Crisis on Infinite Erios Threads [Girl/Veganism Thread]

Erios

TL;DR Maek poast wif vegan recipes ploz.

Hi H/A! While I hope my exploits entertain I unfortunately was rather hurt by my last outing. Fortunately, I have since secured quite a good catch of a woman. Without too many details, she's cool and quite pretty and into many of the same things I am. We also share a post running the Columbia Sci-Fi club, which is neat. As you all can see, I recover quickly and have found myself in a possibly better position than I might have been already.

One snag, and it's a huge snag: she's vegan. Now I like to cook. I'm a good cook, an excellent cook you might say. Unfortunately, I don't know how to cook vegan entrees (especially healthy ones with protein) particularly well. So I call upon you, those who helped (and hopefully got some vicarious fun out of my last thread) me in the past to help me. So, hit me with whatever you've got.

KyleWPeterson

Do you have a Foreman grill? Grilled vegetables (bell peppers, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes...) are pretty tasty on them.

Cruix

http://www.tastespotting.com/search/vegan/1

Congrats on the relationship! The link should be a good start, I love that place and find some of the most amazing recipes there. If you want extra thoughtful points either go out to the bookstore and find some vegan cookbooks or make a date of it and take her with you, let her know that you'd love to cook her dinner and pick out some cookbooks with her. Flip through them together and get one or two where she really likes what she finds in them!

rfalias

I'm no meteorologist but, It's rainin bitches.

That's quite a rebound so quickly from that other chick. Hi-Five!
I don't know/cook vegan so I'm just offering some congrats is all.

Sarcastro

Not too up on specific recipes, but I will share what my chef friend had to say about cooking vegetarian: Vegans don't eat meat.

Yaya, sounds obvious, but what he means is that a lot of emphasis is often placed around taking meat dishes and replacing the meat with something meatlike, which renders the dish up as a poor approximation of the original. When cooking vegetarian, you'll want to start basing your dishes around the central ingredients to the dish; be that squash, zucchini, pasta, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans etc. Overall you'll have more success developing the tastes and notes involved around those things, rather then trying to approximate a meat texture or taste within something you're probably already familiar with.

Some of the best dishes I've had so far include a very thick pumpkin soup, roasted butternut squash, pasta salad with toasted tofu strips, portabello mushroom with spicy chocolate, and three bean salad.

Tofu is its own beastie, I'm sure you'll hear a lot about it. My advice when it comes to tofu is that it is what it is. If you treat it as its own thing, with its own tastes and textures, it can be done up hundreds of different ways, all of which are pretty decent. If you try to make it something its not and give it that place, IME that's when things start to go wrong. It'll never pass as meat, but it can make an interesting addition to something savory, crumbled in salad, or serve well in a sweet dessert.

All in all, its mostly about making fruits and vegetables taste good and offering up a variety. Something quick I like to make with pasta: Lightly steamed spinach leaves (I steam them in a colander over top of the noodles as they finish) with a good sprinkling of salt, margarine, and some lemon juice to taste. You can add black pepper, and/or cream cheese for extra yummyness. It is awesome. Good luck!

Djeet

Do you know how to make risotto? A link explaining generally how to do it. You can change it up with all different kinds of vegetables. Though I haven't tried it with any other grain than abrorio rice, I think a lot of different grains would work in this prep method. Though usually served as a side, I think it can cut it as a small meal on its own.

Made a beet risotto which was a hit with the vegetarians. Using olive oil as the fat, shallot as the aromatic (I often skip the wine component as I'm not really a white wine drinker). Remove the greens from the beets and roast beets til tender in the oven. Peel them and cut into 1/2 inch dice. Liquify half the diced beet plus vegetable stock in blender, and use that liquid as the cooking stock. Chop the greens and barely wilt them. Add wilted greens and remaining diced beets when the risotto is cooked to desired firmness. Paremesan or another grated hard Italian cheese adds a nice flavor, but it will add milk and likely will add rennet.

Beets stain like a motherfucker so watch that.

Familiarize yourself with the wonderful world of beans (for protein) and bitter greens (for iron).