I wrote a while back about my transition to a largely vegan diet. I still eat fish, and occasionally eggs, but I have pretty much given up all meat and diary products. I’ve made the occasional exception, but this post is not about my entire dietary philosophy … although I’ve read some things lately that have inspired me to start drafting a post about food, so that may be forthcoming.
Anyway, as I’ve made this transition, I have started cooking more and have ventured out into some new territory in terms of food preparation, etc. … but overall, I haven’t been particularly adventurous. Until now. The past couple weeks, I have had a major craving for the curry chicken salad I used to make. It’s based on a recipe passed down from a friend of my mom’s, and as with everything I cook, I have doctored it over the years into my own special concoction of total yumminess. Ask anyone I’ve ever made it for … it’s absolutely deeeeee-lish! But I don’t eat chicken anymore, which causes a bit of a problem when you want to eat chicken salad. :-(
So I made the leap … and I bought some tempeh. I eat plenty of soy products, but up to now only things that came already prepared … veggie burgers, tofu scramble wraps, things like that. I’ve never actually used soy in a recipe. But I bit the bullet … and I made a vegan “chicken” salad using tempeh and Vegenaise in lieu of chicken and regular mayo (thankfully all the other ingredients are already vegan).
And OMG it is awesome!!! Just as good as the original carnivore version!
Sadly, I don’t think this is going to work for all my recipes … I’m pretty sure there’s no way to make a vegan version of Cheesy Ham and Bacon Casserole. ;-)
OMG I love that Cheesy Ham & Bacon Casserole – I’ve made it every Christmas since you gave me the recipe.
And tempeh is very yummy when done right – and soy crumbles stand in awesomely in chili.
Happy eating!!