take chances and bring in something that he or she might not like. Another example of an exception to the "delicious" rule would be an agreed-upon taste test of various veggie sandwich meats over, say, a month's time. You and the testers know beforehand that there's likely to be a range in flavor and desirability. (Actually, I like the taste-test technique; it generates participation in the process, enables others to make their own choices, and to some degree conveys the variety of vegan food choices.)

Labels: advocacy, cooking, food

Earlier this week, my wife Maureen and I had the pleasure of hosting my friends Pamela and Todd who were visiting from Ottawa, Canada. They are both superb vegan athletes (runners). Pamela is president of the National Capital Vegetarian Association in Ottawa, and editor of the newsletter.

We ate a lot but worked it off. At least they did. One of the things I most enjoyed about the four dinners during their visit was that we jointly decided they would be social meet-ups. We invited people from different circles, including athletics, activism, online forums, and rescue—and some folks who just came out for the food and socializing—and at each dinner everyone there had a chance to break bread with new and old friends and engage in lively conversation.

Pamela wrote a trip report on the vegan body-building forum. I'm the shadowy, bespectacled figure in the background in some of the photos.

Labels: food, fun

In the last post, I talked about these awesome vegan cupcakes now being offered in my area — by Natalia's Elegant Creations. And I'm telling you, they have been amazing. The peanut butter-chocolate cupcakes were...wow, I can't even describe them—they were just perfect!

So here's the thing.

The cupcakes—to my delight—are clearly labeled "Vegan." Here's my question: What if that turns some people off? Do we stay the course, say it loud and say it proud? Even if a percentage of customers think "Ew. Vegan. That's not for me?" You know how some people can be. They refuse a vegan dish, or convince themselves that they don't like it, even if they've had it before and loved it and then found out afterwards that it's vegan! (And yet they think nothing of eating a hot dog.)

So here we have a possible real-world, consequential example of the tension between being bold and straightforward about veganism and getting people to change their behavior.

What if more non-vegans try the vegan cupcakes and go "Yum!" and then "Wow—this is vegan? I never knew..." if we downplay the vegan-ness of the cupcakes? Like instead of labeling the cupcakes "Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes" the label would say "Red Velvet Cupcakes" on the first line and underneath it would say "(Vegan)?" Or should we leave off the "Vegan" if too many people shy away from the cupcakes because of irrational fears about the V-word, and instead have a little sign on the counter that says "Ask about our vegan selections"? Or should the labels say "Dairy-free" instead of "Vegan?"

Granted, there are some caveats in this particular scenario. It's not like the choice is between offering vegan cupcakes and offering cupcakes with organic, locally produced dairy products. Also, the bakery owner will decide how to label the cupcakes; the best we can do is make polite suggestions.

But you can see how this is a microcosm of a bigger issue. Do we make "vegan" more mainstream by using the word and pushing the concept as much as possible, or do we try to formulate a message to which the most people will respond most quickly and then build on that? Would we be willing to pay the price of having some people do nothing in hope that by being direct we'll get a payoff soon enough, and presuming that some initial "no thank you"'s and irrational refusals are the price we—or rather the animals—have to pay for greater public acceptance and behavior changes—and thus reduction in animal suffering and animal exploitation—down the road?

I am leaning a certain way. But I'm interested in your thoughts. And, by the way, I'm happy to have this particular "problem."

Labels: advocacy, cupcakes, food, message

This post is an update to an earlier post: To the Woman in the Coffee House Who Says "Oops, You Caught Me" When She's Eating Eggs and Sees Me:.

We kept running into each other at the coffee house. Sometimes she'd ask me a question about diet or animals. I notice often that people, when they first start considering farmed animals' interests and feel the initial pangs of disquieting internal conflict, seem more comfortable with asking a vegan what he/she thinks about various vegan-related issues rather than articulating their opinions on the matters outright. Perhaps it's too painful and immediate to ask themselves these questions, and asking the vegan is sort of a proxy for asking themselves. So I would tell her what I thought, and then I'd ask how she felt about it. And that made her think. And it gave me a chance to see where her head was at.

She asked some fairly classic questions: "Egg-Beaters, though — they aren't real eggs, right?" "Aren't some cows treated nicely? I see them on the side of the road and they seem happy." Every question is an opportunity for outreach and education, and getting people to think critically, perhaps for the first time, about the morality of their choices.

Of course, she asked what I thought about the Michael Vick case.

She would still do the guilt thing "Um, there's milk in this...sorry" but I sensed that slowly she was apologizing to herself, maybe even to the cow a little bit, not so much to me.

As the advocacy progressed, I discovered and/or became more comfortable with a few techniques that I think I'm going to use more frequently in the future:

• I advise people that it's really much easier to drop eggs, dairy, or meat — whatever we're talking about — from their diet than to seek out the least cruel version of the stuff, which may be hard to find and cost a lot, and still won't solve the moral problem of unnecessarily killing and mutilating animals. Plus, now that they're grasping the wrongness and cruelty of animal products, no matter where they buy the products they're going to have to play games to try and fool their consciences, and there's always a price to pay for that.


• I ask people why it's so important to eat hens' eggs but not robins' eggs or the eggs from any other bird — to illustrate that what seems normal and maybe even necessary is really arbitrary, and to show how taking a birds' eggs from her seems rather mean if you're not acculturated to doing so.


• I let people know that I'm no diferent than them. I used to eat meat all the time, and I enjoyed it. I don't have superhuman discipline. I'm not into self-denial. I love eating; I won't settle for a bland diet. I like tasty stuff with interesting flavors; I like fat and crunchiness and crispness and chewiness and richness, and spices. I just reached the point where I knew harming animals for pleasure was wrong. My diet caught up to my morals.


• Often people won't read a book that you lend them (possibly due to lack of time), but they will thumb through a magazine. I lent this person a copy of The Animals Voice magazine, which is very attractively put together and is filled with great articles. I know she read at least some of the articles, and they seem to have made an impact.

Today, as I was getting my soy latte (in a reusable mug!), my friend was in there. She had ordered soy milk with her drink. She said, "I'm going to try and go the whole day without any dairy. This will be new to me." She added, "I know it's not much."

Are you kidding? It's huge.

Labels: advocacy, dairy, food

Last week I tried the soft-serve non-dairy ice cream at the Everlasting Life juice bar and cafe (technically it's the Source of Life Juice Bar & Deli inside the Everlasting Life health food store). Everlasting Life is owned and run by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, which also owns and operates Soul Vegetarian restaurants in several cities across the United States.

Anyway, I had the carob flavor and it was sensational! The following week — and on the hottest, most sweltering day of the year — I tried their cashew and almond soft-serve. Out of this world! And I'm not even a huge ice cream fan, usually.

If you like ice cream even a little, you owe it to yourself to try Everlasting Life's soft-serve. If you doubt that non-dairy ice cream can compete with dairy ice-cream, flavor-wise, check it out. Bring a hearty hunger — they don't skimp on servings.

Now a little about Everlasting Life and Soul Veg (as it's known), at least the ones in DC. They're only a few blocks apart. Each serves down home food: macaroni and cheese, greens, potato salad, and so forth. The portions are humongous and filling. Soul Veg has a more extensive menu, and I hear the Sunday Brunch at their Maryland location is superb. The DC restaurants are nothing fancy — which can be a nice change of pace. The atmosphere could not be more relaxed or laid back; it's like hanging out at a friend's house. Or maybe a friend of a friend's place.

But to return to the main point: Vegan ice cream has arrived. From here, it will only get better. If you avoid dairy for ethical or health reasons, get yourself down to Everlasting Life for a real treat. If you are vegan and have a skeptical friend, bring him or her to Everlasting Life; they will be converted, at least about this part of the diet; it will be a fun, brain-freeze wake-up call.

Almost forgot! I understand that Sticky Fingers Bakery, also in DC, serves Temptation soft-serve, and if it's anything like what I've tasted the last two weeks, I have to slap myself on the forehead and ask myself, incredulously, what I've been waiting for. And I assume there are hundreds of places, then, across the country and the world, that serve luxurious, rich, tasty non-dairy soft-serve. Enjoy!

Labels: food, ice cream, non-dairy ice cream, restaurants

This breakfast ("Braised Potatoes") got me off to a spirited start this morning. I didn't have it with a side of black bean chili, as it suggested — Good God — but rather just on its own. I substituted green onions for onion and that worked well.

This would be a good breakfast to serve to houseguests — it's a little out of the ordinary but nothing radical. The chili powder gives it some punch, but it's still mellow. May I suggest cranberry juice and dark roast coffee to round out the meal.

Labels: breakfast, cooking, food, potatoes, recipes

My almost-vegan niece, the other day, was saying that just about the only animal-dish smell that gets her to thinking, "Man, that smells good...I miss that" — though not to the point of eating it, of course — is southern fried chicken.

This recipe isn't an exact replica, but it comes close. It's definitely fried! The batter has the right amount of crispiness and crunchiness, and overall the dish has a satisfying, rich, slightly tangy taste.

The protein base is seitan — nice and filling. I bought "chicken-style" seitan, already cut up into chunks; you can find this in a lot of stores these days. I fried the coated pieces of seitan in corn oil for a more authentic taste. (Remember Mazola?) Make sure the pan and oil are nice and hot!

I ate it with some rice that I cooked in vegetable broth, and a salad made with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers that our next-door neighbor gave us. I was stuffed!

My wife was on a business trip, but when she gets back, I'm going to cook up another batch. Maybe we'll have it with mashed potatoes and gravy and string beans.

And it's really simple to make!

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P.S. I feel funny calling non-animal dishes "chicken," since the whole idea is that it's not chicken. But if we need to call some mock-meat dishes by their animal names for a while, to let people know which non-vegan dish it most resembles, taste-wise, and that draws more people to vegan cooking, so be it.

Labels: cooking, food, recipes

When we explain to people the immense suffering inherent in almost all animal agriculture — from genetically engineered hyper-fast growth to killing newborn chicks to separating two-day old calves and their mothers to gestation crates to brutal "cullings" to grueling day-and-a-half truck rides at the end of animals' short lives to horrific tortures in the slaughter line — they often are left with helpless, numbing despair. Which is appropriate — what we do to animals every day is almost beyond belief, beyond our capacity to fathom.

That's why it's ultra-important to give people a way out, to empower them by showing how their individual actions can undo the institutionalized oppression, mutilation, commodification, and mass-slaughter of animals. Specifically, we can help others' transition to veganism be as smooth as possible by doing our best to ensure that vegan food is plentiful and widely available, by giving non-vegans ample opportunities to sample delicious food made without animal products, and by engaging in the types of food-related advocacy described in this informative and entertaining article by chef extraordinaire Isa Chandra Moskowitz: Vegan Culinary Activism in 10 Yummy Steps, which appears in the final issue of Satya magazine (RIP).

As Isa illustrates, culinary activism can be not only satisfying and easy but downright joyful.

Labels: activism, advocacy, food

Although campus cafeterias are offering more vegan options these days than they did a generation ago, or even 10 years ago, there is still a long way to go. The encouraging news is that when tasty vegan main courses, desserts, and other dishes are added to cafeteria menus, typically students in general—not just vegans—avail themselves of these animal-friendly, usually healthy selections.

PETA has put together a concise yet quite complete online guide on how to get your school cafeteria to increase its frequency and diversity of vegan options. The guide discusses planning, resources, meeting objections, generating student and administration support, even researching potential suppliers. It stresses the benefits of working within the system but also provides tips on how to kick the campaign up a notch, e.g., through peaceful demonstrations and petitions, if the university is dragging its heels. Finally, it wisely advises activists to express thanks and appreciation to the school for any positive changes it makes. Not all institutional change has to be done through adversarial means; it may cost far less in terms of time, energy, and exasperation to bring about incremental progress through persuasion rather than coercion. But it's good to have a backup plan.

Click here to read a summary of Berkeley students' success at adding some very excellent-sounding vegan dishes to their cafeteria's daily menus. Then click on the link near the end of that short article for a more comprehensive guide to veganizing college cafeterias.

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I'm currently trying to persuade some local coffee houses and bakeries to offer a wider selection of vegan choices to their customers (including me!). It's interesting; one has to look at the situation as much as possible from the viewpoint of the small business owner, and not only anticipate their concerns — economic and otherwise — but be able to present workable solutions. I'll try and report on progress, and what I think I did wrong and right, down the road.

Labels: advocacy, food