Vegetarian Food can be so Good

Why is eating in a vegetarian way not yet mainstream?

Overview of Dutch Essay in Englisch

I have been a vegetarian for about 25 years now. So for me eating in a vegetarian way is normal. But for most people in the Netherlands it is still an extraordinary thing. Yes it has not anymore the dull image of the 70’s where vegetarians were old men with beards wearing woolen socks in open sandals. Vegetarian meals have reached the modern hipster segment of the City. But still people find it hard to eat (completely) vegetarian. And I feel they find vegetarians sometimes even an inconvenience. I was wondering why this is. I came to the conclusion that there may be several reasons.

One is that we are not used to cook real meals with fresh products any more. In fast society a lot of people eat from can and packed food. So of course you don’t like vegetable’s if you are only used to the taste of canned beans and packed stuff.

Another reason is people put to little nutrition in the vegetarian meals. Mostly it is chees or some more lettuce. Yes more vegetable’s is good. But you need even more variation.

Especially legumes like mung beans, adzuki beans and soya beans are needed for the protein. Combination of beans and grain products, like Chapati or rice, improves the insertion of proteins.

Thereby how you cook things determine the taste and vitamins you preserve or even create. For instance steaming keeps more vitamins that cooking (to long). Baked tomato’s gives maybe less vitamins, but more protein than raw. And Fermented vegetables’ even create a new vitamin B. So variation in the kinds of vegetables and manner of cooking and use of legumes is very important to get all the nutrition and to keep vegetarian food attractive. But this lacks somewhat in the recipes for vegetarians and certainly in the Dutch restaurants unfortunately.

At last but certainly not least; the right use of herbs and spices can add a lot to your daily meals. It not only gives vegetarian food more flavor, it also has a lot of good qualities. For instance turmeric helps for the blood-cleansing, basil is good for the stomach, ginger works anti-phlogistic and so on. (See e recipe for a nice drink with turmeric in next blog.)

Well hope I contributed to more empathy for the vegetarians and to the enrichment in the vegetarian meals in restaurants. I keep searching for good recipes also.

However all good things you can read about vegetables, herbs and spices may be more or less scientifically proofed. Please eat and drink what you feel best. I myself often saw that when I had appetite for something it had a good function that I did not know off but was really appropriate for me. Of course this count’s for normal food, not for eating packs of chips and candy. I would rather eat some fresh potato slices sprinkled with olive oil and rosemary, 20 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees (365 F’). Serve with sauce: yoghurt with little turmeric and if you want some spinach stirred in to it. Bon appetite!