The Veg Blog

USDA Relies On Foreign Inspections, Meat Plants Abroad Fail Sanitation Checks

This high profile Washington Post article discusses recent problems with raw beef coming from Mexico and it’s levels of fecal contamination. “… the USDA increasingly relies on foreign governments—including ones that have repeatedly failed to get the job done.” The USDA insists that foreign meat is safe, perhaps safer, than domestic meat since it goes through two safety checks.

Based on a number of “slaughterhouse expose”-type books I’ve read over the past year, I highly doubt that the problem is limited to foreign meat. By all accounts I’ve read, the USDA has quite a difficult time even beginning to enforce many of the health and safety issues domestically with our food supply. So, perhaps, imported meat is “safer… than many domestic foods,” but I don’t think that’s something to brag about.

After reading this article, I also realized that the Post has been archiving a series of meat industry-related articles under “Modern Meat: A Brutal Harvest,” that should be of interest to those concerned with animal rights and food safety.

Board suspends coach for biting sparrow’s head off

Aron D. Bright, head wrestling coach at Avon High School in Indianapolis has been suspended for two weeks after biting off a live sparrow’s head in front of his wrestling team. Bright insists it was “innocent fun.” “Looking back, it was unprofessional,” Bright said, but “nobody was hurt.”

I guess the headless sparrow doesn’t count. (via Obscure Store)

The LA Times ran an article on raw food Chef Lesa Carlson. While raw foodism as a diet and lifestyle seem somewhat restrictive to me, I must admit that I am mighty curious about how to make pizzas without cooking anything over 120 degrees. I would imagine that dehydrators and food processors get a lot of use in a raw food kitchen. In any event, it’s interesting to see the LA Times running such an article.

The Living and Raw Foods site has a large number of recipes ranging from Beta Bergers (which is heavy on the yams) to mock tuna to “Yummy Goop.”

An interesting fact: some raw foodists eat fish.

A new recipe has been posted: Simple, but Satisfying Salad Dressing. This one only takes minutes and gives a nice punch to your plain old salad.

(Update, Feb 20: I realized I left out the garlic, so the recipe has been updated.)

Chewing Out the Food Industry

“Altoids has a $10-million-a-year advertising budget. That’s five times what the National Cancer Institute and the Produce for Better Health Foundation spend to encourage consumers to eat five fruits and vegetables a day.”

A must-read. (via Ev)

A new vegan-centric blog started up last month titled what the hell _does_ a vegan eat anyway?. Though reading a person’s menus may seem a bit tired, the author seems to eat some mighty tasty food! This would definitely be a worthwhile read for new vegetarians looking for new meal ideas. (via Katherine)

Eating Healthy Can Make You Sick

This excellent article discusses the newly-coined eating disorder of “orthorexia nervosa,” an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. This is one of those traps that I hope never to fall into. In my own opinion, if you go beyond veganism (into raw foodism, fruitarianism, etc.) then you’re a likely candidate for orthoexia nervosa. To me, a complex, varied diet that I enjoy is the most important. As a vegetarian I don’t feel like I’m limiting myself or becoming obsessive about the “little things” (like cooking out small bits of nutrients from veggies by stir-frying them for a few minutes). My goal is to always enjoy what I’m eating while remaining aware (but not obsessing over) the positive or negative health ramifications of the food.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to eat a bag of Double Stuf Oreos and a block of organic tofu.

Last month, I mentioned a recipe for Portuguese Chouriço and Kale Soup that sounded very tasty and quite simple. Of course since chourico (chorizo) is sausage, it’s not exactly vegetarian fare. I wondered, out loud, how I could duplicate this recipe’s flavors without using the meat. I got some great responses. Ann mentioned Soyrizo, a soy-based version of chorizo by El Burrito Mexican Foods. I put in a special order with a health food store and am waiting for it to come in. Jen mentioned TVP, which I’ve never tried, but I picked some up over the weekend. CompassRose mentioned that Bryanna Clark Grogan over at VegSource might be able to help.

Well, lo and behold, Bryanna is now offering up a bunch of vegetarian chorizo recipes, including Portuguese Chouriço! I’d like to think she stumbled upon the Veg Blog and was inspired, but I’d be flattering myself. I’m content with chalking it up to a happy coincidence.

The recipes look very doable and the original recipe from the Food Network was simple enough that this little bit of added work is no big deal. I can’t wait to try it out.

After having tried a few recipes from The Voluptuous Vegan (a gift from Alex), I can definitely say that the book’s recipes are among the most unique I’ve tried. However, I can also say that it’s not a book to go to when you get home at 8pm wondering what to cook for dinner. The dishes are time consuming, but the results are very much worth it.

Last night I made the Creamy Chickpea Soup with Moroccan Spice Oil. The soup itself was pretty straightforward, though it took a couple hours to cook (like most good soups). Chickpeas are a pretty mellow ingredient, but they worked well in this particular dish. The key was the spice oil. It’s made by toasting whole cumin, coriander, and fennel seeds, then grinding them with ground cinnamon, ginger, and red pepper flakes. The spices are then transferred into a skillet with a 1/4 cup of olive oil and cooked until the oil is heated through. The mixture is then strained through cheese cloth (I used a spice bag) and the remaining dark brown oil can then be saved for a month in a tightly sealed jar. Just a bit of this oil is added to the soup just before serving and really adds a lot of strong flavors to the soup.

Though I can’t post the recipe here, I will point you to this hard to read page (a cache of the Vegetarian Times article that posted these recipes) that has the recipe for both the soup and the oil. Start with the phrase “This soup is a centerpiece unto itself…” and go through the phrase “… and store in tightly closed jar.”