A Request ... (For A Veg Liaison)
Dear Serious Eats,
So in the Tofu Way or No Way thread, several posters mentioned that they would be interested in nondairy ice creams/ whipped creams/ cheesecakes, but that they had never heard that there were tasty alternatives to dairy products.
I really think Serious Eats should consider creating a Vegan Liaison. The Liaison would blog about vegetarian/vegan food culture (there are large veg foodie communities in D.C., NYC, and Portland, for example), dining out and grocery shopping, recipes, and product and cookbook reviews. For example, why hasn't speculaas butter (yes, a nutella-like paste made from cookies!) taken off like wildfire?
For one thing, this would answer the occasional complaint that SE isn't veg-friendly. Two, this would help health-minded or intolerant individuals (or those with veg relatives) learn about the wide range of products/ restaurants that can accomodate their needs. Three, it would create a neutral place to celebrate vegan food - many vegans and vegetarians *are* foodies who love cooking, baking, trying new recipes and exploring local restaurant scenes, and it would be nice to see proof on the SE forum.
I would of course throw my hat into the ring if you would like to see some samples of what I have in mind (I write for a living and do freelance recipe testing for fun, and I live in DC, a great place for veg-lovers). But if not, it would be wonderful to see SE tackle this subject matter.
Just a suggestion ... and one that I do hope you will consider.
Cheers!
Karyn
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34 Comments:
Karyn, I second your motion!!!!
As a vegetarian, I often get the tired question of "sooo, what do you eat???" when there are soooooooooo many things and alternatives a vegetarian/vegan can enjoy. That's exactly the reason why I started blogging... about my vegetarian lifestyle, my recipes, the products I like to use...
I love Serious Eats and the information it provides. But adding a Vegetarian/Vegan Liason would definitely provide a new layer and perspective into the world of food we mostly get here via Talk threads.
Just like you have a Burger and Pizza sister sites, a Vegetarian/Vegan brother would make a lot of sense.
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 4:52PM on 01/30/09
I'd be on board! I believe there is a potential for a lot of traffic and a potential to share a lot of informaton, recipes, tips, brand experiences, you know? I've personally learnt a lot of Vegan/vegetarian tips at my time here and I would LOVE to learn more in the correct context. And I know for sure there are a lot of users here who choose this route.
We could also avoid a lot of the *sarcasm* (not that its not funny) about "who doesn't love meat?????", etc. comments. and keep the content on-course.
I would love for Serious Eats to be associated as well.
Serious [insert clever name here]???
hungrychristel at 5:09PM on 01/30/09
I am glad other people are interested!
It could perhaps start out as a column (something similar to Grocery Ninja?), then eventually branch out into a sister or brother site.
I think it would be very exciting to explore the largely untouched world (at least so far on this site) of vegan and vegetarian eats ...
KarynMC at 5:17PM on 01/30/09
C'mon Adam where are you???
hungrychristel at 5:21PM on 01/30/09
Serious (lack of) Meats ? !
Count me in to the veggie action.
PeanutButter at 5:50PM on 01/30/09
How about Serious [No Meat] Eats?
I'm all for it!
Embackus at 5:58PM on 01/30/09
I think it's a great idea! I personally go both ways ;-D I would love the opportunity to discover all the vegan/vegetarian fare that's out there that I don't know about.
I have a good friend who's vegetarian and we love to eat and cook together. She recently got a new job and at a group lunch one of her new bosses said "I understand you're a vegetarian. So, you eat chicken?"
Hilarious.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 6:21PM on 01/30/09
I agree, too! I don't know if we would need a specific liaison, though--perhaps just a section of blogs that are veggie-friendly, and then the SE team, when they saw something from that blog collection could 'showcase' one of the reports.
HeartofGlass at 6:31PM on 01/30/09
I think it would be wonderful. I too get tired of people asking me what I eat or just being totally judgemental of my lifestyle. It would be nice to find out about new products, although I mostly just eat lots of fruits & vegetables.
swtpea at 6:50PM on 01/30/09
Karyn, that's a great idea. I would love to see something like that as a sister site. I'm an omnivore, but grew up as a vegetarian and can go for months without eating meat or even thinking about it. I've toyed with the idea of vegan territory, if only for health reasons, not as a forever thing, but just as another addition to what I eat, but it just seems so hard. Being an ovo-lacto vegetarian is a piece of cake, but when you take away the cheese, the eggs, the grilled cheese sandwiches!, I'd be completely out of my element. I've tried soy cheese. It's not the same.
So yeah, that would be awesome.
chisai at 8:06PM on 01/30/09
Karyn, I'm with you, too. I think it's a brilliant idea. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't be interested. We eat lots of fruit and veg on a daily basis, and the OH is lactose intolerant so I have to be creative, and I found that often "dairy free" has a lot in common with "vegetarian" or even "vegan". And even if it wasn't the case, I think that a Vegetarian/Vegan section of sorts would just make a lot of sense on SE.
brooke29 at 12:09AM on 01/31/09
I have to pitch in support from the omnivore side! Two of my best friends are vegetarian, so I'd love to get more ideas for cooking for them!
cowprintrabbit at 1:48AM on 01/31/09
yes please!! great idea!
ChristineB at 5:56AM on 01/31/09
What a super idea that would be helpful to so many groups! I was veg. for seven years, and rarely eat meat now (and I try to eat sustainable meat products when I do). I'm also lactose intolerant (a recent discovery), and am still investigating and experimenting with dairy alternatives. I'm would be all over some advice about the best vegan ice cream and cheesecakes. Or how to make vegan cheese!
A blog on this site, or a sister site if it got really big, would be perfect. Serious.....Vegheads? Beets? Well, that ones silly, I know. I like Serious [No Meat] Eats Embackus!
toasteebagel at 8:09AM on 01/31/09
Hi, all! Just saw this message this morning. I'll see if we can find someone to take up a column on vegan/vegetarian issues. It would be a nice addition to the site. I'd only hope that whoever this person might be could stand being on a site so nuts about bacon/pork!
Adam Kuban at 11:42AM on 01/31/09
Seriously mEATlesS!
HeartofGlass at 12:02PM on 01/31/09
@Adam ~ I adore bacon and pork, but have vegetarians in my family, friends and family with severe allergies and have discovered that I'm lactose intolerant. I have no intention to ever give up meat, but there are issues that affect me and my loved ones that would be addressed, I hope? I've been cooking for vegetarians, vegans, celiacs, raw foods only, severe allergics. I found out on the tofu thread that silken tofu can be a dairy substitute. Any help would be appreciated!
PerkyMac at 12:08PM on 01/31/09
Another omnivore who'd love to see the site. btw...for you vegans who miss bacon, try that new smoked olive oil!!! Not sure what stores it's in, but I know it's on line. Love the pecan wood smoke on veggies & tofu!
laine at 12:41PM on 01/31/09
This would be interesting to further broaden the spectrum in an already multifaceted site. Hope it's doable.
Cassaendra at 1:33PM on 01/31/09
I'm pretty new to this site, but I think that would be great! I'm not a vegetarian, but I do enjoy vegetarian meals. I'd love to learn some options for new meatless recipes.
cycorider at 10:56PM on 01/31/09
Thanks, Adam.
I hope that you find someone. Truly, until the tofu thread, I didn't realize that so many omnivorous Serious Eaters would be interested in learning about vegetarian/vegan products and cooking.
It makes sense, though. I constantly get questions from co-workers and friends-of-friends asking how to make marshmallow bars for a newly vegetarian daughter, or what nondairy milk they should try now that they know they can't tolerate lactose. I think a lot of people who would be uncomfortable going to an all-vegetarian or vegan forum would benefit from seeing information here.
Thanks again! I do hope you find someone!
KarynMC at 9:37AM on 02/01/09
Yanno, I think it might be helpful to tag the existing recipes as to whether they're dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and whatever else might apply. I think that would be particularly useful for those of us who might be cooking for someone else. Because I'm the kind of doofus who would be making a potato casserole for a gluten-free friend and not think about the tablespoon of flour in the roux because I'd be thinking that potatoes are a slam-dunk.
Looking at a recipe title is fine, but you can't count on an eggplant dish being meatless or dairy free for that vegan friend, because there could be eggs, butter, anchovies -- any number of tabu items. So the tags would make it easier to sort through and find the ones that fit the bill.
dbcurrie at 7:19PM on 02/02/09
^db, one thing I miss about living in England is that all vegetarian products have a little green leaf on them in the supermarket. So instead of having to parse everything for gelatin, bone meal, or animal fat, it's nice just to look at the label. Wegman's has started to do that with a green 'V' and also has labels for nut-free, gluten-free and so forth--which is also nice because some decadent things like flourless chocolate cake are gluten free even though they don't appear so.
HeartofGlass at 7:47PM on 02/02/09
@heart, I think that's a nice thing for manufacturers to do. There are so many reasons why people avoid specific things, whether it's medical, religious or a matter of choice. If you're cooking for yourself, it's probably less of a problem because after a while you know what brands or products to avoid. But if you're cooking for a friend, it would be nice to look at a label and know in a glance. Same with recipes. With the ones that require packaged products, it might not be possible to tag them because the packaged things might differ, but if there aren't packaged items, it would be nice to be able to search for just the gluten-free or whatever, without having to check all the recipes individually.
dbcurrie at 12:20AM on 02/03/09
My only addition to this conversation would be to actually have a vegan AND vegetarian section. I have two friends, one who is vegan and one who is vegetarian. I can feed the vegetarian vegan food, but not vice versa. I would hate for either the vegan or the vegetarian camp to be over-represented--having two camps would be cool. They are very different worlds, really. Oh, right...you all probably know that.
And it would really be great to build on the "almost meatleass" recipe column that has been living on SE for a little while...
Okay, so all I'm saying is, YAY! Go SE!
StarryRose at 8:24PM on 02/04/09
@dbcurrie: That's a great idea re:tagging for the specific food preferences/restrictions. I think we do already try to tag all vegetarian things as "vegetarian," but we've never really featured many vegan recipes on the site, so I don't think we've ever tagged "vegan." "Dairy-free" might be easy enough, but without knowing enough about gluten myself, I don't know if I'd be able to handle/enforce "gluten-free" tagging—I'd rather go without a "gluten-free" tag than to false-positive the wrong thing and make someone sick.
We did talk about this at our weekly meeting, and now I've got to get up off my chair and start looking around for someone up for doing a vegetarian column.
@HeartofGlass: I like "Seriously Meatless" We just might use that!
Adam Kuban at 1:42PM on 02/06/09
@Adam, I'm glad that you appear to be moving forward with this!
I don't think gluten-free labeling would be too difficult - perhaps you could only label those items you know to be gluten free and leave the label off if you're in doubt? I would hope someone with celiac could recognize that they can't eat seitan or blue cheese, even if a recipe containing those items gets labeled gluten-free.
Just a bit of a warning about items labeled "vegan" - those labels can be misleading. For example, Trader Joe's frequently labels its soy cheese "vegan," but if you read the ingredients, it lists casein, a milk protein. I always read the label! You'd be surprised where whey (hummus?!) or gelatin (cereal!?) can show up!
That said, I don't think very many people would be upset about being accidentally fed obscure animal-based byproducts like caranuba wax or bone char sugar, especially if it was an honest mistake or a case of bad labeling.
I'm very happy about this! Yay, SE!
KarynMC at 2:37PM on 02/06/09
also want to thank KarynMC for a great idea and for sharing it.
Really, great idea.
...and also thank Adam for listening and moving forward on it. I would definitely appreciate content from a vegan/vegetarian correspondent. As always, keep up the great work.
intheyearofthepig at 3:22PM on 02/06/09
@heart - LOL Seriously mEATless is good. How is it that you've always got the clever remarks?
hungrychristel at 3:30PM on 02/06/09
@hungrychristel & Adam K! :) Thanks so much! That is great praise from a poster I love to read and the esteemed creator of Slice Dude!
HeartofGlass at 6:40AM on 02/08/09
I'm really excited about this. And not only because it'll be great to have a vegetarian/vegan addition (Seriously mEATless is an awesome name BTW - thanks @heartofglass), but because it really does show that the honchos here actually listen to and care about what the posters here, which isn't nearly as common as one would think at some other sites. Plus, I'd imagine (I'm in advertising) that it could open up new advertisers for you guys so that this move could be great for both the SE minions and your bottom line.
Thanks @Adam for doing this and thanks @KarynMC for coming up with the idea. I look forward to seeing it!
chisai at 8:03AM on 02/08/09
Just wondering if there's been any progress (I did notice and like the bit about eating vegan in Japan). :-)
KarynMC at 10:31AM on 03/25/09
Yeah, what's the dealio on the Seriously mEatless addition? I'd been looking forward to it.
chisai at 7:24PM on 04/17/09
It took a while, but we found someone to cover the vegetarian field for us: Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious. And, yes, we're calling it Seriously Meatless.
Adam Kuban at 3:24PM on 08/12/09