Thursday, September 2, 2010

A totally vegan lunch

This idea of an entirely vegan meal came to mind when my cousin introduced me to homemade vegan hotdogs. Hotdogs that aren't made with meat? That's when I learned a bit more about wheat gluten, and how you can turn it into tasty faux-dogs with just the right amount of seasoning and spices. Who would've thought it possible? I'm glad she had extras to give us. The rest of the dishes were put together from our garden harvest. Beets, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes. I have to be honest that everything tasted GREAT, but for us, nothing bests a generous platter of italian cured meats. Put it this way...red wine tastes much better with salame and cheese!

Quest'idea di un pasto interamente "vegan" mi è venuta in mente quando mia cugina mi ha iniziato all'hot dog vegan fatto in casa. Hot dog che non sono fatti con la carne? Stiamo scherzando? In quel momento ho imparato qualcosa in più sul glutine del grano, e come si può trasformarlo in gustosi faux-hot dogs con la giusta quantità di condimento e spezie. Chi l'avrebbe mai creduto possibile? Sono contenta che lei ne aveva di extra da darci. Il resto dei piatti venivano dal nostro orto. Barbabietole, fagioli, cetrioli, pomodori. Devo essere sincera: era tutto gustoso, ma per noi, e' sempre meglio un bel tagliere pieno di salumi italiani. Mettiamola così...il sapore di vino rosso va molto meglio con salame e formaggio!


Roasted beets from the garden is truly a taste sensation.
Like my cousin told us...it's what you put on top that makes hotdogs taste great.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tomatoes every day.
Left to right: garlic salame, spicy salame, coppa

11 comments:

Jude said...

Haha, love the trilinguialism! I tried vegan hot dogs myself only 1 month ago, was so pleasantly surprised. I admit I could never go total vegan either - tried it once and missed my honey & eggs too much!

tom @ tall clover farm said...

I found myself staring at the last photo, licking my chops. La Dolce Vita indeed!

Oh and those tomatoes, um um, nice, nice, nice.

K and S said...

ooh! what kind of stout did you have this with??

thyme2garden said...

Normally I would turn my nose at any sort of vegan "fake" meat, but this actually looks good! Then I got to the bottom of the post and saw all those sliced cured meats, and thought, now you're talking!

:)

Rowena said...

Jude - if I can source out wheat gluten I'll probably make these hot dogs but only as a once-in-awhile thing. It's just nice to have something to fall on in case vegans come calling to my home!

Tom - we are very spoiled here. ^-^

Kat - it was the Bellhaven Scottish, which actually seemed like a weird combo with all those veggies but we had forgotten to put something less pronounced in the fridge.

thyme2garden - I was skeptical at first until she mentioned that vegan hotdogs are made with wheat gluten, and then I remembered that wheat gluten is also used in making the dough for translucent dim sum (as opposed to the opaque ones made with wheat flour). I thought it must be some other mysterious ingredient for anything vegan, so this was a real eye-opener for me.

Julie said...

Nice lunch but i have to admit i'm with the crowd on this one, that last picture has my full attention.

Rowena said...

Julie - then that makes six of us!

Racquel said...

It looks interesting, but I know my meat eating men wouldn't go for it. ;)

~fer said...

It looks very delicious!
I would be considering a life of eating just vegan after seeing such a tasty hot dog, but the last picture is to hard of a temptation,

Faith said...

Great idea for the hot dogs. I only have one vegan friend. All the rest of us love our meat products too much.

Rowena said...

Racquel - well, I suppose you could say that vegan food is certainly not for the uninitiated. I certainly wasn't until I spent a weekend with vegans!

fer - yes that last photo is quite like the apple in the garden of Vegan, oops, I meant Eden!

Faith - same here. I just can't imagine going without prosciutto and cheese...ever! I'm only curious about vegan cuisine to expand my abilities as a host/cook. But you, with your amazing knowledge of cleaning a grouse - now that is what I call talent in the form of complete survival skills!