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Hello, all. My sister's doing a marketing class for her MBA, and she's decided to tie it in with her passion for vegan/vegetarian food and cookery in general. She's put together a really short survey, and if anyone feels like taking a minute to fill it out, that'd be really cool. It's for vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike! All are welcome!
Aaand, if you feel like commenting further here, please do. I don't remember a recent thread about dietary choices.
I myself am a vegetarian, though rather new at it. I know for me, having a family member who's really experienced at it has helped loads. If I was just going into it cold, I'd probably have a really hard time feeding myself healthfully. Going off of meat has been for me an economic, health, and environmental decision, and I only regret that I haven't found mock bacon yet. (That's a product I'd love to see!)
How about you? What's informed the decision you've made, whatever it may be?
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I'm an omnivore, because I fell healthier when I eat meat and eggs. However, since my older two kids and myself are lactose intolerant, we eat a lot of products aimed at vegans (soy milk and cheeses, for example).
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Yeah - It's kind of pointless from an omnivore perspective. If you answer question #1 as omnivore, then you have no answer for #2 or #3, but it demands an answer.
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I'm an omnivore but I also eat some frozen vegan and vegetarian products. When I do, it's for health/ taste reasons, not for moral/ ethical ones.
But I agree, there should be an n/a option.
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I'm an omnivore, but I still eat some foods and even whole meals that are vegan. And I might buy a vegan frozen meal if it sounded tasty. More likely if it were, say, Indian cusine or pasta with veggies than if it were some kind of soy fake meat.
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I eat meat, but more sparingly than the average American. I tend to have meat when I go out places; at home I often cook vegetarian (low dairy) or vegan.
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I'll mention the lack of an "N/A" option to her, but I imagine one could buy a vegan meal simply because it looked like a nice thing to eat. A lot of Indian dishes, for example, just naturally don't have animal products.
Thanks to those who filled it out anyway!
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There are actually very few traditional Indian dishes/meals that don't have animal products - even if there isn't paneer (cheese), the meal was likely cooked with ghee (butter) and/or curd. The importance of milk products in the Indian diet is one of the major reasons Indian culture started to consider cows holy.
Now vegetarian, I'll give you. There's probably more strict vegetarians (vegetarian 'cause they want to be, not 'cause they can't afford meat) in India than everywhere else in the world combined.
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Right, I forgot about ghee. And paneer. Not sure what I was thinking. Maybe I'm just used to substituting things anyway.
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I can't fill it out. The question which asks me to rank priorities won't let me list them all as unimportant.
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Many prepared indian dishes ARE vegan, though-- for shelf stability oil tends to be substituted for ghee fairly often.
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Yeah, we have a bunch of precooked Indian packets from TastyBite, kq. They're delicious, but they certainly aren't traditional Indian. Works in a pinch, though, especially since my MIL hasn't had time to teach me how to cook many dishes.
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: There are actually very few traditional Indian dishes/meals that don't have animal products - even if there isn't paneer (cheese), the meal was likely cooked with ghee (butter) and/or curd.
Indian isn't a monolithic cuisine, though; what you're saying is more true for the cuisine of some regions than others. It's pretty easy to find vegan Bengali dishes, for example.
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I like Palak Paneer a lot. I made some, and that was really hard and involved. Also fried cheese can't be healthy. Delicious though
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I realised about the "n/a" option, my sister says she wrote the survey mostly for people she knew who might already consider pre-packaged vegan food. She wasn't really expecting me to post it anywhere, but says it's probably a good thing to know why people would avoid the food, too.
About paneer, I often wonder how different it would taste to use seasoned firm tofu instead. To me they have a similar sort of texture. Maybe I'll try a tofu mutter paneer sometime, even though I'm fine with eating cheese. Mmmmm, tasty food.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I filled it out and just did my best with some of the questions. When I eat vegan foods, it's because I like them, or because I want variety, or because that's what's being served. My main motivation for eating tofu is because I like it when it's well-prepared. The health factor plays into it some, too.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Jhai: first of all, as was pointed out, there are many different regions of Indian food, some tend toward vegan more than others, some tend toward meat, some tend toward dairy-heavy... It depends on the region. Second, I've never had Tasty Bite entrees. I eat mostly Trader Joe's if I'm eating shelf-stable or frozen Indian food. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: There are actually very few traditional Indian dishes/meals that don't have animal products - even if there isn't paneer (cheese), the meal was likely cooked with ghee (butter) and/or curd.
Indian isn't a monolithic cuisine, though; what you're saying is more true for the cuisine of some regions than others. It's pretty easy to find vegan Bengali dishes, for example.
My husband is Bengali, and I've never seen anyone in his family cook anything vegan, other than side dishes of vegetables. Even then, there's almost always a good dollop of butter in the vegis, at least the way my MIL prepares them. Bengali cuisine is dominated by fish, so I wouldn't hold it up generally as a vegan ideal in India. I've even met a few religious Bengali brahmans who were "vegetarians," but nevertheless ate fish. Crazy Calcuttans!
I do agree that Indian cuisine differs tremendously from area to area. However, I think it's reasonable to say that, on the whole, traditional Indian food is not vegan, given the wide-spread use of milk products in cooking throughout the subcontinent. To call it vegan would be like calling American cuisine vegan because some people steam their vegetables and eat them without butter.
Edited to respond to KQ: I haven't heard of one Indian cuisine that traditionally has a significant portion of its dishes that are vegan, nor has Abhi. If you'd like to point some out, I'd be glad to hear of them.
TastyBite is an awesome, awesome company that prepares very good Indian & Thai food. I think all of their dishes are vegetarian, and a significant portion are vegan (altho the same dishes wouldn't be prepared vegan if made fresh ). They're having a 25% off sale on all 6-packs, and shipping is a flat $10. Last time they had this sale I bought enough for 5 months' worth of dinners for about $125. (Coupon code is FEB25 and you have to order at least $50).
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That's why I said "leans toward vegan"-- meaning, there are a lot of dishes where ghee is the only non-vegan component, and that is very easily substituted for. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I agree that it's much easier to turn a traditional Indian meal into a vegan Indian meal than it is for many other cuisines . When I lived in Germany, it wasn't a meal unless there was a piece of meat somewhere on the table - try turning that into a vegan meal.
(TastyBite doesn't actually do Thai that well - at least their red/yellow/green curries aren't that great. Some of the Indian dishes are superb, though. Check it out - you can get down to about $1 per person for a meal if you cook your own rice.)
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I am vegetarian (with an occasional lean toward vegan) and find that eating in Indian restaurants (which I'm sure aren't representative of the country's cuisine as a whole) is much easier than eating, well, in a lot of other places. They certainly have more options that can be made vegan upon request.
Posts: 340 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Jhai: [qb] There are actually very few traditional Indian dishes/meals that don't have animal products - even if there isn't paneer (cheese), the meal was likely cooked with ghee (butter) and/or curd.
Indian isn't a monolithic cuisine, though; what you're saying is more true for the cuisine of some regions than others. It's pretty easy to find vegan Bengali dishes, for example.
My husband is Bengali, and I've never seen anyone in his family cook anything vegan, other than side dishes of vegetables. Even then, there's almost always a good dollop of butter in the vegis, at least the way my MIL prepares them.
That's really interesting. Most of the Indian food I cook is Bengali, and while I've certainly seen plenty of meat based recipies, I haven't had any trouble putting together vegetarian meals (and those that I've made have typically been vegan; no ghee in them at all). My impression hasn't been that the recipies were tinkered with to appeal to vegan sensibilities.
quote:Bengali cuisine is dominated by fish, so I wouldn't hold it up generally as a vegan ideal in India.
Oh, I wasn't trying to hold it up as anything, really--just pointing out an Indian cuisine that in my experience has plenty of vegan-friendly options. Given your familiarity with the cuisine it would be interesting to show you a couple of the recipies and hear your take on their authenticity; maybe I've been cooking Bengali/American fusion dishes without knowing it or something.
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I'd love to see your recipes, Noemon. I don't know how to cook many Bengali dishes actually - just how to eat it. My MIL will be visiting this summer for a few months, so I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up a lot of good recipes.
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I just emailed you three of my favorites. If you pick up any recipes that your MIL doesn't mind your passing along, I'd love to see them (vegetarian or not; while I eat a fair amount of vegetarian food, I'm still an omnivore).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I got stuck on question 2 as well. I eat vegetarian plus fish, but don't buy prepared meals. I buy plenty of vegan things - potatoes, onions, peas etc, but this survey seems to be aimed at the ready meals consumer without saying so.
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No sure how much my input is worth as I am more likely to cook indian food from scrtach as the availability here is limited in the extreme.
I miss Coventry market - with it's myriad of veg stalls and little old indian women only too happy to explain what one should do with the ingredients or which spices should be used for which dishes. *sigh*
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I don't remember a recent thread about dietary choices. 
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Maybe I'm just used to substituting things anyway.
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). They're having a 25% off sale on all 6-packs, and shipping is a flat $10. Last time they had this sale I bought enough for 5 months' worth of dinners for about $125. (Coupon code is FEB25 and you have to order at least $50).
