Post-Prandial Parisian Conversion

Veganized chèvre chaud I made after my Paris vacation

It might come as a surprise that visiting Paris made me vegan, but it did: I went to Paris a vegetarian and left as a vegan.
I don't know if things have changed, but in 2008, restaurants in Paris were not entirely happy to serve a vegetarian. A couple of the things I ordered that listed vegetarian ingredients on the menu came with ham as well. Probably half of any menu included both cheese and ham. If you stood still too long in Paris, you would turn around to find you had ham and cheese sprinkled on you. Which meant as vegetarian, most of meals were pretty cheese-heavy.
After almost two weeks in Paris, I was getting pretty sick of cheese. At the same time, I was reading Skinny Bitch--because, well, it was 2008 and that book was still everywhere, despite its own problematic moments. But I also had it because I was ready to go vegan. So when at the end of my Paris vacation I was literally sick of cheese, it was timely. When I arrived back home, I was still sick of cheese, and I never ate dairy or eggs again.
However, I really missed chèvre chaud, which one of the few vegetarian French dishes I could eat while in Paris.I really enjoyed it while I was there, and it was a simple dish--greens and simple dressing topped with goat cheese melted on a toasted slice of baguette. But since my transition ti vegan food was rocky--I didn't buy a vegan cookbook for probably six month after I started eated vegan--it took me a while to discover vegan cheese. When I finally did, I was delighted! Cashew cheese, are you kidding me?? IT went on everything, and I could find eat the chèvre chaud I missed, this time deliciously topped with cashew cheese.

Caeser, you creamy vegan minx

I had another inspiration today: vegan Caesar salad. I know it's not really original--that vegan cookbook default, Veganomicon, has a recipe, if I do recall--but I haven't tried it yet. Last night when I sprinkled store-bought vegan parm on my lettuce I thought, sweet Isa, why haven't I made vegan Caesar yet?
So tonight I did. I didn't even go to the grocery store first, or plan it out, which is so unlike me it makes me wonder if I'm coming down with something.
I just came home tonight and started cutting tofu into teeny tiny pieces for smokey-bacon-style tofu bits. This was also when I discovered that there are a billion vegan Caesar dressing online. Which is good, because I had no idea what to put in mine. In the end I used garlic, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and vegan mayo. It was yummy, but a wee bit too garlicky--I recommend something less than a full grated clove of raw garlic for one portion, FYI. I should also have skipped the balsamic since it made the dressing brown and not that lovely creamy colour that photographs well. However the salad did give me a chance to use up some old bread for croutons--just toss bread cubes (smaller than you think they should be) in a little oil and toast in the oven. Then toss together with your fake'n bits and parm, and if you really want to replicate the full deal, slice some faux chicken and lay photogenically on top. Caesar, you must have been a delicious man.

Simply delicious

Sometimes we try really really hard. We re-read and edit an email to our bosses ten times, we check our hair and outfit even when the object of our affection thinks we're gorgeous, we worry our homes aren't nice enough, big enough or clean enough to host anyone except our cats. And our the interwebs, that pressure goes up. "Look, here's a pic of the pizza I made. But the toppings are from the farmer's market and the flour is heirloom and local and I ground it myself using an artisanal mortar and pestle handmade made by a vegan unicorn!"
I do that sometimes. Well, not a unicorn's mortar and pestle, but we do what we can to make our food interesting, special, and noteworthy before sharing it with the world (or our 17 followers on Tumblr). But food, as all things, is sometimes better when it's simple. Simple pleasures are there for the taking every day: a purring cat in your lap, a silly laugh with a friend, a great bike ride or a run on a beautiful autumn day. We don't have to go all-out for our food either. So when I found myself without a lunch planned for the next day at work--and determined not to spend money on a mediocre lunch--I put some chickpeas to soak, went through my fridge and cupboards, and planned to-buy items for the next day's lunch. What I didn't have on hand, I bought from the grocery store around the corner from my office. And lunch was simple and delicious: flat bread and hummus, and a satisfying salad of arugula, chickpeas, quinoa and white mushrooms with basic Italian dressing. It's not a five-course menu carried in on the wings of vegan fairies, but it was a great lunch.

On-hand salad

You know those days, when you feel like you have nothing to eat, and you're really hungry? And you poke through your fridge and make whatever you can find? Well, sometimes you end up with delicious things, such as tomato-kale-chickpea salad, with the only dressing I had in the fridge (also delicious). I give you, on-hand salad: it was perfect!

Ah, Paris! Veganized chèvre chaud

Paris is in fact everything they say it is. The city is just as beautiful as they say, the Eiffel Tower is just as impressive, the bike culture is just as awesome, the food is just as good, the waiters are just as surly. It's fantastic. Paris was my first vacation outside of North America, and I would go back again in a second. It's true: seeing places around the world changes your perspective on home, in ways both fantastic and slightly bubble-bursting. (Yes, bubble-bursting: see the afore-mentioned comment on bike culture. And then ponder North American bike culture.)

The highlight of many vacations is the food. And for Paris this is especially true. Yes, you pay through the nose for everything (unless you learn to shoot espresso while standing up) but everything is fantastic. I went to Paris with my mother, and also with a friend who met up with friends of hers who were in Paris at the same time. She came back from their lunch reporting her friends had said they hadn't had any good food since being in Paris. The three of us shook our heads in disbelief: we hadn't had one BAD meal since coming to Paris. Crepes, salads, gorgeous crusty baguette everywhere—these were food memories that would stay with us long after flying back home.

But after becoming vegan, I started to think all those memories of good food would remain memories, since the French load every single meal up with cheese and ham (and sometimes chopped egg for good measure). I was especially sad about losing one of my favourite meal, chèvre chaud. Literally “hot goat's cheese”, chèvre chaud is a simple salad, with some kind of dressing and the simple-yet-delicious toasted bread and goat cheese on top. It's one of those meals that prove the old axiom: a fantastic dish is often made up of simple ingredients, and becomes more than the sum of its parts.

I wasn't even thinking about veganizing this dish, since vegan cheeses are rarely fantastic, and as a vegan, cheese dishes are something I have learned to modify but never replicate. So when I was at work on Friday, thinking about what I could eat as my pre-gym snack, the thought of my cashew “goat cheese” on toast did occur to me as an option. But only when I started craving the greens I had in the fridge did I realize that greens + cashew goat cheese on toast = vegan chèvre chaud.

And yes, it was delicious. It was almost like being back in Paris, except there were no surly waiters in sight!

Recipes for vegan cashew cheese abound: I'm sure google can help you there. I recommend crusty bread or chewy whole-grain bread, with a simple dressing. And please use green greens (not white, limp lettuce), for maximal texture as well as nutrition—baby arugula or spinach would be a wise choice. Slice off a bit off cashew cheese, put on top of toast, and put under the broiler until warmed. At this point, the last step is to dream of Paris.