My kitchen is the heart of my home. My friends all like to hang out in there instead of in my more spacious living room.
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My kitchen is the heart of my home. My friends all like to hang out in there instead of in my more spacious living room.
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Vegetarians and vegans are laying claim to a new British tradition – tofu-turkey for Christmas dinner
Christmas is a time of year where certain traditions are embraced by everybody, more or less. We have the daunting task of exchanging gifts, cards and greeting with people we hardly give the time of day to the rest of the year, and if this wasn't enough, we're expected to prepare a feast fit for a king.
At the centre of your typical British Christmas dinner is a roast turkey. This is not an ancient tradition, far from it – although Henry VIII was the first English monarch to enjoy this American bird, it was Edward VII who first made a Christmas tradition out of it.
Habits change over time and our eating habits are no exception. Meat is no longer the must-have ingredient in a celebratory feast. Vegans have reclaimed the importance of vegetables in our diet, and to accommodate this, many meat-based dishes now have a vegetarian version.
To most people who remain carnivores, this can seem puzzling. If you don't want to eat meat, why not eat something different? Why use vegetable ingredients to create mock hamburgers?
If you choose vegetarianism for ethical reasons, but still think meat is delicious, it's perfectly reasonable to look for a substitute that's just as delicious as meat, but ethical. This is especially true of those who were raised as carnivores and find it difficult to shun the meat-based dishes they grew up with. Things become less clear when people choose to go vegetarian because they dislike the taste of meat. Why go looking for a substitute that imitates something you didn't like in the first place?
Sorry folks, but I smell something fishy. There exist in the world several billion people who are vegetarians or vegans as part of their culture. In India alone there are 500 million vegetarians or vegans, and they have developed a splendid range of dishes without recourse to animal ingredients. In these cultures animal products are never used, so there is no need for meat substitutes. Why don't people investigate some of these wonderful recipes instead of leaving themselves wide open to a marketing stunt?
But anyway, for those who don't want to miss out on a big roasted bird for Christmas dinner, there's now a plant-based alternative – tofurky. Made from tofu, tofurky looks like a stuffed turkey breast rather than the whole bird. I can't vouch for the flavour, but a lot of people say it tastes excellent. I love tofu for its own sake, so I can well believe it.
When it comes to food consumption, I think it's time to reevaluate some of our priorities, and Christmas may be the best time of year to do this. Could tofurky be the answer? I have my doubts, but I'm sure if it turns up in anybody's Christmas dinner, it'll make an interesting talking point!
If you'd like to prepare a tofurky from scratch here is the recipe (from allrecipe.co.uk)
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AuthorI love cooking, and when it comes to quality I'm quite fussy. Archives
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