Vegan Without Cruelty [to non-vegans]

Isa Chandra Moskowitz made it all possible for me with Vegan with a Vengeance.

Okay, thinking my dad went vegan and panicking over what to cook for him when he came to visit (he really only went vegetarian, but the end justifies the means, right?) made it all possible.

And Skinny Bitch pushed me over the edge. Of course the word ’skinny’ grabbed me, but the book is not just about bullshit ridiculous body image issues in this nation– it is about nutrition, and animal cruelty- if all you care about is what you look like this may not be the book for you. But if you care about your health, the environment, animal cruelty, your emotional wellbeing, and last and least looking hot (or at least hot-er), it’s a must.

But back to Isa. Her book helped me realize that you can eat really, really yummy vegan food– you don’t have to starve to death, and you don’t always have to work your ass off. Thank you, I love you.

Some of the recipes do require some work and odd ingredients, okay, but those are sooooo worth it. And many are cheap easy, and simply rock.

I don’t have permission to post her recipes, but many of them are available on the internet for free at Post Punk Kitchen. 

How do I love this cook book, let me count the ways. One of the recipes I come back to over, and over, and over again, is Veggie Burgers, page 96. I’m making them today.

In order of importance, here are the reasons you should try this recipe.

1. They are approved by some of my favorite meat-eating taste testers. 

2. They are easy if you have even the smallest, cheapest food processor.

3. With the exception of a small amount of Textured Vegetable Protein, they are completely whole food and don’t require weird ingredients.

4. You can make them mostly ahead, which takes 20-30 minutes, and refrigerate the cooked mix 24 hours or so until time to make up patties, fry and serve.

5. They’re damn good for you, but if you want to add even more nutriton– hard to imagine, when they’re already so good for you– or if you have some hard to please kids in the audience, chop up and bake some sweet potato fries, page 114.  The seasoning on them is kinda like that orange stuff they put on Arby’s curly fries– do they make those any more?– oh, but without the beef tallow sprayed all over them to make them taste so damn good.  

I make homemade sweet potato rolls to serve them on. This does take a bit of extra time, but less than you’d think. The recipe is easy. I put out spinach, mustard, ketchup, real cheese for the dairy eaters, and you know, whatever else goes on your family’s burgers. YUMMMMM!

There are a few caveats.

I don’t use liquid smoke. I’ve heard it’s nasty, and these guys are so good I don’t think it’s needed. That’s up to you.

She says they make 6 burgers– I have found that they fall apart on me if I make them too large, so I make them smaller and make my rolls smaller to serve them on.

Cook them at a pretty high temp, longer than what she says– if they brown a bit longer, they stick together better. Cause they can turn out a bit sloppy joe-ish, still patties but a bit soft, not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I don’t care because they are sooooo goooood!