In which I rattle on about VVO

[neadods]

I haven't had a vegan meal in 4 days. I've also only eaten meat twice in the last 4 days (none for the last two) so I'm at least not going back to old ways either.

Vegan!Fail basically comes from not knowing how to cook a satisfying vegan meal and thus finding all the horrible snack foods instead (fritos are vegan, y'all!) So I've gone to the library and checked out a bag of vegan cookbooks, although I'm not sure I'm going to have time to put them into effect for a few days. (Saturday morning the water gets cut off for several hours. Long story.)

I have gotten past the "it's a fun game!" stage of the diet, and also mostly gotten through the "this is a horrible imposition" stage too... even though some days I *am* telling myself "you can have that for dinner. Dinner is in 5 hours... hold on, it's only 4 hours... you've made it this far, hold on for 3 hours more..."

There has been one really big breakthrough, though. There was a day at work when I got really angry that my plans had been derailed and thus my meat meal of the day was going to end up being bad institutional spaghetti and meatballs. I was furious to have "wasted" my daily opportunity! This thing is making me focus very hard on what I eat, how it relates to the rest of what I eat, and the quality of the treats I allow myself.

I don't want vegan (or vegetarian) substitutes for meat products; I want vegan recipes that focus on how good and satisfying the actual plant materials are, not pretend they're something else. For instance, I've just discovered saag aloo. I need to learn to make that at home, and maybe figure out how to substitute tofu for paneer in matar. That would be vegan and satisfying and healthy.

Comments

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of friends who are vegan and they are all OBSESSED with food.

A lot of them don't really do the meat substituting thing, but then I have a friend at the moment who's working madly on a cashew-based camembert substitute. She uses a lot of cheese substitutes, actually (must miss it badly).

This is her blog http://zbveganrecipes2.blogspot.com.au/

And she has an earlier one http://zbveganrecipes.blogspot.com.au/

She has a couple of cookbooks published by Aduki press (one about deeserts, the other full of pie reipes).

Actually, she's quite inspiring.

If you google, there's a huge amount of resources out there.

But I would mention that none of the vegans I know can live happily without the odd vitamin B12 shot, so IMO it's not a balanced diet and never will be. Though I think they consider that a small sacrifice to make to live an animal friendly life. I'm happy to eat good vegan food then go home and eat bacon, and I'm happy to cook vegan food for them if they come over (though of course it requires more thought and effort, and of course, I have what some of them would consider a meat-contaminated kitchen, and it depends on the vegan whether that's okay even if everything's clean. (I once thoughtlessly picked up a vegan for a day out in a car with leather seats. But she didn't say anything and later when I realised her response was a very practical "well you didn't really have much control over that anyway, so what was the point of saying anything?" as it was a hire car)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'll check that blog, thank you!

Don't worry about the B12; my ultimate goal is one vegan meal, one vegetarian meal, and one omnivorous meal a day -- thus "VVO." I'm trying to cut down, not cut out. It's been eye-opening! But if I can't do all three, I'm trying to reset my default to vegetarian at least.

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

(have you blogged about this before, am I just not paying attention?) I also wondered if you might want to try vegetarian before moving for vegan. It's a pretty big leap to eliminating all animal products. My vegan friends won't even eat honey.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've mentioned it in passing. It's only part-time vegan, though; VVO stands for vegan, vegetarian, omnivorous, in that I'm trying to eat one meal each a day. It's a way of cutting down animal fats and products, not cutting them out.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

This is interesting; if you were to say vegetarian, vegetarian, ominivorous, rather than vegan, vegetarian, etc, that is the way I ordinarily eat, without knowing it was a thing. We eat meat/fish/poultry most nights, vegetarian dinners several times a week, and I almost never eat meat during the day.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Veg/Veg/Omni are still better than what I've been doing. I've got to drop both weight and some of my blood chemistry.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Indian recipes are great for this kind of stuff. Mark Bittman has a really simple recipe for dal, which is vegan if you use oil in place of butter: http://markbittman.com/dinner-with-bittman-simplest-dal/

The recipe is great as written, but it's also super-easy to bulk out with extra veggies - I often add some chopped cauliflower or diced red bell pepper to cook with the lentils, or wilt in some fresh spinach in the last few minutes of cooking.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

One of the books I got out of the library was on Indian vegan cooking. And today I spent WAY too much money at Wegman's buying simmer sauces and ginger & garlic pastes.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

You might take a look at the UK vegan/vegetarian recipe sites - meat substitute products never really caught on in the UK, because if you don't like meat, why would you want to try and imitate it?

Lots of pulses and grains and vegetables in various combinations (though you may have to look out a translation service for some of the ingredients and all of the measurements). I have a fondness for a 'chick pea and carrot in olive oil', and am looking at a 'mushroom and pearl barley risotto' for later in the week.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh, that risotto sounds lovely!

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note-- I use this site for converting almost anything, and it includes cooking terms:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

And the Guardian has plenty of UK recipes to convert:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/food-and-drink

Though you could no doubt find more specific British veg/vegan sites.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh, perfect! Cooking terms are always hard. Thank you!

Satisfying

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

The key things for satisfying meals are fat and protein.

The disconnect that a lot of omnivores have when trying to make vegetarian or vegan meals is a lack of fat and protein.

Adding a bit of oil, and using beans or lentils and/or nuts and seeds makes a difference.

Also, mushrooms.

Re: Satisfying

[j00j.livejournal.com]

"The disconnect that a lot of omnivores have when trying to make vegetarian or vegan meals is a lack of fat and protein." Yes. This.

Also lots of things are better with avocado.

Re: Satisfying

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. And avocado is better with lime juice.

Re: Satisfying

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yes, but for that, you have to like avocado. Thank you for that huge list of links -- that's really helpful!

[j00j.livejournal.com]

I'm not vegan, but I do a fair amount of vegan cooking for myself and others. VVO is fairly close to my normal eating habits, after having been vegetarian for years.

I do a lot of curries and stir fries.

Here's an example of a recipe that uses tofu instead of paneer (have not tried this particular one, but the principle works) http://peacebypastries.blogspot.com/2011/01/eat-your-greens-saag-tofu-paneer.html
Chana masala http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/02/chana-masala/ (I usually go with a less complex spice blend because I don't have all this stuff and I'm lazy... It's good enough.)
Simple dal http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-very-simple-dal-palak-80763

This is a great, simple tofu marinade-- the tofu is awesome in stir fries and other such dishes. I almost always use it. http://www.yourveganmom.com/your_vegan_mom/2010/08/house-tofu.html

Vegan Stoner is honestly one of my favorite food blogs, because the illustrations are cute and the recipes tend to be really simple. They occasionally use meat substitutes, but more often they're simple vegetable-based recipes with few ingredients, which is good if you're trying to figure out how to do a straightforward, satisfying vegan meal http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/

Vegan lunchbox http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/ is another one for helpful ideas. The vegan parent blogs are some of my favorites because the recipes are often easier-- they don't have time to make super elaborate vegan foodie meals.

Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy is one of my all time favorite Isa Chandra Moskowitz recipes. Very satisfying and not hard to make. http://whatimcookingnow.blogspot.com/2006/03/vegan-with-vengeance.html

More of her stuff is at http://www.theppk.com/ and popular cookbooks like Veganomicon. I find some of her stuff far more time consuming than I'm willing to do (I'm just not gonna make my own seitan and then make an elaborate roast out of it. Not happening), but everything I've made from her recipes has been tasty, and some is pretty straightforward like http://www.theppk.com/2010/09/chickpea-picatta/

A couple other random recipes...
Delicious, simple stew recipe. I make this a lot in fall and winter (not so much now when it's hot, blergh) http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/11/vegan-red-lentil-stew/

Wine-braised lentils http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/recipe-of-the-week-wine-braised-lentils.html (yeah, I eat a lot of chickpeas and lentils)

Can o beans lunch (requires no cooking! great for summer! add rice and it's a meal! add cheese and it's vegetarian!) http://www.thekitchn.com/the-can-o-beans-lunch-avocadol-125550

Magical Loaf studio is kinda fun http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html
I've had mixed success with this and suspect it would be better if I didn't base my selections on pantry grab bag and made a gravy as well, but if you like veggie loafs it's worth a try.