A question for vegetarians

[mykpart]

I'm not a vegetarian, but I have friends who are, some who eat dairy and some who don't. What I want to know is, why do so many vegetarian recipes have cheese in them? I like to make one or two vegan dishes when I have guests, and it's easiest if they (the dishes) are only vegetable products. I don't want to have to buy tofu cheese, or fake meat patties (which I can't imagine anyone liking). And are there vegans who only eat veggies that grow above the ground? (I have a fave recipe for carrot & raisin salad that doesn't use mayo.)

[emmajane67]

1. I don't know about only eating food above ground.

But I've known people who only ate fruit and veges that fell naturaly from the tree. They had to move to areas with a lot of orchards and I'm sure if any of your friends are so inclined they would be good enough as to inform you of their requirements.
I know what you mean about lots of vege dishes having cheese in them, I've just cut out dairy to get away from my cheese heavy vege lifestyle. One thing to remember is that a lot of cheese has rennet so for committed vegetarians (not vegans) cheese will only be okay if it's made with a vegetable based setting agent. So, you are wise to make some vegan things to be on the safe side.
I'm sure whatever effort you put in will be greatly appreciated by your friends as most veges are happy when they are not expected to eat a couple of side dishes and that is all, thinking about their needs is a nice thing to do. Your salad sounds great and vegan food isn't all lentils and mung beans, most stir-fries (which are very quick and easy and you can use whatever veges you have) are vegetarian, roast veges, salads all very easy, quick and yummy.

[mykpart]

16. Stir fries are my favorite.

Carnivores tend not to notice that there is no meat. Especially if there are lots of chopped mushrooms!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. Yeah, stirfrys are the only real meals I can cook well.

I make them with tofu or tempeh and carnivores like them. I like the San-J Sczechaun sauce.

[billyskank]

2. Because cheese is so nice?

Cheese is a bona fide vegetarian food, so long as it has no animal-sourced rennet* in it. It's vegans who don't take dairy products, and "vegetarian" and "vegan" are not synonyms. Think of vegans as a subset of vegetarians, if you like.

You have to watch out for eggs. They crop up in so many vegetarian dishes. I don't consider it suitable for vegetarians, but many people who call themselves veggies will take it. To be most accurate I suppose you should call them "ovo-vegetarians" (whereas I am a "lacto-vegetarian").

* Rennet is an enzyme which is used to make hard cheeses hard.

[TheBaldyMan]

3. I'm not a veggie but I don't think carrots are vegan.

I think vegans only eat pulses, nuts, fruit and grains. You don't eat anything that you have to kill, this includes root veggies and tubers.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. You're thinking of fruitarians. Carrots are vegan.

Fruitarians won't eat any plants you have to kill.

Vegans won't eat or use any animal products. So no meat, dairy, eggs, some won't eat honey.

[TheBaldyMan]

6. Probably the fruitarians I've met didn't want to give a long explanation

and just called themselves vegan. They did make a nice bean salad.

[billyskank]

8. Not fruitarians

Fruitarians are very uncomplicated. They only eat fruit. I guess the clue is in the name. :silly:

[TheBaldyMan]

10. They sound like a bizarre cult of guava worshipers !

[RebelOne]

9. All vegans do not eat honey. It is an animal product.

I'm a vegetarian, but I eat dairy products. So, you could call me a lacto-ovo vegetarian.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

11. I know some who are vegan except for honey.

There is some debate even within the vegan community on it. Although, by definition it is an animal product.

[LeftyMom]

15. There are a small subset who think honey is okay

There are also people who think eating small amounts of animal byproducts, sugar bleached with bone char, bivalves or even dairy are somehow acceptable.

These people are simply not vegan no matter how much they wish to apply the label to themselves, according to most of the vegans I know. Another online community where I participate was just discussing this, it also came up on this week's Vegan Freak podcast if anybody happens to be interested in hearing more about the issue.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

21. I eat some dairy and fish.

Even I can't deal with the sugar bleached with bone char thing.

[LeftyMom]

23. yeah, that one's a real pain in the ass

I stick to it but I'm much more tolerant of people who fudge that one than the others. Hopefully it'll be easier to deal with as there are more and more vegans out there and manufacturers go out of thier way to market to us and to others who prefer unprocessed sugars.

[mykpart]

13. OMG I never thought about honey!

Thanks for the heads up on that one.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

5. Check out vegweb.com

They should have a ton of recipes. FYI, most people like boca patties and boca ground. However, I haven't personally met anyone who likes soy cheese. I think you can make anything from soy, except for cheese. Hell, tofutti cutie ice cream sandwiches taste exactly the same as real ice cream.

[alphafemale]

7. Vegan Cheese note

My veggie daughter says that the imitation mozzerella cheese sold by Piggly Wiggly (their store brand) is light years better in taste than the stuff in the usual veggie section of the store.

Plus it's about a third of the price. Go figure.

Piggly Wiggly isn't in all states, but many chains may have imitation cheeses that could be tried.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. They're not in northern NJ.

Anyway, I eat some dairy. I do limit it and do go off it sometimes when my sinuses start getting really bad. I'm fine without cheese though.

[mykpart]

14. Thanks for the link.

They really LIKE boca? OK. And I may have to try soy milk myself. I read it's good for your heart.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. I know carnivores that like it.

My sister's boyfriend loves Boca burgers and I've seen him eat a 16oz. steak. If you try soy milk, the silk vanilla is the best one. Their chocolate is really good too. I don't like any soy milk other than Silk.

Tofurky is really, really bad though. Zen & Now UnTurkey is pretty good though. I've been varying degrees of veg for eight years and I was a health food store buyer, so I know pretty much all the products. Both what I like and what other people seem to like (since I ordered their groceries).

[LeftyMom]

18. I hear they get have really good vegan soy cheese in the UK

It's called Cheezely. Apparently it's remarkably like real cheese.

Were somebody to import it I bet they'd make a small fortune. Perhaps there's hope since now some sort of vegan reddi whip is being imported- that seems like a much more obscure product than faux cheese.

[Robeson]

17. Here's a whole thread of nothing but recipes in the veggie group....

...I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of good things here... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=231&topic_id=497&mesg_id=497

[LeftyMom]

19. Check out Vegan with a Vengance

The stuff in there is really good and doesn't use soy cheese or other fake ingredients.

It's pretty new but the library had it here.

[gkdmaths]

24. Where I went to college,

http://www.evergreen.edu , the flavors of vegetarianism were as wide spread as the EM spectrum, and we were hard-freakin-core about it, too. It seemed that there werent really rules about what you could and couldnt eat, and each vegetarian I knew had a slightly modified diet.

I entered evergreen a vegetarian hippie with long hair and left the college as a straight-laced carnivore. Go figure.