Vegetarian Cuisine

Time to Veg Out!

Long time no type! I haven't been keeping up with this blog as much as I would like, but this was a pretty busy trimester at school. The first few years of college didn't consist of nearly as much homework, mainly because I was cooking all the time and didn't have much written homework. Now I'm getting into all the hardcore nutrition classes, which leaves me little time to relax and catch up on my TV shows and blog posts! So, before the winter trimester gets too far in, I figured I'd fill you in on the lab I just finished....Vegetarian cuisine!

With this class, we received extra credit if we went either vegetarian or vegan for the entire 5.5 weeks. Without being able to cook for myself and limited to dining hall food, I decided to just go vegetarian, which means omitting meat from my diet, including fish. I was able to consume dairy products like eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese, etc unlike vegans who could not. This was my first time attempting this, so I decided to start taking a multi-vitamin, fearing that I would not consume enough nutrients based on the dining hall food! My diet went pretty well, eating a lot of salads with a lot of beans, grains, veggie burgers, and of course fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds.

The class was very interesting, learning so much in so little time. We learned how to sprout beans and grains, how to make cultured dairy products like yogurt and sour cream, what occurs during fermentation and why it is healthy for you, the process of making tofu, and how different herbs are used for their healing properties! And that's just the beginning!

For my presentation I had to make sour cream from scratch! It was so easy! To make it you mix heavy cream with a little cultured buttermilk and let it sit out at room temperature for 32 hours! So easy and much better than store-bought! I also had to make Labneh, which is a lebanese yogurt cheese. I just had to let yogurt strain for 48 hours in the fridge. 

Briefly speaking, we made such a variety of vegetarian foods. I'm only going to touch on the main points. We had a variety of days where we focused on different ingredients and menus. We had a day just vegan, a lacto-ovo day (dairy and eggs), nuts and seeds day, grains, fruits, vegetables, and healing foods day. 

Some of the dishes I prepared included black bean burgers, vegan meatballs, raw pumpkin pie, berry bean smoothie, wild rice salad, enchilada with quinoa, ricotta cheese gnocchi, and more! I have so many recipes, so if you feel inclined to cook vegetarian, let me know! I have so much information I learned in this class that I would love to share!

The next lab I will be sharing with you is Athletic Performance Cuisine!