The Basis of Veganism

Being a cook and a food writer, my usual approach to food is very open-minded. This also extends to the fact that I cook for people on a regular basis. I have to be very versatile in my thinking there too. I respect the food habits of everyone who comes to my kitchen – be it vegetarian, keto, meat lovers, sweet tooth’s, diet fads, vegan and many such. Every person has his/her own personal likes and dislikes and I find it a fun challenge to put together dishes which appeal to them and their sensibilities.

While I was holidaying in the U.S. last year, I came across many people who were leading gluten free diets as well as there were some who had turned vegan. There were a few who were both. While India is yet to see the explosion of veganism, it is still an underground society slowly emerging to the surface. While I saw a good few people going gluten-free and vegan for various reasons not related to an allergy (health, losing weight, clean eating, being fad driven), I was intrigued by this whole concept having taken off the ground so easily. There were vegan specific dining spaces, most food establishments have some vegan option or another, menus would be marked specifically to pinpoint vegan dishes and people were proudly wearing the vegan badge on their chests.

To explain the concept of veganism simply – it’s to do with eating plant based food. It’s vegetarian obviously, but it is breaking down vegetarianism even further i.e. restricting oneself to eating only plant based foods. Anything which comes out of/part of a living being (dairy, fish oils, eggs etc.) is not part of the vegan diet. The general idea has been (and this is purely from the layman observation when speaking to people who are not vegan) of people who are vegan or choose to be vegan, they are usually allergic to everything from nuts to fruits to seeds and meats or are ‘vegetarian’. This is not the case, veganism is purely choice based, diet based and in some cases yes, allergy based.

[While it is a rare condition to be allergic to vegetables, there are cases which crop up such as nightshade vegetable allergies (blue/purple colored veggies such as brinjal, purple yams etc)]

… in most cases it is a lifestyle choice.

On the other end of the spectrum there are people who are gluten intolerant. It is indeed a dangerous condition which affects a mild section of the human race. In most cases it’s not gluten intolerance but just a matter of choice to go gluten free and I have seen people claim they are gluten intolerant but they actually are not. To one’s own I guess as have never fathomed why people claim that.

It all comes down to the fact that being Vegan and being Gluten free are two completely different things and are not one and the same thing or part of the same diet. I have come across many situations where someone says they are vegan and people automatically assume they won’t eat bread. That’s an honest assumption considering bread is associated to yeast, milk and eggs in most cases. What is interesting to note is that yeast is vegan (it’s not derived from an animal or a living thing) and that there is bread which does not contain eggs and dairy. A vegan diet can have grain based options and can have yeast as an activator.

I get quite perturbed when people are quick to judge / discard the basis of veganism and usually it borders on ignorance. It is not rocket science and our diets are quite specific to our choices. I don’t see the big deal about someone choosing to follow his/her preference (trust me, there are more meat eaters in my circle and they are quite oblivious to this whole vegan movement).

I am not vegan myself but I have been leaning towards studying it ever since I was exposed to the concept. It has inadvertently opened up such a beautiful world in the branch of vegetarian food that to adapt it for my experiments during vegetarian cooking, it goes beyond my usual spectrum of choices. I have been a vegetarian growing up, infact, still am at home (we do not cook meat) but studying techniques, ideas, culinary creations from vegan chefs / followers in my circle has widened my own knowledge. I have consciously been using nuances of veganism in my vegetarian experiments without making a big hoo-ha about it. Interestingly enough my guest diners have not noticed and are surprised with these new creations I have been dabbling in.

One such technique or rather ‘ingredient’ which is fast catching on as a trendy base for everything is cauliflower. This humble vegetable has found its place as a great rice and bread replacement (again confusion between gluten and vegan, but yet again a veritable replacement). I have seen vegan / gluten free writers speak lovingly about the versatility of this vegetable and wanted to try something out myself.

This recipe of a cauliflower base for pizza is quite a hit amongst many experimental cooks. I tried making cauliflower rice in U.S. but failed big time when I used a blender instead of a food processor (turned pasty and uneven shaped), I tried working on some latkes and pancakes but those turned out boringly generic. I came back to India and noticed some of my friends had turned vegan and gluten free. While I am here, they expected me to cook for them and I had a challenge to look forward to cooking vegetarian food which is vegan and gluten free. Turns out I had fun putting things together and recently developed this little beauty of a recipe, the bonus being perfecting my pizza sauce in the bargain. Read on for a fun vegan / gluten free version as well as a non-vegan / gluten version using the a similar process…

Cauliflower Pizza Base

(For about 6 x 6” pizza base)

Ingredients

• 2 Large Cauliflowers
• ½ cup Ground Flax seed
• ¼ cup Water
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder (Optional)
• 2 tsp Nutritional Yeast (Optional)
• 3-4 sliced Basil Leaves
• 1 tsp Oregano (dried)
• 2 tablsp Almond Meal
• Salt to taste
• Extra water for binding (only if required)

Toppings*

Onion Sliced

Green Capsicum Sliced

Roasted Garlic

Mozzarella Cheese Shredded (can be avoided for the Vegan version, although my picture has the cheese)

Meathod

• Preheat oven to 400F or 225C.
• Separate the cauliflower flowerets from the stalk and discard the stalk. Soak in salted water for about half an hour (this kills all hidden bugs/worms which are hard to see as well as seasons the vegetable slightly).
• I find that grating the veggie on the larger side of the grater works best to give a coarse powder like cauliflower but the cheats way is to pulse it couple of times in the food processor with the large blade fitting (not a blender it doesn’t work).
• Transfer the cauliflower powder into a microwave safe dish and cover. Cook for about 4 minutes or until steaming. Remove and cool.
• Once cooled to a handling stage, spoon the mixture into a muslin cloth, bunch it up like a little sack and squeeze as hard as you can. You should get a lot of water out of the vegetable. Squeeze as much as you can to result in a fine mud like cauliflower ball.
• Mix all the other ingredients except the water in a large bowl. Bind it as much as you can adding little water if necessary to give a pulpy mix. It will not come together like dough but retain a consistency of a thick, coarse, slightly dry batter (if it is too liquid in texture add some more almond meal)
• Spread a parchment sheet on your baking tray; sprinkle a little oil on to the sheet. This is the tricky part you have to use good parchment paper or your pizza will stick to the paper below. You may also use a silicon mat for which you don’t need the parchment or the oil.
• Spread the cauliflower base mix onto the parchment / silicon mat, smoothening out with your fingers. The base could cover the whole tray for a square ‘family size’ pizza or 6 small round ones (which you can shape with your hands or use a large 6” round mold to cut it out).
• Bake in the pre heated oven for about 10 minutes or till the sides turn a slight shade darker. On removing the same from the oven you should be able to peel the base right off. Keep aside in a container till ready to use.
• To make the pizza, preheat oven to 200C.
• Spoon a tablespoon and a half of marinara sauce on the base. Add the toppings including the cheese (for the non-vegan version). Bake the pizza till the cheese melts or the toppings start browning. Cut and serve hot.

Non-Vegan & Gluten version – Replace the flax seed and water mixture in the above recipe with one egg and instead of nutritional yeast replace with 2 tsp of grated parmesan and about ¼ cup of Mozzarella cheese. Also replace the almond meal with the cornflour. The rest of the process remains the same. This gives a slightly different textured pizza, a lot smoother and less ‘dry’. This is especially for my non-vegan friends as they might not have easy access to some of the ingredients above in the normal course of things.

*You can also play around with the toppings, I have used my favourite combination of onions, peppers, sliced garlic and mozzarella:-

– Caramelized Onions, Feta & Rocket

– Pineapple & Jalapeño (vegan)

– Fig, Goats Cheese & Corriander

Nonchalant Marinara Sauce

This recipe is totally off the charts. So the purpose of creating the vegan base recipe was to eventually shoot it and blog about it. I ran out of my pizza sauce while I was putting this together and I decided to create a quick-fix for the shoot. In the midst of cooking this one up (I thought I would just breakdown two tomatoes with some herbs) I realized I should take the privilege of digging into my own creation. This made me automatically add all the proper ingredients and cook it fully (usually for food shoots ingredients are half cooked to retain color or less seasoned so they don’t release water). The result was a delicious quick fix which actually turned out easier to put together than my original recipe as also bursting with flavor as well as vegan.

Ingredients

• 8 Large Tomatoes (quartered)
• 4 cloves of Garlic (peeled)
• 1 Kashmiri Red Chilli (dried) *you can pick any spicy-sweet dried red chilli of your choice
• 1 tablsp Carom Seeds (ajwain)
• 1 tablsp dried Oregano
• 1 tablsp Red chilli flakes
• 1 cube Vegetarian Stock (optional)
• 1 tablsp Sugar
• ¾ cup Concentrated Tomato Paste (this adds color and texture)
• 8 Basil Leaves
• ½ cup Water
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Tablsp Vegetable Oil

Meathod

• In a thick bottomed pan, heat the oil. Add the ajwain and let it crackle. Throw in the whole garlic and stir for a minute or two till the surface begins to brown a little. Add in dried red chilli and red chilli flakes and stir for about 15 seconds.
• Quickly add the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients. Give it a quick stir and cover.
• Cook till the tomatoes break down (for about 15-20 minutes) stirring and smashing it occasionally. You should have a thick pulp with barely any liquid at the bottom of the pan.
• Cool the mixture and blend in batches. You are good to use it once well blended.
• You can double or triple this recipe to freeze up batches (just like my freezable arrabiata sauce)

In the end, as a lover of all things food, I have learnt to embrace each and every aspect / branch related to food, diets and new fads. To be able to adapt these learning’s in my own cooking without the need of bringing it in focus just makes me a better cook.