Spain, with its rich history, dazzling art and passionate people, is a wonderful place to be. But not an easy one for a vegan. Spain is the home of Miró, but it's also home to museos de jamon -- ham specialty shops -- on virtually every street corner. There's ham on every menu. And bacalao -- salt cod -- and morcilla -- gahh-- black pudding, and every sort of food that isn't plant-based. Spain encourages you to unleash your inner testosteroney Anthony Bourdain and eat nothing but the nasty bits. You could pass out for want of a leafy green vegetable.
I've made a few meals out of granola bars since coming here. I've also made some wonderful discoveries. Some in restaurants, but the best ones have come about in the kitchen working -- and playing -- with other cooks. Spain has a great pride and centuries of cuisine and culture they want to share.
If pig is Spain's national dish, paella -- saffron-infused rice -- is a close second. At Madrid's cooking school, La Cocina de Babette, we made a paella altogether more refined than any version I've ever had in the states -- and plant-based, besides. This paella gets its hint of briny flavor not from the usual seafood, but cochayuyo, a kind of seaweed that's big in Chile and fun to say. It's fun to eat, too, with a mild taste, meaty, mushroomy chew and no weird slime thing as with some other seaweed varieties.
We also made three traditional cold Spanish soups -- no-cook, no-meat quickies you can do in a blender. You think raw food is cutting edge? Think gazpacho. Think ajoblanco, or white gazpacho. It's velvety and luscious and made with few ingredients -- almonds, bread, garlic, vinegar and olive oil.
The class was a happy combination of instruction and an easy, warm afternoon in the kitchen of a friend. At the end, we popped open a bottle of cava and sat down, along with La Cocina de Babette's director, to enjoy the vegan delights we'd prepared. The director and the teacher aren't vegan, but they've wanted to do more alternative classes, including this one. They've been offering it for five years. I was their first student.
Okay, Spain's still kicking around the vegan thing. But it's game. You'd have to be to invite some strange vegan American girl to dinner. In Barcelona, a passionate Catalan cook honored me by including me at his gastronomic society feast.
A Basque tradition, these culinary clubs are historically only for men. Men cook, women aren't even allowed in the kitchen. And the Basque menu is such that vegans aren't exactly welcome at the table. But rules are made to be broken. On a rainy night in La Ribera, Barcelona's old, walled, cobblestoned neighborhood, my host welcomed me to Euskalzaleak. This translates into something like deeply loving the Basque culture. It's best pronounced if you're Basque. Or drunk. (He poured vino tinto freely).
He set out your usual Catalan crowd-pleasers -- bacalao, jamon and other animals, and a dozen guests tucked in. But just for me, he prepared fresh pasta with locally foraged porcinis, just now in season. Like ajoblanco, it's a simple dish, yet intense, elemental and earthy. He does not get the vegan thing. But he has a fierce desire to please, a desire to feed. I was so touched he did this for me, I kissed his hands.
For a moment there, even the meat-eaters looked envious. Then they went back to their jamon.
I have seen a lot of ham in Spain. But in the kitchens of passionate cooks, I have also seen a lot of heart. Now if I could only get my hands on a head of kale.
Ajoblanco recipe from La Cocina de BabetteAjoblanco is considered a summer soup. However, the ingredients -- almonds garlic, olive oil, vinegar -- are not seasonal. It's a gutsy soup to be enjoyed any time and a brilliant use for stale bread, besides.
3 slices day-old baguette, cut into cubes (just shy of 1 cup)
3 cups water
3/4 cup raw almonds, peeled and soaked overnight*
1 to 2 garlic cloves
3 to 4 tablespoons wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt to taste
green grapes, halved, for optional garnishPlace bread cubes in a bowl, pour the water over and let soak a few minutes.
Pour everything (save the optional grape garnish) into a blender or food processor. Blitz until absolutely smooth and gorgeous. Taste and add salt and additional vinegar as needed.
Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. It improves in flavor.
Serve chilled. To garnish, float halved green grapes, cut side up, on top.
Makes 4 servings.
*Why peel the almonds? For looks and flavor. Peeling the nuts' dark, slightly tannic skin makes for a white, creamy, slightly sweet soup. And it's fun and easy to do, once you know the trick. Pour almonds into a small heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave for 15 minutes. Drain. Pinch almonds between your fingers. Skins will slip off off, leaving you perfect, pale bare nut kernels.
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The vegetarian paella that I had in multiple restaurants in Madrid was delicious, and I often have cravings for it. I know it's not "authentic" or "traditional," but it tastes great to me, and it works with the diet that I've had for over 15 years. So please, there is no need for condescending comments about what paella is or isn't. If you don't like it, don't eat it.
I must say an interesting insight into the Mediterranean diet.
"I believe that it's arrogant to visit a foreign culture and expect the people to cater to your personal chosen dietary preferences, especially when those preferences arise out of a sense of moral superiority. And if someone came to my country and expressed the kind of contempt for our food and culture that the author displays for that of Spain in her first paragraph, the last thing I would feel motivated to do would be to accommodate her. And might I suggest that if a vegan wants to visit a foreign country for a food adventure, Spain would not be the most obvious destination? You should no more visit Spain expecting a cornucopia of meatless dishes just because you're a vegan than you should visit Iceland expecting a banquet of fresh tropical fruits just because you're from Florida. I see this as no different from all the other ways in which Americans expect other cultures to conform to *us*. I understand vegans have their beliefs, but rudeness is still rudeness. I don't at all approve of many aspects of the Japanese fishing industry, but if I visited a family in Tokyo and they offered me tuna sushi for lunch and I turned it down, requesting sustainably caught wild Alaskan salmon instead, I would fully expect not to get invited back. Veganism isn't (or shouldn't be) a religion, and it doesn't trump every other
conceivable issue."
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I'm not sure if you understand just how highly frowned-upon picky eating is in Japan; "eat what's offered" is the FIRST rule of etiquette, and special requests and requests for substitutions, even in restaurants, are highly unusual and are considered extremely rude - you either make your own food or you find some place where your preferences are catered to. You do NOT turn up your nose at your host's offerings.
And in fact, strictly vegetarian food is very rare in Japan, since even vegetable soups and noodle dishes are cooked in the ever-present dashi (a fish stock made from bonito flakes).
Lower overall meat consumption (compared to the U.S.) in Japan would seem to be more a matter of necessity than of preference, since one of the most important traditional rules of etiquette in Japan is that when you're served a family-style dish, you do NOT pick out the "choice bits" (by which they mean pieces of meat) for yourself and leave the rice behind for others to eat. This is considered the height of rudeness and suggests that they think of rice as essentially a filler that provides calories but not much else.
Vegan sushi is not a contradiction in terms, since "sushi" simply means vinegared rice.
Vegan paella, on the other hand, makes no more sense than potato-less shepherd's pie.
Why even bother using traditional terms when what you're making bears no relation to the actual dish?
fanaticism usually does.
Or, you could just be being a nice, normal human being.
"He does not get the vegan thing. But he has a fierce desire to please, a desire to feed".
Who does 'get' the vegan thing? Maybe he's just passionate about his trade?
"Now if I could only get my hands on a head of kale."
What, no well stocked produce aisles brimming with imported veggies from thousands of miles away to choose from there? Shocking! This is the funniest meatless monday piece yet.
There is a reason why the traditional diet of Spain (or any other country) isn't a vegan diet. A traditional diet is one based on staple foods that have been procured sustainably for centuries in a particular part of the world. To denigrate a native cuisine takes a bit of hubris, especially when it is based on a culinary ideology that is divorced from the natural world.
To assume that leaving an ingredient out of it suddenly divorces it from the natural world is well...extreme, no?
And where did I say that leaving out an ingredient divorces a dish from the natural world? It is the vegan ideology that is divorced from the natural world.
my first thought. and you're sooooooooo right. it's sad , mainly for them.
Don't be so angry, taste a real paella cooked properly and I'm sure whether it is meaty, fishy or vegetarian it will livw you full and happy.