Recipe for Vegan curry

I guess that Vegan includes Vegetarian, whereas if it’s described as Vegetarian Vegans won’t want to try it.

Sugar isn’t necessaryily vegan. Sugar from cane may have been filtered through bone ash, to make it white. Beet sugar is always vegan.

I find the idea of putting sugar or syrup into a curry very odd!

M0nica, yes, it is a bit daft. I make all sorts of curries that are eaten by vegans, veggies and carnivores alike. They're kept simple though, just onions, spices and various veg that I have to hand, often with a tin of tomatoes and chickpeas or green lentils.

Favourites include cauliflower, carrot, spinach and courgette. I add coconut cream or extra potato to make them milder for children. They like some added raisins for a pop of sweetness - but I wouldn't add sugar. We like them with bread (well, home made bannock) rather than rice.

If I add tofu, somehow they're viewed as 'vegan' - as it's seen as a meat substitute.

It's the fermentation process the lactic acid content where it derived from. The details of which are usually left out. My niece is vegan and precise about every little detail. Sugar or syrup is used to balance the flavour in any food. It's like adding sugar to tomato sauces etc.

If a recipe has a lot of tomatoes I usually put a bit of sugar in the sauce, but probably only a teaspoon for about 6 portions. It is supposed to counteract the acidity.

Perhaps it is a misprint?

I just get irritated the way Vegans have taken over all recipes that do not have animal products in them, as if they were exclusively for them.

Most people, mostly omnivore,s have been eating entirely plant based dishes most of their lives. They just get called vegetable curry, cauliflower curry, tomato sauce, etc etc. All of a sudden Vegans seem to have claimed them all as theres.

I have every respect for anyone who is a Vegan or Vegetarian, but those are descriptions of them and the eating pattern that they have, I just get fed up with the way they have taken over all plant based dishes and slapped their name on them as if they invented them and owned them and the dishes were only suitable for them.

The comment about sugar was a throw away remark, but I do not put sugar in any savoury dish, but I understand why some do, but three tablespoons in what is meant to be a savoury dish for four? It must taste like a pudding, bleurgh!

How have “vegans who have taken over recipes”? Do only vegans write recipes and “slap their name on it”? Surely it’s cookery / recipe writers that do this, maybe to give some indication of what’s in the recipe? There isn’t som huge army of vegans going round writing recipes and claiming ownership is there? There’s nothing to stop anyone eating a vegan dish if they want to - they don’t have to join some non existent club. I wouldn’t put sugar in a curry btw, that doesn’t make it vegan.

This has turned into an anti vegan rant.

I put half a teaspoon of sugar in a tomato based sauce. 3 tablespoons must be a misprint - it's too much for a pudding even.
I use banana for sweetness in a curry. I only use vegan bananas.?

Re: your main comment; Vegan curry they could give a hint of some ingredients in the name.
Next week look out for Carnivore Casseroles.

I think describing a recipe as vegan simply indicates that it contains no animal products whatsoever, which is helpful for people who do not wish to consume those products. Describing something as a vegetable curry doesn’t tell you anything about what other ingredients might be included. I once had a very helpful Italian teacher (who was neither vegan nor vegetarian) who advised me never to order mushroom risotto in Italy as it would be made using chicken stock (along with several other dishes).

India has the highest level of vegans per head of population in the world.

Not surprisingly.

In this instance I think it's reasonable to describe the dish as 'Vegan curry' in the title of the piece. In the overall 'food scene' despite its increasing popularity, vegan dishes are not so common so it's OK to emphasis it's vegan, IMO.

www.gransnet.com/food/vegan-curry

On a restaurant menu if would be 'Vegetable curry (vg)'

No, I am not anti-vegan, I just resent Vegan being slapped on the name of every recipe that happens to be animal product free.

The recipe that irritated me is a perfectly ordinary recipe for a vegetable curry, why change its name? 'Vegan Curry' gives no indication what the ingredients are. They could be soya in its many forms, vegetable protein, fruit, nuts.

I have family members with severe allergies. I have yet to see a whole range of ordinary everyday recipes include Soya-free or Nut-free in the name of the recipe. Buying a ready meal, it may include information on the packet saying it is soya or nut free. But this recipe could equally have Been called Soya-free Curry or Nut-free Curry or animal protein free curry but it isn't,

If you want to make it absolutely clear it is suitable for Vegans, why not call it Vegan Vegetable Curry, or, as with allergies, Vegetable Curry, suitable for Vegans.

'Vegan vegetable' seems funny to me - as what else could it be, apart from cereal? It's much easier to find a recipe, or online shop, when you can just search for 'vegan'.

The word sparks anger in some, though, as they see it as odd, whereas vegans see any other way of eating as odd.

I too have family members with allergies Monica and seeing products labelled vegan is very helpful. Yes we still have to search for the soya and other ingredients but at least we know a whole group of ingredients is ruled out right there and then. I really don’t understand why this provokes such hostility. It’s a simple adjective.

nightowl, it's just the word 'vegan' that creates a guilty conflict in some:

It’s sounds like the OP is very anti vegan as she assumes there are militant vegans going around slapping the word vegan onto every plant based recipe and not allowing anyone else to eat it. Many people find it helpful to be told something is vegan and not just vegans- those with dairy allergies for example. You don’t necessarily have to have the whole list of ingredients in a recipe title.

It’s very handy for me as more than half of my family is Vegetarian, anything marked as Vegan will do nicely.

I once went into a bakers and asked the Assistant if the Mince pies were vegetarian, she seemed a bit surprised by my question but after a long pause said to me that there isn’t any meat in Mince Pies! I didn’t bother to educate her about the suet as there was a queue…..

I think that it is very handy for people to know what is in a dish

For example my "vegetable korma" is vegetarian but not vegan because it contains butter/ghee and cream. I can make it vegan by using Flora and coconut cream

Although some vegetarians do get a bit fed up being lumped in with vegans these days when they wouldn't mind a bit of cheese or cream

DD2 went to a University formal dinner the other week and had ordered the vegetarian option but the venue did a combined vegetarian and vegan option. The others on her table ate steak - she got a single grilled mushroom (on the menu called a Portabello steak but they found a very small one). She didn't feel she got her money's worth

How many times do I have to say I am not anti-vegan. Where have I said anything against vegans or shown any hostility to anyone who is vegan?

I just find it irritating when the word Vegan is slapped on every recipe, whether it is a recent concoction, or has been around for centuries, just because it is animal product free.

In this case the word has been used instead of a proper descriptor of the dish. A 'vegan curry', which is what this dish is called could be a vegetable curry, but it could be a non-dairy cheese based curry that is like paneer. It could be a dhall, a biryani, a chicken replacement curry. It could be a host of different things, so unless you look at the list of ingredients you have no idea what it contains.

This recipe is simply a recipe for vegetable curry. What more does it have to add? I have been making vegetable curries with out any meat based products for over 50 years, without it ever occuring to me that this was a special vegan dish.

The usual procedure if a dish or recipe is suitable - or not suitable - for a group of people who for medical reasons or reasons of principle, avoid certain foods is to have a sentence at the beginning of the recipe, or on the package if it is a ready meal saying 'Suitable for vegans/those with nut allergies/or whatever.

But Vegan curry, apart from being a misnomer as anyone can eat it, gives absolutely no indication what the product contains, because it could well not be a vegetable curry.

But MOnica you have stated you resent vegans-
I just get fed up with the way they have taken over all plant based dishes and slapped their name on them as if they invented them and owned them and the dishes were only suitable for them
this statement from your post does imply that vegans are going around appropriating vegetable dishes and renaming them and excluding anyone else from eating them - this is simply wrong, it’s just that there is more awareness of plant based eating and having a vegan label is helpful to many, it tells us what it does not contain - you obviously think a dish should be named with every single ingredient in it. You think there is some sort of conspiracy and that labelling something “vegan” means only vegans can eat it - it really doesn’t, any more than the label “vegetarian” means only vegetarians can eat it - the vegan police aren’t going to stop anyone who wants to cooking or eating a vegan curry. The word “vegan” doesn’t just mean a person it can also describe a dish or recipe. You are overthinking this.

Anyone can eat a vegan dish, but vegans can’t eat many dishes.

Therefore it is necessary to point out a dish that is fine for vegans.

It is that simple. Relax, Live and let live I say.

vegansrock I do find The Vegan Butcher, as advertised on TV, distinctly weird.

Pastrami? Bacun? Dirty Burger? Black Puddin? Turk'y? Salami?

Why - just why?