Respectful recipes

Here are several recipes to fit the "ethical botanical fruitarian" (EBF) diet described on the previous page. In a nutshell, this diet extends the vegan diet to minimise harm to plants as well as animals: roughly speaking, it includes only that which harmlessly detaches from a plant, or otherwise causes harm to neither animals nor plants.

I have tested all of these recipes and find them flavoursome, but, of course, tastes differ, and there's no guarantee that you will like them too - I welcome your feedback. Each recipe includes a note as to how I came upon it.

Full disclosure: I have no relationship - especially not financial - with the manufacturers of any of the products mentioned below, other than as a satisfied customer.

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Table of contents

• Vegetarian sausage pie
• Sweet peanut butter EBF stir-fry
• EBF Maha brinjal
• EBF curry #1

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Vegetarian sausage pie

Origins: This is a family recipe which my mother came upon somehow - I don't know how, but I'm glad she introduced us to it. As kids, we always loved it when Mum made it for us. For its deceptive simplicity, it is surprisingly flavoursome.

EBF-compliance notes: The vegie stock cube might require a slight departure from a strict EBF diet as it probably is not possible to source a vegie stock cube that does not contain plants (e.g. carrots and celery). Also, potentially, the microbial beings in Vegemite (which is yeast-based), and the vegie sausages (which contain yeast) are harmed in the cooking of this meal.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of vegetarian sausages (we have always used Sanitarium vegie sausages, available here in Australia in vacuum-packed plastic, although it seems that they have been rebranded from Sanitarium sausages to Vegie Delights Vegie Sausages)
• 500g (18oz) of potatoes
• 1 vegie stock cube
• 1 tsp of Vegemite
• 1 cup of water (boiling)
• 1 onion, chopped
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• seasoned flour
• a little margarine or oil

Directions:

Cook and mash the potatoes. Slice the sausages and coat in flour. Saute in a little margarine or oil. Add onion - saute. Add stock, Vegemite and lemon juice. Simmer for a few minutes. Then, line a greased oven dish with 2/3rds of the mashed potatoes. Pour in the sausage mixture. Top with the rest of the potato. Bake for 15 minutes. Top with blobs of margarine.

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Sweet peanut butter EBF stir-fry

Origins: This recipe is original to me. It is one of my favourites - again, it is surprisingly flavoursome (rich) for its deceptive simplicity. Eat in moderation because it owes its richness to a glut of fat, sugar and salt.

EBF-compliance notes: If the sugar in the sweet chilli sauce comes from sugar cane, then, strictly speaking, it violates EBF principles, because it entails the destruction of living canes.

Sauce ingredients:

• boiling water
• somewhere around 300-500g (10-18oz) of peanut butter (say, 3/4 of a jar)
• 2-3 tbs of soy sauce
• 5-10 tbs of sweet chilli sauce
• half an inch of ginger, cut into tiny cubes
• several cloves of garlic, crushed

Stir-fry ingredients:

• oil for frying (sesame oil works well)
• a cut-up 350g (0.8 lbs) block of hard tofu (I use Nutrisoy Organic Tofu, cut on each dimension in three)
• two onions, diced in large chunks
• two or three red capsicums, cut in squares about 3cm per side
• three or four medium zucchinis, cut into small fingers
• the corn kernels sliced off a single cob of corn
• seven or so mushrooms, cut into cubes
• as many snow peas as you see fit to add - I use maybe a couple of handfuls

Directions:

Combine the peanut butter with the boiling water and stir until it forms a thick liquid paste: add as much boiling water as necessary to just liquify the peanut butter, which is approximately the same volume of water as the volume of peanut butter that you started off with. Next, add the remainder of the sauce ingredients, stir, and then marinate the tofu in this for as long as you can - ideally overnight, but it's sufficient for it to marinate just whilst you're preparing the rest of the stir fry.

Fry the rest of the ingredients in the oil in a wok, adding them one at a time, starting with the onions (give them a few minutes before adding anything else). I cut up as I go, so as soon as I've finished chopping up one ingredient, I add it to the wok, and then start cutting up the next ingredient. About halfway through, add the sauce in which the tofu has been marinating - you can either add the tofu at the same time or wait until a bit later - it doesn't make much difference.

At this point, I cover and cook the mixture for some time, so as to really soften the capsicum and zucchini, but if you prefer them crisp, then cook for a short time only.

I like to serve this over rice, microwaved or boiled whilst the stir-fry is cooking.

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EBF Maha brinjal

Origins: Found in a Hare Krishna recipe book, and slightly modified for EBF-compliance by omitting the spinach which was in the original, replacing brown sugar with coconut sugar, and omitting the ghee option which originally was listed with the vegetable oil. This dish is my favourite out of the several that I tried from that recipe book; it is simply sensational.

EBF-compliance notes: The garam masala might not be strictly compatible with EBF principles, as one of its ingredients is typically cinnamon, the production of which involves cutting off at ground level the two-year-old stems of the trees which produce it.

Ingredients:

• 900g (2 lbs) eggplant, peeled and diced
• 900g (2 lbs) tomatoes, blanched, peeled, and chopped
• 3 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 or 2 dried chillies, crushed
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing) powder
• 150 ml (1/4 pint) water
• 1 tsp coconut sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp iodised salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the chilli and the ground coriander for a few seconds. Follow with all the other powdered spices, fry a few seconds longer, then immediately drop in the eggplant cubes. Stir-fry gently over medium-high heat until the eggplant becomes soft and begins to release its seeds.

Now stir in the chopped tomatoes and water. Mix well. Partially cover the saucepan and simmer (stirring occasionally) for about 20 minutes, or until the eggplant is very soft. Turn up the heat to medium and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring frequently, until the eggplant and tomatoes have merged into a thick velvety sauce. Finally, season with the sugar, salt, and garam masala. Mix well.

Preparation and cooking time: 40 min

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EBF curry #1

Origins: Created spontaneously by me whilst hosting a hungry friend, who liked it so much that he asked me to cook it again for him the next day.

EBF-compliance notes: The curry powder might not be strictly compatible with EBF principles, as it might include such ingredients as cinnamon, the production of which involves cutting off at ground level the two-year-old stems of the trees which produce it.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 L (2-4 pints) of water (to cover and a bit more the following three ingredients)
• 1.5 cups dry yellow split peas
• 1.5 cups dry green split peas
• 1.5 cups dry mung dahl
• 3 tbs oil (in the original, I sourced this from a jar of sundried tomatoes, but it shouldn't make much difference which oil you use)
• 1 tbs cumin seeds
• 1 tbs black mustard seeds
• 1 tbs cayenne pepper
• 2 tbs curry powder
• 3 cardamom pods
• 1/3 tsp asafoetida (hing) powder
• 3 potatoes, cooked for approx 15 mins in a microwave on high
• approx 200g (0.44 lbs) pumpkin
• 1 medium-large zucchini
• 1 medium red capsicum
• 1 cob of sweet corn
• iodised salt (to taste)

Directions:

1. Place the first four ingredients into a pot on the stove on high, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer whilst the rest of the process plays out.
2. Place the oil in a frypan on medium-high heat. When hot, add the spices one by one in the order listed, including cardamom pods but excluding salt. Fry for a few minutes (start chopping up the other ingredients whilst the spices are frying; the potatoes should be in the microwave pretty early on though, so they've finished cooking before the rest of the vegies have finished frying).
3. Dice (roughly and in small-medium pieces) the rest of the vegie ingredients in the order in which they appear in the ingredients list (slicing the corn off the cob), starting with the potatoes, which should be microwaved first as per the previous step.
4. As you finish dicing each of the above vegie ingredients, add it to the frying spices and stir. Try not to take more than a few minutes before chopping and adding each new ingredient. Add the potatoes last, as soon as they have finished in the microwave (i.e. try to time it so that chopping up and frying all of the other ingredients takes less time than microwaving the potatoes).
5. Monitor both the boiling split peas / dahl, and the frying spices/vegies, and stir / add more water as appropriate. When both are soft, pour the spice/vegie fry-pan mix into the split peas / dahl pot mix, and stir. Add the salt (to taste) and stir more. Cook until the split peas / dahl lose their individuation and become mushy.
6. Optionally, serve with cooked rice (I used basmati rice, cooked in the microwave on high for 14 minutes with about a ratio of 3:1 water to rice, immediately after the potatoes were out, but I can't imagine it really matters which rice variant you use, and your microwave power and hence cooking time might vary).