I'm gonna make a vegan version of the Indian Kadai paneer dish today, or at least try. The "real" recipe has some of that Indian paneer cheese, but as it's not vegan, I'll try to replace that with tofu that I've marinaded in a kind of creamy sauce spiced with some garlic & curry. I did find a recipe to making paneer, but it's not a vegan recipe so I'm not sure if it'll work with non-cow milk and non-dairy yoghurt, as those can sometimes behave a bit differently. Trying that with vegan ingredients will be something I'll leave for another time, this time I want to use something I know will succeed (tofu) and focus on getting the sauce-ish part of Kadai paneer right.
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Vegan community thread - Give Peas a Chance
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Paneer usually is pretty bland by itself anyway (to the point of, IMO, having almost no taste at all), and in most Indian places I've eaten they offered a version with tofu for almost every dish with it. So I think it'll be fine
Thanks! So far so good but... I'm going to have to transition. It's hard letting go of milk related products, like diary products and other products that have eggs as ingredients. It's a bit too blunt for me to go fully vegetarian overnight so it's going to take some time. I need to find out and experiment with different vegetarian foods. I also need to let my family and friends know so that grandma won't feel bad if I reject her chicken and noodles soup that she made just for me. I'm gonna take it nice and slow.
anonymous_abc
Member
That's not unusual.
Dealing with friends and family can be tough at times.
What sort of things do you think you will have t rubble letting go of? Maybe we can recommend good substitutes.
HORRORSHØW
Member
what's everyone doing for thanksgiving? anyone try the tofurkey? my gf's thinking about making that and some side dishes.
That's not unusual.
Dealing with friends and family can be tough at times.
What sort of things do you think you will have t rubble letting go of? Maybe we can recommend good substitutes.
Well since it's holiday times, everything! lol. My mom is going to be cooking some Turkey and Smoked Ham, my grandma cooks just about anything with meat in it. My mom's boyfriend eats a lot of meat, so anything that she'll cook will have meat in it, lots of it. In addition, dairy products or products that have egg and milk in it. My mom will also be baking cupcakes, a cheesecake, and other type of things, with eggs and milk... so it's hard trying to resist not to eat them... lol. Luckily my dad doesn't eat a lot of meat but I won't be spending the holidays with him unfortunately. He would understand more because I have told him about going vegan in the past and he was up for it. However it's my mom's family side that's the most difficult as far as meat and animal based products. I will try to resist, but I can't guarantee I'll succeed... The temptation is too strong. But I will try to convince her to cook something vegan friendly since she has a friend who's a vegetarian and has cooked special meals that have no meat in them. Other than that, diary products are what I struggle the most with. I know I can substitute them with almond milk, and soy milk so I should be good to go.
anonymous_abc
Member
What I always like doing is offer to cook something delicious. That way I have full control.
I've already floated the idea of offering to cook every day while we visit the folks over the holidays. It's not as if I have anything else to do.
Sounds like a tough time for you to start on your voyage. But I applaud that, you have to start somewhere. And no one is expected to be able to go full vegan within a day.
Substitute milk, cream, sour cream, cream cheese etc has been very good so far.
I have yet to find a tasty vegan cheese though.
trab pu kcip
Member
What I always like doing is offer to cook something delicious. That way I have full control.
I've already floated the idea of offering to cook every day while we visit the folks over the holidays. It's not as if I have anything else to do.
Sounds like a tough time for you to start on your voyage. But I applaud that, you have to start somewhere. And no one is expected to be able to go full vegan within a day.
Substitute milk, cream, sour cream, cream cheese etc has been very good so far.
I have yet to find a tasty vegan cheese though.
recently discovered this site..everything is vegan, some stuff is shipped worldwide.
apart from that...hefeschmelz ;D
What I always like doing is offer to cook something delicious. That way I have full control.
I've already floated the idea of offering to cook every day while we visit the folks over the holidays. It's not as if I have anything else to do.
Sounds like a tough time for you to start on your voyage. But I applaud that, you have to start somewhere. And no one is expected to be able to go full vegan within a day.
Substitute milk, cream, sour cream, cream cheese etc has been very good so far.
I have yet to find a tasty vegan cheese though.
Yeah and I love cheese so much... so it's hard to let certain cheeses go.
That's awesome!!
Thanks for sharing! Their website wouldn't load on my pc, but I'll try later on.
Dat shirt!! lol.
I had Tofurkey a few years ago and thought it was awful. For premade vegan centerpieces, Field Roast is much better.Grimløck;139638517 said:
I'll be going to a massive vegan potluck on Sunday (300 people!), where I'll be bringing a raw maple walnut cheesecake. On Thanksgiving itself, I'll be eating with my parents and two of their friends, one of them being vegan. We're still working out some of the details of what will be served.
trab pu kcip
Member
Team Jones
Member
Thanks for the shout out!
Yes, I'm a vegan and Yes, I train extremely hard!
If you're concerned about losing weight DON'T BE! Just eat more hearty vegan meals. If you eat the basic salad everyday and you train hard at the gym, then YES you will absolutely lose weight. If you take a few minutes a check out some good hearty vegan dishes you'll grow.
The journey starts rough, but as you start getting familiar with vegan foods and items, you'll find it quite easy to make the meals you need to get the results you want from working out. For example: My goto quick meal is Kale, Potatoes, Quinoa, topped with Amino Acids "soy sauce". You will figure it out.
Question? Ask.
GeekyDad
Member
Sweet Jebus. Got a recipe for that?
http://fragrantvanillacake.blogspot.com/2014/10/raw-maple-walnut-cheesecake.html
The site is full of desserts that look delicious. It was difficult to choose which one to make.
The site is full of desserts that look delicious. It was difficult to choose which one to make.
anonymous_abc
Member
Oh my.... I will have to check some of their stuff out...
Thanks for the link trab.
heavy breathing.gif
matthewwhatever
Member
They just had to stop selling Field Roast in Canada a month or two ago. One of their competitors (which I'm thinking *has* to be Tofurkey, because I don't know who else it could be) complained about them using some weird nutritional labeling law, and Field Roast said that in order to comply with it they'd have to do animal testing, and that they'd rather pull out of Canada entirely than do that. I know it's easy enough to make your own seitan sausages, but I still miss them!
Also, re: the holidays, my wife and I are incredibly fortunate that we both have families who are mostly supportive of us being vegan, even if they don't understand it. For Canadian thanksgiving last month, we were cooked chickpea loaves at both of our family dinners -- totally different recipes, too, which was doubly impressive. They always make sure to cook separate vegan dishes, and they've even been willing to go to veg*n restaurants. The only complaint I could make is that my sister loves baking cupcakes but has never even attempted vegan ones (even after I gave her Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World -- which I highly recommend for vegan baking!), but in the big scheme of things, that's not bad at all.
anonymous_abc
Member
What's your vegan raclette going to entail? We are still looking at what I can do while the others have fondue.
So with FC4 released now, how are you vegans feeling about killing animals in games? It's weird for me, I have no problems with killing other people since I know it's a game, but I kind of feel weird now that I have to kill Rhinos and other animals in FC4. Rhinos!!
I really want to play it but this is holding me off of this game as of now as I can't put the same "this is just a game" mentality towards the act of killing animals.
In a month! Plenty of time to plan. Even tough we won't like meat replacement products we will have a few of those just to test it out. But lot's of veggies and vegan cheese variants!
I really want to play it but this is holding me off of this game as of now as I can't put the same "this is just a game" mentality towards the act of killing animals.
What's your vegan raclette going to entail? We are still looking at what I can do while the others have fondue.
In a month! Plenty of time to plan. Even tough we won't like meat replacement products we will have a few of those just to test it out. But lot's of veggies and vegan cheese variants!
I haven't played Far Cry 4, but I know what you mean. I think part of it is that the humans you kill are all holding guns. That deer you hunt on the other hand is no threat. In Far Cry 3, I had a lot less qualms shooting that tiger after it killed me first a few times. Generally, in survival settings like Tomb Raider and Far Cry, I mind less. I did feel bad about killing dogs in The Witcher where they are no threat and it's just to get some tallow from them. Similarly, all the bunnies I killed in Dragon's Dogma for a side quest. Didn't feel bad about the wolfs attacking me.
In Darksiders you can kill crows to replenish your health. I felt kind of bad about that too. All the enemies you kill are mythological creatures, the crows are (as far as I remember) the only real world animals and are again harmless to you.
I chuck peas and chickpeas in everything. I also have lots of faux meats which are fairly high in protein and I bulk up everything with loads of Veg.
Depending on the food, you can easily replace meat with relatively high-protein alternatives like mushrooms, (chick) peas, beans, soy "meat"/protein in all its different forms, tofu, whole green lentils, seeds/nuts etc. Of course there's some amounts of protein in other vegetables/fruit/berries, so if you start adding a lot more of your basic vegetables to food/eating them more, then that'll help with getting more proteins as well. I.e. when I still made meat-lasagne, I often didn't do much else but the tomato-sauce (with onions & maybe garlic) and maybe red bell peppers in addition to minced meat, as far as including vegetables goes. Nowadays I replace the minced meat with that soy protein that looks like minced meat AND I might throw in mushrooms, beans, carrots and whatnot, making for a more versatile and probably even healthier alternative than what I did when I still ate meat. Not that you couldn't add all those into a meat-lasagne, but I guess I was a pretty traditional meat-head in that I though the meat was enough to make lasagne tasty and didn't even think of adding so much other stuff into it.
Also, stuff like whole-grain couscous & durum wheat is quite a bit more protein rich (& otherwise a bit healthier) than even brown rice.
Mercury Fred
Banned
I have done some version of this when I make a Tofurkey for the hoidays:
-orange juice
-soy sauce
-olive oil
-assorted traditional fall seasonings (sage, rosemary, etc)
-whole garlic cloves
-a dash of cayenne or powdered chipotle and/ or paprika
-rough chopped carrots/ onions/ celery
Whisk all the ingredients aside from the veggies, I can't really say the proportions, just eyeball them. Take the Tofurkey out of its casing. Place it in a large ziploc bag and pour the marinade over it. You can do that as early as the night before, but a couple hours should be fine too.
Then when you go to cook it, loosely wrap the roast in foil but put some of the veggies on the bottom. Close up the foil and cook as instructed. If you want the outside to get a little more crusty, remove the roast from the foil and finish the cooking with the roast exposed, maybe with a fresh bit of olive oil on it. You can also reserve the cooked marinade liquid and pour it over the roast after you slice it.
Grimløck;139638517 said:
I've done Tofurkeys some years. I actually really like the Trader Joe's take on it and I had one the last two years. This year they changed up the recipe and made it breaded so giving that one a spin. Imo, Tofurkey is unfairly maligned. It's not the most delicious ever but it takes well to some doctoring and works nicely as a vegan main dish substitute.
Honestly, I don't pay much attention to it. Unless you only eat junk food, it's nearly impossible to be protein deficient. Most of my protein comes from leafy greens, veggies like broccoli, beans, lentils and occasional tofu, tempeh, or gluten-based food.
anonymous_abc
Member
I usually have a packet of nut mix with raisins lying around for when I feel like it. And in moderation (a handful a day) I see no problem with it.
matthewwhatever
Member
Tofurkey is kind of hit-and-miss. Sometimes I've had it and it's been amazing, other times it's just tasted like really chewy lunch meat. The baste is essential, and luckily the one on the box is pretty good (and I think they just changed it up to make it less sweet).
That said, of the roast alternatives, it's definitely nowhere near the best. Field Roast's Celebration Roast is amazing:
Also, Garden makes an incredibly tasty "Holiday Roast". It's pretty similar to their faux-chicken breasts, which is one of my essential vegan foodstuffs. Tofurky is alright, and it's definitely the most widely-available option, but there's much better stuff out there!
Yeah, we will see how it goes. Defending myself is cool I guess, but killing/hunting for upgrades is a bit weird.
Collete
Member
Where do you usually find Field's Roast and Garden's?
Collete
Member
I found the Field Roast at Whole Foods this morning!
Bought 3 of them for family (I think I unintentionally made them out of stock for Thanksgiving as a result...).
Is there a rub/baste for the Roast or do people eat it as is? I got 3 "half" sections of it".
So, I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm now seriously considering converting to veganism, mostly for my health as well as me wanting to make some changes in my life. I'm still learning to cook and all (despite my budget issues), so maybe I will have some fun with it too.
anonymous_abc
Member
Well meat is hella expensive. I cannot remember my budget when I was still eating meat, but going vegan from vegetarian has had little impact in either direction. I no longer buy expensive cheese, but get more exotic vegan food.
I don't think budget concerns are all that valid when thinking about going vegan.
You will be, almost automatically, eating much less junk, preprepared or industrialised food.
I live with my parents and I've tried to get them to take me over to Whole Foods or other places in the past, but they kept telling me that it was just too expensive. They often try to push me to eat their home cooking instead as a healthier option than "outside food"...which usually amounts to globs of mystery meat and veggies covered in flavored corn syrup. That, or they just tell me to eat less in general.
I've also been sympethetic to the treatment of animals, so the subject of veganism has slowly been becoming a moral choice for me as well.
anonymous_abc
Member
How old are you? And are you able to make your own way to the shops, or are they too far away? I have no idea about US supermarkets, but surely you can get healthy and good food to varying degrees in any shop?
I'm 20. I could go on my own and look for healthy food, but I have a very limited budget seperate from my parents buying groceries and everything else. I'm also expected to buy my brother food every day, which cuts my funding even more. I have been trying out some veggie/vegan food at restaurants and other places, at least (which I have enjoyed).
anonymous_abc
Member
I can easily see how it is problematic if you are financially dependent on a family that doesn't really understand or support you. How long till you move out and are more independent?
That much, I don't know yet. I've been dealing with a lot of personal events recently (even now), and I'm struggling to find a new job. Veganism has been something I've always been very curious about (and something I kept to myself, considering how little it's taken seriously, especially coming from someone like me), and the "out of the blue" consideration of conversion can be understandably jarring to people.
anonymous_abc
Member
We've discussed it in the past, veganism is a process. Do as much as you can and work towards increasing and improving your veganism.
Offer to do more family cooking, Relieve your family of doing the cooking all the time and sneak in delicious, cheap and healthy vegan food. Showing by doing that it isn't all salad and more expensive than meat will likely be more successful than just telling them.
matthewwhatever
Member
I don't think Field Roast requires a baste. Unlike Tofurkey, their stuff tends to be flavoured well already. Have you had their sausages? If not, I highly recommend the apple sage and Italian ones...so great! (Avoid the Chipotle ones unless you really love spicy food.)
And sorry, I just realized my phone autocorrected -- it's actually Gardein, not Garden. In Canada their stuff is everywhere; even Loblaws, our main grocery store chain, carries it. I don't know where they sell it outside of Canada, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it.
anonymous_abc
Member
I have yet to find vegan cheese that is more than tolerable. I'll definitely check out your suggestions next time I'm in the UK.
matthewwhatever
Member
If it has to melt, both Daiya and Follow Your Heart are pretty good. They're both basically oil, so they're not healthy at all, but they both taste fantastic on pizza, pasta, etc.
If it has to be solid, Scheese makes some pretty great hard faux cheese. Also, my wife recently discovered a local vegan cheese maker who makes cashew cheese that tastes great eaten straight up and melted. I have to say that since I went veg almost ten years ago, cheese is one area that's really improved drastically.
If it has to be solid, Scheese makes some pretty great hard faux cheese. Also, my wife recently discovered a local vegan cheese maker who makes cashew cheese that tastes great eaten straight up and melted. I have to say that since I went veg almost ten years ago, cheese is one area that's really improved drastically.
GeekyDad
Member
Go Veggie cheddar melts really good and tastes good to me.