Chinese Vegetarian Cuisine

Confucian, Buddist and Taoist idealogy has influenced, to some degree, modern Chinese cuisine. Being an ancient culture, China has had plenty of time to perfect the cooking arts. At times the climate condition of the country is severly cold. To conserve on wood or heating oil in the cold, the chinese used a method of cooking not in full but a kind of half cooking that allows for the use of less fuel and still safe enough to eat and remain delicious. There are other benefits of cooking by these methods, the prime reason being that it takes a longer period of time to allow food to digest. This in turn heats the body allowing for easier digestion. This method includes their vegetarian recipes. Main dishes often include components such as rice, noodles and tofu, which are incorporated with the vegetable dishes to add volume. Chinese cooking is often fast, this is the reason that many vegetable related dishes still have crunch to the food. More often than not, Eastern dishes do not have too many starch related foods added besides those already mentioned. The Chinese way of stir-frying vegetables ensures that the vegetables retain all their natural flavors and juices and color and are not too oily when served. Frozen vegetables are best avoided as their excess water content makes them mushy and not crisp. Simplicity is commonly found in almost all Chinese vegetarian dishes. Chinese vegetarian dishes display a harmonious balance of colors, flavors and textures.

The ingredients

The basic ingredients of Chinese vegetarian cooking are vegetable oils, wheat gluten, soya, bamboo shoots and fresh vegetables. Often you can find some exotic ingredients as well, like seaweed, odd forms of fungi and mushrooms. Some dishes even have various fruits added. Mono sodium glutamate is used in Chinese cooking liberally and this has to be borne in mind and can be left out or used little where possible due to allergic reaction.

There is a popular form of dining that is called Dim Sum that may offer some variety to vegetarians. Another couple of methods are stir fry and steaming.

Common Ingredients in Cooking

Bean curd (from soy) resembles tofu, roasted seaweed (Yakinori), and wheat gluten are some of the more common elements in this food. Mushrooms, water chestnuts, walnuts, and many more interesting items are often included to add a more robust and filing element. Noodles are used abundantly in Chinese vegetarian healthy recipes and come in all shapes and sizes, from round and flat to fat and thin. There is a long shelf life for these, so can be seen in many dishes. Different types, like chow mien is used for different dishes.

Even the famous chop suey can be made the vegetarian way. By using bean sprouts, cabbage or celery it is easy to simply thicken the mixture with some corn starch and sauce, then serve over rice or noodles for a hearty meal.

Foundation in rice

Fried rice or Chinese fried rice is ubiquitous. The most popular complete rice dish in itself is fried rice. There is a trick to fried rice to give it consistency. That is it is often old rice or previously cooked rice.

Soups

Another are that is central to Chinese cuisine are soups. There is everything from tart and tangy to sweet and sour. In some areas, soups are used to treat certain ailments. Certain fruits like banana and strawberry have a cooling effect in Chinese meals where as guavas and litchi are thought of as warming. Ginger soup is often used to close a meal out, adding to the digestive process. Sometimes an ingredient like gensing is added to improve circulation.

Cinese vegetarian meals, while simple, work particularly well in colder climates. Of course summertime need not hamper a good Chinese menu from gracing your table.

About The Author If you would like to know more about adding vegetarian concepts to meals, please go to Vegan Heretic by clicking here.