Vegetarian Products available only in coptic fasting season.
In this time of the year Egypt has millions of vegetarians. The Coptic fast is a great for people like us who are full time veggies. Now even KFC has a fully vegetarian meal. But the really interesting veggie stuff is in the supermarket here are some products that you might not find all year round, it is best that you enjoy them now. Well anyway if someone knows anybody in a supermarket that sell these items or a producer we should try to get it for us all year round.
Well this one is for pure vagans, Christians in fasting or those that seriously need to cut on all fat and cholesterol. Soya beans are very rich in protein so they are excellent for creating emulation milk. “So Fresh” by origins is sold both as a powder and as a liquid milk carton. The liquid milk is more expensive since the powder is not that easy to make. First of all you need to add just a little bit of water and make a paste of it then slowly add water. Your end result is a liquid that looks like milk, is as or more nutritious as milk without the cholesterol and fats but does not really taste just like milk. They have three flavors, chocolate, strawberry and original. All of the flavors are fine, but at 8-12LE per liter this imported item becomes a serious luxury item, not your every day low cost cup of milk.
Anyway it is cool to find such product like these in Egypt. Take care after the Christian fast is over you might not find this item available.
Well both these items are only present in fasting time in supermarkets. The vegetarian salami tastes nothing like salami, it has a taste of its own that really makes this the food of last resort. But the busterma although made of the same material has does not have the texture of meat but has the aroma and taste of busterma. I found that it was ok with fried eggs. I had really missed the busterma omelets but now I can get a taste of what I miss. To make a nice omelet with it you need to fry it in the pan for a while and then add the eggs and continue as you usually do you eggs.
Being made in Egypt this item is not expensive but it is only present in fasting time.
Tofu is a far eastern invention is made of soya but depending on the way it is made can be used as a replacement for meat, eggs or even cheese. Hard tofu ( which is not really hard at all ) looks like traditional Egyptian white cottage cheese but is relatively tasteless. This might seem like a bad thing until you realize that by marinating it, it can have the taste you want. When it is drained of its water and is frozen its texture becomes like meat. There are online recopies for doing things like veggie burgers and Veggie meatballs as well as many other meat like dishes.
I found it only in Alpha market this week so I am not much of an expert on how good it tasted but today I tried it in a stir fry Chinese style dish and it was Ok. I will try to use it as a veggie burger, I hope it is as good as my mushroom based veggie burger recipe.
Anyway this is a high protein item that is very nutritious and low on fat and sometimes tastes like meat. What we need to do is try it and make sure that Alpha always stocks it. The only way to do that is actually to buy it.