Vegan foods take root at cookouts

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Vegan foods take root at cookouts

For millions of Americans, a hefty portion of the approximately 25 billion pounds of beef we eat every year will be slapped on the grills at cookouts across the country this weekend.

But for a small but growing portion of the party-going populace, meat won’t be on the menu. According to the nonprofit Vegetarian Resource Group, a 2011 poll found that about 5 percent of Americans say they never eat meat, fish, seafood or poultry.

Local vegetarians and vegans say they’re not surprised to see more people go vegan, and say that with a little preparation and a bit of education they get their grub on like anyone else cooking out over the summer.

Relieving a non-vegan cookout host of the burden of accommodating a vegan is one way to avoid being stuck eating salad.

“The best way to approach it, I think, is that I never want it to seem like I don’t have any options,” said vegan Kaitlyn Miklinevich, a doctoral student at UMass Medical School. “I’ll make a veggie burger and bring it, or buy vegan burgers at the store and bring them along, and eat them with everyone else. Bring yourself a main dish, and bring some sides and desserts and share. People are curious.”

Vegan Manda Rose, who said she once got stuck at a cookout eating a bun with mustard, also ascribes to the head-them-off-at-the-buffet-table method. It’s almost like having a food allergy; if she can control the ingredients, she knows she’ll have at least one thing she can eat at a cookout.

Still, she said she appreciates the effort by carnivores and omnivores.

“Normally what I do is if I’m going to a cookout with friends or family, I take the opportunity to bring something with me that’s vegan that I can share,” said Ms. Rose, a member of the local nonprofit VegWorcester, which promotes the vegan lifestyle in the area. “I don’t expect people will be mindful to have a vegan option. They’re not sure what to do.”

In fact, many cookout masters already make vegan dishes without even knowing it.

“Guacamole is something people will bring unknowingly, and I can dig right into it,” Ms. Miklinevich said.

Other dishes might take a few alterations, but can be just as much of a hit at cookouts as burgers and steaks.

“One thing I love to have at cookouts is potato salad,” Ms. Rose said. “Potato salad usually has eggs in it, and mayonnaise. I love potato salad, so I use a vegan mayonnaise, it’s called Vegenaise, it tastes the same. People are normally surprised when they eat vegan food. It’s not just grass and twigs.”

VegWorcester founder Drew Wilson said it’s amazing how many offerings there are for vegans and vegetarians now.

Most grocery stores have a section, and he said he just recently snacked on mock ribs while cooking out with a friend.

“You just throw ‘em on the grill,” said Mr. Wilson, 26, who has been a vegan since he was 12. “You don’t have to worry about some things that you do with meat, you don’t have to worry about bacteria or pathogens.”

Lisa MicKunas, 47, of Millbury, has been a vegetarian since she was a young girl.

Like many vegans and vegetarians, the thought of eating dead animals was a major motivating factor in not eating meat, although she described herself as a lacto-ovo vegetarian — she eats eggs, and eats foods and drinks with milk in them.

Vegans eat no meat products at all, and like Ms. Rose, often eschew non-food products that are made from animals or developed by testing on animals.

Ms. MicKunas’ significant other of 15 years, David Laporte, is a meat eater, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t influenced his habits over the years.

She said she has cut out a lot of junk food from their diet, while adding in more vegetables.

Still, while Ms. MicKunas said she cooks meat for Mr. Laporte, she observes a strict, Kosher-like compartmentalization of her diet. When she goes to a cookout, she won’t eat anything that has been cooked on a surface that has also cooked meat.

Her fall-back cookout food is corn on the cob, because if it’s even cooked on the grill, it’s usually wrapped in foil.

A strong strain of conviction and advocacy runs through the local vegan community, and Ms. Miklinevich, Ms. Rose and Mr. Wilson are no exception.

All three said they don’t hide their beliefs about why they eat the way they do, but are careful not to impose their beliefs on meat-eaters, especially at cookouts and other social situations.

“The biggest misconception is that a lot of us are militant,” Ms. Miklinevich said, “We’re not forcing anybody to do what we do. It doesn’t mean everyone has to stop eating meat. I’m not going to judge you for your food choices.”

Ms. MicKunas said she will offer her perspective, but said she tries to use good judgment, and will never bring up gruesome animal stories while someone’s eating.

Mr. Wilson said vegetarianism and veganism have become more mainstream in recent years, and are actually ahead of the curve in the national discussion of obesity and diseases that can be prevented with diets that come close to veganism.

Ms. Miklinevich, who said she likes to go to cookouts with a Mexican bean salad recipe she got from her mother, said her veganism isn’t about lecturing people.

It’s about eating by example, and cookouts are a great place to show people there’s nothing extreme about not eating meat, she said.

“It’s kind of a food-as-activism type thing,” she said. “I’m not deprived. I eat delicious food. And I’m not going to go hungry anywhere. It takes a little preparation, but you can show them it’s easy and delicious.”

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