Vegan Chinese New Year 2017

vegan chinese new year snacks

Chinese traditions

On January 28 we celebrated Chinese New Year and welcomed the year of the rooster. With celebrations come family gatherings and of course food, lots of food. It’s a Chinese tradition to close the year with a big family dinner on new year’s eve. In a regular household, the tables are often filled with all sorts of meat dishes. In the past there was not much food, especially during wartime. People had to eat whatever they had. Only when they had money, they could buy “better” food, which was meat. And so, meat was considered to be high class food and vegetables low class food. The more meat there was on the table, the wealthier and “blessed” the family would look. This tradition was passed down to the next generations.

But, hold on a second. So, new year is supposed to be happy for everyone, right? Then, what about the animals? Celebrating the new year means we’ve survived another year and a brand new year is right ahead of us. But isn’t it ironic that people celebrate their lives by ending another’s life? What hit us hardย is that people don’t even think of this as a problem. Because humans have something to celebrate, animals will need to be slaughtered. How is this a happy new year?

With this thought in mind, our mum always taught us that a celebration should be a happy event for all. And violence shouldn’t be part of it. So ever since we were young, she veganized all the popular Chinese New Year dishes and snacks. We respect her a lot for having the perseverance to stick to her beliefs and to make every celebration in our lives cruelty-free. Therefore, we would like to dedicate this post to our mum’s homemade Chinese New Year food.

Glutinous rice balls with red bean paste filling (Tang Yuan)

vegan chinese new year glutinous rice balls with red bean paste filling tang yuan

Peanut puffs with peanuts, sesame and coconut flakes filling (Gok jai)

vegan chinese new year peanut puffs gok jai

Rice krispies with peanuts and coconut flakes & Fried dough twists

vegan chinese new year rice krispies and fried dough twists

Taro cake & New year’s cake

vegan chinese new year taro cake
vegan chinese new year taro cake and new year's cake

Sesame balls & Glutinous rice dumplings

vegan chinese new year sesame balls and glutinous rice dumplings
vegan chinese new year glutinous rice dumplings

Pandan and coconut rice cake

vegan chinese new year pandan coconut rice cake

Chinese New Year feast

vegan chinese new year vegan feast

Seitan & Fried beancurd

vegan chinese new year seitan and fried beancurd

Satay

vegan chinese new year satay

New year’s resolution

Over the past few years, we tried to veganize our favourite dishes and snacks by ourselves. Some were successful and some failed big time, but we won’t give up. In this new year, we will continue to try and veganize all the food we love. And show the world that animals do not need to suffer for us to live and enjoy.

2 thoughts on “Vegan Chinese New Year 2017

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  1. Wow, een dikke proficiat voor jullie mama, wat een feestmaal! Ik zou me ziek eten geloof ik, zo veel (onbekende) hapjes om te proeven! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Die taro en New year’s cake zien er erg speciaal uit, ik heb nog nooit eerder zoiets gezien, waarvan is die gemaakt? ๐Ÿ™‚ Dieren zouden inderdaad niet moeten lijden onder ons feestgedrag. Al die kalkoen en dat fonduvlees dat in december op tafel gesmeten wordt, het is gewoon erg dat mensen daar niet bij stil lijken te staan.

    1. Dankjewel, het was weer genieten en we bleven maar knabbelen aan de nieuw jaar snacks ๐Ÿ˜› De taro cake is gemaakt van taro, vergelijkbaar met zoete aardappel maar dan met een mooie lavendel kleur. Het wordt vaak gebruikt in desserts en ruikt heel lekker (we zijn wel een beetje biased haha).
      Mensen staan daar inderdaad niet bij stil. En het verbaast ons ook hoe vaak we wel niet moeten uitleggen dat het dode dieren zijn… ๐Ÿ™