All posts tagged: stew

Carbonade flamande or Flemish stew à la vegan

Carbonade flamande or Flemish stew (Vlaamse stoverij) is a traditional Flemish dish. It is commonly sold at ‘frietkoten’ (fast food places selling fries, hamburgers, ..) and is often served as a ‘plat du jour’ at bistros or traditional restaurants. In 2015, Flemish stew with fries was chosen as the most traditional Flemish dish by viewers of the popular TV-cooking show ‘Dagelijkse Kost‘ (roughly translates as ‘Everyday Meals‘) and March 1, was proclaimed as ‘Flemish stew day‘. Not surprisingly of course, the dish is not vegan, as it traditionally made with cow (beef) or sometimes with pig. See also our post about Belgium’s culinary tradition here. This is our vegan version of Vlaamse Stoverij, with seitan. We’ve given it our own touch, as most often it does not come with mushrooms, nor carrots. What is typical though is the use of (dark) beer, and bread smeared with mustard. This is for 4 persons (we usually make this portion for the two of us and then freeze the remaining for later). Sometimes we use storebought seitan, but most often we use homemade seitan from …

13 Foods that’ll make you want to visit Belgium, but not if you’re vegan!

This overview of 13 typical Belgian foods appeared in The Huffington Post recently. They are listed as thé tourist attraction and appealing feature to come and visit Belgium: the food! Although the Huffington Post has spent a good deal of attention to the rise of veganism in the US (see this overview with keyword vegan), it’s obvious the author of this article clearly wasn’t thinking about the growing popularity of plant based foods or veganism in general. Let’s take a closer look at these 13 typical Belgian foods, and see whether there’s something for vegans in there. 1. Endives in slices of ham, covered in cheese sauce. You could try and veganise the dish, but it’ll take quite some years to come before any traditional restaurant will standardly have a vegan version of this dish on their menu! 2. Mussles with fries. Nope. Mussles are animals. I don’t now if ‘faux vegan mussles’ even exist, but I wouldn’t fancy them anyway! 3. Belgian waffles. Dairy and eggs. Of course you make these vegan yourselves, but …