Where is the vegan section?

Ibo Foroma Rastafarian Perspectives —
SINCE the festive season is here, no doubt everyone is itching to feast. For this reason, mouth-watering vegans are wondering, where is the vegan section?

Veganism encompasses eating only fruits and vegetables. All sentient organisms of macro-scale are excluded from the diet. Most Rastafarians are vegans whilst some are vegetarians. Usually for beginners, some eat animal eggs, animal milk, fish or white meat.

Veganism is becoming more popular by the day, thus there is an urgent need for producers and service providers to serve vegan friendly foods and drinks.

Inspired by different motives, a lot of people do not eat meat and animal products. Some people are lactose intolerant,allergic to certain meats, eggs, fish, and so forth.

Restaurants and food outlets barely serve dishes relevant to vegans. This is puzzling since everyone eats vegetables and the range of products in question happen to be deliciously prepared, vegetables retaining every taste animal-based alternatives provide.

When travelling in “non-vegan-friendly zones”, Rastafarians and vegans in general endure a lot. Usually potato chips are fried in the same oil used to cook meat or even in cooking oil made from animal fat.

Vegan alternatives substitute all tastes to be found in the animal flesh and animal by-products. Vegetables can be prepared to mimic or even taste more delicious than fish, beef, pork, sausages, eggs, and milk.

Vegan foods can be made from peas (pisum sativum), cow peas (vigna unguiculata), soya beans (glycine max), rice (oryza sativa and other species), spelt (triticumspelta), oat (avena sativa), hemp (cannabis sativa), peanuts (arachis hypogaea), almonds (prunus dulcis), hazel nuts (corylus avellana), quinoa (chenopodium quinoa) etc.

Sativa, sativum and sativus are Latin botanical adjectives meaning cultivated, used to designate certain seed-grown domestic crops.

Fishlike aroma can be obtained by cooking, especially tofu, with algae such as nori, kombu, wakame. In Japanese cuisine or sushi, Nori (pyropia) is a seaweed eaten fresh or dried in sheets.

Wakame (undaria pinnitafida) is an edible brown seaweed used in Japanese and Chinese cookery. Kombu/konbu (saccharina japonica) is edible kelp widely eaten in East Asia. There is a finished product called “Visch” that tastes like fish (www.vegan.ch/kochen).

Tofu is a traditional product made from soya beans that contains a lot of protein. It has a mild taste, but easily absorbs flavours from marinades or spices. Tofu can be sliced, crumbled, seared or pureed. It can be used in many dishes ranging from main courses to desserts.

Plant-based meat substitutes; slices, chunks, chicken thighs shaped hunks and so forth can be made from sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, bulgur wheat, soy, peanuts, cowpeas, etc.

Plant-based sausages are made using soybeans, hemp, quinoa, peanuts amongst other vegetables combined with the sausage trademark herb, sage. Black and white pepper, parsley, thyme, garlic, onion and chilli add flavour.

The casing is usually artificial made from cellulose as in the case of all common sausages. Vegan sausages must not be made from collagen. Like the “missing vegan section” itself, this field of culinary (kitchen) science is not yet fully developed, the casing needs to be replaced with some organic vegan-friendly substance.

Vegan mince can be made from crumbled tofu or fine soya granules seared and seasoned with spices, bulgur or ready to use products available in most developed countries’ supermarkets. Soaked overnight and pounded cowpeas serve well also.

Frying in cold pressed vegetable oils derived from olives, groundnuts, sunflowers, hemp, soy, etc, is highly recommended. A vegan goulash can be made from soya schnitzel and meat alternatives found in the frozen food section of supermarkets.

The word goulash is from a spicy Hungarian stew of meat and vegetables, flavoured with paprika. Paprika is Hungarian for a powered spice with a deep orange-red colour and a mildly pungent flavour made from certain varieties of sweet pepper.

Goulash is a combination of Hungarian words gulyas- and -hus. Guylas means “herdsman” and “hus” means meat hence denote herdsman-meat. Ill named “hotdogs,” burgers, meatballs and patties, vegan polony, bacon and ham can be made from the above ingredients.

Plant-based egg(s) substitutes or “vegg(s)” can be made from 50 grams silken tofu or soya yogurt, 50 grams apple sauce or half a banana, one tablespoon ground flax or hemp seed in three tablespoons of water. Prepare till it binds.

You can also use one tablespoon soya flour and three tablespoons of water, 50 grams of soya yogurt or silken tofu, one teaspoon baking powder and one tablespoon of starch and three tablespoons of mineral water. This requires to leaven or ferment using a yeast or substitute thereof.

Veggs, scrambled vegan eggs can be made from smoked or silk crumbled tofu in turmeric for a pleasant yellow yolk colour and black salt for flavour. Fried finished egg substitute products such as “The Vegg” can be accessed in areas where veganism is common practice.

Plant-based milk and milk products thereof can be made from soya, oat, almond, hemp, flaxseed, rice milk, cashew nuts, hazel nuts, etc.

Once there is vegan milk, yogurt, cream, butter, or margarine, hard cheese, cream cheese, cheese for au gratin, cheese sauces, ice cream, quarks and sour milk for sadza can be easily derived.

It is important to derive milk and vegan specials from multiple sources for some vegans can be allergic to say gluten in wheat, yeast, peanuts and soy. This is similar to meat eaters who devour a range of innocent animals.