Before I really decided to embark on a vegan diet, a few months back when I had first met my boyfriend, I remember going out to dinner with my roommate, enjoying some delicious feta-smothered dish at Talley’s, and sighing to her something along the lines of, “I’m way too much of a foodie to be vegan.”
This was mostly inspired by my love for things like fancy dishes smothered in feta, or for bone marrow in everything, for ostrich meat and bacon, bacon, bacon. At that time, it seemed impossible to want to go out to eat and not indulge in these very wonderful and creative dishes that were definitely chockful of animals and animal by-products. Feta made everything betta! And butter is basically a staple in anything good, right?
When I started to make more vegan choices and, in fact, have managed to be mostly vegan except for my occasional indulgences in milk chocolate and the sometimes accidental consumption of a cheese or butter sauce, I realized that it’s not impossible to be a vegan foodie. The vegan foodie just has to get a lot more creative.
The thing that ultimately made me realize that, yes I can be a vegan foodie is the wonderful, wonderful website Finding Vegan. I challenge even the most hardcore carnivore to take a look at some of the dishes posted on this site and not start drooling. I’ve made quite a few of the recipes so far, and they never fail to disappoint, and they’ve even introduced a whole bunch of easy staples that I plan to stuff into my pantry (how did I not realize that flatbread was so incredibly easy to make? I might never have to purchase bread and read through the ridiculously complicated ingredients again).
Ultimately, I think that’s what I’m loving so much about this vegan adventure. I love how I feel that everything I’m eating is much less complicated, a whole deal cleaner, and so damn good. It might be a difficult lifestyle for someone constantly on the go, relying on the convenience factor of our go-go-go grocery world, but for the conscious foodie? It’s actually quite nice.
Besides, I mostly wanted to share this incredible website. Go! Eat, drink, and be merry.
L.S. Engler 