I had brunch at a new Boston area restaurant today,
Vej Naturals, and very much enjoyed my Southern Platter...
(Pan-fried seitan cutlet served with Home-style Gravy, scrambled tofu, grits, and greens)
...and the bites of French Toast my friend (the photographer,
Laureen) was kind enough to share with me:
(Sliced bread dipped in a sweet cashew milk, grilled then topped with fresh fruit and whipped "cream")
Just a brief reminder how, ahem, "deprived" vegans are.
I like to hear from you. Comment below or email me.Enjoy AAFL? Use the permalink icon to share this entry with your friends or to link it from your blog, submit to a service using the share button below, and consider making a small donation to support this site and my work. Thanks!Labels: tofu, vegan food, vegan restaurants
Newsweek: Love Me, Love My TofuI'm not real thrilled with the media's fixation on identifying tofu as
the vegan food. It's not like all vegans eat tofu, and we don't want to turn away potential vegans who are allergic to soy or get creeped out by bean curd. But I was glad the focus of this article on the increasingly complex ways individuals try to match up their values with potential mates kept coming back to veganism, and without any of the usual snarky undercutting Newsweek's editors or writers seem to enjoy:
But for many vegans—who also eschew animal products like the dairy and eggs eaten by vegetarians—love may not be enough to conquer ideology. “I’m in a relationship with a murderer,” bemoans Carl, one of many vegans who wrote in to the “Vegan Freak” podcast for romantic advice. Carl, who didn’t give his last name, says his girlfriend is a regular vegetarian, and their differences are becoming a major source of tension. In the vegan world that’s not an uncommon dilemma. Bob Torres, one of the show’s hosts, says that dating and relationships are two of the most popular topics on the podcast, which deals with all things vegan.
Nice PR, you guys!
Labels: tofu, veg*nism
I don't normally post recipes without trying them first, but this one is a no-brainer. Reader Christopher Jones found
the recipe for General Tao's Tofu at
VegWeb that he raved about. One variation looked like this:
It got my mouth watering. I haven't been to VegWeb in a while. It's an incredible, free online database with tons of vegan recipes that will make your life a lot easier. I first visited VegWeb a lot when I was learning how to cook with ingredients that were new to me, like tofu and tempeh. With its simple, user-recommended and rated recipes, the site is great for people just transitioning to a vegan diet, simply looking for an easy, tasty meal, or if you don't have a lot of money to blow on vegan cookbooks.
I'll definitely be giving this recipe a try myself, along with some rice, and I might even try one of the variations with snow peas or red peppers that I saw in the user-uploaded photos (as above).
Labels: tofu, vegan food, vegan recipes
Holy smokes. I'm not exactly "back" yet, what with all the catching up I'm doing right now on this and many other fronts, but I wanted to check in today with this excellent frozen meal from
Helen's Kitchen that I had for lunch moments ago.
Helen's is fairly new to prepared meals, with their proprietary tofu steak-based line only about 10 months old. The food doesn't come cheap, either. My entree today was $4.99, compared to the usual $3.99 for Amy's Kitchen products at Whole Foods Market. But the Vegetable Curry with Tofu Steaks over Basmati Rice was one of the best microwaved frozen meals I've ever had. And, believe me, I've had many.
In fact, though I enjoy the two Amy's Kitchen Indian meals I frequently buy, I preferred the overall flavor of this simpler dish. It won't replace my Amy's, though. Like Helen's, Amy's uses predominantly organic ingredients and labels their products vegan, always a big plus in my book. And, despite being a little less exciting to the palate than what I ate today, Amy's Indian meals are plenty appetizing, 20% less expensive, and provide variety, quality nutrients, and more calories.
The
Indian Vegetable Korma, for instance, is packed with 300 calories, while the
Indian Mattar Tofu is still pretty substantial at 260 calories. Helen's Kitchen Vegetable Curry, however, is only 110 calories. While this may be enticing to some of my readers, that's just an appetizer in my world, despite its high protein, iron, and calcium content. After publishing this entry, I'm going to have to forage around the kitchen for some fruits, veggies, and other assorted items to round that meal out and tide me over until dinner.
So, if you're looking for a higher calorie-per-dollar ratio, this is definitely not your best choice. But if you're looking for something delicious to break up the monotony of eating the same plant-based quick meals from the same manufacturers, I would recommend this to any fans of and newbies to Indian food.
Labels: tofu, vegan food
With the holiday coming up, I figured I'd start sharing pieces that are animal-friendly, especially in light of my Indian meal tonight:There's been much discussion over the bear huntslaughter in New Jersey, and this opinion piece is quite compelling:Here's some recent coverage on this subject at The Washington Post:Labels: bears, Holidays, hunting, tofu, vegan food
Two more pro-faux turkey articles, and I'm out. I especially like the first piece, but the second one is quite veg-friendly, too.
ContraCostaTimes.com: Talking Tofurky:
Last year, more than 150,000 boxes of the much-ridiculed vegan roast went home for the holidays. This year, sales are expected to jump another 10 percent.
BenningtonBanner.com: Tofu turkey a treat for someLabels: Thanksgiving, tofu
The Australian: Editor faces tofu fur furyFurther testament that PETA knows how to make the news. All it cost was a tofu cream pie and a press release. Still, isn't this sort of thing kind of juvenile? I guess it's less offensive, and permanent, than red paint. But, maaaan. It's this sort of thing that makes people look at me like I'm a nut when I say I'm vegan.
Maybe if someone had run a review of the tofu cream pie and said how delicious it was, activists might have "won" something... (excerpted)
Wintour, dressed in a fur-trimmed black jacket, was hit in the face with a tofu cream pie as she left the Chloe ready-to-wear show in central Paris, members of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said.
It was the second such attack this year on Wintour, a fur supporter decried by animal rights groups as a "pelt pusher".
"Wintour is fur-bearing animals' worst enemy because her magazine continues to feature dozens of pags of pro-fur editorials and advertising each year," PETA campaigner Yvonne Taylor said. "She takes big glossy advertisements for fur and she refuses to run any anti-fur ads, even paid ones, so she's a big fur supporter."
Labels: fashion, fur, tofu
Rutland Herald: Tofu for school kids?Hey, good on U-32 (exciting name for a school) and its school chefs. It seems there is a broader movement to get healthier lunches in schools. We're seeing it in such disparate locations as London and Compton, and it's being covered in national magazines like Newsweek, and this little Vermont newspaper article (excerpt):
The kids have been asking for better vegetarian choices at lunch, and the school chefs wanted ideas. Steve Bogart, one of central Vermont's premier gourmet chefs, had some suggestions.
Bogart is very nearly a vegetarian himself, so he knows where the kids are coming from.
If he's not actually whipping up a recipe for friends or patrons at his Single Pebble restaurant in Burlington, he's passing his recipes along, either in a casual conversation, a classroom, a restaurant tour … somehow. His specialty is classic Chinese, and he brought to U-32's kitchen a few ideas on how to beef up (sorry) their vegetarian menus.
The article includes tofu and tofu sauce recipes at the end.
Labels: tofu
