Since I moved to London I have made quite a few friends who adhere to vegetarianism in various shapes and forms and with varying religiosity. A few of them are vegan, and a while back I talked to E about if she didn't find being completely vegan a tad boring? Constantly denying yourself a lot of the candy, fatty but so tasty pub grub and the taste of juicy, succulent, tender meat?
To my big surprise she (almost...) said yes. Not about vegan food being boring, I know for a fact that it certainly doesn't have to be (a fact most restaurants seem to yet have to grasp), but about the frustration of missing certain tastes and for example being able to stuff yourself with whatever you crave when you feel miserable. Comfort food, this great psychotherapy tool that gives bliss and joy and removes bad thoughts. Like Xanax and Zooloft, but fattening...
Yes... Fats and sugars are among the most commonly used orally ingested drugs in the world, they must be. But that's a completely different topic.
However, in order to cope with the lack of comfort food, E has found a few recipes that she shared with me. For now I'll just jot them down here, and when I have tried them I will add commentary.
Since a lot of the stuff in the recipes are food items I haven't used much, me being a carnivore and all, I have linked the more interesting stuff to Wikipedia in order to get more information.
Vegan Bacon
Ingredients:
Be sure to use vegan varieties of these food items.
1 lb firm tofu, cut into strips shaped like bacon
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp tamari/shoyu
1 tsp Wright's (or other brand) liquid smoke.
1 tbsp oil (something neutral, not olive or sesame)
Instructions:
Fry tofu strips on low or medium heat until they are crispy on the outside. The best way to do this is to lay them in the pan in the oil and let them sit for at least 10 minutes, simmering. They should turn easily after that. Turn them and give them another 10 minutes on the other side.
Mix the tamari/shoyu soy sauce with the liquid smoke first, then take the pan off the heat. Pour the liquid smoke/tamari mix into the pan and stir the tofu so all sides are coated, then sprinkle the yeast over all, stir some more, over the heat, until the liquid is gone and the tofu is covered with sticky yeast.
Try it. It tastes just like bacon.
Another variation is to marinate the tofu in the tamari/liquid smoke mixture for several hours and then fry, but it misses a little bit without the nutritional yeast.
You can get liquid smoke off www.cybercandy.com and nutritional yeast you can buy in supermarkets and healthfood shops. Tamari should not be a problem to find in any store!
Like chicken nuggets, kind of
Use this recipe to create something very much like chicken nuggets. In that sense they are very similar to McDonalds chicken nuggets. McD's nuggets are also kind of chicken nuggets, but not really... These are a lot nicer to the chickens though!
Ingredients:
1 cup soya bean juice
2 cups of cooked soya beans, mashed
2/3 cup whole cooked soya beans
1 1/2 cups white flour (strong breadmaking flour's best)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp soya sauce
1-2 tsp garlic powder
1 minced onion
1 tsp mixed herbs (optional)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
Instructions:
Mix the ingredients together to make a thick paste (add more flour or liquid if necessary).
Heat oil in deep frying pan or wok.
Drop in spoonfuls of the mixture, fry until light brown, then turn over to fry the other side.
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