Grandma’s traditional cuisine? Yeah, but vegan!
To follow a vegan diet you do not have to look for strange products in futuristic and expensive stores, you can give a look to grandmother’s recipes and rediscover typical dishes without meat and animal derivatives. The Italian culinary tradition is full of vegan, full-nutritional, protein, tasty and healthy dishes.
The best cruelty free dishes from the Italian culinary tradition
It is undeniable that the dishes for the special occasions in the tradition of the Italy are succulent meat dishes, game sauces, and seasonings full of cheeses and animal fat. Who does not serve during the holidays zampone, ragu, agnolotti and roast feasts? However, besides these carnivorous dishes, there are many dishes of traditional day-to-day cuisine that encompass cereals, legumes, dried fruits and many vegetables. Here you can find vegan foods that do not include soybeans, seitans, and new generation supplements but are part of the Italian cuisine for centuries
Let’s start from breakfast …
Impossible to give up cappuccino and brioche? A traditional and popular beverage in southern Italy is almond milk, the best and sweet substitute for the cow’s milk. What to dip in? Puffed rice, oatmeal and toasted barley: the simple and genuine breakfast of our grandparents, together with fresh and dried fruits: nuts, hazelnuts, raisins, dried figs and apricots make the traditional rich and genuine muesli.
Vegan dishes of Italian tradition
Pasta and chickpeas and pasta and beans
Simple, ancient, and healthy! Directly from the Apulian tradition, excellent fettuccine of semolina and water seasoned with a tasty sauce of boiled chickpeas with onions, tasty soup, thyme and pepper. After cooking the fettuccine, dip them in pans where you have cooked the chickpeas leaving them a bit sour and jumping.
The Venetian version? The famous pasta and beans with radishes. Much more creamy than pasta and chickpeas, the Venetian version plans to whip the beans in liquid cream and add small size pasta as in a soup, the traditional touch? Serve with raw Treviso radicchio shredded in the dish.
Tuscan ribollita
A tasty bean soup, black cabbage and bread. Sear in a garlic, onion, celery and carrots with oil and rosemary, add tomato with cubes, potatoes and leeks and after a few minutes the white beans. Sprinkle with a tasty vegetable broth and combine the black cabbage leaves and cut into pieces. Let it bake for one hour and then flavor with additional warmed oil along with garlic, thyme and rosemary. Spread it over the soup and serve it with black bread croutons.
Pappa al pomodoro
From Tuscany again another typical vegan dish, it is called Pappa al pomodoro: it’s delicious, velvety and easy to prepare. Peel 500 gr of crushed tomatoes, without seeds and cut into small cubes. Cook in a pan with olive oil and garlic and when the tomato begins to make garlic sauce, add 300 grams of bread (Tuscan or Apulian type) well soaked in hot broth. Let it cook for an hour until the pappa will be stained; oil, basil and your “pappa al pomodoro” is ready!
Farinata
From Liguria comes the eggless omelet! Nothing innovative but a good old farinata. Chickpea, broth, spice or spring onion to flavor and your second course is served! The recipe? Prepare a batter with 450 grams of chickpea flour, 1 teaspoon of water, two tablespoons of oil, salt and plenty of pepper. Try it if you like with a spring onion seared in the pan. Cook as an omelette and taste!
Eggplant meatballs
Typical from South of Italy these dumplings are a real treat, and if enriched with seeds, as in some versions, they bring many nutritive principles. Simply cook the aubergines in the oven, pick up the pulp with a spoon, mix it with damp bread or boiled potatoes, knead with sesame seeds and aromas, sprinkle them in breadcrumbs and fry!
Polenta and mushrooms
Typical pre-alpine dish, inevitable on grandparents’ tables: the secret of its success is a whole, full-bodied and tasty flour cooked in pan with water and a spoon of oil and served softly in the waves with a mushroom fried with oil, garlic and parsley.
Ready to cook a vegan dinner of tradition?
