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Monday, December 21, 2009

Finding The Right Substitutions For A Vegan Diet

By Ben Pate

When cooking a strict vegan vegetarian diet, it will be important to do some research on the types of substitutes that can create the flavor you want in a quick and easy way. Vegans do not eat any foods that are made from animals or animal products. This include honey and foods that you may not think had animal products used in their processing.

When cooking for a strict vegan diet, you will want to substitute ingredients in recipes that meet the needs of the vegan, but which will also be tasty to the non-vegans who may eat the food. With most of the recipes, where plant substitutes are used for protein and other ingredients, you will want to use more spice than would be used normally. Most of the ingredients used for cooking vegan foods do not have the level of taste that is in other foods. Many will absorb the flavor of the food being made.

Most people automatically select honey when they are not going to use sugar in a recipe; however, honey is not an option in a vegan diet. Therefore, you need to expand your horizons and look to natural syrups. When using syrup as a sweetener, you will want to decrease some of the liquid that is called for in the recipe, as the liquid in the syrup will create some of the liquid called for in other parts of the recipe.

Agave Syrup, Date Syrup, and Golden Syrup are also commonly used with cooking and sweetening hot drinks. Each syrup will impart a different flavor in the recipe you are creating. Experimenting with a small amount of syrup with the other ingredients will allow you to find the best sweetener for your recipe. When finding the best sweetener for a hot drink you will find that herbal teas react differently to each type of syrup.

Substitutes behave differently when they are used for baking or stovetop cooking. You will want to be sure and check on the substitute ingredient you are using to assure it is the best product for the recipe you are cooking. When baking, Soy or Almond milk is an excellent substitute for milk. These milks have more fat than other types of milk substitute and interact with other ingredients well during baking. Rice milk is excellent when used for stovetop recipes.

Soy and Almond milk will burn and scorch more easily on a stovetop than rice milk, and their fat content often will overpower a delicate dish. When you need a heavier milk for whipped cream or pudding, coconut milk is a great choice. This milk is very sweet so you do not need the amount of sweetener that is called for in the recipe. It whips beautifully and will create the peaks that regular whipped cream makes.

Using cheese in pasta is always an important part of an excellent Italian meal. Making Ricotta cheese is easy when you use a silken or mashed tofu that is blended with a bit of lemon juice. This "cheese" bakes in pasta beautifully and when fresh basil is mixed in with the cheese you get a great Italian flavor in your pasta. - 17274

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