MAKE THE TRANSITION
Many people become
vegetarian overnight, while others make the change gradually. Do what works best
for you.
1 Begin by “vegging up”
meals you already eat, like spaghetti with tomato sauce, soups, and salads, and
by replacing the meat in favorite recipes, like lasagna, stir-fries, and chili,
with beans or textured vegetable protein (TVP). Replace the beef in burritos
with beans or grilled veggies. Bake stuffed peppers filled with rice pilaf or
couscous (a type of quick-cooking pasta). Top baked potatoes with margarine, soy
“bacon bits,” or salsa. Use crumbled tofu instead of ricotta cheese in manicotti
and lasagna. Use crumbled veggie burgers instead of ground beef.
2 Check natural-food stores for
instant soups and main-dish convenience items, as well as regular supermarkets.
Many canned soup flavors that you’re probably already used to are vegetarian,
like black bean, minestrone, tomato, and vegetable. Flavored rice mixes can be
made into an entrée just by adding a can of beans. Experiment with vegetarian
baked beans and refried beans (don’t forget to check for lard!) and different
kinds of pasta. Order pizza without the cheese but loaded with vegetable
toppings, like peppers, mushrooms, or even artichokes!
3 Try meat impostors—veggie
burgers, ?ham,? ?hot dogs,? and ?turkey? made out of soy and other meatless
ingredients. They taste close enough to the real thing to fool any die-hard
carnivore, although you might want to try several different brands before you
decide which one is your favorite.
4 Visit your local health food stores to find the best variety of vegetarian
foods. Don’t be shy—you’ll find row after row of wonderful products that you
never knew existed: microwave entrées with pasta and sauces, imitation-meat
products that can be used in your favorite recipes or on their own, and
soy-based “cheeses,” “mayonnaise,” “sour cream,” and “milk.”
5 Make a habit of reading labels to make sure you’re buying products that are healthy and humane. Crackers may contain lard (pig fat), rice mixes may contain chicken fat, and other products include animal ingredients you’ll want to avoid, like gelatin (from animal skin, hooves, and bones). You’ll soon learn which brands are “safe,” and checking labels will become second nature.
Try these easy substitutes!
Instead of ...
Butter: Sauté in water, wine, or vegetable broth, use lemon as a dressing, and
cook with vegetable margarines and oils.
Ice Cream: Try frozen desserts like Tofutti, Soy Delicious, fruit sorbets, and
ices. You’ll never want to go back to the cholesterol and fat of ice cream.
Milk: Try chocolate, vanilla, and plain soy milk, rice milk, and almond milk.
Excellent for cooking, on cereal, in coffee and hot chocolate—use them any way
you’d use milk. Available in low fat varieties, too.
Hamburger: There are a wide variety of vegetarian hamburgers. For “hamburger
meat” as an ingredient, substitute crumbled veggie burgers in recipes for chili,
“meat loaf,” and tacos.
Cheese: Check health food stores for soy cheese, which is great on pizza and
sandwiches, as well as in sauces. You can also make a great creamy “cheese”
sauce using nutritional yeast flakes.
Eggs: Use commercial egg replacers (made mainly from potato starch) in baked
goods. For breakfast, scramble tofu with onions, mushrooms, mustard, turmeric,
and soy sauce.