Going veg/an as a 21 year old actually made me focus on nutrition in a way I might have never otherwise done. You become an expert at reading labels, and there is a lot of people going veg/an for health reasons (even though that wasn't my motivation) so books/magazines/cookbooks had a lot of nutritional info. The best thing for me was instantly cutting off all the junk I used to live on: 7-11 hotdogs, Lil' Debbie's, McDonalds, etc. I don't even see that shit anymore. It's completely invisible to me.
As someone who generally tries to eat less meat, but isn't yet vegan, what are some of your staple foods you eat on a weekly or daily basis? This isn't about nutrition, I just want more meals to add to my rotation that don't have animal products in them.
Indian and Indonesian kitchens offer a lot of vegetarian and some vegan options. Dry pressed tofu grilled in an oven van replace chicken in a bunch of dishes too and has all the amino acids.
But yeah becoming vegetarian if you just learn more true vega dishes is pretty easy in 2024 I've found
Three bean chili, garbanzo fajitas, black bean enchiladas, pinto bean tacos, crunchy airfried peas on veggie wraps, ramen noodles loaded with raw sweet peas, and of course the most important food group:
I really wish I liked beans, but the only tolerable way I've found to incorporate them into my diet is specifically black beans, mixed in with things that make it less noticeable - like a black bean and corn salsa added to a salad or a burrito.
The main problem is that most beans have a texture that disgusts me (though I can't say I enjoy the flavor either). Baked beans, refried beans, stews and soups that have a lot of beans are all no-gos for me.
Those black bean enchiladas sound interesting though, mind sharing a recipe?
My main go to lately has been beans and rice in the instant pot (any pressure cooker is fine). Throw dry rice and black beans in with some sauteed onions and garlic, broth, a can of tomatoes and season with chili pepper, cumin and a few other common spices. That's been a staple for me for a while. Every batch makes a meal plus a few lunches and its really easy to make. Goes great with some tangy hot sauce. Can also be used to fill a burrito or tacos.
I do black beans in the instant pot with basically those same ingredients, then I make rice, then I end up combining them in a bowl to eat. I don't know why I never considered just putting the rice in there with the beans at the same time...
I started doing it this way because I like easy and I love the way the rice soaks up all the flavor when I do it all together. I found a basic recipe online and have been just playing around with variations on that.
Recently I used kidney beans instead of black beans and they were really good. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy because I had to pre-cook the kidney beans to work in the recipe, but it came out really tasty. That took an extra pressure cook (5 min) and natural release.
Mushrooms, lentils, tempeh, tofu, and rarely, things like impossible burger "meat." In general, you can straight sub some fungi and tofu for some meats in dishes. But a lot of western dishes do not play nice with these kinds of substitutes, since they're really dialed in for real meat. To go the distance, you must learn cuisine that makes better use of vegetables. This means learning things like Indian and Southeast asian dishes.
That's a great point! I think a lot of my pitfalls have been from me trying to recreate my favorite dishes, usually Mexican or Korean food, without meat. While it can be done and does taste great, I should look to more vegetarian cultures for inspiration and learning!
I make a ton of vegan chicken, steak, and jerky nearly every week and use it in all my recipes. You can make a ton at once, and obvi it's much cheaper than flesh / secretion-based products.
After getting really good at them, and swapping out milk for oat milk, I've pretty much had to change nothing about what I want to make / eat.
VChicken (I don't use jackfruit tho, and just use the same weight of tofu as the base)
For vjerky, I just make a double batch of the steak, but after it's done cooking, instead of marinating it, I cut them into thin strips, put it in a dehydrator (you can also just use an oven), then put them into plastic bags with some olive oil and different spices, or just pepper. There are good youtube vids that are all pretty close to that.
I didn't get good at cooking till I cut wayyy back on meat. Now I make tons on Asian and Indian dishes, sooo spicy and tasty. I do eat a lot of chickpeas, but bocca crumbles are pretty good as well. Morningstar makes nice vegan chicken as well.
Amen. Bet my ass that most people dying of heart attack are in fact not vegan. On the other hand i would like to know how many vegans are suffering from malnutrition. Some morons will.
Organ meats can be fantastic and plenty of cultures eat them. Beef kidney is especially good on it's own, but other organs add a lot of flavor. When we make thanksgiving stuffing we chop up all the turkey organs fine and fry them, then mix them in the stuffing. We don't tell anyone in the family (don't worry none are vegetarian or vegan) and they love it. If you eat meat you might be pleasantly surprised by organs.
And uhh.. sorry for posting this on vegan group. For what it's worth I think you guys are great and morally correct.
