Understanding Vegans

You're throwing a great shin dig and the party is set. Suddenly you're told that a lot of your friends are bringing vegans or you didn't realize it but your friends are vegans; what do you do? Today, more an more people are deciding to become vegan or vegetarian. This is is a major life shift for them, and for everyone they know. It also means that dinner parties, luncheons and every time you're going to eat they have to be taken into consideration.

When cooking for a vegan you must understand their philosophy and all of the rules of veganism.
Veganism believes that people and animals can live together and just as you wouldn't steal or eat another person, they're not going to steal any piece of an animal or eat anything from them. Therefore, if it comes from an animal in any way, shape, or form they're not going to eat it. There are some products that people don't seem to think about that are animal made: milk, cheese, eggs, and butter. Pay very careful attention what your canned products have in them, as well as your sauces. Meat base, and meat products are so rampant in our normal digestive foods that a normal ingredient you use all the time, can toss a vegan into a sickness they are likely to not come back from, since it will be coupled with depression and pain as well.

There are also your extreme Vegans will take it one step further and not eat items that use animal products of any kind in their preparation. There are many spice companies that use animal lard to get their spices to stick together, there are some tea manufacturers that use animal grease to make the tea bags, and many vegetarian bases use milk at the first ingredient even though it is completely cooked off.

Now that you understand the philosophy, you can get into the cooking. Number one thing to give any Vegan, Vegetables. You can't go wrong with vegetables. However, there are some vegans that will eat only organic vegetables. These are vegetables that have no chemical or adding harm to the bugs themselves. Be very careful what kind of organic it is. Just find vegetables that were grown in dirt, and the farmers didn't care about the bugs that ate them. Because of this most Vegans end up growing their own gardens because they get tired of researching various farms.

A great vegan dish is a steamed vegetable dish and optional soy sauce. If you have a steamer, use more water than is asked. Steaming a lot of vegetables takes a lot of water. The water should just touch the bottom of the colander. Cover the vegetables for 10-15 minutes, or until they are warm all the way through, yet still have that vegetable snap. Place those lovely yummy veggies on a plate with some garlic sat, lemon pepper, and soy sauce to taste.

You can also saute up some veggies. Take a regular saute pan, it's the pan you'd fry stuff in. Add a small quarter size of olive oil, let the oil get hot, and then toss in the veggies. Move the vegetables around for about 5-8 minutes till they get soft, add whatever Vegan ok'd sauce you want, and let the sauce cook with t he veggies for a mere 30 seconds. Serve on a plate.

Ahhhh, now you are cooking for Vegans. Stay away from the animal products, and learn to cook completely fresh. Talk to your friends, ask them about recipes they life, and where they got those. There are a lot of on line recipe houses that specialize in good vegan cooking. As you cook and eat Vegan, you'll notice that it is truly healthy for you, and quite a nice change of pace. I'm not saying you'll not want a hamburger or a steak, I'm just saying it's a nice change of pace.