On Vegetarianism
A confusing obsession.
Welcome to the Tuesday post for all subscribers! We’re getting to the heart of my vegetarian cooking methodology today. On Friday, paid subscribers will receive a recipe for vegetarian (and VEGAN, actually!) bacon bits. It may or may not be the single most ground-breaking recipe I’ve ever developed.
I have felt, since I joined the ranks of the vegetarians in 2014ish, that I have something to prove. I’m constantly chasing meat—how close can I get this vegetable to the taste and texture of flesh? How can I make it drip with juices the way a steak would drip with blood?
I don’t quite know when it started, but at some point in time, I started evaluating the vegetarian dishes I made on a scale of meatiness. I think some part of this is rooted in a deep sense of vulnerability. I want to be able to justify skipping the proteins to the carnivores in my life, mostly by waving something delicious and meatless in front of their faces and saying “LOOK, SEE HOW GOOD IT TASTES!?” (Again, I’m really chill and fun to hang out with.) I strive, with every vegetarian dish I make, to prove those people—the ones who don’t believe in food without meat—wrong.
As soon as they find out that I’m a vegetarian, people want to know 1) how long it’s been since I had meat and 2) why I became a vegetarian. When people ask you why you’re a vegetarian, they’re really asking, in not so many words, for you to place yourself on a scale of health-conscious to PETA freak. It was a multi-faceted decision for me: I started to keep to a budget when I was feeding myself for the first time and found that I felt better. Then I realized it forced me to be a more creative cook. Then I read about how important my innocent change of diet was for the planet. All of this strengthened my resolve, and a new food identity clicked into place.
And now here I am, actively trying with every meatless meal I cook, to replicate foods that I could simply decide to start eating again. Maybe I love a challenge. Maybe I do have something to prove. Maybe I’m just stubborn and want to have it all?
Whatever the case, I’ve fallen in love with braised cabbage, smoked sea salt, long-simmered miso broth, stewed beans, and Tajín on melon. I crave caramelized onions, cooked until they melt like beef, and mushrooms, torn apart, doused in oil, and seared in spices like chicken. Cauliflower, blitzed in the food processor, and then cooked with fennel and red pepper masquerading as Italian sausage. Lentils simmered and spiced until they taste like fatty chicken soup. Thinly sliced summer tomatoes, sprinkled with smoked salt, and chilled. When I lick the juices from my fingers, I wonder: does anyone really think this doesn’t taste like an indulgent bite of a piece of meat?
See you back here on Friday for my meatless bacon bits recipe (it goes with a delicious Brussels sprouts salad that I made twice last week). In the meantime, shop my photos here and learn more about what I do in my every day life at www.pageandplate.com.