Friday Food on a Saturday: A Sweet, Savory, and Cruelty-Free Fourth

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Food and Recipes, Friday Food, Vegan

Published July 04, 2009 @ 01:00AM PT

Are you ready for this? Are you sure? Because the sheer awesomeness of these recipes, divided into sweet and savory sections this time, may be more than you can handle. Everything here would be an excellent addition to quiet meals at home or gatherings with friends this weekend or any weekend. (Please read through to the end of this post for a serious note on why you should try out these and other animal-free recipes this weekend.)

First, an abundance of desserts and fruity goodness (and a reminder: those who avoid or limit intake of soy for allergy or other reasons shouldn't disregard these lovely vegan dessert recipes, even the ice creams; coconut milk and other non-soy, non-dairy milks are great substitutes, and indeed, many of these recipes don't call for soy in the first place):

• Apricot Crumble Bar from Raw Epicurean (beautifully pictured courtesy Raw Epicurean at end of this section)
• Sweet Tea Ice Cream from Madcap Cupcake and Wheeler's Frozen Desserts (check this post out not only for this special recipe but also for the official Madcap Cupcake review of the new Vegan Scoop cookbook)
• Strawberry-Blueberry Tapioca Parfaits from FatFree Vegan Kitchen (pictured above courtesy FFVK)
• Blueberries & Cream Ice Cream from the Innocent Primate Vegan Blog

-You will continue after the jump if you know what's good for you-

• Slow Rise Pancakes from VeganYumYum (I know this isn't a dessert, but I think it fits in the "sweet" category, don't you?)
• Raspberry-Ginger Parfait from BitterSweet (and you can find another Vegan Scoop review on this blog too)
• Fresh Fruit "Cake" from Vegan Planet

And now the more savory than sweet but equally delicious:

• Squash Pancakes from the Innocent Primate Vegan Blog (also check out the Innocent Primate Stars and Stripes Menu, rounding up lots of yummy recipes that have been featured on that blog)
• Focaccia Bread from Hello Veggie
• Tofu Fish Fillet with Papaya Salsa from Happy Herbivore
• Lentil Burgers from the Reluctant Vegetarian
• Roasted Garlic Tapenade from BitterSweet
• Udon Noodles with Sesame-Crusted Tofu from Vegan Dad (pictured courtesy Vegan Dad below)

I wrote earlier this week about the irony in the way zoos are encouraging people to celebrate Independence Day by coming to stare at imprisoned zoo animals. But though the irony isn't as immediately obvious as in the case of the zoo animals, it's just as sad that so many people celebrate "independence" and "freedom" by grilling the body parts of our fellow animals, whom we treat as owned property and strip of all the most important freedoms, before ultimately killing them in their youth.

If you're still eating animals and animal products, do your conscience, your body, and the animals a favor by trying out some of the recipes above this weekend instead of the pieces of dead animals and what came from them. As the saying goes, no one is free while others are oppressed.