A Vegan Updates!
My decision to go vegan in September has been interesting, with all the nuances that “interesting” implies. When I committed to it, I didn’t consider what a profound life change this was going to be, how it affects everything and how open-ended it is.
By “open-ended,” I mean that this choice is for the rest of my life, and not a goal that can be achieved in six weeks. And the choice is profound in the ways it affects the other three people in my family: my spouse and teenaged daughter and son. Being vegan changes what I buy at the supermarket, where we go when we have a family night out, what I prepare when friends come to the house and what I tell friends and family when we are visiting them in chez-them. For most people, meat and protein are something special and a way to celebrate both the guests and the occasion — there’s no Thanksgiving without the turkey or Easter without the spiral-cut ham. For five years, when I was in my twenties, I was a lacto vegetarian. One of the reasons I left the diet was because I got tired of telling hosts that I needed special food; I started feeling as though my refusal of their food was impolite in the extreme. But here we are again, vegans in a very meat-oriented society.
Every year at Thanksgiving we host a large potluck in Austin. In a fast-growing city like ours, most everyone comes from somewhere else, and we’ve always hosted the potluck for those who didn’t have the time or the desire to endure holiday travel to eat at the family table. This year’s party included nearly 80 people, and I’d estimate that almost half of them were vegetarian (or vegan, depending on definitions). Along with the traditional meat dishes, there were a couple of egg dishes, lots of salads and a number of potato, sweet potato and baked veggie dishes — and no cheese that I can remember. In other words, plenty of great food, and plenty of proof that you don’t need meat to celebrate.
How strictly has our household adhered to our vegan diet? My daughter and I have both stuck pretty closely to the “no animal product” diet, though I did make a lemon meringue pie the other night, which of course used eggs and some butter. (I was feeling inspired and I wanted to reformulate the lemon filling by adding pureed mango and rhubarb. The lemon, mango and rhubarb made a luscious mix of flavors, maybe only missing some strawberry.) Next time, I’ll omit the meringue, leave out the egg yolks from the filling and go to olive oil or palm shortening for the fat in the filling. I’ll find out then how crucial egg yolks and butter are to mango citrus curd.
My spouse Liliana went to a wine bar with friends the other night and reported that aside from the small salads, there wasn’t much she could order from the menu. I don’t understand why it’s so challenging for restaurants to accommodate vegans — the food is not complicated, and there are so many delicious dishes — especially Mediterranean dishes — that omnivores of every stripe enjoy. The fact that they’re free of animal products doesn’t mean they’re only for vegans. In fact, what it means is that these dishes are lower in fat and calories, and higher in fiber and nutritional value than those that contain meat and dairy. And they don’t have to suffer in terms of flavor and texture, either — think rich, creamy, hummus, spicy eggplant caponata, and the wonderful custardy comfort of grilled polenta.
Dr. Kracker is an active participant in the Whole Grains Council, which has been pushing for more restaurants to integrate whole grains into their menu. There have been some successes (read about it here: http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/). The key to change is customer demand. I told Liliana the same thing: tell the server or manager they missed a sale by not offering an easy and inexpensive vegan alternative on their menu (with Dr. Kracker on the side, of course).
What are we doing at Dr. Kracker? We have always worked to create as many vegan flavors as we can. For example, the original Seedlander recipe called for honey. We switched to agave nectar to keep this vegan. We also changed the flour from wheat to spelt in order to bake the Seedlander for as broad of a customer group as possible (check out my spelt blog). When we use cheese for our two (soon to be three) cheddar flavors, the cheese we use is made with the plant-based hannilase enzyme rather than the traditional rennet, which is cow-based. So these crackers are vegetarian.
Will we quit using cheese altogether at Dr. Kracker because I’m a vegan now? In a word, no. Our recipes at Dr. Kracker are based on delicious flavor, maximum nutritional value, and authentic and wholesome ingredients — not on personal political or moral positions. I have a responsibility to my other partners, and to all of our customers. Of course, if people stop buying our cheddar flavors, we’ll stop baking them. In the meantime, we’ll continue to make the wide variety of vegetarian and vegan whole grain and whole seed crackers our customers love to demand.
