My Very First (Intentionally) Vegan Meal

I decided today that I was going to give the whole vegan thing a trial run before Ash Wednesday.  (I fully intend to scrap those plans tomorrow and stuff myself stupid with paczki but that is another story entirely!)  So I decided to start in familiar-- and favorite-- territory:  Mexican food.

When I decided to go vegetarian (and before I discovered Mediterranean and Indian foods), I quickly figured out that the two easiest cuisines to transform for my needs were Mexican and Italian, and many of my recipes are still based on those genres.

Tostadas are a weekly favorite for us.  Crispy shells topped with refried beans, salsa, hot sauce, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream... it's one of my most loved foods.  We typically pair it with a "Mexican salad," a homemade version based on the salad at our favorite south-of-the-border eatery in town, which includes fresh avocado slices, tomato wedges, onion, green pepper, and green olives.  It was easy for me to "vegetarianize" this meal-- I simply removed the beef and doubled up the beans on the tostadas.  And luckily, this one was easy to "veganize," too.



I started with the same shells, beans, and salsa I typically use.

(salsa pic coming soon!)

Then, instead of shredded Mexican style cheese, I used Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds.

 The lettuce, tomatoes, and hot sauce were next, followed by Tofutti's Sour Supreme, a dairy-free sour cream alternative.

Forgive the picture and the messy plate-- it was taken on my phone during my second helping after I realized I should probably be visually documenting this experiment as well, but here is one of my tostadas:

YUM!

My rating: 9/10

It was really, really good.  I was shocked at the way the vegan cheese melted and stretched.  Thanks for the Daiya recommendation to my bff Carrie, who is a vegan.  I knew she wouldn't steer me wrong!  When I tasted the Sour Supreme straight out of the package, it did taste a little odd to me, but when used in a dish it was nearly indistinguishable from regular sour cream.  (Also, my cat wanted to lick the plastic seal after I removed it, so I figured if he thought it was real sour cream, maybe I would too. :) )

Walt's comments:  "How is this one different from mine again?"  Meaning he couldn't figure out which products on my tostada were replacements and which weren't.  I take this as a good sign.  He also used the word "delicious."

I'm not adding a recipe for this one because I think the process is pretty self-explanatory, but just to note-- I usually throw the shells with the beans, salsa, and cheese on them into the oven, then top them with the hot sauce, sour cream, lettuce and tomato once they're hot.  Today, I was tired and dinner was later than usual, so we just microwaved them.

I'm really happy and impressed so far, and I'm looking forward to this vegan journey.  I'm feeling a lot less anxious!