Evolving As A Vegan.

Changing tastes leads to culinary experiments.

They predicted it but in the beginning I didn't really believe it. Yearning for veggies as one did for steak and co? Once the quest to healthy living via the vegan-wholefood road starts, taste buds go along and discard old and jaded feelers and emerge new, vibrant and clean. A rather yummy discovery as suddenly food tastes of food. Blueberries burst with sweetness, avocados melt on in the mouth and mushrooms are a treat to look forward to. I wouldn't be surprised if Bob and I could blind taste for an organic cherry tomato, although to be frank, any tomato not organic tastes of nothingness and water. Ah, soon our garden will be dotted with cherry tomatoes.

The first few months of our vegan adventure we were transitioning ( gosh, we sound like extras in Vampire Diaries ) from the SAD diet ( Standard Austrian Diet ) to the vegan one where ham, eggs, milk and co were gone. Hofer sold various vegan ' hamburger ' patties and we did eat them a lot during the change over. Easy as pie and they did taste good, as any processed type of food does.

This afternoon I was shopping in Oberwart and could have had my pick of a dozen pre-cooked hamburger patties but despite the extra work involved, I decided to make the patties from scratch. Each time I make them they are different because it depends on what veg I can find and what beans I have idling their time away in our fridge.

Once you start to experiment and aren't afraid to have the odd culinary failure, cooking the vegan way becomes great fun. Tonight's main ingredient will be white button mushrooms along with cooked beluga lentils, wholewheat couscous and a medley of onions, spices and garlic. Keeping it all in a hamburger shape will be my secret addition of soaked flaxseeds. Binds like glue and doesn't alter the taste...

Biggi