A (semi-failed) vegan experiment

My husband is very cooperative with my healthful eating experiments. VERY. He will cheerfully try anything I make and 99% of the time he finds something good to say about it. However, he met his match with the Vegan Pizza I tried last week. Poor guy. 

Here's the story. I had a Groupon for Whole Foods about to expire. I decided to use it on all the things I THINK about buying but rarely actually do. Things like:

Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bread (Flourless!)

Tempeh

Seitan

Vegenaise

Daiya dairy-free vegan cheese

Cocoa-dusted goji berries

You get the idea. Things a little off the beaten path. So one night, I whipped up a vegan pizza. Vegan crust, tomato sauce, Daiya vegan cheese (mozzarella style, so the package claimed), diced fresh vegetables, a few olives. Heated up the pizza stone. Popped in the pizza. Made a salad. Set the table.

We all thought it looked great as I cut slices for everyone. This cheese's big claim to fame is that it stretches like mozzarella. Which it sort of does. So after saying grace, we each took our first bite with anticipation. But for at least one of us, the first bite would also be the last.

Now, in full disclosure, our three-year-old loved it. Seriously. 

My 6-year-old said it was not as good as our usual "pizza cheese," but nonetheless happily chomped through her slice.

I said that if I ever WERE to be a vegan, I could eat this. But I'd certainly prefer mozzarella.

The baby didn't get any. Just gnawed on her plastic spoon in teething bliss.

My husband quietly ate his salad and left his slice with one big bite taken out of it on his plate. All the way through the meal. Never picked it up again! He was excruciatingly tactful so as not to give the kids license to do the same. But when I asked him what he thought, he simply said, "I'm not eating that."

In our entire ten-year marriage, I believe this was a first! For him the deal breaker was the texture of the cheese. It was creamy, sort of like cream cheese, instead of stretchy and chewy like mozzarella. It just didn't work for him. 

So, since we're not vegan, and since I value harmony in my marriage, mozzarella will clearly remain the cheese of choice in our house.

That said, what's the lesson? If you think it's "Don't make vegan pizza", you're missing the point. The point is to keep experimenting. In ten years, this was the first experiment that proved inedible. And that was only for one of us. 

Experimenting in the kitchen is fun. You have your whole life ahead of you and if you live it with only the same eight dishes currently in rotation at your house, you'll miss out on so many wonderful foods. Think about all the things you tried for the first time in the last ten years and actually liked! Keep experimenting.

And while you're at it, I highly recommend the Cocoa-dusted goji berries. Yum.