Creative Cooking For A Low Fat Vegan Diet

January 2nd, 2010  | Tags:
When cooking a strict vegan diet, it will be important to do some research on the types of substitutes that can create the flavor you want in a quick and easy way. Vegans do not eat any foods that are made from animals or animal products. This include honey and foods that you may not think had animal products used in their processing.

Knowing some easy ingredients for substitution when cooking will make creating delicious vegan dishes much easier. When cooking for a large group, making foods that can be enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans alike will cut down on the amount of cooking that must be done. A great tip for cooking with substitute ingredients is to use a bit more spice and herbs than you would use in the normal recipe. Many vegan products do not have the full flavor that is found in non-vegan dishes, so you will need to add zest to the dish to create the flavor that you want.

There are many alternatives for sugar and honey that can be used when baking or cooking. The most healthy substitute is natural maple syrup. When you are using a syrup instead of a dry sweetener, be sure to reduce the amount of liquid you use in your recipe to accommodate the liquid of the syrup.

Other syrups that will provide sweetness for recipes include Agave, Golden, and Date syrup. Getting the syrups from a resource that has organic products will assure that no animal products were used when it was being made. Different types of syrups also add a different flavor to hot drinks, such as tea. Finding the perfect, relaxing combination of sweetener for tea is often a wonderful experience.

Baking and stovetop cooking require different substitutions in recipes. Almond and Soy milk make perfect substitutions for milk when a person is baking. Both of these milks have fats in them that combine with the ingredients just as regular milk does. When a gravy is being made, rice milk and cornstarch are an excellent combination. Rice milk will not burn or scorch as easily as Soy and Almond milk and is a great medium for other herbs and spices.

Rice milk does not burn easily and when you want to make gravy, using this milk with cornstarch will blend very well. When you want a creamy, sweet milk that is very easy to whip or use for cream, Coconut milk is an excellent choice. When using this milk you will want to cut the sweetener you use as it is very sweet when used as whipping cream.

Ricotta cheese is always a favorite for pasta and other recipes. Using mashed or silken tofu that is blended with a little lemon juice will give you the Ricotta cheese flavor that will make the dish complete. Using lemon juice for zest will brighten up many of the recipes that are being translated into a vegan diet.

There are many products made for a vegan vegetarian diet that have instructions for integrating and substituting in a regular recipe. After you have found the combination of spices and herbs that enhance the flavor of a low fat vegan diet dish, your regular diners will not be able to tell the difference in the dishes you make.
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