Why Spain was vegan before vegan fashion

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Look that it has become fashionable to be vegan, or at best try some meat or fish from time to time - they call it "flexitarian" - and live a healthier life ... Well, take a look at European culinary traditions and realizes that, despite the piglets and sausages, the country that has a richer vegetable heritage, and precisely because historically it has not been a rich country, it is ours.

In many parts of Spain we have subsisted for a long time based on vegetables and legumes. And from that subsistence diet, enhanced by that liquid element so important that it is olive oil , multiple tasty recipes have emerged that undoubtedly surpass in culinary appeal what many of these trendy pokés offer. Here we know a lot about vegetables.

In poor Spain, vegetarianism has been an ancestral obligation that in the end was not even thought much. It was a general way of life. We have met a couple of Guardeses from a huge timber farm high in the Serranía de Cuenca that ate meat once a year. And they lived many years.

Without getting too far from that area, for example, is there a better salad or side dish in summer than a barbecue or wet Manchego , only with tomato and roasted red peppers plus a drop of good oil? With a little rustic bread - and vegan, of course - you could even compose a good light lunch with him.

There is no doubt that the place of honor among our vegan dishes is the great Andalusian gazpacho, not only a great cold soup, but a magnificent food compendium that Dr. Marañón said was the almost perfect dish, just lacking some protein of animal origin. And in fact, I was thus pointing out the main lack of a strictly vegetable diet: we need some of that animal protein. Only probably less than many consume.

The virtues of gazpacho are shared by other nearby dishes, such as that solid version that is the Pipirrana, also Andalusian. Or its relative Cantabrian the Pìriñaca , provided it is made without tuna or egg, of course: cooked potato, lettuce, tomato, pepper. The mountain cuisine has that peculiarity born of the trade of the jándalos, those mountaineers emigrated to Cádiz and Seville that there were dedicated to the wine trade and the taverns, but that in turn returned to their land loaded with olive oil: Cantabria is the The only region in northern Spain that uses oil and not lard as the main fat in all its dishes.

And what about that base of the Spanish diet, as traditionally important among us as pasta for Italians: legumes? Yes, we usually join a good companion - what they would say in Asturias - of chorizo ​​or blood sausage, but beans, lentils or widowed chickpeas, without animal accompaniment, are common dishes among us, and can be truly succulent.

The various cobblestones, or dishes of legumes and rice , are not negligible. This chronicler remembers the Filipino part of his family - yes, we Indians went to unexpected places - where he always ate a great dish of black beans with rice, not far from his Mexican or Cuban versions.

Dr. Marañón said that gazpacho was the almost perfect dish, just lacking some animal protein

Legumes are not a unique case: many of our salads usually contain vegetable proteins, but few improve the simple perfection of tomatoes - time, ripe, like an Aragonese rose or an ugly Tudelano - lettuce and onion. Or today almost forgotten classic Madrid salad, escarole, pomegranate and garlic.

Our oil is a great advantage, of course, to certify the veganity of dishes that in other places, or even in northern areas of Spain, would include animal fats such as lard or butter. But, now that we enter the glorious time of winter vegetables, with their thistles and their chard pendants and their artichokes , the vegetable repertoire enters one of its glory seasons. Of course we have all the time: think of spring and its asparagus ...

For centuries, by the way, olive oil was frowned upon in Spain for being considered the fat of the Jews, and using lard since the end of the fifteenth century was a sign of Christianity. Little has been written about it, but the prestige without suspicions of the oil was not completed until the twentieth century, and perhaps this is due to the delay we had - no longer - compared to the Italians in the elaboration of the true first level oil, which is extra virgin olive oil, with low acidity. But that stage that Julio Camba summed up in his famous phrase, "Spanish cuisine is full of garlic and religious prejudices" is already well surpassed. Hence the certification in advanced veganism, just one step.

For obvious reasons, the drier and inland Spain is the richest in interesting vegetable dishes. Returning to that poorly known (and unfairly known) universe that is La Mancha, you can not fail to mention the stew of wheat from Albacete , with its enriching ingredients such as chickpeas, bass (green beans, for those who are not from the earth) and Totana squash, with the addition of a paprika sauce. Yes, pork is often added, but the vegan version is there to vindicate the vegetable heritage of half-Spanish dishes.

So you know: we are the artists of vegetable cooking. That said, this chronicler is created - perhaps Flexitarian at this point - the addition of black pudding or sausage is not a sin and makes the diet more complete.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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