Vegetarian

Obligatory 'title sounds bad but hear me out'.

I've lived with my older sister (Liz 37) and her kids (Jake 10/Amy 12) for about 10 months ever since my roommates couldn't afford to pay rent and I couldn't find new roommates to take their spot. So couldn't afford the place anymore. I was originally going to go stay with our cousin the next state over but my sister said I could just rent her basement instead. Which seemed cheaper than having to move all my things several hours away, plus her basement is its own area, with a connected bathroom (but no shower), a tiny half kitchen, and a doorway leading out so I could come and go as I wanted (my hours can sometimes fluctuate so I didn't have to worry about waking anyone up).

I pay rent and also buy my own food but I'd taken to eating dinner with my sister and niece/nephew since they eat around the time I'm getting off work. I didn't ask/expect to be invited, but Liz invited me to join them so I did. She cooked pretty normal meals up until maybe 2-ish months ago? She started using less meat and finally one evening told me she and the kids were going vegetarian and if I didn't like it then I could just not eat her cooking.

She had kind of an aggressive tone, like she was ready for me to argue with her but I didn't care? I said sure, whatever, go buckwild. I kept eating with them at dinner, and the food was pretty good! I even told her so. But I didn't change my diet otherwise. Well the issue came up the other day. I got home after work and Liz invited me to grab some food and I was going to but.....it just didn't look appetizing. It was some eggplant recipe and I hate eggplant so I said I'd just grab something else to eat. No biggie.

So I went downstairs and ended up ordering pizza since I hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while so had nothing besides cereal and frozen tots. I told them to bring it to the side door (my door) but they didn't and it came to the front door. Liz stomped downstairs and said "Your nasty fucking pizza is here. Oh and thanks for ordering pizza after I'd cooked a nice dinner asshole. Now Jake and Amy don't want to eat what I cooked." Then stomped off and slammed my door. I was shocked but grabbed my food and Liz has been giving me the cold shoulder since.

I wasn't trying to be rude or make her mad I just didn't want to eat eggplant. Was it a jerk move to order out after she'd gone to the trouble of cooking dinner? I didn't think it would be since she said I didn't have to eat it. Ma

No meat, fish, anything that hurts or kills an animal. Things like milk and eggs are ok.

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It's delicious, so I thought I'd share.

1. Put a piece of kombu and some dried shiitake in a container of water in the fridge overnight

2. Dump that into a pot, bring to a boil, simmer a couple minutes, then take the kombu out.

3. To the simmering broth, add: a carrot cut into large chunks, a piece of celery cut into large chunks, a few whole garlic cloves, a ginger root chopped into chunks, some whole black peppercorns, and some vegetarian soup powder. Don't bother peeling anything. I also added some mirin but I'm not really sure you can taste it so don't worry if you don't have.

4. Add water if it's not covering the vegetables and simmer until the vegetables are very soft, an hour or so.

5. Put a strainer over another put and pour the soup into it, then throw out the mushy vegetables.

I also made shoyu tare, soy-marinated eggs, and tofu to go with the broth and noodles.

I said, “Do you like avocado?”

She said, “No, I aven’t even passed me driving test yet”

I've tried searching for this on this sub and didn't find anything that matched what I'm looking for.

I'm trying to find recipes/cookbooks/youtube channels/etc. for meatless recipes that don't try to fake the meat. I'm totally fine eating tofu, seitan, other traditionally "meat replacement" ingredients, but I'm really looking for recipes where they aren't trying to be meat. E.g. I don't want "tofu chicken nuggets". I am an omnivore but I am trying to reduce my meat/animal product consumption, and I am interested in food and cooking generally. I enjoy cooking, and I would say I am an above-average home cook.

I'm also interested in traditional recipes using these ingredients. This is kind of hard to google haha so any recommendations welcome!

Edit: I'm blown away by all the information here! I think I'll be set for life now. Thanks so much to everyone who commented and left recipes, y'all are truly so wonderful

I have recently been told I need to transition to more of a plant based diet due to heart issues, gonna die....Blaaah Blaaah Blaaaah.... anyway, are there any members of our merry band that are Vegetarian and would be willing to share what your stock pile / pantry consist of? I know Beans Beans and more Beans but what else? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around what food prepping might look like with out my beef, chicken, pork & all that other yummy goodness.

Edit 1 - Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment, I was expecting a few answers but as normal this sub has provided a wealth of information and food for thought.

Jesus, I go through this basically every week. People gladly say "You're vegan? I'm vegetarian!". And then halfway through the conversation they go "Oh, but I eat fish" and my inner self just boils with anger.

I live in Spain, by the way, where unfortunately veganism is still not very common, but apparently where people do not know what actually means to be vegetarian.

How do you deal with these people? What are your arguments where I can clearly show that fish is as bad as "meat"? Because right now I'm just in the eye-rolling phase.

Thanks in advance.

I became vegetarian a few years ago. Many people find it strange that I did so because I just don't like meat. It's really nothing more than that. I don't miss meat at all. When I tell people this, it's as though they don't believe me. ("You don't like bacon?! Howwwwww?")

Don't get me wrong. I'm not discounting the importance of ethics and sustainability and those who are vegetarian because of it. It's something we should all know about and I'm happy I'm contributing to it.

But I became vegetarian simply because I don't like animal protein. Red meat, especially lamb, has a strange flavour. Pork tastes and smells funny. I have never loved seafood. Poultry is neither here or there but I don't love it. You couldn't pay me to eat animal skin and there are many animal protein dishes that make me squirm when I think about what's in them.

Are there any others? I'm wondering if there are others who have tastes like me.

Is that your idea of a joke or do you really think you're going to catch someone out.

Either way I'm so bored of it, if I catch you, you're walking out of Morrisons with a 20 pack of frozen pork sausages up your arsehole.

Hi. Just wanted to relay a conversation I had with my co-worker about vegetarianism.

My co-worker asked me about becoming vegetarian for health reasons, and I told him my experience. He told me "I don't think I am ready to make the transition," which made me stop. It's not a permanent, binding, complete, irreversible decision. I told him "why don't you just start by eating meat once a week?" This was exactly the permission he needed. He still eats meat about one time per week, down from essentially every meal. So, his meat consumption is down 95%.

How is that not progress? Can he claim he is vegetarian? I don't care. You also should not care. 95% is a lot.

I propose that any percent reduction is good, and most people do not benefit from an IDENTITY of being vegetarian or vegan. For most people, its not a vow. We need to allow people to reduce meat consumption without it being their identity.

Thoughts?

Edit: Seems to be a lot of support for this concept so far: do we support a new movement? r/vegetarianish? r/vegish?

So I (20F) went out to eat lunch with a few of my friends (20F, 20M, and 21M). I am a vegetarian and they all eat meat which I am absolutely fine with, and I eat eggs as well. Now in all honesty, meat (or rather the idea of eating meat) grosses me out. I was raised vegetarian and still am even though I have the choice not to be, because my family gets grossed out by it and so do I, so I’ve never had any desire to have anything to do with meat. However, I also grew up around a lot of meat eating friends, which was perfectly fine with all of us, to each their own. Plus I have a dog and we give her regular dog food.

Now one of my friends does this thing where he likes to start “mini food fights” where he essentially tears off a bit of whatever he’s eating and starts throwing it at people. Today he was eating a chicken sandwich and thought it would be funny to start throwing it around again and I asked him repeatedly not to, as I didn’t want any to get on me. (I have no issues with being in such close proximity with meat, as long as it’s going into their mouths and not mine!) He scoffed and said I needed to lighten up and then immediately threw a piece at my face, which hit my mouth and fell into my lap. It was wet and had some kind of meat sauce on it. I freaked out and blew up at him and nearly started crying, because it was so gross. Not trying to offend anyone here, again I have zero problems w people eating meat, but let’s be real, it’s a dead animal. My rules for meat are I don’t want it touching me, I don’t want to serve it to people (for religious reasons, it’s sort of like “encouraging” people to eat meat idrk) and I don’t want it eaten under my roof. He knew about the first one especially as I’ve already told him before not to do this. So after I blew up I went home and scrubbed and scrubbed but I couldn’t get the taste or the smell off and I was really pissed, just fuming. Ten minutes later I get a call from my other friend and she says I overreacted.

Am I the Asshole?

Edit: the overwhelming consensus has been NTA and I’m grateful for that, I think I’m gonna go it alone until I find new friends. However, a large number of you are sort of blowing it out of proportion with the good fight aspect of it, I said “mini food fight” for a reason. It was a small piece, and the entire reason for my reaction was that I have an aversion to meat. Some people in the comments said it best; picture a dead rat or a corpse, that’s exactly how it feels for me. He

I was a vegetarian for almost a decade before recently switching to full veganism with my family after we watched Dominion. I honestly was unaware that veganism was a lifestyle, not just a diet choice. It was never that I didn't care about the animals, I absolutely do and always have (I'm a long time LVMT turned Veterinary Hospital Manager). I used to say I could never give up cheese, that's why I couldn't be vegan. I now have 3 different kinds of delicious vegan cheese in my refrigerator. I'm genuinely curious what's holding anyone else back. I personally feel completely different towards all of the products I buy, and have never been more empowered with where I choose to spend my money. I feel healthier, happier, and have even lost a few pounds! And the most important thing to me - my 14 year old son has not only also went vegan (our whole family switched), but he's sharing his concerns about meat and dairy, as well as sharing his vegan food with his teenage friends. It made me tear up the other day to hear him be so passionate yet respectful when discussing it. This is just my story. Feel free to share yours or AMA if you have questions!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who replied with their thoughts and stories in a non-argumentive, rude, or judgemental way, which is how I made this post and replied to comments. I really enjoyed hearing everyone's perspectives and will continue to reply after returning home this evening. To those who could not comment without being rude or sending me PMs attacking me and my family (?!), I invite you to think about your own hypocritical behavior every time you claim "vegans are condescending and negative towards others who don't choose the same lifestyle as them."

Sorry. But what made me discover this community is their attitude towards vegetarians and meat eaters. It‘s like they see you as some evil force.

I was never really a vegan so I‘m not going to call myself an ex vegan. Turns out It‘s fucking impossible and unhealthy, expensive af to be vegan. But I wanted to try it for a week and went to the vegan community on reddit. Basically anyone who isn‘t a full vegan is not their ally. And that‘s a fucked up attitude right there. I was ok...you don‘t want people who at least try to change? Ok F u then...

I don‘t eat meat (when I do it’s very rarely) because it doesn‘t do any good to me personally. And also I want less harm for animals. Sometimes I eat fish. Eggs. But...See apparently that makes me into a bad person.

Also they never talk about chocolate and child labour.

But I think it would be better for everyone to eat less meat. But you don‘t have to exclude it, if it doesn’t bother your health. And you don‘t have to tell people they are criminals for eating meat.

Their attitude makes them worse than any other person, they „hate“.

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An interesting study published by The BMJ in 2007 found that "Higher scores for IQ in childhood are associated with an increased likelihood of vegetarianism in adulthood." 8170 participants in Great Britain had their IQ assessed through a mental ability test at age 10 years, & vegetarianism by self-report at age 30 years. Wow!

My daughter is vegetarian and loves ramen and udon. She does not like mushrooms. I’ve been trying to make a good base without dashi. It’s usually veg broth, konbu, and shoyu plus some other ingredients, but it lacks some depth and richness.

I was listening to the Food Lab on audiobook and one of Kenji’s umami bombs is marmite and thought I might give it a try. Thoughts? Other suggestions to make the broth more tasty?

We eat ramen and udon a lot, so it would be nice if it was a quick process.

I’ve been vego all my life. I was vego before I met my partner and we’ve been together and living together for over 7 years. It does come with its challenges but at the end of the day I don’t really think it’s a big deal if at dinner time he cooks himself a steak and I eat something else. Doesn’t bother me at all. Anyways, I’ve recently found out about rennet in cheese! Being completely grossed out about it I now check the ingredients before buying cheese and don’t eat cheese at restaurants just in case. My boyfriend can’t accept this and thinks I’m going crazy. He keeps starting arguments with me about my vegetarian lifestyle claiming I’m becoming more strict and he’s upset we can’t just go out and enjoy dinner. The thing is, we definitely can, if both of our needs are considered. I have no problem with that. His family doesn’t get my lifestyle either and going to eat with them is a cause for anxiety for me, his mum once made me a “vegetarian” meal that contained fish.... he says he’s worried about me because it’s apparently not normal and that I need get over the rennet thing. He says that I won’t die if there’s a bit of meat in my food and I should just get over it. He’s threatening to break up with me over it because he says it’s ruining our relationship. I find this confusing because I enjoy my lifestyle and my food and have no issues with his choices. He’s the one with the problem. Our relationship isn’t perfect 100% of the time but for the most part we love each other a lot and have many things in common that we enjoy together. I’m easy going and curious, I enjoy most things but won’t budge on the meat or the rennet. I feel like he’s not accepting me as I am and wishes that I was different or more like him. He thinks I’m being unreasonable, but I think he is! Any advice?

Holy Moly! Almost a decade long vegetarian who went vegan ~5 weeks ago after watching Dominion with my family. I posted in the subreddit vegetarianism (that is for both vegans and vegetarians) this morning asking (seriously) vegetarians there why they choose to be vegetarian over vegan. I told my story (I was one of those "I can't go with cheese" people), asked other's to share theirs, and responded to comments in an encouraging and supportive way. I was straight up flabbergasted by the way some people responded back, as well as some of the PMs I received attacking me and my family?! Good lawd! I knew it was going to be rough hearing all the opinions from meat-eaters but did not expect that from vegetarians. I brought it upon myself I suppose haha. Bless my little naïve heart.

Worked in a hole in the wall joint, it was awesome. Crazy busy and the clientele was hipster to the max. Not my people but the best fun times. You know the set, plaid shirts, random moustaches, Pabst blue, truffle popcorn, tattoos all over the place, the whole nine yards.

As the chef we had a bunch of yum on the menu, my fave by far was the unburger, a slab of meatloaf with cheese baked in, it was served on a chunk of French stick, topped with bbq sauce. Jalapeños, more cheese, tomato slices and lettuce, served with home style potato wedges. Bloody incredible and delicious. Our best seller. By far.

Note: the menu description was as follows

UNBURGER: meatloaf, jalapeños, cheese, in a French stick served with house wedges.

A local one day who had eaten this multiple times and LOVED it, told me it was the best vegetarian ‘burger’ in town. I laughed and said it wasn’t vegetarian. She let rip. Burst like a festering pustule. She demanded to see the manger. Cue the owner trying her hardest to not laugh her ass off. It’s a meatloaf burger, it’s on the menu. Faaaack we laughed so hard about this for months.

I’m a vegetarian, with the intent of going vegan, but literally every vegan I know gave me shit about being vegetarian. Like, wouldn’t it make more sense to just encourage me to do what they want me to do rather than shame me? Like I’m half way there to being on your side and you’re gonna tell me I’m a terrible person??? Bro???? What?????

I’m not going vegan because of this nonsense

My neighbors are vegetarian for religious reasons. I do know that they weren't always vegetarian and only chose to be more strict about their diet in the last few years. I am also a vegetarian but just as a personal choice. They are raising their daughter as a vegetarian as well while my daughter and husband both eat any meat products they want.

My daughter likes to go to their house to play and will regularly come home with things like gummy bears and marshmallow treats that are made with pork gelatin. They also get pizza from a place near us that uses cheeses made with calf renet. There are a few other small examples like that.

When we first moved to the neighborhood there was a big block party. My neighbor offered me jello from the table and I told her I don't eat it because it contains pork. She was genuinly surprised that it was made with pork. I didn't say anything about gelatin just the Jello so i don't know if she knows to look for that.

It's all small things that most people don't even know are made from a life. Its all very easy to overlook. My husband thinks I should just leave it and let ignorance be bliss for them but again, he's not a vegetarian so it wouldn't bother him. He thinks I would be an asshole because it would be ruining their daughters favorite snacks and I shouldn't do that to a kid.

I just feel like if it's important enough for you to raise your whole family in accordance with a certain lifestyle them you maybe would want a heads up that something is slipping through the cracks. All of these things have very similar vegetarian alternatives (Except the marshmallows. They suck.) so it would be an easy fix but since it's tied to their belief system, i'm worried I would be uneccessarily causing guilt. So WIBTA if I said something or should I just leave it and mind my own business?

Edit: I also want to add that they are pretty strict otherwise. They only wear vegan clothing and won't even eat mushrooms because they feel that they could be considered an animal.

Hi! I've been vegan for about a week in order to lose weight and it's really working. I just don't think I can keep this up long term. Is it necessary to be a vegan if you love animals? I will be studying zoology this fall, and I just feel so out of place as a meat eater. I don't eat a lot of meat but I do sometimes, and I eat alot of cheese and yogurt and cheese flavored chips like cheetos, goldfish, and cheez-its. I just feel so wrong for calling myself an animal lover but it really is true, I love animals more than anything and want to work with them for the rest of my life. So, what are your views on non-vegan zoologists??