order to live we have to kill. That is why I do not eat meat. I see no
need for killing.
There are increasing numbers of people who, like myself, no longer
want to eat meat, fish and poultry and are turning to a vegetarian diet.
Certainly we do not have to kill to feed ourselves. All the proteins,
vitamins and minerals that we need in order to live and to be healthy are
easily available in the endless variety of plant life, and in those gifts
animals give us painlessly, such as milk and eggs.
Many of us are turning to vegetarianism in our own interests, which
are the interests of all human beings, because millions of people on this
planet are dying of hunger, but food which could keep them alive is
used for animals which grow fat only to be killed and eaten by the
richer nations of the world.
In recent years, dramatic new reasons have made people think again
about what they eat. More and more foods have now become the
products of factories rather than farms. Chemicals "improve" the
appearance of foods and make them keep longer. Animals and poultry
are treated with sex hormones to make them grow faster - and, of
20 course, to increase profits. The results are unknown dangers to human
consumers, including the possibility of various types of cancer.
Industrial societies have pumped poisonous chemicals into rivers and
seas. Eat fish and you eat these poisons, too... But this is a book about
pleasure, not pollution. I hope that even if you are still in the habit of
eating meat and fish, you will try some of the different ways and means
of cooking here. You might even find yourself happily becoming a
vegetarian, too.
People often ask me, puzzled, how vegetarians eat. Their puzzlement
is real. They think of their own meals without the meat and think "how
awful". But in fact their meals are pretty awful anyway: dull,
unimaginative, boring. Even in 'good' cooking, variety is usually
found only in the main course, usually meat or fish. Things like salads,
vegetables and bread are of little importance and are the same every
time. This standard meal is served with little change from day to day
and week to week.
Soup, 'main course', salad, dessert: this is the unchanging order of
the standard meal. The first thing to do when thinking of vegetarian
cooking is to forget these stereotyped ideas. Vegetarian cookery is rich
and varied, full of many marvellous dishes with a character all theirown.
A vegetarian meal does not have to have a 'main course': it can be
made up of several equally important courses, or of several dishes
served at the same time.
