Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Green Veggies

To continue on the St. Patrick’s Day theme, let’s consider the green side of vegetarianism. (OK, that’s a stretch, but I couldn’t resist.)

Vegetarians have long been familiar with the evidence that shifting toward a vegetarian or vegan diet can benefit the health of the Earth. But recent reports are adding even more support to that idea.

A report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, released in November, concludes that livestock production is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global” and that “it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss of biodiversity.”

The Christian Science Monitor sums up the FAO’s findings in an article at http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0220/p03s01-ussc.html, and the full FAO report is available at http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm

Many of the FAO’s suggestions for dealing with these problems focus on ways to make animal agriculture more efficient, rather than reducing the consumption of animal products. But that is the most obvious and logical step: In addition to benefiting the Earth, it benefits the health of the animals and consumers as well. Many advocates of vegetarianism have already reached that conclusion.

The FAO’s findings lend support to an earlier report from EarthSave International at http://earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm that advocates a vegetarian diet as possibly “the most effective strategy for reducing global warming in our lifetimes.” And Compassion in World Farming has a report on “The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat” that considers all three areas of benefit - environmental preservation, human health and animal welfare - at http://www.ciwf.org/publications/reports/The_Global_Benefits_of_Eating_Less_Meat.pdf
In fact, a vegetarian diet can do more to reduce an individual’s contribution to greenhouse gases than trading in a conventional sedan for a hybrid auto.

As the Christian Science Monitor reports: “Researchers at the University of Chicago compared the global warming impact of meat eaters with that of vegetarians and found that the average American diet – including all food processing steps – results in the annual production of an extra 1.5 tons of CO2-equivalent (in the form of all greenhouse gases) compared to a no-meat diet. Researchers Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin concluded that dietary changes could make more difference than trading in a standard sedan for a more efficient hybrid car, which reduces annual CO2 emissions by roughly one ton a year. “

The researchers’ report is available online at http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutri3.pdf. The implications are discussed in a lively blog - titled “Vegetarian Is the New Prius” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegetarian-is-the-new-pri_b_39014.html

Friday, March 09, 2007

Kiss me, I’m Irish (and vegetarian!)

I’m following Julie’s Irish theme from her Tuesday entry. (And I want to add my enthusiastic thumbs-up to Finnigan’s Wake, too.)

Next Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day. When one thinks of traditional Irish cooking, vegetarian items don’t readily spring to mind—the standard entrees are definitely meat-based. However, with a bit of creativity, you can celebrate the holiday with a “traditional” dish while still being vegetarian. I’ve made the following stew for the past several St. Patrick’s Days, and even carnivorous friends find it tasty and filling. The broth has a hearty, almost meaty flavor. It’s based on a recipe from The Almost No-Fat Holiday Cookbook: Festive Vegetarian Recipes by Bryanna Clark Grogan.

Vegetarian Irish Stew

2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 c. unbleached flour
4 c. water
1 c. Guinness stout (or other dark beer)
2 c. mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 c. carrot, sliced into rounds
1 c. celery, diced
1/2 c. split red lentils
1/2 c. fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 vegetarian bouillon cubes or 3 T. vegetable-stock base
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. Marmite (I use nutrional yeast instead)
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. each dried thyme, marjoram and rosemary
2 cloves garlic, minced
Black pepper to taste
1 package of frozen or refrigerated vegetarian “steak” strips

In a large, lightly oiled, heavy pot, steam-fry the onion until it begins to soften. Add the flour and stir thoroughly. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are done.

Serves 6. Serve with Colcannon (an Irish dish of mashed potatoes and greens—generally kale, although some recipes use leeks or green onion) and Irish soda bread.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Vegetarian Brunch

It’s nice to go to a restaurant and have a tough time deciding what to order, because there are so many delicious vegetarian-friendly choices. This happened Sunday at Finnigan’s Wake, an Irish pub at 620 Trade St. in Winston-Salem’s Arts District.

As I settled in to wait for friends, I was excited to see that almost everything on the brunch menu was either vegetarian or could be made so with the substitution of faux “bacon” or “sausage.”

It took a while, but I finally chose the Winter Harvest boxty – two savory, thin, potato pancakes enclosing a filling of sweet, cooked pears and apples, and candied walnuts. This was served with a grilled tomato, hash-browned sweet and white potatoes, and a cheese toastie – the sides that come with most of the brunch entrees. It was all delicious.

There are other boxty fillings available – on this visit, all were either vegetarian or could be made vegetarian.

I’ll definitely be back to try the other boxties, and such intriguing-sounding offerings as the portobello and eggs, and the artichoke-cake benedict. (The artichoke cakes turn up elsewhere on the Finnigan’s Wake menu. They might be best described as like a crab cake, but with artichokes instead of crab.)

With the kitchen’s creative use of faux meats, Finnigan’s is vegetarian-friendly at every meal. It’s particularly satisfying because the vegetarian items, such as the tasty vegetarian shepherd’s pie, fit in with the Irish theme of the restaurant.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Veggie bites

*Harris-Teeter has started carrying a few new frozen vegetarian items, including Amy’s spinach-tofu burritos, and LightLife pretzel-wrapped veggie dogs and “chicken” cordon blue. Unfortunately, they’ve made the shelf space by getting rid of other items, including a couple I was very fond of!

*My new craze is Earthbound Farm’s organic fresh-herb salad mix. It contains parsley, cilantro and dill leaves along with the various lettuces, which add a nice, different flavor when you get them in a bite of your salad.

*I finally bought a package of fresh spinach a couple of weeks ago, my first since the E. coli outbreak. I used it in a recipe, though, so it was cooked.

*I recently came across Greenlight magazine, an online-only magazine devoted to “earth-friendly” living. You can get a free subscription and check out articles here.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Say cheese, again

A few posts ago, I mentioned that Bute Isle “scheese” - a vegan cheese substitute that has won rave reviews - is now available by mail order in the U.S. and promised to give a report. I ordered three flavors – smoked cheddar, blue and gouda – and am enjoying them, but not significantly more than some other vegan cheeses I have tried…. They still have a sort of processed flavor and texture. The smoked cheddar was my favorite of the three.

In general, vegan “cheese” is getting better and better - in years past, I’ve thrown away packages after one taste because they were so unpleasant. There are many acceptable brands now, and hopefully vegan-cheese technology will continue to improve.

I do have a rave review to offer of another vegan dairy substitute: Wildwood soy yogurt. Fruit-flavored soy yogurts are just fine, but until Wildwood I had never found a plain soy yogurt that I liked. Plain soy yogurts tend to be sweet, and lack that yummy yogurt “twang.” But Wildwood is wonderful – I couldn’t tell it from dairy-based yogurt.

The only drawback is that I haven’t yet found a local source for it. The tub I had came from The Home Economist, a health-food store in Charlotte. I mean to make inquiries soon to see whether any of our local stores can order it. Meanwhile, if you know of a place that carries it around the Winston-Salem area, please let me know!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Cheap tofu!

Heads-up: Food Lion has Nasoya refrigerated tofu on sale for 99 cents this week. That’s right, 99 cents! They also had already-cubed “super firm” tofu, which I hadn’t seen in stores around here.

I also picked up organic bananas for 79 cents a pound.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Eggs in veggie burgers

Staying on the subject of eggs, which Julie wrote about in her latest entry, a reader made me aware of an egg issue involving veggie burgers. Two groups, Compassion Over Killing and Vegan Outreach, are taking on Morningstar Farms, one of the leading makers of vegetarian products, over the eggs it uses in its products. The eggs come from hens that are confined in battery cages, giving them almost no room to move around—a truly appalling sounding life. The groups want Morningstar Farms to stop using eggs in its products. Another veggie-burger maker, Gardenburger, has stopped using eggs in all but one of its products, and those eggs are from free-range hens. You can read more about this issue here.

I checked out the ingredients list online of the other major veggie-burger line that I buy, Boca Burgers. The only items of theirs that contain eggs seem to be the lasagna and non-breakfast sausages—none in their burgers or “chicken” patties.

This wasn’t an issue that I had heard about before, but it’s certainly changed the way I’m going to select my veggie burgers from now on. I tend to like most veggie burgers and don’t have a particular affinity toward one particular kind—I like to change up the ones I buy and have a variety. But this issue makes me less likely to buy Morninstar Farms veggie burgers.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Baking and eggs

I was on holiday last week, and enjoyed the chance to do a lot of cooking at home. That got me to thinking about ways of “veganizing” recipes.

Some things are simple. For example, soymilk can replace cow’s milk in almost any recipe. But sometimes you have to be a little more tricky to replace the eggs.

In some cases - oatmeal cookies, for example - you can simply leave out the egg with fine results. I’m convinced that sometimes adding an egg to baked goods is just a habit.

But there is always a risk that in the recipe you choose to omit the egg, it plays a vital role. A sense of humor and spirit of adventure come in handy here. So does a dose of creativity - if those crumbles from the oven can’t really be called cookies, open up a pint of soy ice cream and call them a topping!

And now that it seems you do need an “egg,” you can try some of the many substitures out there. Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Post Punk Kitchen has great suggestions on vegan baking at http://www.theppk.com/veganbaking.html

The “flax eggs” she describes - 1 tablespoon flax seeds ground and blended with 3 tablespoons water per egg - do work very well. They become very gelatinous and gummy when blended and will surely hold those cookies together. I generally mix up a large batch in the blender. Leftovers will keep a few days in the refrigerator. And they can be divided into ice-cube trays and frozen for long-term storage.

Plain soy flour makes an even simpler egg substitute. One tablespoon of the soy flour and an extra tablespoon or two of water or other liquid can replace one egg in baked goods. You don’t even really need to mix them ahead of time. Just add the soy flour in with the dry ingredients, and the extra liquid in with the wet ingredients.

I have found just one drawback to this method. The raw soy flour can cause an unpleasant taste cookie or cake batter. This taste disappears once the dish is baked, but it cuts down on the joys of eating gobs of raw cookie dough, or licking the mixing spoon.

Readers, have you found any other good ways to replace the eggs in your cooking?

Friday, February 16, 2007

Now serving: Carnivores only

In previous entries, we’ve highlighted some area restaurants that provide nice eating options for vegetarians. Today I’m going to highlight a couple that DON’T do a good job of considering vegetarian eaters.

Obviously, there are some restaurants that are clearly not going to be vegetarian-friendly—barbecue joints and steakhouses, for example. I’m not really concerned about those, because I’m not very likely to go there. I am concerned with restaurants that I think could and should do a better job of being vegetarian-friendly, the ones that you go into thinking you stand a pretty good chance of getting something vegetarian and are then disappointed.

Julie and I decided to try out Christopher’s New Global Cuisine for lunch recently, but discovered to our dismay when we got there that the vegetarian item on their online menu that we’d had our eyes on—a grilled-vegetable sandwich with tofu—wasn’t actually on their menu. The only vegetarian options we had were a fried green tomato sandwich and an unhearty salad or two. This was disappointing, considering that they have a separate vegetarian menu for dinner (which unfortunately isn’t on their Web site—though considering they don’t seem to keep the online menu updated too well, might be a moot point). I’m not sure why the same consideration for vegetarians can’t be shown for lunch as well as dinner. Do they think that vegetarians don’t eat lunch?

I live in the Clemmons/Lewisville area, and a new sports bar/restaurant called J. Butler’s recently opened just off 421. Admittedly, one doesn’t have high vegetarian hopes for a sports bar, but they have a pretty large and varied menu—but there’s not one vegetarian entree to be found. In this day and age, I expect most restaurants to at least have ONE token vegetarian dish—for example, the seemingly ubiquitous portabello sandwich or pasta primavera.

Have you had any memorably disappointing visits to area restaurants when you were surprised to find that you couldn’t eat anything on the menu?

NOTE TO READERS (AND AN APOLOGY):
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Friday, February 09, 2007

Excellent eggplant salad

One of my Christmas gifts was the cookbook The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. I want to make almost all the recipes in it! I haven’t had the time to make too many of the dishes yet, but I wanted to share one particular dish I have made that I thought was FABULOUS.

Eggplant Salad

1 medium eggplant (about 3/4 pound)
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 med. onion (about 6 oz.), chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb. tomatoes, cored, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 T. tomato paste
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 t. fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 t. dried
1 t. chopped fresh mint
1/4 t. dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 c. black olives, pitted and halved
1 T. drained capers
2 T. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 T. chopped fresh cilantro

Cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch cubes. In a medium nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the eggplant, onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened and lightly colored, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, thyme, mint, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occsionally, until the eggplant is tender, the mixture is thickened and the liquids are greatly reduced, about 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the olives, capers, parsley and cilantro. Season with additional salt and pepper as desired.

—

I left out the olives and capers, because I don’t like them, and doubled the vinegar to compensate for the lack of their sharpness. This is an extremely versatile dish—it can be served warm, cold or at room temperature. It makes a great stuffing for pitas (its intended use), and I couldn’t get enough of it as a bruschetta topping. I could also see it being mixed with pasta.