Creative cooking

[hobochan]

I was studying at a fast-food restaurant the other night and I heard a girl order a grilled cheese sandwich with all kinds of condiments on it - pickles, onions, sauerkraut, ketchup... upon which my (vegan) husband, the waiter, stopped and smilingly remarked "Noone eats this creatively unless they are or have been a vegetarian." The girl laughed

Comments

[ubbercatta]

I do what I call Dinner and Desert in One.

Peanut butter toast (dinner) with sliced bananas on top (can be both dinner and desert) with chocolate sprinkled on top of that (definitely the desert part).

It fills me up and satisfies my sweet craving.

[hobochan]

That sounds good! Now I want to make a Reese's French toast...

[tails_redux]

what are some of your favorite 'creative foods' you like to cook up that you feel you developed due to your dietary/lifestyle changeI started cooking vegetarian/vegan mainly due to poverty, all those years ago, wasn't much of a lifestyle change. Very much from scratch cooking, with little time for tofu or pre-packed meat replacement products. Still love a nice stew and dumplings

[girl_in_blue]

do you live in england? there is a veg restaurant in london (the gate) who do a 'wild food festival' in the spring where they serve things made with nettles etc. it's fab!

[tails_redux]

Yes I do live in England.

Spoken with a friend who does a fair bit of foraging, it seems that nettles can be used like spinach. Apparently good for risottos and soups. Think I've give it another week or two before doning gloves and going harvesting.

I've got this gastronaut challenge going on of eating at a fancy veggie/vegan friendly restaurant once a month, and The Gate is on my maybes list - a fair few folk I've asked don't rate it at all! Yet to find a place on par with Vanilla Black where I ate last month. Trying Dandelion and Burdock in Sowerby Bridge this month.

[girl_in_blue]

hm interesting, i have never heard of vanilla black - looks great! i'll have to put that on my own list.

the gate is wonderful if you're veggie, less good if you're vegan. they always have vegan options but they can be limited, especially the desserts. however, when they do their special nights ('festivals') they always have an all-vegan version of the special menu and it is amazing. they do a wild mushroom festival in the autumn and the food is unbelievable if you're a mushroom fan. if you're checking out all fancy veggie places though you should at least try the gate, it is one of the few and also has quite a long history.

manna is my fave in london though, have you been there?

[meredith_mae]

I'm a lot more open to what I cook. When I was omni, I would just grill a boneless chicken breast and put it on a salad or a wrap for the most part. After going veg, I didn't want to necessarily just replicate meat-based food when there are so many great vegetarian dishes on their own (though I'll readily admit to eating Tofurkey bratwurst and whatnot occasionally). I actually tried Ethiopian and south Indian food and bought cook books to try new dishes after going veg. I was never a picky eater, I just didn't have any real reason to be adventurous before.

[antifrenzy]

I've tried to assert this very concept to people who incredulously say, "OH MY GOD WHAT DO YOU EAT!??!" when they find out I'm vegan. I try to say that I eat more of a variety of foods now than I ever did as a meat eater. I try to explain the immense variety there is out there - there is so much more than I ever dreamed. Hardly anybody really gets it, though.

No creative dishes per se, but being vegan has just opened me up and expanded my horizons in so many directions. I love going through vegan cookbooks and dreaming up menus. Vegan cooking brings me a lot of happiness. Going to the farmer's market is also a huge joy every week. Before I went vegan I had no idea that purple potatoes or green zebra tomatoes even existed. Now I do, and I am so thankful. It's a whole new world.

[psykoinsane]

Yes, I try and relate this to people as well and they just don't seem to understand. I eat a WAY more varied diet now, and people just don't get it. The one lady at works keeps telling me how hard it must be to come up with things to eat - and how I must get tired of making the same few things over and over every weel...I try and tell her I don't make the same thing often, I am always making/trying new things and she doesn't get it.

It doesn't help that the other lady at work is Russian Orthodox and apparently they are vegan when fasting - but she is not fasting vegan this year, just vegetarian, as last year she had nothing to eat! I just looked at her shocked as well...there is a plethora of foods I eat! But she is a meat eater all other times so....

[antifrenzy]

I know. My mom is Greek Orthodox and fasts the same way...a vegan diet for forty days, twice a year. She gets it, though, and is lovely about making me vegan food when I'm home.

[hobochan]

I definitely agree about discovering the different varieties of veggies - I love green zebra tomatoes, too, but I can NEVER find them. They're my favorite to put into curries versus red tomatoes because it'll keep the sauce from developing such a sweet flavor. Tomatillo's have been a great stand-by, and before veganism I'm not sure I could have even pronounced the word!