DAY NINE: holiday food!

Today is not so much a recipe as a little holiday catch up.

Food is a huge part of my life and from day to day I am pretty much always in control of things, cooking up my meals from scratch since I don’t eat out all that often and when I do I have a pretty good idea of what’s on the menu and if not, it’s easy to make requests from the waiter. However in a foreign country when the native language is not your own and the food culture is unfamiliar things can be a little different!

When it comes to making a judgement call on a plant based diet I typically ask myself the question ‘would there be any reason for the dish to have been made with animal products?’ I appreciate that for those with allergies and for those who are strict ethical vegans that this may not be a strict enough response, but for me I am comfortable that I follow a 99% plant based diet, and at times if there are minor slip ups or an accidental selection of an item containing an animal product, I am not going to beat myself up about. This is purely my way.

I went on holiday to Turunc in Turkey and to a large extent eating was pretty easy since we were in an all-inclusive hotel and so I had free reign to ‘go crazy’ with the large buffet selection (mainly amongst the cold salad cart!)  One thing I did miss was the ‘milk’ since I have a tendency to drown my breakfast bowl of oats in soy milk each morning. However fruit juice- either from the fruit itself as I spooned it over the oats or on tap was a pretty good replacement.

plenty of cereal and oaty options

Oats topped with lots of fruit,...there are oats under there!

Herbal teas also satisfied me nicely. The roll to the side I’m not convinced was vegan since it was a sweet roll and had a glaze which I hadn’t initially noticed. However its times like these I use the experience as an experiment so that I can appreciate the taste to be able to as closely as possible replicate the same thing (as a healthy vegan alternative) when home…this was a great example of that.

The roll was more like a cross between a hot cross bun and a rock cake in texture  with sultanas inside and raisins on the top.  I really want to make a gluten free vegan version of this very soon!

The one other thing I really, really want to replicate is Turkish baklava (although I’m not yet sure how I was healthanize it). Baklava is typically made with honey and butter, but I have found several vegan recipes on the internet and I’m sure I could use coconut butter and agave or maple syrup as replacements. Filo pastry is typically vegan anyway (although healthy!)…but to make this gluten free would be a double challenge. I’m so onto it!

Sometimes the simplest of things are also the nicest way to end a meal (or begin one).

Back with a new oaty recipe for you tomorrow!

What Vegan MOFO means to me.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.