Some Vego Dishes

More and more I’m eating vegetable protein. I could say my diet has always been plant-based in the sense that much of my low-income life has involved getting full on cereal, bread and pasta. The difference now is that I can afford to consume meat but am finding ways to diversify beyond that. Here I discuss a few tasty meat alternatives (whether cooking at home or eating out).

Suffering Succotash

Inspired by the Loony Tunes exclamation, this is a dish of Algonquian origin in which maize and some kind of bean (such as butter beans or kidney beans) are combined in a one-pot dish. If I throw in some mushrooms then I cover all three of my secondary food groups but that is optional. A spicy tomato salsa will give the dish its 'suffering' quality and be in keeping with using New World ingredients.

Sundried Tomato Pesto with Egg Pasta

This is very easy and almost vegan. Commercial jars of sundried tomato pesto tend to lack cheese (I guess the tomato provides much of the moisture) but then I go and add traces of egg by choosing a pasta I favour because it cooks more quickly than the standard. Stirring the pesto into the cooked pasta results in an instantly flavoursome dish complete with more than a trace of nuts.

Salad Of Three Salads

Many take-away souvlaki bars and the like offer a selection of salads to go with rotisserie-cooked flesh. I’m hardly the biggest salad fan but have found a combination of three standard salads produces a rather tasty meal. The three I choose are chickpea salad, pasta salad and tabbouleh. They are way better together than eaten separately.

Palak Paneer

A curry made with spinach and nuts surrounding lumps of cottage cheese served over rice or with roti bread? What a dish! I have never made it but with so many Indian restaurants serving this fantastic meal I hardly need to. It is even more decadent chased with some mango lassi.

Tofu And Vegetables Stir Fry

I am less into tofu than other sources of protein but the solution to its blandness is sauces and seasonings. The tofu that comes pre-marinated in things like honey-soy sauce is rather nice. I combine it with a can of mixed stir-fry vegetables (usually bean shoots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn, sometimes carrot) with something leafy. Risoni has long been my preference over rice and it serves as the base for this dish.

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These meals are all vegetarian but few are vegan. Milk and eggs enhance most of these and for me abandoning them takes things too far. And I still enjoy flesh, fowl or even fish every few days.