First vegan meal...

[Russ21]

Okay, as you may or may not already know i am really wanting to become a vegan and after thinking about what i'd like to eat for tonight's dinner i've decided to try my first vegan dish, now i am unsure of what sort of things to get although i do know that i will be eating oriental tonight.

i was thinking of something along the lines of rice noodles with mushrooms, baby corn, and whatever else i can find in Asda, although i dont quite know whether to jump straight in at the deep end and stick a bit of tofu in there (stir fry)

does anybody have any decent recipes that i should try...or do i just have plain old salad :p

[twinkle]

Have you looked in the other recipe threads in here? There are probably quite a few suggestions for tofu recipes already ;)

If you've never tried it before I would go for one of the preflavoured ones or make sure you use a nice marinade for a good length of time, otherwise people new to it tend to be disappointed with the blandness, not realising that the beauty of tofu is that it takes on the flavours of whatever it's cooked with and can have a range of textures depending on how you prepare it.

There's nothing wrong with salad, but it's not a meal in itself. Get yourself to somewhere like Sainsburys or Co-op that actually marks some of its food as suitable for vegans if you want to see a range of pre-packaged convenience foods (though you did say you were trying to lose weight on another thread, so maybe that's not the best idea!)

[sleepydvdr]

Throw in the tofu! Fry it first, because it takes a long time to brown (like 10 minutes or so). Last night, I had fresh green beans, tofu, garlic, and soy sauce. Awesome.

But what you suggested sounds awesome, too. I might make that soon, myself! Try dissolving a teaspoon of corn starch in a 1/4 cup of water and adding it to the stir fry. That will make it a thick sauce like they serve at Chinese restaurants.

[emmapresley]

eyoop russ21..let us know how you got on with your stir fry? :)

if you're stuck for vegan recipe ideas, i'd suggest a trek down to your local library..for starters i'd be highly surprised if you ever saw a vegan cookook on the shelves but you can order books for something crazy like 50p..if that seems like an unlikely thing, you could get out some vegetarian cookbooks and adapt the recipes you fancy in them..avoiding evil egg stuff (phoo-eey!)..a seeking out exciting cheese and milk alternatives (aaaay!) absolutely stacks of recipe ideas lurking in veggie books, on this forum and on other places on the internet.

i'm worried that you might get all terrified and run away to find some incredibly nutritionally deficient tea. :confused:..but you did do a sticky out tongue so maybe you were kidding about the salad..ahhh confusion.

[harpy]

Salad can be a meal in itself. It depends how "plain old" you were going to make it. A salad made with potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms and veggie sausages, for example, would be quite filling.

Hmm, I feel hungry now.

[missbettie]

salad not a meal?!!?! I would be dead then. :D

[twinkle]

Salad can be a meal in itself. It depends how "plain old" you were going to make it. A salad made with potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms and veggie sausages, for example, would be quite filling.

Hmm, I feel hungry now.

Hehe, that's not what I call a salad ;) If you're going to mix other things in with the veggies that's cheating :p :D

[Pob]

Stir fry is a good starting point as it's the same starting point as for curries, pasta, lasagne, etc.

I'd stick with loads of veg (onion, courgette, sweet peppers, baby corn, beansprouts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mushrooms). Chuck in a jar of blackbean or sweet and sour sauce and you're away :)

Also - asda sell vegan pancakes for duck. Get some of them, a jar of mock duck from Holland and Barretts, some spring onions, some cucumber, some chilli dipping sauce and you've got yourself a crispy mock duck pancake starter. (Bake the mock duck in the oven for about 15-20 minutes in a shallow dish)

[Risker]

I'll bet you've eaten vegan before, you just don't know it :)

[harpy]

Hehe, that's not what I call a salad ;) If you're going to mix other things in with the veggies that's cheating :p :D

:D Still, it's traditional to put bits of sausage in a potato salad in France and Germany - I think that's where I got the idea originally.

ETA Pob, that's funny, we sometimes do the mock Peking duck thing as well, but we usually just use tortillas - and plum sauce.

[Pob]

We could never find a nice plum sauce, so we use the chilli - it's pretty good, and tends to keep longer in the fridge.

[BlackCats]

Russ21 - I love mexican-type stuff with tortillas, fried red and yellow peppers, kidney beans, sweetcorn or vegan "mince" etc in spicy seasoning with salsa, homemade guacamole, lettuce and tomato. It's very filling and yummy - probably better if you are cooking for two people though.

Have you looked through the thread called "What did you eat today?". You can get some ideas about different meals.
(Btw ignore my posts on that thread - I eat junk!! - stick to the sensible ones.:p)

(I have never tasted actual duck in Chinese restaurant but I have seen other people eating it.
That mock version sounds lovely - Pob and Harpy!:))

[Guacamole Gal]

[quote=Aphrodite;347834]Russ21 - I love mexican-in spicy seasoning with salsa, homemade guacamole, lettuce and tomato. It's
quote]

I think it's only fair to warn you, Aphrodite, that I WILL MARRY anyone who makes me a mean tub of gaucomole..All my friends know I'm obsessive about the stuff, and Mexican in general...So be careful about describing any such yummy meals in future, ok?!;):p

[BlackCats]

:D
(I wish I hadn't even mentioned mexican last night - all I keep doing is craving it!)

[Russ21]

but you did do a sticky out tongue so maybe you were kidding about the salad..ahhh confusion.

Nope i wasn't kidding!

unfortunately the stir fry thing was a no-go as the supermarket (Asda) didn't have half the ingredients i wanted so i stuck out with the salad idea and had baby pearl potatoes, lettuce, red cabbage, and a load other green leafy things including rocket...but the rocket was awful! nothing like it was at the gardens where i worked (me and my friends used to have a handful of rocket and elderflower with our lunches :))

but i had my salad with brown bread and vegan salad cream (i did check it was suitable about 3 times as i didn't trust that it didn't have egg in lol)

[harpy]

That sounds like a good salad! You could bung in some beans or nuts another time, for extra protein.

If you have room for a flowerpot, rocket is quite easy to grow from seed I've found. There seems to be more than one kind but the one called "wild rocket" is hotter, and nicer I think.

[Snorkmaiden]

So how did your meal go Russ?

[Russ21]

It went okay...I did find it quite bland but then again before yesterday I was eating all sorts of crap (burgers, dairy, poultry etc) but yeh it went okay as I said and I shall be trying out Cherry's idea for Sag Aloo :)



And I did something I have never done before today...we've had to go to Telford to get some bits for my dad's car and for convenience he stopped off at McDonald's for a meal, he said "aren't you going to have something?...Oops you're a veggie now aren't you, I still think you're over-reacting!"

I simply replied "I've made a decision not to eat any animal products again, it is my choice and I am old enough and wise enough to make this choice"

So he started on about "oh you'll only last a week! animals are put on earth to keep us alive" so I simply went on about the pig having the mental capacity of a 3 year old and would it be okay to eat a child etc etc...he soon shut up!!!

[emmapresley]

I simply replied "I've made a decision not to eat any animal products again, it is my choice and I am old enough and wise enough to make this choice"

So he started on about "oh you'll only last a week! animals are put on earth to keep us alive" so I simply went on about the pig having the mental capacity of a 3 year old and would it be okay to eat a child etc etc...he soon shut up!!!

not to be entirely pessemistic, but this is possibly the sort of stuff you are gonna have to deal with from all sorts of people who will think they have the right to come up with crap like this (no disrespect to your pa)

it's endless and teeeeedious..but you are a cool ace vegan now so you'll handle it brill and become adept at label reading and slick retorts. yay!

[harpy]

would it be okay to eat a child

After being conned into babysitting for a neighbour last week, I can see some merit in that idea. Oops! Wash my mouth out with soap and water.