About the blog
About the blog name
Vegans – the inhabitants of the planetary system of Vega aka Alpha Lyrae, the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra, reached the planet Earth in the distant, unspecified past. As befits guests from a foreign planet they brought their traditional culinary specialties. Many Earthlings were charmed with the richness of flavours from Alpha Lyrae to such an extent that they became vegans.
The blog contains recipes for traditional dishes developed by masters from Vega, as well as more modern dishes conceived by their earthly students, to whom the author of this blog also belongs.
About the cuisine from Vega
The cuisine from Alpha Lyrae is vegan, so it excludes all products derived from animals.
You will find here dishes that are:
- ordinary, everyday, childishly easy and quick to prepare, but also more exquisite, for special and festive occasions, requiring time and patience,
- traditional, Polish (but veganised and lower in fat), as well as coming from outside our cultural circle, especially oriental and flavored with cumin, rose water or with the most wonderful spice in the Universe – cardamom,
- completely authorial, but also inspired, modified and rediscovered,
- prepared on the spur of the moment, spontaneously, using ingredients currently at hand, as well as the result of a long thought process, repeatedly meditated and tested, and also prepared from selected and sophisticated ingredients,
- visually pleasing, eye catching, but also boring, not very beautiful visual monsters, that – although tasty – require a special visual arrangement to please the eye,
- colorful, vivid and juicy, but also more visually uniform and subdued,
- prepared from ingredients of good quality, that determines the taste of a dish,
- for adults and children – kids, as it turns out, are very demanding tasters and it is not easy to meet their culinary expectations.
The dishes from Alpha Lyrae do not contain wheat gluten. Instead, the author of this blog uses gluten found in spelt (it is formally an ancient variety of wheat), rye, oat (unless labeled gluten-free) and barley. The reason is that the gluten in spelt is more easily absorbed by the body and usually does not cause unpleasant reactions, and also has a positive influence on the intestinal microbiota. However, you will also find a lot of gluten-free recipes on this blog.
An important aim of the blog is to limit the additional sweetening of desserts. However, from time to time the author reaches for such white sugar substitutes as: date syrup, maple syrup, muscovado sugar, molasses or xylitol, but she does it not very often and uses small amounts assuming that the Universe will not collapse if we eat a more sweet cake several times a year. After all, the sugars found in particular ingredients often give sufficient sweetness, which is so pleasant to the taste buds, that there is no need for additional sweetening.
The dishes from Vega are frequently baked because baking is healthier than frying, but the frying of, especially onion, is often desirable to enhance the taste of a dish.
Any comments and information about every culinary exploration and experiences (regarding vegan cuisine of course) are highly welcomed. The author of the blog is still learning the vegetable cuisine (not to mention food photography) and is looking for interesting flavour combinations. She will be very pleased if the dishes from Vega tickle the fancy of other vegans, vegetarians and even carnivores, but it will be her greatest culinary success, if they will include them in their everyday menu for good.
Bon appétit!