Moving up the continuum

[Guest guest]

I shared with this group when I joined that I wasn't quite a vegan yet,

but was working on it. Well, it looks as if I've crossed the threshhold.

I haven't had dairy in weeks, and I'm loving the plant based way of life.

 

Like a lot of us longtime vegetarians, I had a love affair with cheese.

While plant-based milks, yogurt, sour cream and cream cheese are all

pretty tasty, in my opinion vegan " cheeses " aren't. I think I struggled

with becoming vegan because simply substituting vegan cheese in

vegetarian recipes didn't work for me.

 

What did the trick was to stop making vegan imitations of vegetarian

dishes. When I make a taco now, I understand it's beans, veggies, salsa,

and maybe a little avocado and/or meat analogs. They're very good, and

because I'm not thinking about them as a cheese dish I don't miss the

cheese. Or I make a big stirfry of veggies and wholegrain noodles and

toss in some tempeh or tofu. All very wonderful without being haunted by

the ghost of dairy.

 

Now I should say that there are a lot of great cheezy sauce recipes that

are also very good. I love the Uncheese Cookbook, for example, and the

sauces taste great baked with macaroni or drizzled over baked potatoes.

It's just those blocks of vegan cheese you get at the market that don't

do much for me. Fortunately they're not necessary.

 

Cheers,

 

Trish