Vegetarian Food (don't worry, I'm not trying to convert anyone!) - General

I am no where near vegetarian (went a summer in the countryside where I killed my own food) but I do like some vegetarian food. Although I never see the point of vegetarian food trying to be meat, like how it says 'tastes like chicken'. Why not have real vegetarian food that is just as tasty as meat? I mean mushrooms are fucking amazing, last night I cooked some garlic mushrooms (slowly cook mushrooms in a lot of garlic and butter), stirred it into some pasta and it was fantastic. Also had feta cheese coated in egg and flour, gently fried with salsa and lemon on the side. God it was amazing.

hummus and falafel i love! can't get along with tofu at all, the solid stuff reminds me of toilet brushes (bad experience in china) and the silken stuff gives me a bad stomach. i drink a fair bit of vanilla soy milk though, it keeps longer and (IMO) tastes better than regular milk!

mmmh... I love veggie nuggets. :h:

[QUOTE=blazingfly;28275652]Do not understand why you would go vegetarian or vegan and then eat stuff that is meant to look like and taste like meat.[/QUOTE] sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with taste or looks. In fact i think most of the times vegetarians and vegans don't eat meat because the know that it was once a living animal, and that throws them off! Which got me thinking one day when i saw this thing about the possibility to grow muscle tissue in tubes without the need to breed an entire animal with all its consciousness and pain reception. If a vegetarian where to be put infront of a plate with a slice of that stuff, would it be okay for him/her to eat it? Vegans would probably say no since they opt out anything that is organic, but what about the rest?

[QUOTE=GreenLeaf;28277811]sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with taste or looks. In fact i think most of the times vegetarians and vegans don't eat meat because the know that it was once a living animal, and that throws them off! Which got me thinking one day when i saw this thing about the possibility to grow muscle tissue in tubes without the need to breed an entire animal with all its consciousness and pain reception. If a vegetarian where to be put infront of a plate with a slice of that stuff, would it be okay for him/her to eat it? Vegans would probably say no since they opt out anything that is organic, but what about the rest?[/QUOTE] I don't know, but if they finally did that, and Vegans and Vegetarians refused to eat it, I dunno, I would start thinking they were just being awkward. I mean, if your prime reason is that you hate how animals get killed for food, and suddenly there's meat without the killing, why wouldn't you eat it?

[QUOTE=blazingfly;28277852]I don't know, but if they finally did that, and Vegans and Vegetarians refused to eat it, I dunno, I would start thinking they were just being awkward. I mean, if your prime reason is that you hate how animals get killed for food, and suddenly there's meat without the killing, why wouldn't you eat it?[/QUOTE] I know! But that's the difference between vegans and vegetarians. a vegetarian will not eat meat that came from a living animal. (but for some reason they're okay with eating fish) eggs and milk are fine because harvesting it didn't mean any animal got killed for it Vegans on the other hand will, as i was saying, not eat anything organic because they don't want to support something that might've been living in poor condition and treated badly before being harvest on its goods. so, no eggs or milk or meat or anything. Not even some desserts that uses gelatine since gelatine is made from bones! your ordinary makeup is also a no no for vegans and quite possibly vegetarians as well. and don't forget wool cloth! Honestly, the thought of being a pure vegan seems laughable to me. just do some deep enough research and you'll see just how much of your ordinary daily stuff that has had some kind of animal involvment in its making.

Waah! Fell asleep and came back to realize there's a lot I haven't added to the OP that I should have! Man, I've been a vegetarian for years and I haven't heard of some of this stuff. What, have I been living under a rock? x) I'll go Google all of that stuff add it. Also, good job on keeping the conversation about vegetarians and vegans constructive and open minded, guys. :) Shadaez, how do you do that, with the pinto beans?

Vegetarian pizzas with ham are the best :P You should've see the waitress's face when i ordered a vegetarian pizza with ham lol

Hahaha. On the contrary, some meat recipes are great without the meat! Like lentil soup is just as delicious without ham in it.

[QUOTE=geoface;28279497]Vegetarian pizzas with ham are the best :P You should've see the waitress's face when i ordered a vegetarian pizza with ham lol[/QUOTE] I work as a chef at a retaurant and one time we had a costumer who claimed to be a vegetarian. "But i eat chicken!" Everyone was pretty much flabbergasted.

Vegetarian food owns, I've been veggie since I was little. I don't like mushrooms, peppers or tomatoes though. Guess what everyone makes for me when I visit them? :I Also seconding the love for houmous, it's the best thing with crusty white bread. [editline]25th February 2011[/editline] I don't think I've ever had tofu, is that the stuff in Quorn?

I don't actually know what's in Quorn. I haven't seen it around here. You oughta try out eating tofu. Go to the section of your store where they have organic or health food, they'll probably have it.

Quorn is made from mould found in soil... Similar texture to tofu though.

Hmm. How's that safe?

No different than mushrooms really.

Ha, yeah, I guess the word just throws me off. Fungi, mold, it all sound so bad. x)

If you think about half the stuff people eat it is just as bad. I mean if you really think about where milk comes from it is enough to put most people off.

Oh no, I don't consider it bad. It's just about the influence people put on the words. Yeah, makes me wanna go buy soy milk! Haha.

I often get soy milk instead of real milk now. Only problem is the price. Where I am, its slightly more expensive than the real milk, and comes in a smaller package. Pretty worth it though. Chocolate soymilk is the stuff.

Both my parents owned a chain of health food shops when I was growing up so I always had soya milk. I have found now that if I have normal milk it makes me feel really ill and tastes foul. Although I am fine with it in stuff, just on its own.

I tried tofu once, I couldn't even swallow it without my body trying to bring it back up. [sp]No, I'm not vegetarian, quite the opposite actually, I'm just voicing an opinion[/sp]

What about almond milk? Have any of you tried that?

I may eat dead animals, but I do enjoy myself some vegetarian Indian Curry.

Ooh! I've never had curry and I didn't realize that there was a way to make it vegetarian! Do you know a recipe?

[QUOTE=ConvolutedLogic;28281508]What about almond milk? Have any of you tried that?[/QUOTE] It is quite nice, more sweet than soya milk. As for curry's, use any normal curry recipe but use mushrooms, tofo, potato, eggplant or something instead of meat.

What's curry taste like? Ooh, it's sweet? I'll have to try it then.

There are thousands of different ones, try a korma. It is mainly coconut milk and powdered almonds. Slight hear but really nice sweetness behind it.

Tofu is great. My parents buy single containers with a huge slab of tofu inside and use that for cooking. Back when I was a kid I used to eat tofu with soy sauce [editline]25th February 2011[/editline] OP you should also add tempeh to the OP. [media]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Sliced_tempeh.jpg[/media] It's pretty much soybeans caked together and you can batter-fry it or stir-fry it. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh[/url]

Will do~ I think tofu with soy sauce is the best, personally.

[QUOTE=ConvolutedLogic;28283777]Will do~ I think tofu with soy sauce is the best, personally.[/QUOTE] Tofu coated with sesame seeds and then fried is pretty good. Tofu can't be too thick or the middle won't cook.