For those interested in Vegan recipes......

[Englishlady]

Sorry that this is a week late ladies but I have not been out of commission and not up to typing etc.

Someone revived my old thread "So what do Vegans eat" and asked if I could "share" some recipes.

Well first of all I am not some one who "does" recipes.........ever!! I make things up as I go along, however I will give you an idea of what is going on when I come up with these food goodies................

Firstly, I use Extra virgin olive oil and in that I marinate some herbs and spices, this is very often the basis for the flavouring in my meals.

For example "tofu pot pie" I drain and cube some firm tofu and marinate it in my spiced oil mixture for a few hours, turning carefully every half hour to cover all the tofu.
Then I would add a half a cup of mixed beans ( pre-cooked) sometimes I would add say, black eyed beans,. mung beans and or aduki beans.
toss in half a cup of sweetcorn.
make a white sauce and add to it a little of the spiced oil mixture and a few extra herbs.
Place into one large or individual pie dishes and cover with a puff pastry "lid" ( using pastry on only one "side" as it were gives you the taste of the pastry but less than half the fat and calories!)

It is very hard to look back and give an accurate "recipe" for what I make because I do it by instinct, but I think if you want to try to make some of the dishes you need to have some things pre-cooked and frozen ready to throw together.

In my freezer I have cooked and frozen Chick peas, aduki beans, black eyed beans, pearl barley and puy lentils.

I also have pre-made soya mince, either in it's basic form or ready to add to tomato puree to make spaggetti bolognaise.

Soya mince is very versatile and is cheap! it swells up to about twice it's size and can be stored in a cupboard, no need for a fridge until you have reconstituted it with liquid.

I like to look at an ingredient ans see how many uses it has, her are a few things you can do with soya mince:
Add gravy powder and water ( plus or minus) onions and top with mashed potato for a sheperds pie
add to the above mixture a small tin of tomato puree and make spaggetti bolognaise.

Use the sheperds pie mix WITH the onions and put inside a puff pastry case for a much loved English favourite "mince and onion pie"

Add to a pot of cooked veggies and mixed beans for a very filling stew ( serve inside a giant yorkshire pudding) for another English favourite.

Use made up mix of mince, add herbs and spices and put inside green or red peppers.

I also stuff peppers with a (vegan) cheezy rice and pearl barly mixture with a bit of sweetcorn~yummy

In the USA you have a company called" Dixie Diner" who do a lot of vegan friendly dried meat and fish substitutes, they seem a bit expensive at first glance, but a little goes along way, they last for ever ( almost) and are fat free!!
I use the faux Tuna because we can't get it in the UK.

You can buy soya mince(very cheaply) in most health food stores and the trick to making it tast nice and fooling a carnivore is to make it up with a good quality gravy powder, BEFORE doing anything else with it, THIS is what gives it, the base flavour...............

If you have ever tried JUST adding hot water, it will indeed taste like, well wet cardboard I guess!!

I have made many dishes for hardnosed carnivores who delcared it very tasty and asked for more!!!!!!!!!

It seems my Stew tasted just like Mom makes only "obviously without the real meat, with you being Vegan an all"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't like the same thing too often so I rotate things and cook extra when the mood strikes.
In general most of our meals are made of of fresh veggies to which I have added a little of the following soya mince/soya steak pieces/vegan cheese/beans/pulses/pasta.
My favourite home made "junk food" is cheese and potato pasty, puff pastry filled with small chunks of cooked potato, tiny bits of cubed cheese and a bit of white herby sauce for a little extra moisture~ yummy!

for those of you who just HAVE to have real recipes, here are a few good web sites for veggie/vegan reicpes for those who want to have a "go"
www.veganfamily.co.uk
www.vegweb.com
www.veganchef.com
web sites for vegan goodies ( chocolate/specialty foods etc.)
www.veganessentials.com
www.veganstore.com
For those who are interested the Vegan society was founded in 1944 in England by Donald Watson who lived in Keswick in the lake district for most of his life, he did guided walks of the area up to age of about 92, he died aged 98, a fantastic advert for a vegan diet
The Vegan society has a very comprehensive web site with tons of useful info and they can be found at www.vegansociety.com
If anyone has any specific questions please pm me as I often miss threads which is why I didn't respond to this earlier.
I hope some of that is helpful/useful?
Karen

[bridge]

What type of Vegan Cheese substitute do you prefer?

[blueknitter]

Thanks for the links!

[Englishlady]

We have some very good Vegan cheese here in the UK they are made here so I am not sure if they are available in the USA.

I use Redwood Cheezly it comes in either regular or "melting" formula, it is very very good too!
I also use Bute Island cheese.

If you want to see what vegan products we can get here ( they do seem to eventually cross the pond!) check out the web site www.redwoodfoods.co.uk

For the adventurous you can actually make your own vegan cheese! check out a book called the "uncheese cook book" by Joanne Stepniak it has all the info you could ever want..............oh and of course MAKING, your own Vegan cheese is MUCH cheaper than buying it too!

[bridge]

Thank you so much!!
Englishlady