That’s not chicken. That’s not fake meat. That’s cauliflower, Baby!

A while back we were vegan. And gluten-free. And sugar-free. And 80% raw.

Sounds crazy, I know, but I had a bunch of health problems at the time and I figured trying a specialized diet couldn’t hurt. My husband was kind enough to do the same so that I could have support in my journey. It was a great experiment. I not only learned how to listen to my body and decipher what my cravings meant, but I was turned onto new foods from which I had previously shied away.

In my pursuit for tasty goodies, I discovered that there is a lot of crap vegan food out and about. Most vegan food, in my opinion, is very, very underseasoned. I have no idea why so many vegan chefs shy away from using a spice or two. There is nothing worse than heading out to a vegan establishment, dropping $40 or so for lunch and being met with a boring bowl of undersalted quinoa and plain steamed veggies or worse–far worse–fake meat. God, I HATE fake meat. In a previous post I mentioned I hate breakfast, but breakfast is incredible compared to fake meat. (There is one, and only one recipe that I have ever found worked with fake meat. It’s a taco dish and I’ll post it the next time I make it.) My feeling is that if you want something with the texture of meat, just eat meat. Otherwise, use the incredible amount of non-animal source food out there to create an insanely tasty truly vegan dish.

These wings are AMAZING. We are no longer vegan and I still make them–that’s how good they are. I normally serve them as is, but I’ll post a raw vegan ranch dip in the near future in case people want a side sauce.

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