Vegetarian Cooking - Three Basics

For any of the many reasons people choose togrape seed.The next critical ingredient of
eatvegetarian food that
vegetarian food - religion, politics, finances, ortastes fabulous is really simple: use sea salt.
health -Although
one thing in common is that everyone prefersany kind of salt will enhance the flavor of most
food thatfoods, sea
tastes delicious and provides good nutrition. Theresalt is best. It naturally contains minerals, while it
aredoesn't contain the nasty chemicals of regular
some basic techniques to vegetarian cookingprocessed
which willtable salt. Important to note~ use salt *during*
accomplish that.There is a range ofthe
vegetarianism. From the vegan to thecooking instead of waiting until after serving the
person who eats meat on rare occasions. Somefood.
peopleThis makes a difference in the final quality of the
consider themselves basically vegetarian if theydish
never eatbecause cooking is chemistry. Remember back
red meat, but do eat fish and chicken once in ato your high
while.school chemistry classes: the order of combining
Other vegetarians eat animal products like eggsthe
and dairy,elements, and the application of heat to the
but never the animal itself. A vegan is at the farmixture could
end ofmake a tremendous difference to the results of
the continuum, rejecting animal products entirely.the
Vegansexperiment!The third tip for vegetarian cooking is
won't eat mayonnaise because it's made usingobvious, yet needs
eggs, foremphasis. Use lots of vegetables! You can't
example.Wherever you are on the continuum ofover-do
vegetarianism, youvegetables in your diet - the greater the range
want your food to taste good, be satisfying, andand color,
providethe better. Use leafy veg (lettuce, spinach, and
good nutrition. Here are some methods forchard),
cookingroot veg (yams, carrots, potatoes, turnips), and
vegetarian to meet those basic requirements.Tothe stems
begin, if you are making some dish that is actuallyand seed carriers of veg (for example celery,
aeggplant,
meat-based recipe, such as chili con carne, stoppeppers, zucchini). Buy organic veg if you can
substituting textured vegetable protein for thebecause
meat andthey really do taste better, and of course they
leaving the rest of the recipe unaltered. Theprovide
result neverbetter nutrition because they are gown in
tastes quite right, and you've been robbed of thehealthy, 'clean'
pleasuredirt.Take any vegetable and bean soup recipe,
of good food: it's neither meat nor properlyand follow these
vegetarian.three simple principles: saut~ the veg in the right
Furthermore, you haven't gained in terms ofoil,
health orcook the beans in sea-salted water, use a
economy. Soy is the primary ingredient ofvariety of
texturedorganic vegetables, and you'll have a rich delicious
vegetable protein, tofu, and tempeh. These aresoup.
usuallyThese simple tips make a big difference. Take
high in fat, high in processing, and fairly high inmy word for
cost.it, or do a little test. Use the same list of
Not much better than organically raised meat, ifingredients,
at all.but don't saut~ in oil, add the salt at the table,
So if chili con carne is what you want, buyand use
organic meatconventionally grown veg. The result will be
and enjoy it! Otherwise, cook a delicious soupinferior -
using redstill nutritious, but bland rather than satisfying, and
beans that doesn't pretend it's chili con carne.Thethat's a shame because the few simple
key to good vegetarian soup is to use oil. Even iftechniques described
you prefer low fat, your body does require fatshere can make your vegetarian cooking
for healthyconsistently
metabolism. And it definitely enhances the qualityterrific.Articles by Nora Poulous on topics related
andto cooking are
flavor of any vegetarian soup when some of thepublished in Z Cooking
vegetablesNews the leading resource on-line for information
(onions in particular) are saut~ed. Use an oil that'sabout
liquid at room temperature, such as olive,cooking.
vegetable, or