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Just a little bit of evidence that you can indeed have a decent burger-and-onion rings meal while remaining vegan… here is Friday night’s tasty dinner. Gardenburger garnished with sprouts, tomato, and roasted peppers, along with organic onion rings and chickpea salad. Beer is still vegan, right? Good. 

I’m a big fan of the backyard BBQ. So is my wife, since BBQ night is the night that I’m primarily in charge of the cooking for once. I rule the charcoal grill like a modern day Colossus. (At least at my own house I do).

The weather has been starting to crack a bit towards spring, so on Monday I fired up the trusty old grill for the first time since last fall. Only this time, we weren’t going to be charring animal flesh. No sir. It was all about non-sentient vegetables and fungus, baby.

After pulling the cover off the grill and getting a fire going (sorry, no gas grills for me, I’m a purist and only like to use real, non-briquet, charcoal), I tossed on some asparagus lightly coated in olive oil and fresh-ground black pepper. After that, I added some portabella caps. And then finally, some Gardenburger BBQ Riblets, which appear to be some sort of soy concoction pressed to resemble actual ribs. In effect, these kind of reminded me of McDonald’s ‘McRib’ sandwich. Perhaps you may have been one of 7 or 8 people who got to sample one.

So how did my vegan feast turn out? Pretty decent, actually. I’m always a fan of grilled asparagus, so that was a hit. Grilled portabella burgers were ok (we added a slice of soy cheese, which is kind of iffy– not a taste I’ve acquired quite yet). Surprisingly, the Gardenburger riblets were really tasty, and rather convincing as ribs (notwithstanding the lack of bone). We’ll be trying them out again.

So it turns out you can grill without meat. Not quite the same, but makes for a tasty meal nonetheless.

The WSJ article which inspired me on this vegan venture has an accompanying video of Tony Gonzalez mixing up a healthy and nutritious, but still tasty smoothie. Great way to start the day, and much better for you than donuts: