The accidental vegan


I have always been a vegetarian, admittedly not by choice. What I mean by this is that I was rared vegetarian (my whole family is) but I did choose to remain one and I am both happy and comfortable with this choice. Up until about five years ago I was a rather unadventurous eater with a very limited range of foods and complete reluctance to widen my culinary horizons. I was in fact a vegetarian who ate surprisingly few vegetables. As I have mentioned before I discovered my gluten intolerance with dramatic flair ( ending up in hospital )and was forced to rethink my whole way of eating. While it was not exactly a pleasant experience, in many ways it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I got my diet in order, I stopped feeling so sick all of the time and I have discovered I like all sorts of food that I never thought I would.

 While I was quietly getting more experimental while eating out, I found that when it came to cooking at home I lacked imagination. I knew I wanted to be eating something else but I just didn't know what that something was. I had looked through lots of cookbooks but wasn't getting very far. The vegetarian cookbooks had a whole lot of wheat , the gluten free cookbooks were full of meat and so on. Now I know you can make substitutes but I like to stick to recipes precisely because that's just how I cook. Then quite recently I stumbled upon an absolute treasure trove by the way of vegan cookbooks. They have no meat and usually no wheat or refined sugar so I can dig in and cook to my hearts content. Sorry to all the full time hard core vegans but I fully intend to dabble in your way of cooking for some time yet. I still eat a bit of cheese and butter even my intolerance to dairy cannot make me quit them completely and I have no desire to convert others with my quasi vegan ways.
My first purchase was the Everyday Ella cookbook and I borrowed another of hers from my sister, recently I bought the new Happy Pear book and I'm gradually making my way through that. Tonight's spiced morrocan soup and chana masala ( pictured above ) are courtesy of that. Plus theres blogs and pinterest and a whole world of other Vegan cookbooks I have yet to discover. I for one am excited to get cooking and learn more about myself. 

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