Your Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial

Welcome to your Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial!

There is a lot of information tucked within the pages of this site that will be extremely helpful to you as you begin (or continue on) your cooking adventures. But it can be a little overwhelming to have so much information and no idea what to do with it!

So this page has been created to help you make the most of your journey through the Vegan Cooking Guide so you can get started creating your very own vegan recipes quickly and easily.

Making The Most Of The Vegan Cooking Guide

Let's imagine you purchase a particular food from your favorite market. Whether it's produce, grains, beans, fruit, you name it, you simply need some ideas of how you can prepare it.

Many of us go in search of recipes (which can be time consuming) that will help you to bring the food from it's raw self to a yummy cooked creation.

But what if you don't have time to search for a recipe? Maybe you need to make dinner NOW. Or maybe you find you don't have the ingredients on hand the recipe calls for? Or maybe (if you're anything like my husband) you find recipes to be confusing and overwhelming.

Your Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial

Your vegan cooking adventure begins when you choose your main ingredient from the Vegan Cooking Guide. You'll be taken to a page which is devoted to your chosen main ingredient. Here you'll find the information you need to build your recipe from beginning to end.

This Tutorial will help you to make sense of the fantastically helpful information you'll find tucked within the many pages of the Vegan Cooking Guide.

Upon "clicking on" your chosen main ingredient you'll discover how to select the freshest and most beautiful foods from the market.

For example purposes let's say you've chosen "Cabbage":

How To Select Cabbage

Look for Cabbage with crisp and smooth outer leaves, with no tears, bruises or cracks. If you see any damage on the outside, chances are there will be damage on the inside, most likely in the form of worms or other pests. Also, look to the bottom to see if the leaves are beginning to separate from the stem -- if so, pass on it as this is an indication of age.

Then you'll learn how to Clean and Prep your chosen main ingredient to get it ready for the next step:

How To Clean and Prep Cabbage

Fill a bowl (or a Salad Spinner) with clean, filtered water. Add 2-3 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice, or any other edible acid, such as Vinegar which will help to clean your veggie more thoroughly (p.s. don't skip this step -- it's very important).

Remove outer leaves and discard. Cut head of cabbage into quarters and soak in the prepared water for 10 minutes or so. Rinse.

Next, you'll discover vegan cooking techniques that work beautifully with your particular chosen main ingredient:

How To Cook Cabbage

Baked Cabbage
Boiled Cabbage
Braised Cabbage
Sauteed Cabbage
Steamed Cabbage
Stir-Fried Cabbage
Eat it RAW! (Great shredded in salads or coleslaw.)

Click on any of these links to discover the detailed instructions for each cooking technique.

*Note: Remember, these are just suggestions. As you spend more time on this site learning various cooking techniques, you may want to experiment with a particular technique that isn't listed for your food of choice. Creativity and experimentation is the name of the game whenever you step into the kitchen.

And here's where your creativity will really come into play...

The "Vegan Flavor Matches" are a list of the foods, herbs, spices and other ingredients that tend to go perfectly with the flavor of your chosen main ingredient:

Cabbage Vegan Flavor Matches

Agave Nectar, or brown rice syrup, or light maple syrup
Apples
Beets
Bulgur
Butter, non-dairy (I like Earth Balance)
Caraway Seeds
Celery
Chestnuts
Coconut
Cream, non-dairy (I like Silk Soy Creamer)
Garlic
Horseradish
Leeks
Lemon...

Choose the ingredients that you have on hand to get your meal on the table in minutes.

For example, suppose you have some Agave Nectar, coconut milk, garlic and lemon juice on hand. You can whip this into a sauce and pour it over lightly steamed cabbage.

Or you could saute some chopped cabbage and leeks in a little non-dairy butter and sprinkle with caraway seeds, salt and pepper, and any other ingredients you have on hand that match your tastebuds.

The "Vegan Flavor Matches" give you the training wheels you need to learn how to mix and match flavors that work perfectly with your chosen main ingredient. Be sure to take note of those ingredients you'd like to purchase so you have them on hand for next time.

Note: These matches are just a guide to get your creative vegan cooking juices flowing. You will most likely discover Vegan Flavor Matches on your own. Don't be afraid to play with your food. ;O)

** Pssst...All Flavor Matches found throughout VeganCoach.com are now conveniently available in a downloadable e-book. Click here to order Your Quick Guide To Vegan Flavor Matches.

You will also find other tools that you may find useful, such as Helpful Hints...

Cabbage Helpful Hints

Red cabbage turns blue when cooked for a length of time. To avoid color loss: When cooking for longer periods of time (such as boiling) add a splash of vinegar to the cooking water.

...Similar Food Suggestions...

...and Vegan Nutrition Information...

Discover The Nutritional Value Of Cabbage

It's the Vegan Food Guide of your dreams!

And it's all here for you to play with and use to your heart's content.

That about wraps it up for the Tutorial. Yay! ;O)

Are you ready? It's time to visit the Vegan Cooking Guide and take the first step in your vegan cooking adventure.

Take me to the Vegan Cooking Guide!

Back to the top - Vegan Cooking Guide Tutorial
Visit the Vegan Cooking Guide
Visit my on-the-fly vegan cooking BLOG
Go to the VeganCoach.com Homepage

Follow us on Twitter!