I'm not old school much, but I often like to think of myself as an old school vegan. Though people who are older and veganer could say even more, I've definitely been watching with interest as veganism, and therefore vegan products and veganism in advertising, etc., has changed over the years. But lately, I've mostly been thinking about how vegan cooking and vegan cookbooks have changed. I remember when people would chop up tofu, put it on a dish, and call it "chicken" (or in one of my books, call it "chofu!") I've got a couple of cookbooks from way back when that have felt a little abandoned as of late, as both my preferences and tastes have changed throughout the years as I learned more about different kinds of foods.
I've also been thinking about the local vegetarian group's thanksgiving potluck I opted out of this year in order to host my own. Now those guys are totally old school, with 1970's millet loafs a plenty. Those are some good times.
So I pulled out three cookbooks from "back in the day":
Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey
Vegan Vittles
A Vegan Taste of Toronto (I lived in Buffalo, NY when I went vegan, and a lot of the great vegan food to be had was 2 hours north)
And I picked a dish to make that there's a variation of in all three books: Chickpeas-a-la-King! It's a creamy dish of mushrooms and chickpeas and red peppers that you put atop pasta or whatever. And I figured, since I'm already living it up in Starch Central this weekend, why not! It's the kind of thing my mom used to make, too, but this one here's got one very new school addition: chanterelles from the farmer's market!
3 comments:
It's so funny you say that because I'm sort of the opposite...I feel like vegan cuisine has evolved in such a positive way and that the older cookbooks' recipes just aren't as vivacious and satisfying as the newer ones. In fact, I generally don't buy vegan cookbooks that are older than 2002 for that reason (even though I went veg in 1998). In your honor, I think I'll revisit some of the older ones. Thank you for the inspiration!
Oh, it's totally evolved! There are so many options everywhere!
I guess what I've been thinking about is that for the most part, I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the foods I grew up with. We ate meat and dairy, but for the most part the preparation wasn't overly fanciful or interesting enough to miss. I don't mean to insult my family -- I just mean that except for during the holidays (that was where the magic was), we ate very basic food: prepared meat, reheated frozen vegetables on the side, a potato or a sweet potato. When my mom made Chicken A La King, it was kind of a new and unusual thing, and so I remember that clearly.
But I learned to cook and became vegan and fell in love all around the same time, so I think that's partly why I have so much nostalgia for that way of cooking. Oh, I can't believe I forgot to talk about New Farm! And Simply Vegan! And how I learned so much about whole foods and vegan ingredients from Lorna Sass! I guess that's another post.
I would love to see the recipe for chofu. I am so intrigued by this and just might be doing a google post (if I remember) before I leave your blog today..
At first I was going to comment that while in some ways, vegan cookbooks are getting better and better creativity wise - but in others I hate when books called for 'soy cheez' 'tempeh bacon' packaged stuff, etc....but then I realized there are probably limitless omni books that do that as well, particularly the corporate ones.
anyway, while I've been looking at vegan books from the library for years, the first vegan book I owned was how it all vegan, so I have some catching up, or research to do.
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