A luxurious vegan dinner

I eat a strictly vegetarian diet. Technically, I'm not a vegan since I will sometimes have honey but it's a convenient shorthand for describing the fact that I eat no animal flesh (hint! fish are animals!), and nothing that is obtained through the torture or exploitation of animals such as dairy, eggs, gelatin, etc. I also will not buy leather and try hard to avoid products and companies that test on animals or use animal derived ingredients such as lanolin.

I am also a foodie, I love food, eating, and the cultural activities such as cooking and dining with family and friends that go along with it. These two facts (veganism and foodie-ism) are not mutually incompatible. Your average vegetarian or vegan knows a lot more about food, cooking, nutrition and the origin of foods than the typical person. This is very important when trying to live a sustainable and revolutionary life-- the food choices you make are powerful votes you cast. Which companies do you want to support? What type of farming practices? Do you know where your food came from? How much energy it took to get to your plate? What toxins and contaminants might be on it?

I will revisit these themes often, but as a start, I want to show you the dinner that Daiku and I had last night.



We made the Mushroom and Sun-dried Tomato Risotto from Vegan with A Vengence by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It had such an amazing depth of flavor- she calls for both dried and fresh mushrooms, along with fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes and other aromatic and yummy things.




We ate it with a salad, some ciabatta bread (yes, carb-loading), and some organic rose wine. The following things came from our own organic garden: cucumbers, yellow grape tomatoes, thyme, rosemary. 4 stars!


Oh, and here are some fresh figs. I only get to enjoy them in their non-dried form once a year, so I savor them.

A luxurious vegan dinner