For many of us, reducing ecological harm is one of the big motivators, and many vegans apply this mindset elsewhere. I’m also in the US, and it’s pretty hard to avoid needing a car outside of major cities which I can’t fault any vegans for. Many of the vegans I know are activists for public transit and one in particular has worked to improve it immensely in their city.
Anticapitalist sentiment is pretty huge in vegan spaces. There’s a leftist to vegan pipeline and vice versa. Ironically being vegan is pretty big in punk spaces now too.
I won’t pretend there aren’t plenty of people who are vegan more for the aesthetics rather than the principles because for some reason it caught on as a trend among the remnants of the “upper middle class” for whatever that means with the ever growing wealth disparity. There’s a huge supply of overpriced vegan options, but you can also eat vegan super cheap too without shelling out for the pricey fake meat options. I can make a ton of seitan or black beans burgers at home for almost nothing, but it’s $$$ at the grocery store.
Ok, that makes sense and generally tracks with my own experiences.
Particularly:
Ironically being vegan is pretty big in punk spaces now too.
The handful of folks I knew who were actual punks, in actual punk bands, played at local bars, were among the most genuinely kind people I’d ever met, and were the most dedicated, and also non-sanctimonious vegans I knew.
Unfortunately, I was more often around corpo yuppie types… bleck.
If you could link me to some kind of seitan or blackbean uh… patty making guide? I have no idea how that works, but I’d love to learn, love to switch over to something less meat intensive as I slowly recover and can handle more involved cooking procedures.
Pretty standard black bean burger recipe. It uses a “flax egg” which is flaxseed meal and water and is used a lot in vegan baking. You can omit the sauce and just use whatever you like on a burger. You can also make it cheaper by using dried beans instead of canned. https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/ultimate-black-bean-burgers-with-tahini-garlic-cream/
Learning to cook vegan is a bit of a different mindset from meat, and teaches you to use seasonings way more. My general advice for trying to put together vegan meals is always have a protein (tofu, seitan, edamame, any bean/lentil, quinoa, or oats), some veg, and a seasoning mix or a sauce. That and balance out the oil, acid (vinegar, citrus juice, etc), and spiciness is most of how I do my cooking when I just want to throw together some food and don’t have a recipe in mind or want to tweak a recipe to fit my tastes.
Starring this and saving the links to my bookmarks!
I am no stranger to seasoning, but uh, mostly with eggs and potatoes and meat and various baked bready things.
My only real experience with vegan cooking… beyond learning how to make a few interesting salads… is utterly, totally failing at attempting to make tofu into something edible.
Failed quite badly at that lol.
But I will definitely see if I can orient more of my next grocery run (delivery, really, yay disabled) around any of this, see if my arm and wrist can handle the prep.
For many of us, reducing ecological harm is one of the big motivators, and many vegans apply this mindset elsewhere. I’m also in the US, and it’s pretty hard to avoid needing a car outside of major cities which I can’t fault any vegans for. Many of the vegans I know are activists for public transit and one in particular has worked to improve it immensely in their city.
Anticapitalist sentiment is pretty huge in vegan spaces. There’s a leftist to vegan pipeline and vice versa. Ironically being vegan is pretty big in punk spaces now too.
I won’t pretend there aren’t plenty of people who are vegan more for the aesthetics rather than the principles because for some reason it caught on as a trend among the remnants of the “upper middle class” for whatever that means with the ever growing wealth disparity. There’s a huge supply of overpriced vegan options, but you can also eat vegan super cheap too without shelling out for the pricey fake meat options. I can make a ton of seitan or black beans burgers at home for almost nothing, but it’s $$$ at the grocery store.
Ok, that makes sense and generally tracks with my own experiences.
Particularly:
The handful of folks I knew who were actual punks, in actual punk bands, played at local bars, were among the most genuinely kind people I’d ever met, and were the most dedicated, and also non-sanctimonious vegans I knew.
Unfortunately, I was more often around corpo yuppie types… bleck.
If you could link me to some kind of seitan or blackbean uh… patty making guide? I have no idea how that works, but I’d love to learn, love to switch over to something less meat intensive as I slowly recover and can handle more involved cooking procedures.
Sure thing! Here’s a few recipes.
Pretty standard black bean burger recipe. It uses a “flax egg” which is flaxseed meal and water and is used a lot in vegan baking. You can omit the sauce and just use whatever you like on a burger. You can also make it cheaper by using dried beans instead of canned.
https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/ultimate-black-bean-burgers-with-tahini-garlic-cream/
Seitan if you have vital wheat gluten (makes it easier): https://theveganatlas.com/homemade-seitan-recipe/#mv-creation-193-jtr
Seitan if you don’t have or want to buy vital wheat gluten and just have flour:
https://thevietvegan.com/washed-flour-seitan-method/#recipe
For other dishes and creators I use recipes from a ton: https://rainbowplantlife.com/ https://thecheaplazyvegan.com/blog/
Learning to cook vegan is a bit of a different mindset from meat, and teaches you to use seasonings way more. My general advice for trying to put together vegan meals is always have a protein (tofu, seitan, edamame, any bean/lentil, quinoa, or oats), some veg, and a seasoning mix or a sauce. That and balance out the oil, acid (vinegar, citrus juice, etc), and spiciness is most of how I do my cooking when I just want to throw together some food and don’t have a recipe in mind or want to tweak a recipe to fit my tastes.
Thank you!
Starring this and saving the links to my bookmarks!
I am no stranger to seasoning, but uh, mostly with eggs and potatoes and meat and various baked bready things.
My only real experience with vegan cooking… beyond learning how to make a few interesting salads… is utterly, totally failing at attempting to make tofu into something edible.
Failed quite badly at that lol.
But I will definitely see if I can orient more of my next grocery run (delivery, really, yay disabled) around any of this, see if my arm and wrist can handle the prep.
Thanks!