(OT) Any vegans out there?

[Dinkeldog]

If you can guarantee a better texture, I'm all ears.

 

[Thorntangle]

If you can guarantee a better texture, I'm all ears.

If you want a firmer texture than extra firm tofu, you may want to try Seitan. You can usually find Seitan in the tofu section in the same type of container as block tofu at a better grocery store.

Seitan is simply the gluten extracted from wheat, so it's almost pure wheat protein. You could even make seitan at home by kneading flour and water into a ball and let than ball soak in water, kneading it intermittantly. Seitan has a consistency of tender veal, much springier than tofu.

My wife makes a killer Seitan in tomato sauce. Take seitan, bread it in soy milk and flour with salt and pepper, and then fry it golden brown. Mix together some tomato paste, diced tomatoes, olive oil, Italian seasoning and pour over the fried seitan. Mix in a few dollops of Earth Balance margarine and bake for a little while. Serve over pasta. Rich but delicious.

 

[Pielorinho]

i did not mean to offend you. but as a chef it is commonplace to read a recipe and have a really good idea of what i will be like without actually making it. i am very rarely surprised by foods. it just comes with experience. list ingredients, cooking methods, i am going to know how it tastes by reading it. and more often then not without ever making it i can tweak a recipe into something better.

I appreciate the explanation; I'm just hoping you'll recognize that you're not the only one around with cooking experiences. Having tried some of your suggested tweaks before when I was working on the recipe, I know that they change the flavor in ways I don't like (for example, the addition of citrus to the marinade turned out peculiar and unpleasant).

De gustibus, don'tcha know! I look forward to seeing your recipe.

Daniel

 

[ArielManx]

If the OP is still looking in on this thread for suggestions, I would recommend that anyone making any kind of significant diet change visit a registered dietician. They can give you a sample diet plan, recipes, and help you learn which substitutions you need to make to maintain a balanced diet if you're cutting something out. Depending on the size of your community there may even be one practicing who specializes in working with vegetarian and vegan diets. And if you currently have any health problems, a trip to your doctor might not be a bad idea...diet change affects everyone's system differently, and if you already have a medical condition it may take your body longer to adjust to the change.

That said, I am not a vegetarian, but I did have to make radical changes to my diet due to health problems. I was really overwhelmed by the prospect of changing my way of eating until visiting a dietician, who showed me the things I could substitute for for things I had to cut out. Because cutting something out of your diet, be it meat or fat or gluten or whatever, isn't as black&white simple as cutting it out. You need to find something appropriate to replace it to maintain a balanced diet, to prevent feelings of deprivation, to keep you from feeling hungry all the time, etc. As several people have said, almost everyone knows an unhealthy vegetarian or vegan who lives on fries and lettuce alone and doesn't even take a multi-vitiamin. Don't be that kind of vegan!

BTW, does anyone know if other greens, like collards or swiss chard, can be substituted for kale? That soup recipe posted the other day looks great but the produce section of my grocery store is somewhat lacking.

Ariel

 

[kenjib]

BTW, does anyone know if other greens, like collards or swiss chard, can be substituted for kale? That soup recipe posted the other day looks great but the produce section of my grocery store is somewhat lacking.

Ariel

I did some google search to check for you since I've never tried substitution in the recipe (I'd be afraid to change the ingredient that the soup is named after, plus I really like kale).

My first thoughts were collard or mustard greens, but neither of those have the same nice firm texture that kale does.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Greenckg.html

According to that site you and I seem to be pretty close on:

Substitutes: collard greens (smooth leaves) OR rapini OR Swiss chard (This cooks more quickly than kale.) OR flowering kale OR cabbage OR napa cabbage OR kohlrabi leaves OR mustard greens OR spinach (in casseroles and souffles)

Maybe one of the expert chefs can comment on what the best substitution from this list might be for Portuguese Kale Soup in particular. I can say right off that from the list above spinach or cabbage would definitely not work well. Plus, if your store doesn't have kale it probably won't have rapini or kohlrabi either.

EDIT: I'm thinking probably collards...