Vegetarian, Vegan and Animal Rights

Sadly I have no idea how to cook without some animal product. Going a meal without butter is a frightening prospect to me. And then of course there's things like worchestershire sauce (anchovies), bases and stocks, all these other things that I can't work without.

Is seafood still on the menu? Cheese? "Scraps" (i.e., ham bones for soup, boullion cubes, that sort of thing)?

For straight-up vegetables, my go-to items are...

- rice
- potatoes
- mushrooms
- summer squashes
- black or kidney beans
- eggplant
- spinach

I've found that these can be tossed together in any number of ways - of course carrots and onions figure as well, but carrots are a seasoning to me, and I can't imagine cooking ANYTHING without onions! I also find I eat a lot of arugula - a whole box of hte stuff is only about four bucks where I am, and it's super-tasty.

Chickpeas are another staple - homemade falafel and hummus is great, be sure to invest in tahini for both! Lentils are another great one - though I hated them as a kid, so yours might as well.

Breads of all sorts, both wheat and corn, are regular features no matter what I'm cooking. Olive oil as well - even the cheap stuff is better than canola for everything except deep frying (so.. .you'll want your regular vegetable oil for that falafel)

other vegetables... maybe not so much. I don't use tomatoes for much of anything, nor broccoli or cauliflower. I use sweet peppers for plenty pf things, and jicama is a new-found favorite, but i haven't figured out just what to do with it. i love avocadoes for everything, but for hte quality we get in Washington, they're usually way too expensive.

Also don't ignore the potential of tofu or seitan. I haven't used seitan for anything, but tofu actually isn't half-bad, so long as you remember you've got to do things to it to make it edible (plain tofu tastes like a wet shoe, but will pick up any flavor you put to it, and prepared, has a surprisingly "meaty" texture - the last i had ended up tasting and feeling like a somewhat dry pork chop)

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As libdem4life points out, something as simple as thinking about a vegetable with meat as a side or garnish, rather than meat as the entree with veggies on the side, will go a long way to weaning off the "all meat" approach. soups are a great way to do this - a black bean soup that uses a little bit of ham and a little chicken stock, can be a central entree all on its own, with just a cornbread muffin and some sour cream for the top!

Explore other cuisines - most "ethnic" cuisines outside of the eurosphere are very sparing with meat; while much of modern eurocentric cuisine is derived from what the lords and ladies had at their table, a lot of "ethnic" cuisine and restraunt is the diet of workers and peasants in those societies, and so really work to stretch the meat. Authentic Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican meals mostly use meat for flavor and occasionally texture. Indian and Ethiopian meals are just as sparing, and have lots of full-on vegetarian options (though unless you have a large Ethiopian community near you, good luck finding that stuff). A lot of more "rustic" European dishes are the same way - a little bit of meat tossed in the pot with vegetables for a stew, diced sausages to make a few days' worth of rice and beans a little more eventful, that sort of thing.