Vegan for Dinner

My first vegan dinner!

On my trip back to Michigan I was treated to my first vegan meal ever by my brother. And I learned three very important things:
1.) Being vegan is not contageous.
2.) Contrary to popular thought eating a dinner without meat won't kill you.
3.) Vegan meals can actually taste good!

Mixing the dough

He made something called saitan, which is pronounced "Satan" (and was pretty much who I thought would be the mastermind behind a meal that contained no meat or dairy products of any kind). Saitan is a flour and water mixture which becomes spongy  in consistency that is then boiled and takes on the flavor of whatever is used to season the water. Then you fry it in a pan in bacon grease and...just kidding:) You fry it using some olive oil and soy sauce.We used it to make a stir fry and it took the place of chicken or steak.
It was a simple recipe, and although it didn't taste like meat per se, it had a fried noodle taste to it that I found to be really quite good. And it filled me up. I don't know any vegans beside my brother, but if I did I would totally make this dish again!

Frying it up

While I'm not sure that I'd ever have it in me to give up meat entirely, I have definitely had an epiphany in terms of the possibilities of vegan cuisine, and would be very interested to try it again. It seems to be pretty tough to eat vegan, especially out in restaurants, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to have a good meal, especially at home. And it really makes you think about how much we use other animals, their unfertilized offspring and their milk in our everyday cooking. Considering the sheer number of animals necessary to support such a diet as ours there is definitely a point to be made about the process by which these animals and the products made by them end up on our dinner table. I think that is why most vegans are vegan, because of ethical concerns related to the exploitation and quality of life of the creatures that eventually become our dinner. If anyone has anything they'd like to share concerning this topic, I'd be very happy to post it in the main body of this blog for others to read!