Back in March of 2010 I took my first Vegan cooking class. A friend of mine, who owns Large Marge Sustainables, invited me to be her guest at a class by Spork Foods called "Spork Foods Home-made Protein." I was so touched that she thought of me and felt this would be right up my alley. Who knew there was more than one type of vegan protein.
Wow was she right!!! She opened up an amazing resource and door for me. The class was at Spork Foods and it couldn't have been more wonderful. Spork Foods is owned by sisters Jenny & Heather Goldberg and to say they are an inspiration is an understatement. They are passionate about what they are doing and it comes across on every level. The class was about two hours long and at the end we sat down and ate the food family style. What an amazing class. I got recipes for new foods and met some great new people.
In our class we learned how to make Almond Milk, Seitan (my first time eating it), and tofu.
The almond milk was so good and fresh and pretty simple to make. It really opened my eyes up to see how easy it was to make the milk. The seitan took more work but it was well worth it. I enjoyed it so much that I made it at home the next day and it was AMAZING! Now the tofu was a lot of work and while it was interesting to make I have to say I doubt this is something I will be making again. It seems I can buy organic tofu for less money than it would cost me to make it and overall the amount of tofu was not enough "bang for my buck" (for lack of a better expression).
It was a wonderful first looking into making vegan food that is a bit more complex than my everyday day food. I have been back there many times and enjoyed every class. And on top of it I've made some wonderful new friends through the classes.
Have you made vegan proteins at home? Do you have a favorite? Care to share a recipe?
This was a great class! I've made seitan at home many times over the years, but I don't tend to focus much on protein in my daily diet. Every vegetable, fruit, and grain contains protein, so I know I'm getting plenty just by eating as I do.
ReplyDeleteI eat quinoa (a complete protein in and of itself) in small amounts on an almost daily basis. I LOVE tofu and beans, but I probably don't even eat them weekly.
One of the best aspects of the Spork Foods protein class was how many varieties of protein sources they demonstrated. There were nuts, beans, tofu, and seitan (I don't recall if the class included tempeh), so there was definitely something for everyone. Meaning, that if you're not inclined to make tofu at home when you can buy organic tofu for less at the store, you can definitely still make almond milk and homemade seitan. And, hey, you still have the tofu-making skill under your belt for if you ever feel like making that, too! The Spork Foods classes are just so awesome for that reason and so many more.