Vegan Cooking
|
|
© Lisa Gagne |
Vegan cooking can be a joyful, sensuous experience as you create nourishing meals with the gorgeous colors and diverse textures of plant foods. Working with fresh, locally grown, organic vegetables and fruits, beans and soy products, and whole grains, makes cooking a healthy pleasure. While cooking from scratch with whole foods may be ideal, there are also many vegan products available for quick and easy meal preparation when convenience is a top priority.
Tips
- Be adventurous: Try new vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and soy products. Experiment with cooking techniques, herbs, and spices. Discover a new world of tastes!
- Don't be afraid to substitute: Use non-dairy milks and soy products to replace animal ingredients in your favorite recipes. Use whatever similar plant foods you have on hand if you don't have a particular ingredient called for in a recipe. Replace eggs with flaxseeds, silken tofu, banana, or Ener-G ® egg replacer.
- Prioritize: Choose the kinds of ingredients and cooking methods that work for your daily life and reflect your values. Sometimes you'll choose the convenience of using canned goods or other processed products, and sometimes you'll choose to begin with unprocessed whole foods. Some rich dishes may be higher in fat, sugars, salt, or calories, and other dishes may be more health-oriented. Only you know what works for you.
- Plan ahead: Cook large batches when you have the time and ingredients, then freeze the leftovers for quick homemade meals later.
- Share: Cook cooperatively with friends, neighbors, or family to cut down on labor and expenses. Bring your homemade vegan dishes to potlucks and other social events.
Stocking the Vegan Kitchen
It's so much easier to cook when you have a kitchen well-stocked with vegan staples. You'll find you can make most recipes or adapt them easily when you have the basics on hand.
Long shelf life:
beans (canned or dried), grains, canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, pasta or noodles, non-dairy milk (soy, rice, or nut), peanut butter, nuts and seeds, oil (olive, canola, peanut, sesame), vinegar, tamari or shoyu, maple syrup or agave nectar, coconut milk, small amounts of spices and dried herbs, nutritional yeast
Less perishable:
garlic, onions, ginger, lemons, limes, miso, tahini
Perishable (buy frequently in small amounts to suit your immediate needs):
fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh herbs, tofu, tempeh
Also look for the growing selection of meat and dairy substitutes available at your grocery. Check the ingredients to make sure they're vegan, then sample different products to find the taste and texture you like best.
For help finding foods locally to stock your vegan kitchen, visit these resources.
Creating Vegan Meals
Creating a vegan meal is not all that different from traditional cooking. Add a protein such as legumes or soy, colorful vegetables, and some grain to achieve filling satisfaction and nutritional balance. Combining raw and cooked vegetables adds nice texture. If you're not used to cooking with vegetables, beans and soyfoods, or grains, try out different ways of cooking your food to see what you prefer and to expand your repertoire. Easy preparation methods include stir-frying, sauteing, steaming, roasting, baking, and slow-cooking. Most grains simply cook in boiling water on the stovetop. Just don't boil your vegetables to death!
| Easy and convenient meal ideas: | |
|
|
Cooking Guidance
There are so many wonderful vegan cooking resources available today. You can learn many cooking techniques for plant-based foods from general, vegetarian, and vegan cookbooks. Numerous online resources provide tips, ideas, recipes, and even cooking videos.
To learn more about vegan cooking, check out:
The Strict Vegetarian website was created and is maintained by Jessica Goodman.
©2006 by Jessica Goodman