A vegan diet is a much healthier alternative to a non-vegan diet but it can result in deficiencies in certain essential nutrients like vitamins and proteins. This however happens only due to poor diet planning and a lack of pertinent information to help with such planning.
The term “vegan cuisine” makes a lot of people think about bland, tasteless, leafy food with unpalatable texture and not anything to really “chew”. This is a very misleading representation of vegan cuisine because, with a little experience and creativity, it is possible to prepare vegan food in such a way that it is as toothsome as the best prime rib or baked chicken.
To being with, vegan cuisine follows the vegan philosophy in that the diet contains neither animals nor any animal byproducts. A vegan diet is void of meat and poultry and any animal products like milk (and all dairy products) and eggs, pasta, gelatin, etc.
For someone who has never tried an all-vegetarian diet, it is not even possible to imagine the wonders of the palate hidden in there. Most meat eaters will simply shudder away as one by one every single part of their diet is taken away from them because the average American is drenched in a media frenzy that is constantly providing exposure to hamburgers and bologna sandwiches. This should not scare anyone away from veganism or at least it should not drive to a point where you hesitate to have at least a few vegetarian meals.
Meat and dairy products rely on many heavy and flavorful ingredients. A vegan diet does not have this crutch to improve its flavors but it does have a few other things going for it. Vegan diets replace these flavoring agents with ingredients that make up for the deficit. These include fresh vegetables and hot spices.
Tofu is a unique vegan food and it has been the subject of many jokes during past years. Tofu is basically a soybean curd having a sponge-like consistency that absorbs all flavors around it (tofu in itself has no flavor).
Now this may put of many people off: a food product that has no inherent flavor of its own?
This is where vegan cuisine comes into play.
Think of the following dish being placed in front of you. It contains Italian stuffed shells, tomato sauce, and basil, garlic, and oregano. The difference is that instead of cheese, the shells are stuffed with soft tofu and spinach. Remember that tofu absorbs like a sponge. So it will take in all the Italian spices that cheese will not and the blend is surprisingly good. Now, would anyone notice the absence of choice? Well, yes, there will be a slight oddness at first when the spongy tofu is chewed but there will be no problems with a lack of flavor.
Similarly, there are numerous recipes for vegan cuisine. Curries can be made in sorts of flavors while remaining purely vegan. Other dishes can utilize soy sauces, fresh vegetables, and salads with sweet oil dressings.
So give vegan cuisine a try and you may realize that it is not as bad as you had imagined.
