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posted by on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the money-is-murder dept.

The Rainbow Vegetarian Café in Cambridge, England, has announced that it will not accept the new £5 polymer notes, introduced by the Bank of England in September. Last week the British vegan community discovered that the notes contain trace amounts of beef tallow, which is animal fat, and are therefore unacceptable by their cruelty-free standards. A heated online controversy has resulted, including a petition asking the Bank to remove tallow from the polymer.

The Rainbow Café's owner, Sharon Meijland, told The Telegraph that her stance was announced last Wednesday, at the end of a BBC radio interview on the unrelated topic of Christmas food.

"We sponsor the Vegan Fair and announced on Wednesday we would not be accepting the £5 notes because they are dubious ethically. We have been providing food for vegans for 30 years and have tried to be as ethical as we possibly can...This is not just a restaurant, it's a restaurant where tiny details like this are really important."

Is any of our money cruelty-free?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:07PM

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:07PM (#437844) Journal

    Here's one of my favourite recipes that happens to be vegan (or not, depending...) It's cheap, versatile, tasty, filling, hearty, nutritious, easy. No soy, MSG or vegetable oil anywhere, except a bit of oil to fry in. Surprise your other half with it tomorrow.

    Dump a cup of dried lentils in hot water with a stock cube (vegan stock cubes should be available). Red lentils, green, brown... doesn't matter.
    Peel a heap some potatoes and chop them into halves / quarters.
    Peel & chop some swede and carrots, and any other root veg you have lying around. Turnips are good. Celeriac works well in small doses.
    Chop onion and garlic and (optionally) chilli. Fry it slowly in a big wok with curry powder.
    When the onion is brown, turn up the heat, chuck the veggies in and throw it all around vigorously, coating the veg with tasty oniony, garlicy, oily stuff.

    Now you have two choices: You can either continue in the wok, or you can transfer it to a slow cooker and leave it bubbling all day.[1]

    Either way, you now need to throw in the lentils (which should have soaked up the water and turned soft) and add a load more water[2] to cover the veg. Throw in a bit of tomato puree and mix it all up.

    Now you just jet it bubble until it's a thick stew, then eat, preferably with crusty bread. This is usually about 25 minutes on the hob, or 6+ hours in the slow cooker.

    It's also a great way to use up those bits and pieces sitting in the bottom of the fridge going bad. Got a handful of cherry tomatoes turning a bit wrinkly? Chuck 'em in. Half a green pepper from last week's curry? No problem. Limp celery? Broccolli stalks? The end of a cabbage? Kidney beans? Chop it up and drop it in[3]. Waste not want not.

    Enjoy. Once you've mastered that, look up recipes for dahl. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Dead simple: Onions, garlic, curry powder/ghee, lentils, coconut milk. Serve with rice. Can't go wrong.

    [1] Put this in the slow cooker in the morning, wash up the wok and when you get home from work you've got a delicious hot meal waiting for you and almost zero washing up. Fantastic in the winter when you want to get the most out of those cosy evenings in with your SO. You can even peel & chop the veg the night before, if you don't have much time in the mornings.

    [2] A nice trick is to use the water from steaming / boiling the vegetables of a previous meal. It retains quite a bit of the flavour and nutrition of whatever was cooked in it, so better to use it than throw it away. I usually have a few tubs of veg water in my freezer for such occasions. You don't even have to defrost it, just dump a block of greenish ice in the wok/slow cooker and let it melt. Dark blue water from red cabbage / purple sprouting always looks good:-)

    [3] Also, when the missus isn't about, add some bacon and/or chicken stock. Bacon+lentils is always a great combo. I like to cut a pack of 8 rashers in half, chopping up the fatty end for the stew and saving the leaner end for another meal.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:19PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:19PM (#437855) Journal

    Even easier, cook a pound of red lentils in 4 cups of water in a large saucepan. Cook some onions in spices (garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, paprika, etc.). Add some salt or MSG. Combine all the ingredients into the saucepan and add 14 oz of generic tomato sauce. Instant curry.

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    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:21PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:21PM (#437856) Journal

      Don't bother washing the lentils (pick out weird bits if they float to the top). Serve on rice.

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      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:23PM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:23PM (#438005) Journal

        Don't bother washing the lentils

        I don't know about that. I've had bags of lentils that have been really dirty, and since they often have such a high surface area (compared to larger things like dried beans), there can be a lot more of it. Also occasionally small stones or twigs to pick out (though those I tend to find more in bags of beans). And beyond avoiding dirt in your food, rinsing can help avoid most of the pesticides and other such residues that may be in that dirt. (Lentils often don't need as many pesticides as other crops, but all kinds of stuff can accumulate in soil.)

        I'm not saying it's a huge deal. But it's an easy and quick step, so I do it.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:12PM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:12PM (#438516) Journal

          I didn't notice any issue the last couple of times I made it, so I'm voting for laziness.

          The whole concept is easier than any other curry I would make. The lentils get a nice mushy texture in less than 30 minutes. The onions cook in like 10 minutes, concurrently. The rice can be made in a rice cooker. If I wanted to make a "real" curry I would put more effort in.

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    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:51PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:51PM (#437887) Journal

      That's more or less my go-to "lazy girl curry" recipe :) Really helps if you have an Indian or Pakistani grocery nearby!

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:15PM (#437909)

      And don't forget to sneak in a bit of salt pork when she's not looking.

  • (Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:38PM

    by dyingtolive (952) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:38PM (#437876)

    Both that and what takyon posted look fantastic. She's got the day off today, so I think she's making fake neat Shepard's pie, but I'm going to try those later this week.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @07:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @07:23PM (#438476)

      Where, these days, can you find a shepard that is both neat and fake to make a pie out of? Wouldn't it be better just to drop the vegan pretense, and get a real messy shepard?

  • (Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:01PM

    by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:01PM (#437894)
    Sounds good. But note that ghee is not vegan.
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    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:33PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:33PM (#438047) Journal

      So use olive oil instead. Or some other oil if you want, but olive oil is good. Not great for frying things, but reasonable even for that. It's just about the only fat I ever use anymore. (Admittely, I usually use it with "italian herbs", but not by any means all the time.)

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:52PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:52PM (#438444) Journal

    Gluten-free pasta, tomatoes and SPAM.
    Cook the pasta, throw in diced tomatoes and diced up SPAM, maybe add a bit of salt and some fresh cracked pepper.

    Mmmmmmm..... love SPAM!!@!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @04:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @04:04AM (#438615)

    Try it with chick peas instead of lentils too, works nicely.

  • (Score: 1) by segwonk on Thursday December 08 2016, @09:48PM

    by segwonk (3259) <reversethis-{ten.knilhtrae} {ta} {nniwj}> on Thursday December 08 2016, @09:48PM (#438885) Homepage

    GreatAuntAnesthesia:
    "[3] Also, when the missus isn't about..."

    That's funny - I kind of assumed you were female.

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