Vegan Home Cooks
Come join the Vegan Home Cooks!
Participation is really easy, just take a picture of what you cooked today and post it, no recipes needed.
This is a public forum for a discord server of friends who are all vegans and cook at home for their families.
We are here to share some inspiration, to see what others are doing and to stay engaged in something that is both our hobby and a required task.
This forum is not a "food porn" community, a recipe book or a place to teach you how to cook. It is a place for people who already cook to meet other people like themselves and provide on topic support and conversation as much as long distance friends on the internet can do. We are doing show and tell about what we made and we don't care about its instagram worthiness.
Veganism isn’t a diet but I have to eat every day. This is for the vegan home cooks. Anything non vegan will be deleted.
Rules
1. Be Vegan.
If it is not vegan it doesn’t belong here… or anywhere.
2. Post home cooking.
No restaurant or fast food. This is what every other vegan space is about and we don’t want to promote any large or small business tyrants.
We’re an active community of vegan home cooks that like to talk about what we are cooking today.
4. Do not make any rude comments or digs at anyone’s food, cooking style, specific diet, restrictions or technique.
While we are all cooks, we all have different requirements and we’re not asking for help, we are doing show and tell.
5. Do not use trademarked brands
Use generic names. We’re cooking with tvp not whatever business brands it and we’re not trying to turn comrades into billboards. No plant-based vegan-pandering capitalist crap like Impossible, Beyond, Dairy-company owned “vegan” cheese.
6. Do not ask for a recipe without otherwise engaging the OP (No posts that are just “recipe?”)
We are not food bloggers. Sometimes we're excited to share and will tell you the recipes we used but this isn't required. Instead try doing your own research and tell us what you learned and we can talk about it.
7. Careful with making unasked for suggestions.
Sometimes we like to hear suggestions but you should be nice about it and know the person you are making suggestions to. We are in the discord and you can get to know us that way. If you are just a visitor from the fediverse, this isn’t the place for you to start telling other people what to do.
8. Adults Only.
While this isn't a community for adult material we expect everyone who participates to be an adult. If you have a gross and profane username you will be removed.
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As someone who cooks rice (or alt grains like quinoa) almost daily, trust me when I say this - just get any decent fully stainless steel saucepan, which has a glass lid and a steamer basket option, and you're all set. For example, something like this: https://www.amazon.com.au/HZIB-Stainless-Hanging-Saucepan-Nonstick/dp/B099Z6KQJJ
It would be free of PFAs (aka "forever chemicals" like Teflon, GenX etc); zero plastic means it's eco-friendly and there's little risk of getting microplastics into your food; and it also makes it dishwasher/steel wool safe. Cleaning it manually is also a lot easier compared to a full-on rice cooker/instant pot.
Cooking rice in one of these is super easy - just add 1.5-2x water, bring it to boil, add some rice, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 12-15 minutes. Take it off the stove and let it cool down for 5 more minutes and you're done. Perfectly cooked rice every time, no sticky bits either, which makes it super easy to clean up manually as well.
If you want some of the more fancier features found in electric rice cookers then just get an induction hob (you can get portable ones, which are pretty cheap like < $100). With a modern induction hob, you can set an automatic timer, schedule it, and even select from preset programs like soup/steam etc, so you can make it behave pretty much like a rice cooker.
The other advantage of using an induction top (over regular electric or gas) is that your saucepan's base won't get dirty, which will save you the hassle of cleaning it, and thus it'll continue to retain it's heat transfer efficiency without you needing to put in any cleaning effort.
IMO, this sort of setup gives you so many more advantages over a fancy cooker and is a much better option. In addition to the low cost, low-fuss maintenance, and eco-friendlyness, you get versatility - like you could even chuck the whole thing into an oven if you wanted to, say in case you feel like making cake or something.
I really appreciate these suggestions. Thank you.
Since you mentioned alt-grains, I'll admit I'm more interested in leaner "ancient" alternatives to rice, but sometimes I still test my glycemic threshold with brown rice variants; basmati and jasmine.
Zojirushi has been recommended to me before, so this is starting to ring true. Your stovetop notions are hands down agreeable. Thanks for introducing me to the hob top. Smart!
Since you're interested in alt-grains, I'd also recommend checking out black rice / jasberry rice btw - they're super rich in antioxidants, and therfore another healthier option to white rice.
I'd also avoid brown rice btw, since they typically have high levels of arsenic - unless your brand specially indicates that it is a low-arsenic variant.
Thanks for the heads up.