If a vegan friend visited you today, what could you make for them?

Marmite & cheese on toast or a bland caesar salad

Jason Manning wrote:Marmite & cheese on toast or a bland caesar salad

I was just thinking how lovely both of these are, when I realised that cheese is a no no and ceasar dressing has anchovies. So to adapt, marmite on toast with a bowl of lettuce. Wow, really hard when one is not vegan or even vegetarian oneself.  I have a best friend of 55 years who has a severe nut and fish alergy. Whenever I cook for her I have to run the menu past my husband as it is so easy to make mistakes with ingredients. Its how I found out about ceasar dressing!

Mandy Launchbury-Rainey wrote:

Jason Manning wrote:Marmite & cheese on toast or a bland caesar salad

I was just thinking how lovely both of these are, when I realised that cheese is a no no and ceasar dressing has anchovies. So to adapt, marmite on toast with a bowl of lettuce. Wow, really hard when one is not vegan or even vegetarian oneself.  I have a best friend of 55 years who has a severe nut and fish alergy. Whenever I cook for her I have to run the menu past my husband as it is so easy to make mistakes with ingredients. Its how I found out about ceasar dressing!

Vegan cheese?

Add Marmite to the caesar dressing instead of the anchovies?

Given that caesar dressing typically includes egg, cheese and anchovies, it wouldn't be my first choice for a vegan salad dressing.

I'm having to adapt some meals for my now vegan kid. I have to say it's a pain. Most of the time, I do the traditional meat, starch, vegetable and have at least one that she can eat. And often, I take her portions out first and then finish everyone else's with butter, cheese etc.  There is very little I eat that doesn't contain at least butter.

I've got three boxes of plums and no time to process them so I've just been eating them with everything. After digging dirt in the rain all day yesterday, my dinner was buckwheat crepes with sliced plums wrapped inside. They were divine - and not just cause I was starving :D

Crepes were just buckwheat flour, water, baking soda, and vinegar. Plums were an unknown japanese variety from some urban foraging. Black and plummy.

Stacy Witscher wrote:Given that caesar dressing typically includes egg, cheese and anchovies, it wouldn't be my first choice for a vegan salad dressing.

Blended cashews, nutritional yeast, and citric acid powder are the classic vegan parmesan substitute. Marmite, as was mentioned, and miso can make pretty good anchovy stand-ins. Egg is just an emulsifier, and there are all kinds of things you can substitute for that.

If you're determined to have a caesar dressing, it can be done :)

Jan White - I have been playing around with blended cashews for her. My main issue is that our diets conflict. I add eggs and dairy to almost everything, because I'm diabetic and it helps keep my blood sugar in check. And while there are things like cashews and avocado that are good for adding fat, they don't grow here. So that doesn't align with my locavore ideas.

Stacy Witscher wrote:Jan White - I have been playing around with blended cashews for her. My main issue is that our diets conflict. I add eggs and dairy to almost everything, because I'm diabetic and it helps keep my blood sugar in check. And while there are things like cashews and avocado that are good for adding fat, they don't grow here. So that doesn't align with my locavore ideas.

Yeah, I don't bother with vegan substitutes much. there are so many delicious, naturally vegan foods - like buckwheat crepes and plums!

Not sure where you are, but there must be some local fats.  Walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower, poppy, flax, and evening primrose seeds are the fats I grow or forage.  I have to admit I still buy tahini and avocados, though :o

Today my lunch was steamed bok choy and corn on boiled chickpeas with a miso, walnut, rice wine vinegar sauce.

Burra Maluca wrote:What could you come up with?

Even though I don't have any vegan relatives or friends, there's a few dishes that could be made from what I keep in the pantry: as a back up to fresh herbs and vegetables, there's always an assortment of dried herbs/spices, along with rice paper sheets, tortillas, poppadoms, pasta, rice noodles, tinned tomatoes/corn/beetroot/fruit, packets of jelly/junket powder, several types of lentils, dried and canned beans, dried chick peas, couscous, oatmeal, etc. So:

1. Indian dhal (curry) made from the pulses
2. Vietnamese rice paper rolls, along with dipping sauces (though, without the mandatory fish sauce it's blasphemy!)
3. Faux Mexican tortillas
4. Faux Italian dishes - salsa, meatless bolognese sauce, etc
5. Ukrainian/Russian borscht
6. North African flavoured dishes (couscous, chakhchoura, hummus, etc)
7. Herb dips
8. Faux Western meatloaf - oatmeal
9. Desserts: jelly, junket, tinned fruit, oatmeal biscuits/cakes (being careful of enzymes used such as rennet, etc)

There's probably a lot more that can be made, but that's just after 10 minutes of rumination (pun intended)!

Used the last of my fresh tomatoes from the garden to make a lentil veg soup.  For lunch today having a bowl of soup and some steamed broccoli and baked squash.

I have made this whole meal for my vegetarian friend.  It was soooooo good!

And just for more deets on that gravy...


Enjoy!

Something I've been eating for lunch quite often these days is cheeze and onion sandwiches.

I make a thick pancake with chickpea flour, shiitake mushroom powder, baking soda, and homemade pear vinegar. I make this pancake green with mostly chives and whatever leafy greens I have around. Right now it's pea greens and lamb's lettuce. I use one part greens and chives to two parts chickpea flour (by weight). Shiitake to taste, soda and vinegar as needed for quantity. This serves as bread and onion.

The cheeze filling for the sandwich is coconut milk with nutritional yeast, miso, more pear vinegar, thickened with agar, cultured with sauerkraut or kimchi juice, and left to funkify at room temp for a few days.

And you can never go wrong with a side of steamed broccoli.

Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers right now.....bring on the seitan-chickpea baekun for BLTs!  The gluten-chickpea flour dough ball (containing seasonings) is rolled out quite thin on a cutting board.  Strips are cut and carefully rolled up, then unrolled in tamari-based marinade.  Strips are ready for frying after a few minutes in the marinade, turning them over a few times to get all sides properly wetted.  Fry in oil of your choice to your own texture satisfaction.

So I would cook up a meal with things I have in my cooked meals, just with more of them than I have in any cooked meal I have for myself. I would make it with whole grain noodles and cut up potato, with leafy greens, generally cabbage, other vegetables cut up like bell pepper, carrot, broccoli, squash, and other possibilities, with salsa and black beans or hummus, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and other seasonings, all cooked together.

Enrique Garcia wrote:I'm often perplexed by the notion that it is hard to cook for a vegan as eat everything carnivores eat with the exception of about 10-15 items .. so we eat what you eat !! Easy peasy lemon squeezy !! Also, I never expect anyone I visit to provide a meal as I know it is hard for them to imagine .. so we always being our own or eat before we show up ... as we are 3% of the population so no worries mate !

I think you meant to say omnivour. carnivours like myself eat only meat and animal products the only plant based foods in my kitchen are pepper and coffee.

oh acrtualy I do have some rice in the freezer cooked specially for my pep badge but now waiting for a non carnivore visitor to feed it to it may go soon to the fish or birds if no one visits soon not much socialising these days with corona

Brian Karlsen wrote:

Enrique Garcia wrote:I'm often perplexed by the notion that it is hard to cook for a vegan as eat everything carnivores eat with the exception of about 10-15 items .. so we eat what you eat !! Easy peasy lemon squeezy !! Also, I never expect anyone I visit to provide a meal as I know it is hard for them to imagine .. so we always being our own or eat before we show up ... as we are 3% of the population so no worries mate !

I think you meant to say omnivour. carnivours like myself eat only meat and animal products the only plant based foods in my kitchen are pepper and coffee.

I was curious. Is it in your native country where they spell those words omnivour and carnivour, rather than those words being spelled the way I know of, omnivore and carnivore?

Fred Frank V Bur wrote:

Brian Karlsen wrote:

Enrique Garcia wrote:I'm often perplexed by the notion that it is hard to cook for a vegan as eat everything carnivores eat with the exception of about 10-15 items .. so we eat what you eat !! Easy peasy lemon squeezy !! Also, I never expect anyone I visit to provide a meal as I know it is hard for them to imagine .. so we always being our own or eat before we show up ... as we are 3% of the population so no worries mate !

I think you meant to say omnivour. carnivours like myself eat only meat and animal products the only plant based foods in my kitchen are pepper and coffee.

I was curious. Is it in your native country where they spell those words omnivour and carnivour, rather than those words being spelled the way I know of, omnivore and carnivore?

no just my terrible spelling while i have an iq of over 140 and can derive physics formulas from first principals faster than most people can wright them down ive always had an issue with spelling

Brian Karlsen wrote:

Fred Frank V Bur wrote:

Brian Karlsen wrote:

Enrique Garcia wrote:I'm often perplexed by the notion that it is hard to cook for a vegan as eat everything carnivores eat with the exception of about 10-15 items .. so we eat what you eat !! Easy peasy lemon squeezy !! Also, I never expect anyone I visit to provide a meal as I know it is hard for them to imagine .. so we always being our own or eat before we show up ... as we are 3% of the population so no worries mate !

I think you meant to say omnivour. carnivours like myself eat only meat and animal products the only plant based foods in my kitchen are pepper and coffee.

I was curious. Is it in your native country where they spell those words omnivour and carnivour, rather than those words being spelled the way I know of, omnivore and carnivore?

no just my terrible spelling while i have an iq of over 140 and can derive physics formulas from first principals faster than most people can wright them down ive always had an issue with spelling

It seems to me you must be on a keto diet. What I have seen of information on ketosis being used has me aware of problems to health probable from that. I thought I should communicate my concern about that.

I love this cook's approach to budget cooking.  

In this video she does vegan food for a week on a limited budget and is really creative about it.  I like her budget cooking videos in general because she is creative while cooking with a limited ingredient list, wastes nothing, and in a small kitchen without a ton of expensive cooking tools.  Her ingredient budget is $25.00 not including spices, sauces, and oils that she already has in her kitchen.  She also took on gluten free in this challenge. It is giving some inspiration on new ways to cook the veggies I grow in my garden.  

She has other videos that are budget challenges but they are not vegan that are also worth watching for her creative use of low cost ingredients.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmeJ2T_txk

Today lunch will be steamed broccoli, cooked beets with sour cream and dill, and brown rice with cheese sauce.

The sour cream is coconut cream, cultured for 24 hours so it's nice and tangy. The cheese sauce is cooked squash, blended with tahini, miso, nutritional yeast, vinegar, and some spices.

Dinner will be lentil vegetable soup and sandwich. The sandwich will be made from chickpea flour bread (actually just a thick pancake) with filling of olive tapenade and romaine lettuce.

2 parts Jose Cuervo
1 part Gran Mariner
Lime
Ice
Mixer
Salt


About as vegan as you can get at my house

Lunch today was grain salad made with leftover brown rice and olive tapenade, avocado, and lettuce. Also had paprika beans. These are navy beans cooked with lots of onion (the only thing I eat onion in!) and smoked paprika.

Salad of mixed greens (my cold frame is picked bare, so we'll have to settle for store bought) with a tahini, orange, ginger, and miso dressing. Use an orange as a stress ball for a few minutes, then ream it out with a fork, getting pulp and juice. Add a spoonful of miso, a bigger spoonful of tahini, and lots of minced ginger. Serve with a baked potato, cooked in a woodstove so it's smokey tasting. Top with lots of parsley and some chopped up olives.

Sprouted barley sourdough pancakes topped with lemon balm, blueberries, and coconut cream yoghurt.

I just made those pancakes the other day and now I'm hooked. Sprout your barley, then blend it with enough water to make a pancakey batter. Then let that ferment for a day or so. I added some homemade pineapple vinegar and baking soda to make sure the batter would rise, but I'll try without when I make them again later today.

If I've got a picky friend who turns up their nose at pancakes for lunch, they can have one of my springtime go tos. Steamed potatoes topped with some of that coconut cream yoghurt they wouldn't put on pancakes and a huge heap of herbs and greens from the garden - chives, garlic chives, oregano, parsley, lamb's lettuce, orach, sorrel, mustard greens.

Right now? It's only just starting to be planting season right now, so no fresh produce yet. My herbs are already flourishing, however, but I don't think a few mint leaves, thyme and chives would be very satisfying. Maybe I could grab a few cans of vegetables off the shelf and call it done?

Today was vegetable hash: a beet, the very last potato from last fall, kale, pumpkin leaves, smoked tempeh, and almonds. Was supposed to be walnuts, but there weren't any shelled and I'd already started cooking. Had a side of steamed raab from the lamb's quarters.

We will be having vegan tamales as an option at my youngest kids wedding as some vegetarians and vegans will be attending. The masa will be made with vegetable oil and the filling will be corn and chiles.

Just had some gingery stir fried immature winter squash and chickpeas. Also a big pile of separately stir fried turnip greens with a Chinese black pepper sauce kinda thing mixed through. One of my new favourite things to put on greens.

Made a jollof rice today which was onion, tomato, red peppers and half a habanero blended together.  The purée was cooked in oil with spices and rice added. Pretty spicy but great.

Served with a salad of grilled squash, tomatoes, olives, capers, roasted red peppers and a dressing of olive oil, vinegar and herbs.

Roasted okra along with.  

It was vegan and gluten free.

I'm not vegetarian and have never given it much thought so I would turn it around and ask, what is my vegetarian friend going to cook for me? Besides the stove and kittles here is some of what you'd have to work with today.
Canned green beans
Canned tomatoes and tomato juice
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Fresh green peppers
Fresh radish, turnip, cabbage, carrot, onion and garlic greens
Dry beans
Dry Lima Beans
Dry Cowpeas
Dry Sweet corn
And probably more I can't think of right now

So, what's for supper?

Mark, sounds like a kickass stew is in your future. ;)

Mark Reed wrote:

So, what's for supper?

I'd do something with the dry beans and corn and the canned tomatoes. I'm going to assume you've got spices 😁, so I'd make a thick, spicy stewy thing and have it over a baked potato. Steamed greens on the side.

Thanks, Sonja and Jan, this stew sounds interesting.

For spices you have store bought salt and black pepper.
Various fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme, oregano and winter savory, also horseradish, dried basil and I think there is still some nasturtium flowers out there *maybe I should dry some of them?
Assortment of dry pepper flake mixes, ranging from mild to way too hot

Also on hand
A few pounds of fresh peanuts
Tons of black walnuts and pecans
Various jams and jellies, mostly peach and blackberry

And I guess I should add, store bought
rice
pasta
oats
barley.

Sounds like you've got lots of options.

There are all kinds of soups and stews you could make with that. Barley vegetable, minestrone, potato leek with whatever allium greens you have in place of leek. Your walnuts made me think of doing a version of vichyssoise with walnut cream in place of dairy cream. One soup I used to make for my husband all the time involved roasting carrots, onions, garlic, and celery in the oven. You'd have to do without the celery, I guess. Maybe you've got some lovage growing somewhere. After everything's really roasty and caramelized, put it into the blender with some cooked lentils (maybe cowpeas in your case) blend it up, thinning until desired consistency is achieved. Can thin with the vegetable stock made from the offcuts left from all your veggies.

Lots of stir fry!

Lots of kraut-chi! It's good in stir fry, too.

So many different variations on a chopped salad are possible, with cooked legumes, grains, and/or roasted nuts added to bulk it up.

We were just at my mother in law's for Thanksgiving, and she's on a stuffed pepper kick. I'd cook up some of your grain and walnuts in the aforementioned home made veggie stock. Fried garlic and onions and whatever other vegetables strike your fancy can be mixed in with the grain and walnuts and used to stuff the peppers.

The peanuts and garlic can be blended up with some kraut juice to make a sauce. Drizzle that over some steamed greens, a baked sweet potato and some cooked dried beans.

If my husband was cooking you'd be eating baked potato with horseradish sauce for a couple days at least. I really should plant some for the poor man.

Oat pancakes with jam for dessert. Oats hold together so well, they don't need any other binder.

I don't think you'd go hungry 😁