Saturday, January 19, 2008

Vegan Cooking/Lifestyle Class

I attended my first cooking class! And it was vegan to boot! I was shocked to see such a class offered here in our city so I took advantage of it. This city doesn't even have one vegetarian restaurant sadly enough. This class was offered at an Independent Grocer - they have a variety of classes offered throughout the year.
I was too shy to take any photos during the evening - but here is the menu we eat that night:

Appetizer - bean dip and black olive tapenade with tofu chips. I've never had any of these items before - very good!

Lentil soup - I've made various lentil soups over the years - but this one will replace all of those! You know what the secret ingredient is??? Minced apricots! It gave the soup a sweetness that made it delicious.

Mixed bean salad over greens - this was your run of the mill type bean salad. Loved it!

Entree - Mango & "Cream Cheese" Quesadillas: These were very good too. I've never considered putting mango into quesadillas but I will definately try it again. Also, I've never tried a soy cream cheese and it was surprisingly good.

Dessert: Chocolate banana mousse: I'm not a fan of banana anything - so I would probably leave out the banana another time. But I loved the consistency of this mousse. Some puddings with tofu taste gritty and/or too much like the soy. This one had none of those problems.

So, all in all, I had a very nice evening! I've never attended any sort of vegan function like this before so I hope to see more of them offered in this city. If anyone would like the recipes for the above mentioned courses, I'd be happy to post them for you.

1 comment:

Carrie™ said...

I went to a veggie cooking class once years ago that was offered at a health food store. The theme of the evening was tofu and I came away with some good ideas. I'm really interested in the quesadilla recipe if you'd be so kind as to post it. Thanks!!
And re: your previous post...I'm doing the same thing. It's sort of my New Year's resolution to purge myself of unwanted things. It is empowering. I'm starting to feel free and light!