Going vegan......old style?!

nearly40 wrote: »

thank you, i have checked their ingredeints and they dont have beeswax, are you sure you looked the right product?

I have edited my post as I have looked and your right?!?!


Maybe they changed it?:rolleyes:

Or maybe i'm loosing it?!?:rotfl:

MOUSSAKA from The Vegan Society
Serves 4

1 large aubergine, cut into 1/2 cm slices
5 tbs vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
4oz (115g) mushrooms, sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped (I used half a tin)
1 tbs tomato puree
2 tbs vegan red wine, optional
1 tsp mixed herbs
3oz (85g) walnuts, chopped (I whizzed mine up small)
1oz (30g) wholemeal breadcrumbs
garlic salt and pepper
1oz (30g) wholemeal flour
1/2 pint (275ml) soya milk (I made the white sauce using 1 pint)
extra walnuts to garnish.

Heat 2 tbs oil and fly clices of aubergine on both sides, then drain on paper towels. Set aside. Add 1 tbs oil to the pan and saute the onions for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, puree, wine and herbs and cook gently until a sauce forms. Add walnuts, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. If necessary add a drop more oil, vegetable stock or tomatoe puree mixed with water (or just water!).

Put the remining oil, flour and soya milk into a saucepan and whisk continuously over a gentle heat for about 5 minutes until thick and smooth (I didn't read this bit until now, just made a sauce the normal way. This sounds quite easy though).

Lightly grease a shallow oven-proof dish. Arrange half the aubergine slices across its base, top with half the nut mixture, then half the white sauce. Repeat. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180C/350G/gas 4 for 30 minutes. Top with extra nuts halfway through cooking.
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We don't actually like aubergines, so I sliced and fried a couple of courgettes, and parboiled a few potatoes before slicing and using them instead. My MIL is Greek Cypriot and she puts potatoes in her moussaka.

melliec wrote: »

Ooo, That blog looks great. Thanks for posting it.:D

Does anyone know where you can buy nutritional yeast and pure wheat gluten from?

The nutritional yeast used in recipes from the US and Canada is usually a specific brand, called Red Star Nutritional Support Formula. I have never found it in the UK. You can try other kinds of nutritional yeast but the recipes are unlikely to taste the same. I stock up on it when visiting family in the US -- I have tried other brands and frankly found them nasty tasting.

Vital wheat gluten is hard to find in the UK. It is sold as "gluten powder". I have asked for it at lots of health food stores including independent ones, but although one shop thought they had had a supplier for it in the past, no one was actually able to order it for me. I finally bought some online from this company: www.flourbin.com. Because it is heavy (like flour) the shipping costs are expensive and you need to spend at least £10 to order.

I bought about 10 bags for something like £20 total with p&p in the end and have barely used it because we didn't actually like the texture much! It's fine as seitan (although OH isn't that keen) but in things like the chickpea and blackbean patties in the Veganomicon cookbook we found the texture a bit rubbery even though I followed the directions quite closely. On the plus side, if you like baking yeast breads, you can add a Tbs or so of gluten powder per cup of flour and it will help your bread to rise better.

Since reading up on the nutritional benefits (or lack thereof) of consuming wheat gluten I'm not so keen on it anymore either. It's a processed food which is very high in protein and not needed in a balanced vegan diet based on natural whole foods. Also, it is obviously high in gluten! You can read more about it on this forum.

I got my Nutritional yeast from GNC, you can get it from online health stores too.
Old Mcdonald, I found the first couple of weeks of being a vegan were a bit more expensive as I brought store cupboard items like the nutritional yeast etc, but now I have the basics for most meals my shopping bill has gone down.

As most of you know I'm not actually vegan, in that I do eat meat and dairy, but generally don't both with them (why should I when there's so much more interesting food out there ). I find life is MUCH cheaper when I'm going through a vegan phase, as apart from tofu (which I buy when I'm in the health food shop and freeze - silken, flavoured, the lot, it all freezes fine) and the odd carton of rice milk, I'm living on fresh local fruit & veggies from the farm shop (or ones that have been prepared/cooked/frozen by me personally) and dried pulses/grains etc which I stock up on intemittently. As long as I buy with the seasons and freeze a bit for variety (I still have last year's tomatoes in the freezer for cooking, and raspberries, blackberries, runner beans etc) I find vegan food much more economical (and certainly better value). My only real indulgence is organic fruit juices, which sadly I have to get from the supermarket.