Our #2 Daughter is vegan, so I make it a point to cook vegan when I think she’s coming over around meal-time. I cook vegan or vegetarian a lot of the time, anyway, because it’s good. In case you don’t know the difference, vegetarians eat eggs and dairy, and vegans don’t. Some vegans don’t even eat sugar, because it’s purified through bone ash or honey, because it’s made by industrially captive bees.

Here are the tag-ends of two such meals. I forgot to take pictures when the dishes were new, but this way I get two for one.

These don’t have names; I just made them.

The one with peas and mushrooms and penne pasta is … well … peas and mushrooms and penne pasta with bottled tikka masala sauce. It’s vegetarian, because there’s dairy in the sauce.

The one with potatoes, I made in my Instant Pot. Chunks of potatoes and fresh green beans, 1/2 cup of water, a few tablespoons of tomato paste, a heaping helping of curry powder, pressure cooked for 20 minutes and then stirred so the potatoes break up just enough to thicken the sauce. That one is vegan.

Good to the last bite.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Cooking for someone with maybe different food traditions or preferences or choices from yours.

MA