Hosting a group of young adults for Shabbat dinner, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath and his wife, Sara, noticed something odd: salads and kugels were disappearing quickly, but the chicken went largely untouched.
When a little post-dinner sleuthing revealed many of their guests were vegetarian, it was all the incentive the Chabad rabbi needed to take his storefront center vegan.
For the 28-year-old Chicago native, whose friends at yeshiva called him “alfalfa sprouts” and ribbed the health-conscious bocher for his blender-buzzed vitamin shakes, the idea of a vegan/organic Chabad house was hardly a stretch.
“The students think it’s really different,” says Bernath, who arrived in Montreal with his family two years ago, quickly establishing a Chabad presence at Concordia University’s west-end campus, and in the nearby neighborhood.
So with pasta replacing pastrami, kamut giving kishka the boot, and typical kiddush food of roast root vegetables and tofu schnitzel, this Chabad is the only one Bernath knows of that’s taken a vegan route.
Even cholent, that soporific hotpot of beans, meat and potatoes traditional for Shabbat lunch, gets a makeover at the Chabad house. The version served here swaps cubes of beef for chewy porcini and shitake mushrooms, with an (unsuspecting) assist from dried slices of mango and papaya.
Wonderful Shluchim! Wishing you much Hatzlacha !
Sounds fine for the week for the fruit and nuts crowd who aren’t going to stick with Yiddishkeit anyway. How do you justify eating ochel behaimah on Shabbos and YomTov when you can afford to eat real food? Not everybody can afford flaisch so if you can you should eat it and thank God.
The comment about a cookbook is seconded here. But in the meantime, could you post a fave recipe or two for some of us Yidden who want to give our own seudahs a bit of a healthy facelift? Yesher Koach! And hi to Sara from a friend in MN.
Vegans are NOT vegetarians. Vegetarians don’t eat meat, vegans don’t eat milk products or eggs.
in general, read up on it, it all depends on the individual person and HOW MUCH you eat of everything-
The Torah would not have told us to eat meat if it was outright not healthy, so be vegan if you wish, but don’t go around saying that it is THE healthy way of living…
http://www.veganicecream.com
this is a healthier way to eat it is the way of the future unbenownst to the meat lovers the big C has statistics enough to scare anyone why not take a proactive approach and look after oneself it is known that a vegan diet has a lesser risk of the big C wake up and start eating more fruit and vegetables there are many ppl who eat this way and are healthy we dont need as much protein as the ‘experts’ say with fruit veges seeds nuts sprouts – there is huge variety unknown to the standard american diet… Read more »
So does being vegan. We put in our cholent. Quinoa, Puy Lentils, Sweet potatoes. salt and pepper. It comes out yummy if you do it in a crock pot. In fact people thought we had put meat in it. No one believed it was parev.
Hope you all like the recipe. 🙂
no meat? they don’t know what they r missing!!
great idea! bet all those yuppies in “trendy” monkland are gonna love it!! much luck on your shlichus…:)
Many young Jews are into all kinds of organic and vegan diets and this will bring them to Yiddishkeit. Yasher koiach.
Who is the bochur in the first pic?
cool!!! his stories are great too!!!!
i dont recall ever calling hom alfalfa spouts in yeshiva, but I love him anyways
I love hotdogs!
I love meat!
PS-What will the vegans do in the Bais Hamikdash???
You MUST come out with a kosher vegan cookbook ASAP!!!
Best,
A Lubavitch Vegetarian who will buy out all your copies for friends and family!!
he
arrived to mtl 5 yrs ago
keep up the great work you are doing on your Shlichus of the Rebbe !!!