food

I've recently adopted a vegetarian diet and have been enjoying vegan cooking. As much as online recipes are useful there's still nothing quite like a physical cookbook. I have a small collection of recipe books but most are very much centered on the use of animal products and so they are of fairly limited use to me now. I've been looking at the Food Not Bombs books as well as some of the America's Test Kitchen books but I'm curious as to what this community can recommend.

Edit: Thank you for all of the responses! I now have a lot to look into and I apologize for not really being able to respond to all of you individually.

This post brought to you by my pinky

By the power of liquid bandage, hopefully I can get by playing power chords normally enough at band practice

I bought some very cheap enameled steel (not cast iron, stamped steel) pots, for cooking pasta and potatoes and such.

Background: After I dropped my decades old stainless steel pasta pot and the plastic handle broke off, I got some cheap IKEA so-called "stainless steel", which is chrome-free, and it rusted (do not recommend). So I'm trying enameled steel since it's cheap and cannot rust (well except the rims which just have some chromed steel crimped on I guess). Only 40 € for four pots in different sizes.

I can boil water on the electric stove at full blast, and that hasn't broken them, but I also have a super powerful mini induction hob, and that's like 10x faster and I'm afraid to try that in case it might shatter or warp.

Theoretically they're great for cooking liquids because they're not reactive, thin, light and good on induction but I'm kind of afraid of breaking them. Enameled steel used to be a thing here in Germany but pretty rare now. It seems to be almost unheard of in the US, but maybe some people on here from around the world have some experience about what sort of abuse these pots should be able to take.

Like....yeah, no shit you would?
Why are white people like this?

All these dishes are vegan however there might have been a still image of meat at some point since there were a bunch of photos briefly shown, but I didn't catch any while watching

Chili Oil Recipe: Ingredients: 8 oz Sunflower Oil 1–1.5 Guajillo Peppers, Dried, stems and seeds removed 2–3 Arbol Peppers, Dried, stems and seeds removed 1–1.5 Chipotle Morita Peppers, Dried, stems and seeds removed ½ Ancho Pepper, Dried, stems and seeds removed 3 Garlic Cloves (Pre-peeled) 2 Green Onion Bottoms 0.5 oz Maple Sugar Salt to taste (Kosher) Prep Method Add dry ingredients (Guajillo, Arbol, Chipotle, Ancho) to the blender and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a pan. Add garlic cloves to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add green onion bottoms to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Combine the salt with the chili mixture and stir until thoroughly incorporated. In an appropriately sized saucepan, heat the sunflower oil to 400°F Carefully pour the hot oil over the vegetable and pepper mix. Let it cool. Stir in the maple sugar until fully dissolved. Store, label, date, and initial for proper tracking.

Wild Rice Pilaf Recipe: Ingredients: 4 cups of Wild Rice, Hand Harvested, Dry 1.25 cups Mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot mix) 1/4 cups Dried Berries 1 tbsp Sunflower Oil 8 cups Water or vegetable broth (For hand-harvested rice, use 2 parts water per part rice) Salt to taste Prep Method Rinse wild rice until water runs clear like lake water Heat oil in a large saucepot over medium heat until shimmering. Add mirepoix and cook until softened (2–4 minutes). Add rice and water, bring to a boil, and lower to a simmer. For hand-harvested rice, simmer for 10–15 minutes and check halfway through to ensure there is enough water and it’s not cooking too quickly. With 5–8 minutes left, stir in the dried berries and allow them to simmer until the rice is tender. Season with salt to taste before serving.

Maple Baked Beans Recipe: Ingredients: 4lbs of Tepary Beans Combine Rinsed, Soaked Beans with Ingredients Below and Bake: 1/3 cup of Pure Maple Syrup 2 cups of bean juice (from soaking) 2 tsp salt Once Cooked, Drizzle with Maple Syrup Prep Method: Thoroughly rinse the beans. Add to a container with enough water to submerge and let soak overnight. After soaking, rinse beans thoroughly and place in a 4-inch pan. Add bean juice, maple syrup, and salt. Cover with foil. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, uncover and stir. Add water if necessary. Check beans in 15-minute intervals until the desired texture is reached. Drizzle with the second amount of maple syrup before serving.

https://gazacola.shop/

I have tried six more types of plant milk since my last update about 27 days ago. I have determined that the best type of plant milk for me is store brand oat milk from Rema 1000.

''Look ma, no English!'' (good)

Unlike other types of plant milk, this kind tasted really good right away. It's mild and pleasant but clearly distinct from dairy milk. And that's what plant milk really should be, not an imitation of dairy milk so much as something that can fill the same purposes as dairy milk while having a different identity.

My second favorite kind of plant milk I'm going to say is almond milk, I tried Alpro brand. It tasted a lot like dairy milk with an almond flavor added.

I also tried rice milk, but it honestly did not impress me, especially since the carton I got turned out to be leaky.

A thought that's been going through my head while trying these plant milks, though, is that oat is something which is cultivated locally here in Norway, while soy and almonds and rice are all imports only. So this was another reason why I wanted to try oat milk, because local ingredients are better for the environment, and food sovereignty is important to build.

Problem is, though, Rema 1000's oat milk is actually manufactured in Italy. There is however another brand called Ur-kraft that makes oat milk entirely using local ingredients, so I might try that another time, although it does cost a bit more... But it feels like sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, though, because the packaging of Ur-kraft just gives me kind of icky vibes. See for yourself:

''Look ma, no English!'' (bad)

So, you know, I'd like to support local ingredients without also supporting drumming up patriotic sentiment and playing into nationalistic archetypes — just like I'd like to support the end of animal exploitation without also supporting diglossia with English.

Anyways, as I've been trying to establish a "revolutionary base area" in the realm of milk, I've also been trying other things to cut down on my consumption of animal products.

Among these things — and I won't be talking about everything I've tried — I tried Alpro's soy-based chocolate pudding, which was a yummy treat; fava beans with paprika spices, which I did enjoy decently; and a Stabburet brand veggie burger. That burger was decent in quarters but I found that trying to eat a whole burger in one sitting was just a bit much flavor-wise.

That burger does go into the whole debate of what place plant meat has in a transition towards veganism, though. I won't go on about that debate other than just acknowledging it exists, and saying that I think I'll use plant meats to a limited extent as a stepping stone to ultimately shifting my diet away from eating anything that plays into the "meat culture" at all.

There are a lot of things I'd like to try going forward, but my circumstances don't necessarily make trying everything too easy, whether it be the ability to find things in stores or just the time to prepare meals for myself. Things may be shifting up for me soon so I'll try to seize opportunities as they arrive.

With butternut and honeynut squash, Japanese sweet potatoes, honey, olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I cube it all, mix it, and bake at 204c/400f for 30 minutes. Tastes like autumn.

By which I mean a way for a poor busy worker to keep eating through pottage.

Vaguely Ethiopian Stew

• 1-2 bowls of water
• 1-2 handfuls quinoa, millet, or barley
• 4-5 shakes berebere seasoning
• 1 BIG SCOOP of peanut butter
• 2-4 shakes onion powder and or dried onion
• 1 shake of nooch
• 2-4 shakes of garlic salt or seasoned salt
• 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade or apricot preserve
• Hot pepper to taste

Vaguely Asian Lentil Soup (serves 4)

• 1/2 instant pot of water
• 4 handfuls red lentils
• 2 globs gochujang
• 1 glob better than bouillon
• 1 substantial portion pickled ginger
• 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade

Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 4 minutes.

Barley Slop

• ~3 cups water
• 1 hearty shake barley (1/3 of depth)
• 1 handful red lentils
• 2 shakes smoked paprika
• 3 shakes garlic salt
• 1 shake nooch
• 1 shake lime salt

Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 20-25 minutes. Barley will be a bit chewy at 20 minutes which I like. Lentils disintegrate and thicken the broth.

All these meals take at most 4 minutes active time and are ready to eat within 30 minutes. Very filling and fairly healthy. All can be made with shelf stable jar goods for the most part. All meals can be improved with fresh or frozen greens. Hardy greens can be added at the start of cooking, and softer greens can be added after cooking.

The light greenish substance is a jalapeno, cilantro, and tofu sauce, the dark green bits are roasted peppers.

(not food: Bhonus owl I saw on my walk):

I've been trying out Textured Vegetable Protein in these "burrito bowls" I do (literally just rice + beans + protein and some seasoning/sauce) and I don't think it's for me. Sawdusty vibes tbh.

Out of the three other meat alternatives I put in the title what would you recommend? I'm leaning towards tofu because it's somewhat familiar but the whole "pressing" situation seems annoying

Came across lions mane mushrooms at my local grocer, which was a great find as i had been wanting to try these for a while. I went very basic, just seared them in canola oil with a little bit of salt and black pepper, and flattened them out with a pot to release moisture or some such. Shredded them up and tossed them in some leftover ramen. The flavor was quite nice and light, somewhat similar to oyster mushrooms and paired nice with the broth i felt. The texture was pleasant, with the nice springy bite typical of fungus and a tender inside. I saw it compared to crab, lobster, and scallops online and while i do kinda taste the resemblance particularly with scallops (honestly i really didnt think they tasted like crab or lobster much at all) they lack any sort of oceanity or fishyness to them.

They were very tasty. I'll probably use the rest to top a mushroom risotto and baste them with butter, garlic and herbs for more flava

Yum

Meanwhile the name brand stuff is twice as expensive and everything has security tags on

Made soup. It was great.

I looked at several different recipes to figure out the proper cooking time and temperature, then drained and rinsed a can of garbanzo beans, and lightly coated them in a mix of garlic, ginger, sumac, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I cooked them at 390 for 13 minutes, shaking at the five and ten minute marks.

Conclusion: flavor was decent (because that's all down to the spices, which were intuitively correct like with everything I make), but the texture was awful. It just sort of desiccated them and made them tough. This was also way more work and took a lot longer than just cooking them in a cast iron pan, which yields a much better result overall.

3/10 air fryers continue to be inferior to the easier option of just using a stove and proper cookware.

Yes I'm comparing disparate recipes, but "roasted chickpeas in an air fryer" is one of those things people always rave about and it's just worse in every way compared to cooking them in a pan.

Wish me luck it is a monster

And at what temperature?

I enjoy my slop. Literally rice and 5+ days per week every week. Whole batch costs less than $3 in ingredients and I get like 7-8 meals out of it. Supplement with roasted veg