Food activism is one of the easiest and simplest ways to dispel one of the most common myths about veganism: that it involves deprivation, that it's difficult, that it's an eating disorder, or my favourite: that it's all potato chips and pop on one hand and nothing but wilted ice berg lettuce on the other. Oh, how my eyes do roll at pseudo-gourmets and foodies like Mark Bittman. It's fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices that give real food its proper flavour, not suffering and exploitation.
I promise, the porn is coming, but I wanted everyone who reads this blog who might have any doubts: veganism is simple, animal foods and other products are not necessary for human health or the environment, and vegan food is delightful and delicious. No need to eat a whopper, drink a cowmilk shake (cow milk is for little cows!), throw on some cologne made from the urine of civet cats and then head out to see the circus. There are vegan alternatives.
Vegan cooking also draws us together in shared community around a shared table. It embodies the alternatives to animal foods and other products as an unmistakable proof that they are utterly unnecessary. It encourages our return to a dialogue about the food choices we make in a culture that seriously devalues food and how it is produced, as well as the effects that production has on nonhuman and human animals, on poverty, on the environment and our health.
If you're not vegan now, you should take the rights of nonhuman animals not to be used as property seriously and go vegan today. Don't just go vegetarian, free range, free run or cage free. It might you feel better, but it doesn't help nonhuman animals and it involves both moral and culinary deprivation. Go vegan! And now for the porn.
Chili and �cheeze� macaroni. This is a dish I used to eat a lot in my young adulthood. The chili is my standard chili (with vegetables, peanut butter, coconut, etc.), and the marcaroni is just a brown rice macaroni that I like. Don't let the �brown rice� frighten you. Brown rice pasta is wonderful, with a nice soft texture, and you can turn off the stove and let it cook while you do other stuff. It's very convenient. The cheeze is a tahini and nutritional use blend with garlic, lemon, turmeric for the color and other herbs and spices. Assemble, bake and dig in. Replace the pasta with fries if you want something unhealthy.
I'm deeply deprived and this picture proves it. Another traditional North American dish (stuffed squash with greens, lentils, rice, red and white sauces). The flavors are great. The texture of acorn squash if you've never had it is wonderfully creamy and light. Squash is also relatively easy to prepare. Once you've got it open, you can just bake It in the oven. This was also a beautiful presentation dish. The lentils and rice with red sauce give it great chew and piquancy; the white sauce adds wonderful mouth feel. Don't be afraid of the kale. Kale is true!
It looks like a battleship, but it tastes delish! More squash, some collards, and tofu. All that stuff you ever heard about tofu being bland and boring is just untrue. Good quality tofu has a nice, light taste all by itself, but it's mostly a blank canvas waiting to be flavored (in this case, stuffed with minced onions and mushrooms, barbecued with a rhubarb-based sauce and marinated in a nice saffron broth).
Beluga lentil and vegetable pot pie with miso shiitake gravy and grilled asparagus. This is a wonderful, traditional North American dish with a gravy inpsired by South East Asian cooking, accompanied by what is perhaps one of the easiest and most ubiquitous side dishes in all of cooking: grilled asparagus.
A simple and quick dinner of roasted portabello steak, a pear and chive sauce with some mashed sweet potatoes. The chives tie everything together. Beautiful, simple, easy, light, delicious and healthy.
Chocolate pancakes with fresh raspberry coulis. This one is pretty self-explanatory.
I'm not much for baking. It has too many rules that you must follow in order for the dish to turn out. I usually stick to making ices, sorbets, ice creams, etc., or to simple baked dishes like cobblers. This is a simple orange vanilla ice cream (like a dreamsicle) mellon-balled and served with a shot of espresso. The martini glass is optional, but it makes me feel ritzy.
This is all my own cooking. I'm not a particular great photographer. I wasn't trained as a chef. Most cooking is a labor of love and mine is no different. I'm not opposed to the environment and health benefits, but in my case, it's a love for animals (human and non) first and foremost, that motivates my veganism, my nonviolence and my desire to see their property status end and their personhood acknowledge in law. That the food also tastes much, much better than anything I ever ate as a omni is just a coincidence. But none of this involves deprivation, difficulty or too much work. Poor me, right?
But do vegans have to follow a lot of rules and isn't it complicated? The answer is no. There is only one rule to veganism, and it's utterly simple. To quote Donald Watson, the guy who coined the term, veganism is "a way of living which seeks to exclude � as far as is possible and practical � all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals." Easy. Don't use animal products for food, clothing or entertainment if it's possible and practical to do so, and you can start today.
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