Let's Just Get This Out of the Way

I'm a vegetarian.  I don't eat animals.  No, I don't eat fish.  Yes, I eat eggs and dairy.  No, eggs aren't animals because they're not fertilized.  Yes, fish are animals, look it up.  I'm a vegetarian because I don't want to kill animals.  I've been a vegetarian for 13 years.  Yes, I miss meat.  No, I'm not upset if you eat meat in front of me.  Yes, I find plenty to eat at restaurants.  No, I won't eat your fries that are drenched in the drippings of your medium-rare burger.  Yes, I get enough protein.

Are we quite done with the questions?

People tell me over and over again that they don't think they could ever be vegetarian.  While I think they're selling themselves short on their own ability to make decisions and follow through on them, I understand why they think that.  Meat is just ubiquitous.  People just assume you want it all the time.  Why have the muffin with eggs and cheese when you can have it with bacon egg and cheese?  Why have pizza with mushrooms when you can have pizza with sausage and mushrooms?  Meat = flavor, right?

If the need for salt is a lie, the flavorfulness of meat is downright confusing.  In fact, meat often needs seasonings to not be horribly bland.  Imagine fried chicken without the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.  Trust me, you don't want that.  In fact, what you want is a combination of oregano, chili powder, sage, basil, marjoram, pepper, salt, paprika, onion salt, garlic powder and MSG, but I digress.

You see, most food, in its most basic form, is rather light on flavor.  You have to combine things to get amazing flavor.  Like Remy the rat.

When I make rice and beans, it is so much more than just rice and beans, if you recall the recipe I shared in my post about cumin.  You want to dump in as much as you possibly can to create something greater than the sum of its parts.  This is why proper seasoning is that much more important for vegetarians.  We bear the stigma of eating "rabbit food".

So when cooking for our friends, we have two sets of expectations to exceed.  We can't just make something that's good, we have to BLOW YOUR DAMN MIND!!!  We have to shut you up once and for all and get you to realize that we do, in fact, eat some very yummy things.

Quite a few of my friends, independently of each other, have said to me "if I could eat like this all the time, I would have no problem giving up meat" after trying some of my more impressive recipes.  This is an amazing compliment to hear, but it's my current benchmark test.  I don't want you to like my food, I want you to love my food so much that you want me to cook for you all the time.

This is why spices are so important to me.  They let me elevate my relatively low fat and low salt cooking to new heights.  Am I over-compensating?  Maybe, but I'd like to think the results speak for themselves.  I think most cooking vegetarians can relate to this.  We get a good amount of flavor from mirepoix, garlic, tomatoes and peppers, but when eating savory, those spices on your shelf aren't just helpful, they're quintessential.  They're the crux, the balance, the ur, the alpha, the omega...  He who controls the spice controls the universe.