I’ve been a vegetarian (or pescatarian, I suppose I should say, for any of you no meat professionals out there) two times now. The first time, I was living at home in Batavia, which is not exactly the greatest environment to go through your 15 year old BUT-WHAT-ABOUT-THE-ANIMALS????! phase. Not that my family wasn’t supportive or anything, but I come from a house that was pretty much meat and potatoes every night. Stepdad extraordinaire, Terry, likes to keep things simple and the only vegetable you’ll ever catch him eating is the white core of iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing. My mom even strains out the mushrooms from cream of mushroom soup for him if she’s making casseroles. Our usual pantry stock and the fact that a town of roughly twenty thousand inhabitants doesn’t exactly support a market for tofu made it very difficult for me to
A. Find food I could eat.
B. Find food I wanted to eat.
C. Find someone to eat it with me.
So I guess it’s a good thing I got over that phase pretty quickly, otherwise I might have ended up like these two idiots.
ANYWAYS.. the point is that this time around I live on my own, live in a city that at least pretends to be progressive, have a steady income and a lot more knowledge about diet and cooking. This time around I don’t just eat cheese pizza and That Taco Place bean burritos everyday of my life while proudly swearing off iced oatmeal cookies and gel capped Tylenol. Yes, I love animals, I do, but it is secondary to health and taste preferences regarding my diet choice.
It’s not easy if you’re just starting out, and it’s really daunting to go on your first no-meat shopping trip so I’ve compiled a list of what every vegetarian who wants to eat semi-normal things on a daily basis should have in their kitchen.
The Tree Hugging Animal Loving Wussy Ass Hippie’s Guide to Shopping Vegetarian
The Basics
(this includes grains, which is the absolute most important vegetarian asset, spices and flavorings, which is the second most important vegetarian asset, and other miscellaneous non-produce)
- Flour (for gravies and sauces!), whole wheat flour (for breads!), pastry flour (for treats!) and bisquick (for quick meals, nothing beats a good impossible veggie pie)
- Brown Rice
- Whole Grain couscous
- Whole Grain breads, pitas, english muffins, wraps etc. (use your freezer, man)
- Olive Oil
- GARLIC
- Balsamic Vinegar (try different kinds, my friend Roxanne gave me an AWESOME apple balsamic vinegar that is great on spinach salads)
- HOT SAUCE
- Pasta pasta pasta.. as many different shapes as you can fit in your cupboard. (note: to confess my one health nut sin, I’ll say here that pasta is the one thing I can’t go whole grain on. Please try it, and if you like it, you’ve got one up on me, but I just can’t seem to get the same comforting texture out of whole grain pasta that I get from the refined kind). I especially recommend getting wonton wrappers, which you can use for fried wontons, wonton soup and as an easy wrap for homemade ravioli.
- An array of spices, especially italian seasoning, good black pepper, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, cumin, cajun seasoning, curry powder, garlic salt, onion powder, cinnamon and allspice.
- Oatmeal! For filling, healthy breakfasts.
- Legumes.. I love butter beans, black beans and lentils.. but go wild with them. Excellent source of protein.
- Lots and lots of high quality vegetable broth (you’ll regret it if you go frugal on this one, some of them are just plain gross), I use Imagine Organic No Chicken Broth
The Vegetables:
Now to the good stuff.
1. Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Potatoes and other roots
Roots are so important, and obviously I have a particularly strong relationship built with carrots. Root vegetables are dense and filling, they satisfy the same cravings for me as carbs. I would eat a loaf of bread in one sitting if I could. I would bathe in rice and dry myself off with flour. I would sleep with couscous and have borderline romantic dreams about English muffins, etc. etc. But I can’t do that. That’s why I love carrots and parsnips in particular.. they have the texture and flavor but they’re very low in calories and have tons of vitamins! Beets are great because they are sweet (try them grilled especially!) if you’re like me and like something a little sugary on your plate. Oh yeah, and potatoes are good too.
2. Peppers peppers peppers..
There is very little difference between green, yellow, red and orange peppers. Green ones are slightly less sweet than their more expensive counterparts but personally I think it’s barely noticeable. I sometimes buy different colored peppers just to make food look prettier but that’s up to you. Either way, I use them in EVERYTHING. Stir fry, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, curries, dinner pies, salads.. the list goes on. I also always have a jar of roasted red bell peppers in my fridge at all times. I like hot peppers, but tend to buy them on an as needed basis because hot sauce goes on everything I eat no matter what anyway.
3. Spinach
I have feelings about spinach comparable to true love. I go through 3 or 4 bags of it a week. I always have a bag of mature spinach for wilting and a bag of baby spinach for salads in the fridge. It’s one of the few ways I get iron and it’s so much more flavorful than other greens. Plus it will totally make you strong to the finish, or whatever.
4. Squash
Everyone gets to the zucchini overload in August where all of your green thumbed friends are handing you bags of gigantic zucchini. Please.. send them over to me. Squash is my go-to side dish, which I think I picked up from my mom. During the summer I’m all about grilled zucchini, yellow squash and especially PATTYPAN SQUASH.
Pattypan squash is very mild tasting but oh-so-tender and easily flavored with just about anything. I also love winter squash, especially with a little brown sugar and cinnamon, but be careful because they are just plain terrible if out of season. A good rule of thumb with squashes is to buy the smallest ones you can get, but if you get stuck with some big guys, no problem, just hit up my mayonnaise muffin recipe and throw a cup of grated zucchini and use only one banana. HEYO!
5. Onions and Tomatoes
I don’t think I even need to say this, but you should have approximately an infinite number of onions and tomatoes in your house at all times.
6. Broccoli and Cauliflower
Nutritious and delicious cooked any number of ways with countless sauces. Priceless for stir fry, casseroles and slow cooker stew. If you can’t stand them boiled or steamed, try roasting and grilling for a totally different taste.
7. Mushrooms
It’s handy to keep a couple different kinds of mushrooms in your fridge. I like button mushrooms and portabellos. You can use them as burgers in themselves or as veggie burger topping. They’re great on salads and in stir fry. You can even chop them up and mix them with breadcrumbs and cheese for an excellent ravioli filling. My stepdad would disagree but their meaty texture can really help with the no meat blues.
These are the most important vegetables for me, meaning I use them on a daily basis. But to keep life on its toes I also recommend the following: asparagus, rutabagas, peas, leeks, bok choy, kale, okra, collard greens, eggplant and BRUSSEL SPROUTS (trust me, they’re much more palatable as a grown up).
Fake Meat Products
Finally, I’m going to address the fake meat issue. I eat a lot of fake meat products. It keeps variety in your diet and makes it so you really don’t have to “give up” any meal you like because there is fake substitute for most meat products. Some people are wary of them because they are processed and aren’t really “whole foods”.. there can be a lot of extra nonsense added for flavor, appearance and preservation. This doesn’t bother me too much, but I also check labels like a maniac, and you should do the same. Keep the salt low and be wary of mile long ingredient lists.
Burgers
For fake burgers, I like Morningstar Farms. They are widely available and are a lot more nutritious than Boca burgers. They have REAL LIVE vegetables in them, and they come in a ton of different varieties. Current front runner for me is the Tomato Basil Pizza burger. YUM. Their burger crumbles are also the way to go for chili, sloppy joes, dinner pies, etc.
Chicken
Up until recently I was all about Morningstar’s Chik’n Strips for my fake chicken needs, but I have since discovered Quorn. Quorn is not a soy based meat alternative, instead it is made from the proteins found in a fungus. Yes, fungus. Sounds gross, but don’t forget mushrooms are fungus too. It is incredibly realistic and good on its own, without the chewy “bounce” that soy chicken tends to have, but I’ve used it to make a killer chicken and dumplings and a bbq chicken sandwich recently.
Sausage
I go with Morningstar sausage patties or Tofurkey brand sausages for the link kind. As for hot dogs, I say go with SoyBoy’s Not Dogs all the way, but honestly, they are all pretty good. Not Dogs are just a treat for me because they are loaded with salt.
This will be updated and added to so check back.
