Post-Dairy

Dairy is a constant in any kitchen, but a vegan diet says NO to the diary! Which in reality is an incredibly positive thing! From the obvious ethical issues with our modern farming system pumping animals full of hormones and antibiotics, you wouldn't want to support that! And you really shouldn't be consuming these things either, there are serious side effects to that stuff!

So how can we go about replacing the harmful animal farmed dairy and replace it with something organic and veggie?

Milk

What options are out there for vegan milk? There's a few! Soy milk jumps to mind first, it's healthier than regular milk, is a natural byproduct of making tofu, and it's delicious! The only downsides are if you're allergic to soy, or just don't like soy. Surprisingly a lot of people don't like soy!

I suggest one of the two popular alternatives, coconut and almond. Almond milk is a pretty awesome alternative to milk, very low in calories and rich in healthy fats that vegans need. It also has a more neutral taste than coconut milk, and is best used when you need that! I also think the vanilla flavor tastes like Rice Krispies Treats cereal, a childhood favorite. Coconut milk is pretty amazing stuff as well. You will never eat an ice cream as rich and delicious as one made with coconut milk! Even in a can this is an incredibly useful milk/cream substitute. The big downside I have found with coconut milk is the strong coconut flavor, which can conflict.

BONUS COCONUT CONTENT!!!  
YOGURT!!!
             OM NOM NOM!!!


There are also hemp, rice, oat, and flax milks, I don't mean to skip them, I'm just not as familiar. A post for another day!

Butter

I promised alternatives on day one, you don't have to settle for Earth Balance. I am in no way bothered by Earth Balance, I use it at home. However, it is one of the most despised vegan products, even among vegans. So what else can I offer you? Blue Bonnet Light and Smart Balance Light are both dairy-free and available at most grocery stores. I would recommend you visit your local vegan store, or co-op, that will offer other more local brands of vegan butter substitutes. If you're not sure if it's dairy-free, look for whey, lactose, casein, and caseinate! Not vegan!

Eggs

Eggs are a lot harder to replace than milk or butter. For baking or batters there are commercial egg replacers, most all of them are just a powder that works as a replacement for a whole egg. Ener-G is a Seattle-based company that makes a great replacer, and Bob's Red Mill is an Oregon company that also makes a great alternative, and a million other things! And of course now we have the Vegg which is a yolk replacer! Of course if you're looking to make some scrambled eggs, tofu scrambles are the way to go!
 

Fake Meat

Meat! We don't eat it! 

But we do make a lot of meat substitutes! I have to apologize, I really meant to demonstrate how to make some of these substitutions for this blog, and maybe in the future I will! So for now, it's a comprehensively quick look at meat substitutions! 

Seitan 

So this is wheat gluten, seriously, it's a bread! But we don't use it like bread, it's dense and meaty in texture, and you can season it however you want, all you need is the wheat gluten! At the restaurant I work at we have seitan sausages on our pizza year round, all house made. But there's more to seitan than just vegan sausages! 

One of my absolute favorite meals from before I walked away from meat was chicken fried steak. Where I grew up; Houston, Tx; is the land of chicken fried steak, it's everywhere! And I never saw a vegan alternative, that's where seitan comes in, it makes an amazing substitute for the meat! 

Tempeh

My personal favorite for meat substitute, this is an amazing product! And it's a little gross to make, controlled fermentation binds soybeans into a cake. From there, the sky is the limit! Fake bacon? Make it tempeh bacon! Looking for a good stir fry? Tempeh works for all your needs! It's used pretty prolifically in Asia, and  is an important part of the cuisine, like many of our meat analogues.

Tofu

I really want to update this blog with an instruction guide to tofu. Tofu is such amazing stuff, as long as you don't hate soy! How can you complain about making tofu when it results in soy milk! There are different kinds of tofu dependent on what you it for. It's all about how firm it is, but it's so versatile. Tofu scrambles are awesome, not a fake meat in that form, but it's the best! Perhaps we should discuss dairy replacements?

Textured Vegetable Protein

Another soy product here, being allergic to soy is a real bummer when you're veggie, this is a soy flour concentrate that is sold as a dry good. It is high in protein and an amazing substitute for ground meat!
 

There's a great company from Seattle, Field Roast, that makes some really great meat substitutes! And you can find them at most of your local grocery stores! 

The Juice is Loose!

So I like juice, a lot, but I don't do juice like this, yet! No doubt you've seen documentaries such as, "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead." Well this is what they were talking about! The juice is loose! 

Of course it's more than just kale to vegan juices, and drinking kale might scare you a bit, but please try the kale!

Juicing is an awesome way to get nutrients, and has been tip toeing on mainstream for decades thanks to Jack Lalanne. If you don't remember this guy, I don't know when you grew up! Stop calling me old!

So why Juice? 

What's the point in extracting juice instead of just eating the vegetables? Well, there's so much more you can absorb as the fiber has been extracted from the liquid, so your body gets to skip a step, and has a better chance to absorb all the good stuff! Bummer though, the fiber lost, you need fiber in your diet! Of course, you could make pulp chips... 

The greatest thing about juicing is the variety of fruits and vegetables you can include in your diet! Oh, and supplements, add all your supplements to your morning juice and be happy and healthy!

The Raw Diet

Raw Foods? 

Yes, yes to raw foods!

Ok, I've often wondered what a raw vegan ate, what constituted raw, and what the benefits were. Thankfully, the kind people of the internet are always happy to drop some knowledge on me!

You eat what?

Lots and lots of vegetables! Dumb answer, right? I agree! So the raw vegan is going to eat more or less the same kinds of food as other vegans, but nothing is cooked past 118 degrees fahrenheit. So vegetables, legumes, fruits, juices, and nuts. This is a seriously planned out diet, and there is a very beneficial wealth of knowledge online. And really it will depend on how you approach the diet, for heath or spirituality, they seem to have specific plans.

Juice, juicing is a big part of this diet! Most raw vegans juice, the same way Jack Lalanne has been telling us to get nutrients for years. We'll talk more about juice later.

Why?

Why ask why, try Bud Dry. Don't, please don't, it's not good beer! And that kind of beer is totally not raw! But the question is: Why adopt a raw vegan diet? It's all about nutrients, and what they believe are lost by cooking. Scientists insist that despite certain micro nutrients being lost, there are many others that are made accessible to our bodies by cooking. But this does not deter the raw vegan, and there are a number of benefits to eating raw.

So many diseases can be avoided or aided with the help of a raw vegan diet. A number of celebrities have adopted these diets, including former President Bill Clintion, who adopted a raw vegan diet after having heart related surgery. Remember, cholesterol comes from animals!

There are some risks with a raw diet, or any vegetable based diet, and that requires some vigilance to ensure you are getting all of your vitamins! It's important, especially if you're interested in going raw for health!

CA$H "Cheez" Money

We're making food! 

Well not really food, it's a condiment! We could make it food though... but not today!!!

Cashews are a gift from the vegan deities. Most nuts are, really, especially great for a raw vegan. Raw vegan, we should probably have a talk about that too. 

So how do we make cheese from nuts? That sounds insane! 

It's really not, it's so good, and there are so many cheeses you can make! Go buy THIS! 

2 C Raw Cashews

2 Cloves Garlic

2 T Olive Oil

2 T Nutritional Yeast

1/2 C Water

TT Lemon Juice

TT Salt and Pepper

Soak cashews overnight in enough water to cover them. Drain soaked cashews and rise, add to blender 1 C at a time. In between the cups of cashews add garlic and yeast so it is incorporated easier. Add remaining ingredients and blend, scraping sides of the blender as needed, you need the agitation Season with salt and pepper. 

Consistency wise you're looking for it to be smooth and spreadable. 

Use it like you would a sandwich spread, or a cream cheese! Your veggie burgers will never taste the same! 

On a side note, vegan cheeses are pretty commonly available, mostly from Daiya, and they are marketed as cheese substitutes, with melt-ability being a major part of the grade. But often overlooked are the raw cheeses, aged cashew and macadamia cheese? Seriously, just add some acidophilus to the blended nuts to create a live culture, and age! So good! We even have a company here in Portland, Heidi Ho Veganics, that is making some amazing vegan cheese! Support your local companies, buy vegan cheese! 

Vegan Pet Food

What? Seriously? 

Yes. I buy a lot of meat, well not a lot, but for me it's a lot, and it all goes to my cat. She's not even your typical cat that likes fish, in fact she hates the stuff! She only wants the least ethically raised meat, chicken and beef. Of course I can't force our diet on our cat, it doesn't seem natural, but neither does the cheap food we feed her. So I turned to the internet! Let's find out about vegan pet food! 

For something like this, we have to split it into two different arguments:  Health and Ethics.

So what's not kosher about forcing your beliefs on something that relies on you to have its best interest at heart? Lots.

What's natural for the animal?

In nature, would your companion eat meat? Probably, they'll eat plants too, it aids digestion. But what are we feeding them from a can? Is it natural? Something the animal would eat in nature? Probably not! It's often diseased meat that's not deemed suitable for human consumption, and the industry simply adds things to make the food more appealing to our pets. And that's not restricted to meat-based foods, even our herbivore pets are being fed GMO products based on grains they're not adapted to eat.

Options, there are always options. 

Simply buy better food for your pets. Keep allowing your animals to eat meat, put aside your feelings of grief associated with buying and using animal products, and be happy that you're supporting an organic alternative to the current industrial system. Or go the extra mile and visit a raw pet foods store! Here's one in Sellwood, Natural Pet Food Solutions.

Or you can develop a meat-free diet for your pet! This route is more involved, and you will NEED SUPPLEMENTS! Your pet needs certain things from their food, and their bodies do not process food the same way as humans do. So you need to do some research and find out exactly what it is that your pet will not be getting through their new veggie-based diet. It is very important that their diet be supplemented. You do not want your cat dying from liver failure, it can happen very quickly!

But is it ethical?

That is a more difficult question, and will vary from person to person. Obviously you came to a decision in your life to no longer consume animal-based products or meat. And if honestly go the extra mile to completely cut off all sources of animal product you can, then I completely understand the desire to change your pet's diet as well. There are cancers and diseases associated with eating meat, particularly meat from our current agricultural system, and large benefits to eliminating those same things. So why not try and give your pet the same healthy lifestyle you've chosen? I couldn't tell you. But if you do, you need to be careful! 

Don't hurt the ones you love. 

Vegan Cat/Dog Food

Drunken Veg

In keeping with this week's theme of "location, location, location!", I'm going to talk about where to get a late night meal, meat-free!

I come from the foreign nation of Texas, and having played in bands for years I'm used to a definite lack of late night options. Mostly just drive-thru; if you're up really late, What-a-burger might be doing breakfast. Oh, and that magical wonderland, Denny's. It's all generally pretty terrible though, meat everywhere, something you will regret, but you avoided a worse hangover! But of course now I work nights as a cook, and we like to drink too! 

Here in Portland though, you have options, lots of them! 

So what do you do? Do you eat at the bar, or take a chance on a food cart? Why not both? 

We'll start with bars though, got to love the OLCC forcing places to serve food; if not, I don't know if we would have so many vegan bars! Here's a few on my side of the river:

Bye and Bye 

Open until 2:00 am

Representing the very veggie friendly neighborhood of Alberta in NE Portland, we have the Bye and Bye! This place has all kinds of unique vegan food and drink, replicating non-vegan recipes and developing some original ideas as well. Lots of options for food here, and it's all vegan! 

Sweet Hereafter (Yelp link...)

Open until 2:30 am

Southeast Portland! So if you're too cool for school, this is your place. The food is good, drinks are great, but this place has that special service you see all too often in Portland, pretentious and rude! It's not that bad of a thing, the patrons are usually pretty nice, and like I said, the food and drinks are good. 

The Conquistador 

Open until 2:30 am

Another one located out in Southeast Portland! So this is a change of pace from the last two bars, since those are pretty similar. This is a vegetarian bar, but tons of vegan options, and tequila! This is a great place to get a drink and some greasy Mexican food. 

What about carts?

Sadly there aren't a ton of carts open late night right now; it seems people get skittish of sitting out in the cold and rain, but bar patrons fear no such things! I mean, come on, I'm drunk! 

Fear not drunk reader! There are places you can go! 

Gonzo! 

Open until 12:00 am on weekends

Located off 11th and Oak in SE Portland as part of the Base Camp Brewery, this place has my favorite falafel in town. And last time I was there the owner mentioned vegan shawarma being added to the menu soon, and I can't wait! They do have meat in this cart, fair warning, it's only one dish, but it might bother some vegans. 

Potato Champion

Open until 3:00 am

This is a local tourist trap! Seriously though, after a night of hard drinking there is little that will sober you up like this cart. They have veggie poutine! Never thought I would see such a thing, never saw poutine until I moved here! They have other veggie options, just be sure to specify when ordering or you might be eating something you don't want to. The lot they're on also houses Whiffies Fried Pies, and Pyro Pizza, both open late and have great vegan options.

Voodoo Donuts

Open 24 hours a day

Why am I linking this to my blog? Because they have vegan options and they're open late! It really is a hard place to avoid in Portland, everybody coming to visit wants to go there, so why not get them drunk first? Maybe they'll like the food more! 

And if you don't feel like going to a bar or a cart to get your veggie noms, there's always Sizzle Pie, best pizza this side of heavy metal and open until 4! And remember, these are just the places near me, there's always new things opening, and with spring approaching, food will once again flood the city! 

Vegan Hardcore!

Misleading title, I'm not going to be talking about vegan hardcore music, it's sad for all of us really. 

Yesterday I took everybody on a trip to the vegan mini-mall on Stark but we delayed a look at my favorite part, Food Fight!

 
Described in their own words as, "a vegan convenience store," there's a lot more going on than just convenient vegan food. Although, the convenient vegan food does bring me back to spend more money than I should.

They offer all kinds of food; from frozen and pre-packaged, to fresh produce, and even supplements! You're bound to find everything I listed in my first post, plus so much more! They carry a pretty good selection of vegan cheese too! Oh vegan cheese, we will talk about you again soon... 

But they have more than just food! There are DVDs, buttons, patches, clothing, and even vegan condoms! Dairy-free condoms, odd to say, who knew latex wasn't usually vegan, but it's a reality!

Head on over to the PDX Vegan Guide on their site, it's an amazingly well rounded list of businesses that are vegan, or vegan friendly. I mean sure, you could head over to HappyCow and get similar information, but that site is nationwide, and this one's all PDX!!!

Want to get more involved on a personal level around the Portland veg scene? Go here!

So please stop by Food Fight! Support an awesome local company! And be sure to grab a branded pin or a sticker, they're free!!!

Mini-mall Madness!

There is an oasis out in Southeast Portland where everything is vegan, and it's at 12th and Stark! The neighborhood already has a lot of vegan juice bars and cafes, but these shops don't stop with food. It's a pretty interesting ideal binding these companies together in this space since 2007!

Are you familiar with the film, Repo Man? It stars the Mighty Duck man himself, Emilio Estevez, as a white suburban punk coming to terms with the life around him, and some other craziness going on. But this feels like Portland to me, and there's nothing more suburban punk than a vegan mini-mall. It's a strip mall!   

In yesterday's post I mentioned a tattoo shop, Scapegoat Tattoo, and guess where they live? That's right, the mini-mall! Opened in 2005 off Division in SE Portland, and at the mini mall since 2007, the owner is vegan, inks are vegan, all the care products are vegan, and they do incredible work!

So who else occupies this suburban wonder?

Herbivore Clothing

Clothing company that started out online and opened a brick and mortar in 2007 as a part of the vegan mini-mall! They have all kinds of products; from belts and wallets, to clothing and stickers, books, and other odds and ends. They really have a wide selection of items, all cruelty-free, and many sporting a vegan message. Some very entertaining stuff going on in this shop, check it out! 

Sweet Pea Bakery

Awesome bakery offering tons of sweets with a few savory options as well. Founded in 2004 as a wholesaler, they opened this brick and mortar location in 2008. They even offer gluten-free options, as that's a pretty big trend, and vegans love trends! 

Food Fight! Grocery 

This store is going to get it's own blog post, should be tomorrow. I'm a very big fan of this store, you will love it too!  

Cruelty-Free Tattoos

This might surprise you, but if you've got tattoos, you might be rocking charred animal bone and animal fat. It surprised me, but I hadn't ever given the thought necessary to know. Convenience and ignorance are such easy traps to fall into. And while I don't have a ton of tattoos, I've always planned on having quite a bit more work done. So what do you need to know?

Got to ask the questions! And if your artist hasn't asked them, walk away! 

It's all about the source of inks, and the care products promoted and offered at the shop. Luckily, this is Portland and there are plenty of options!

Find an all vegan tattoo shop. Here in Portland, Scapegoat Tattoo, in the vegan mini-mall is quite popular, it's all vegan so you know your tattoo is cruelty-free. If not, have a talk with your artist about what inks are care products are going to be used. You need to avoid certain razors due to gel strips, or certain soaps and ointments due to animal products. The after care is up to you, there are vegan options, use them!

Downsides to a vegan tattoo?

There technically are some negative aspects to getting a tattoo with vegan commercial inks.

• The blacks just aren't as black. Without the carbon from the charred bones the ink just doesn't set into the skin as dark in color, and will fade faster. 
• To replace the organic compounds, they're using things like plastics. And that's getting put under your skin! How vegan is plastic?

The choice is yours, people! If your body's not a graveyard, don't make your skin one! 

Day Of The Dumpling

Welcome, welcome! It's like Xmas, if you're into that, but with dumplings!

These aren't just any dumplings, they're southern-style, so they're really just fat noodles. My wife had been making this recipe for a good while now, but we were also still eating meat for a good portion of that time. So it was disappointing to think that we couldn't enjoy this meal anymore. Fear not, we found a great combination of vegetables that fit with the recipe great, so let's do this thing!

Roasted Carrots

Basic stuff here, rough dice carrots; toss with oil, dried herbs, garlic, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Cook in your oven set at 350 degrees for an hour and a half or so.

 Noodle prep

 Here's the recipe for the noodles, they're a flat noodle that starts out like biscuit dough!

2 C AP Flour

3 T Non dairy butter
1 tsp Salt
1/4 - 1/2 C Water

Combine the flour, salt, and butter in a bowl to combine. Once the butter is combined begin to add water little bits at a time until all flour is incorporated and you have a ball of dough. Knead and roll out on a cutting board until 1/4" thick. Cut into desired shapes/sizes.

 Now add the noodles to the veloute sauce while stirring to prevent the noodles clumping together. 

Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, and then 15 minutes covered until done. Then you can add whatever you want! We used the roasted carrots, peas, and corn kernels. Oh, and we added a fair amount of cayenne pepper, everything is better when it's spicy!!!

   
        

                    NEXT WEEK MORE THINGS!!!!!!

Let's Talk Sauce

 Veloute made vegan

Aside from stock and butter, it shouldn't be as difficult to translate sauces. If you went to culinary school you learned the classical French mother sauces, and some minor sauces as well. I'm going to show you how to make a dairy-free roux, and then a veloute sauce using the stock from yesterday. 

Roux, it's not as common to use this culinary napalm anymore. You'll more commonly see reductions to make a sauce. But I grew up with roux in sauce, and I have no plans to conform. You just need butter, right? Nope! This is vegan, remember? You can use Earth Balance if you want to avoid dairy and get the visual cues of butter, but it's far easier to simply use oil.

 Equal parts fat and flour in the pan and cook until your desired state of done. It's easy to overcook roux, but it's criminal to under cook it! So keep it on the heat until it gets nutty!

With our roux cooled down and solid, we can measure out how much we will need based on how much stock we're going to use. You need about 1 T of roux per cup of stock. Bring stock to a simmer, whisk in our roux, and simmer for 20 minutes or so to cook out any raw flavors of raw flour. You're looking for a consistency of a thin creamy soup, if you're not there you can add a little more roux, or just simmer to reduce.

Now we have the building blocks for tomorrow's exercise in actually cooking a meal! Southern-style dumplings, by far one of my favorite meals, and we're gonna make it vegan!  

Make That Flavor Water

I promised you a fun day of stock, and now I deliver!

I'm going to share a basic vegetable stock recipe, this particular version is a great replacement for chicken stock. So here we go!

Ingredients:
Onion                  2#
Celery                 1#
Carrot                 1#
Mushrooms         1#              
Leek                   1 EA
Green Onion        1 Bunch      
Garlic                  1/2 Head
Lemon                 3 Slices
Rosemary            1 Sprig
Thyme                 4 Sprigs
Bay Leaf             1 EA
S & P                  TT

A smaller dice is important to draw more flavor in to the stock. I sweated the mirepoix, leek, and garlic that I had diced. Then added the rest of the ingredients, covered with water and placed on the stove top to simmer for 4 hours. Skim while it cooks! Then strain and you've got stock! It should make about 4 quarts.

So making stock is kind of boring, but it's also a chance to develop some serious depth of flavor. This recipe is being used for a southern-style dumplings recipe on Thursday. This is far from the only recipe you should settle on, add more mushrooms and keep out the lemon and you can start to get a darker, more earthy stock. Especially true if the recipe calls for something that can be made into a demiglace. We'll talk more about that later though. Foreshadowing...

So tomorrow we're going to do a non-dairy roux and veloute! Almost time for our dumplings!

The Veggie Arsenal

Big question for you here: what's in your kitchen? 

For our purposes, we're going to need to make some changes to what's in your kitchen. Most of the basics you can keep using without trouble, but there are a few things that are specific to the vegan kitchen, and some general exclusions.

What should I avoid?

 Bad news, you're going to have to read the label! Good news, now you're reading more!

So we want to avoid anything with animal by-products. So no gelatin, milk proteins, or egg powders. And those are the easy ones to spot; there are a lot of vitamins and other products that contain traces of animals and are not listed as such.

Oh, and honey, honey is not vegan, sorry.

So what is totally veg? 

Here's the fun part, getting to know new things! You can't get these things at QFC or Safeway, but New Seasons and Whole Foods should have everything you need. I recommend People's or Alberta Coops. 

Egg replacer (Not a replacement for a fried egg, it's powder.)
Nutritional Yeast
Vital Wheat Gluten
Wheat Gluten (Hail Seitan!)
Cashews and/or other raw nuts
Tofu and Tempeh
Non-dairy milk (Coconut wins!)
Agar Agar (Kind of gelatin... kind of.)
Nondairy Butter (There are options! I swear!)
Agave Syrup (If you bake?)

And it's always advisable to have plenty of grains, dried beans, and the myriad of other things a cook wants to keep on hand in their kitchen.

This is just a list, and maybe a bit of a letdown, so get excited about tomorrow! We're gonna make stock! Oh boy!!!