I love pretty much all things Mediterranean (minus bell peppers and eggplant, which I am allergic to). And I'm happy to report that it is entirely possible to enjoy a whole wheat pita bread bursting at the seams with vegan filling - right down to the 'yogurt' sauce! Here's a quick recipe (it's really more like 'assembly instructions' but we won't be too picky).
Vegan Mediterranean Stuffed Pitas
Ingredients:
Diced firm tofu, pan-fried in a bit of olive oil (I bought this already diced and cooked, so all I had to do was warm it up in a skillet. Very easy.)
Thinly sliced cucumber
Thinly sliced tomato
Lettuce
Pitted olives, any variety (I used black Spanish olives, but Kalamata would probably be more appropriate)
Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
One package dairy-free plain 'yogurt' (cleverly called "Yofu")
Dried oregano, black pepper, and any other seasonings you want to put into the yogurt sauce
Chopped fresh mint or other fresh herb (I used basil because that was all I had)
Pita bread, toasted or warmed in the oven
Assembly: In a small bowl, mix the herbs and spices in with the yogurt. Spread yogurt on the inside of the pitas, and fill with tofu, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. Have a stack of napkins on standby. This meal is messy. . .
The 'yofu' sauce didn't taste any different from regular yogurt sauce (much to my surprise and delight) and even Claudiu agreed.
After lunch, we went downtown for the last day of Bürgerfest. We saw three bands perform, at opposite ends of the city. This means we did a lot of walking, which is of course no problem. Except that the entire population of Regensburg was also lining the streets, doing one of several activities: eating bratwurst, selling bratwurst, eating a steak sandwich, yelling"STEAK SANDWICHHHH," eating gourmet cheese on freshly baked pretzels or baguettes, selling said gourmet cheese, pretzels, or baguettes, savoring a nice, cold gelato in the sun, selling said gelato. . . okay, you get the picture. It got worse when four out of the six people I was with decided to have steak sandwiches for dinner. Oh, woe is me. . .
Last night I learned that it can be hard to concentrate on animal rights ("Meat is murder!") when the intoxicating smell of a summer barbeque is wafting straight at you from all corners of the Earth (or at least all corners of Regensburg, land of sausages). I'm proud to say that I stuck it out until we got home and had Mediterranean pita breads, round two. But I wasn't exactly happy about it. I'm not sure what this means for life after the thirty day challenge, but at least now I know that I can tough it out for my month of veganism, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Yes!
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