The Vegan Quiche

[LentilAsAnything]

Hi

Thought I'd start a thread for the vegans and wannabe vegans.
Anyone here!?

Old thread here.

Have you considered chickpeas, lentils, beans etc? America

yup and eat loads of all of the above - actually a massive benefit to starting to think more veganly I'm finding is educating myself much more on what my body really does need, but I'm a way off yet I think

Hi ATB - you make some good points. I try and limit myself to soy 'treats' - so occasionally I'll have an Alpro pud, or some soya cream. And Swedish glace ice cream is just delicious!

I've got some coconut cream, to try it out, but it comes out solid (in this pack) so it has to be warmed to become pourable - but it tastes fine.

I make a lot of seitan - I shall add some chunks to the chilli I made for my FD yesterday. I really enjoy that, and you can vary the flavour to your heart's content!

I should make more of an effort to make seitan sausages, or mince, but I find myself mainly making seitan cutlets which are quick and easy to make. I'll then chop one or two of them into chunks which I dry fry to get all the moisture out. Then they soak up whatever sauce they're cooked in!

I find strips of seitan, added to a Thai curry, to be absolutely the bee's knees! Must make that again this week.

I don't take any vitamins - or any supplements - the only concession I make to my veganism is flaxseeds. I have about 25g roughly 4 times a week.

Must use chick peas more - I really like r-k-beans, and I cook up 500g of dried at a time, then I can just grab a handful from the freezer whenever i need beans. but I haven't found chick peas always easy to cook from dried, and I'd rather not buy tinned if I can help it

I need to be better with buying dried beans too, especially at the rate of homous we get through. Neither of my DC are massive meat eaters (though they both eat fish) but thankfully both like beans and lentils

breadandwine these sausages are really nice and barely any effort to make (about 5 mins work kind of easy)

www.theppk.com/2012/01/vegan_sausage/

Oops I'll convert the link!

www.theppk.com/2012/01/vegan_sausage/

Hi, ATB.

Welcome. LA, wow, lucky you. Vegan paradise!

There were various responses to the quinoa article.

www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/01/quinoa_bad_for_bolivian_and_peruvian_farmers_ignore_the_media_hand_wringing.html

www.alterecofoods.com/blog/edouards-response-to-attacks-on-quinoa

Here are a couple of links, but just google 'response to quinoa article' and you will get more hits if you want to read more.

Soy is not a baddie, IMO, either. We don't have loads, because we believe in variety, but many of the negative articles are put out there by the meat and dairy industries, trying to discredit it and veganism. It's also worth noting that the dairy and meat industries use soya products to feed the animals, and consume more than people who consume soy directly do. Add on to that the devastating impact of the meat and dairy industries - their water usage, the faecal waste overwhelming the soil and water table, etc, and it is obvious that veganism is better for the planet, even if we choose to consume some soy.

I hope you can either give up the one cup of tea, convert to green tea to find a suitable substitute. Because veganism will make you feel good. Not just your health, but your soul. Once we know the truth about dairy, which you will learn once you watch more of those documentaries, it is hard to pretend we don't know.

Regarding exploitation in general, I feel that we do as least harm as we can. We have to eat. We have to get places, run the risk of treading on ants as we walk, or having flies end up splattered on our windscreen. I don't see how to realistically avoid these. Choose fair trade where you can. Don't waste. Be minimal. Don't over consume. People need to earn a living, be it growing and selling bananas, or grain, or sweetcorn - they need our money. Is this exploitation, or trade?

Thanks, Cecy!

I remember trying these back along - I'll give them another go, when I've finished what I have in the freezer, since I realise I'm in a bit of a rut with seitan.

You've inspired me to get my copy of Veganomicon out - it was Isa's cutlet recipe that I've been following. Except I dry fry mine - takes 5-6 minutes each side. And I've never had a great deal of success with braising seitan.

I'll have to browse through the book again - she's got some great ideas.

Really rate ppk.com as well!

The meat industry using up vast amounts of soy gives me even more reason to avoid it!

You're right, ATB - we all have to do what we can!

In fact even more reason to avoid both. I agree, we do what we can and what we feel comfortable I suppose, and it's a gradual and fluid process.

Shame I'm not in the slightest bit green fingered really!!!

OhTheIroning.

Thanks for the link and sorry for the delay in replying since this thread had dropped off my 'I'm on'.

Interesting reading.My hens don't eat their own eggs anyhow (ratty does when he can). I think I'm happy with the cruelty free vegetarian label in this respect.
It's funny how there was someone who said it depended on whether the eggs were fertilized.Even if an egg is fertilized it will not become a chick unless you have a broody hen.
I see it as a two way street.They would be dead had I not taken them on, and I feed and keep them clean.We keep a cockerel as I feel the hens are happier like that -it's more natural.So since they don't eat their own eggs I think given what I've read on that link, fair exchange is no robbery!

The other thing tbat crosses my mind is that if your hens egg eat, they are not necessarily eating their own eggs.It's a prime way to spread disease I would imagine.

Interesting topic.Well it is for me cos I love my chooks.

Can I join? I was vegan for a while living in the US and felt so much better sort of light inside. And not guilty all the time.

We moved back to the UK and I've struggled here, it's just seems to be less mainstream, with less choice of products. So I'm here, thinking about getting started again, while being married to a very committed meat eater!

Hi Waiting!

Just want to say to all that I am not trying to be confrontational -this is not a thread to discuss vegan choices, rather a thread for vegans to chat together, so I am really not trying to push anyone into defending their choices - more exploring my choices and seeing other views, since I very much agree with a vegan lifestyle.

Hope I haven't offended anyone.

I really want to keep my own chickens too!!!

Oh no have I killed the thread?!

I wanted to ask some baking advice - I've been making vegan cakes and muffins for a while but made my first batch of vegan cookies at the weekend, used a GF non vegan recipe and just tried to adapt it - tried replacing the eggs with Apple sauce and then with bananas but both times they were really crumbly I suppose because they didn't have eggs to bind them.

I don't need to eat GF but a few of DS's friends are hence attempting GF and vegan - any thoughts?

No you've not killed the thread Americas.

I've just been having an interesting discussion on the vegans and free range eggs thread.

However I've started watching forks over knives on netflix, and if the arguments put forward on that not to eat animal products aren't compelling, I don't know what is!

I am no help at all though with vegan baking advice - I am clueless.
Sorry!

Sorry, I'm just not on MN so much these days.

Re baking, I have never bothered using apple sauce or bananas. When I bake, cookies or cake, it is:
Flour (have used gf, comes out the same to me, can't really tell the difference in taste), vegetable oil or margarine, soya milk (more for cake, less for cookies!), sugar, baking powder, bicarb, pinch of salt, vanilla essence. I don't do measuring! Then of course adapt with ginger/cocoa whatever flavours, and voila. I think it is just a caw of keeping trying until you crack the knack! :)

I am completely convinced re the health advantages of veganism. I don't think eggs are good for us.

TBW, I'm not offended by your thoughts re eggs and keeping chickens. I don't think people who eat eggs should call themselves vegan though.

I agree re:the definition of vegan OhTheIroning.

This is a huge learning curve for me,so it's good to hear I've not caused offence!

me too ThatBloodyWoman and don't think I could ever therefore truly call myself a vegan as I fundamentally don't have a problem with consuming animal products, I just take major issues with animal welfare, environmental impact of the meat and dairy industries, and my own personal health...

Having said that I am off for lunch at this AMAZING vegan cafe (kelp noodles last time I went) and having dinner at a vegan thai place tonight....I don't normally eat out twice in a month let alone in a day! We've also discovered an incredible vegan sushi place just round the corner, it is really easy to eat out as a vegan in LA, and not just at vegan specific places

ATB, I find 'not having a problem with consuming animal products' and 'having issues with animal welfare' contradictory. There is always an animals' welfare impacted negatively when humans take from them. Cows don't produce much excess milk when they have a calf. It is biology, simply, that to be able to take her milk for our own needs we must keep impregnating her and removing her babies. I don't know how else you can get milk from a cow. And my understanding of chickens and eggs is that they will stop laying if we stop removing their eggs, so to force them to keep laying is bad for their bodies.

LA is amazing for vegans. I need to move!

I do agree with you to a certain extent, hence saying I fundmentally don't have a problem with consuming animal products but I choose not to (on the whole, I'm getting there!) because I disagree with the way it's done.

The dairy industry is one that I just can't get my head around, so that's my major focus.

I didn't really think that about egg laying - I suppose I'm basing that on my experience of keeping my own chickens where it didn't seem to upset them at all to have eggs taken away, as opposed to the utter torment a cow goes through when her calf is taken within hours of being born. I'll go and do a bit more reading because you're right, it doesn't make sense to be anti keeping a cow constantly in the pregnancy cycle and not be bothered about a chicken?

I think I fundamentally don't take issue with consuming animal products because when we lived in the countryside we kept pigs - happier and better looked after animals you couldn't have had (we had max 2-3 at a time in a huge field with proper pigging sheds for protection and shelter - I used get up at 5am to give them warm food in the winter!!). Our female went through heat but while organising her to meet a male (attending to her needs, we weren't trying to breed her for the sake of breeding) she died naturally of other causes.

I've also lived in Africa where people keep (and yes then kill) their own animals for consumption - those animals are as free range as they come, have as happy a life as possible considering the circumstances for everyone out there, certainly happier than the wilder/street chickens and goats (they're protected from diseases and bad weather for a start). Also, while it upset my more delicate western mindset to then see these animals killed by their owners, I daresay their deaths were a lot more speedy and humane than if they'd been wild animals and left to die from disease or starvation.

I'm still learning and exploring and it's great to be able to have these conversations - so thankyou. I only even started considering vegetariansim let alone veganism a few months ago, all a work in process!! I think the humane arguments are obvious - now I've done some reading and watched some documentaries I can't unsee some of that stuff. But the fundamental and personal questions are not black and white, and really interesting to discuss.

I'm off to read about bees as I know absolutely nothing about the harvesting of honey!!

oh and my day of eating out as a vegan was amazing....cashew cheese for the first time was incredible and the thai place was all pretty nice until this aubergine "catfish" came out...dear god it was incredible! big chunks of aubergine in a thai tomatoy sauce, all crispy on the outside and the inside was utterly smooth and silky. Both places are excellent as they don't use over processed vegan "products" and while not exactly cheap, the creativity and skill that goes into making vegetables taste so delicious is worth its weight in gold in my opinion

Chooks don't stop laying if you stop taking their eggs.
I know this because mine are very free range, and in the past I've found massive 'nests' containing 30+ eggs, in an unusual place (but where that oarticular hen was comfy to lay).

Chooks lay in relation to light.In the winter they go off the lay because of shorter daylight hours, and it picks up again as winter comes to an end.Some people use artificial lights to keep their hens laying through winter (I don't).