When speaking of vegetarian dishes, what comes to your mind?

To be on a diet, to extend a pious prayer, or to protect animals…all these seem abstinent and oppressive.

But that's only a tiny part of the whole landscape. On International Chefs' Day, let's break the stereotype and know more about the amazing veggie dishes in China.

'Taste comes first'

Despite the usual impression of veggie dishes as "not delicious enough," the most important standard to evaluate a veggie dish is, however, the taste. 

"Whether it's for veggie or meat dishes, the priority is that it should be tasty," Yang Jie, a chef in Beijing who has worked in the catering industry for 26 years, said. "This is fundamental because it's a dish you present to your guest. Other things are secondary."

Many new vegetarian restaurants try to grab the market share by exaggerating the beneficial effect of their dishes, promoting the history of their recipes or emphasizing their brand.

"With the rise in foodies' level of knowledge and appreciation, those restaurants trying to attract attention by making up a fancy story won't survive long," Yang said. "You still need to satisfy your customers with outstanding, tasty, and joyful products."

Eat less, eat more

Of roughly 5,000 kinds of usable cooking ingredients, only 700 are veg-friendly. However, within that limited scope, vegetarian dishes have special advantages.

"Now many people face health problems like obesity, heart disease or hypertension because they take too much animal fat and protein," Yang added. "But if you eat veggie dishes properly, you can prevent many diseases like that."

But it doesn't mean vegetables alone can provide the nutrition we need every day. "Our body has the same needs even if we eat vegetables only," Yang said. "We still need some fat and protein."

The advice is to eat some nuts or avocados, for example, to supplement the oil and fat, Yang told CGTN. "You're a veggie, but the nutrition should be balanced."

Not a rule, but a rest

It may be difficult for most of the meat lovers to turn into a dietary vegan and eat no meat at all. 

"To promote veggie dishes doesn't mean you need to have them every day," Yang said. "If the condition allows, you can try one day a week eating only veggie foods."

The advice has a basis. As Yang said, according to studies, the time for the human body to fully digest animal protein is 72 hours. For soybean protein, that becomes 24. The food's long hours in the human body may pose a threat to health, after all the nutrition is absorbed in the first few hours.

Since vegetables are easier to digest, they put less burden on our internal organs. If you're a meat lover for years, maybe your stomach already wants to have a break! So today, try to be a vegetarian and let your organs have a rest.

A new fashion, a new lifestyle

In the past, vegetarian foods had been more of a choice for the religious or the elderly. That's not the case anymore.

An increasing number of young people are becoming vegetarian, and many meat eaters are willing to have more veggie foods in their daily lives. Among them, a lot are non-religious, and some even have a high educational background.

Now in China, there are four major categories for veggie dishes. The first one is plant-based dishes. It may contain animal broth, but all edible ingredients are plants. Next is lacto-ovo vegetarian dishes. It may have dairy products and eggs. The third type is vegan food - it doesn't contain any animal products or byproducts but may have some spices. The last one is religious vegan food, and it doesn't even have any hot spices.

As Yang says, there will be more types of veggie foods in the future. "We need to keep communicating with chefs all over the world, and keep making progress. The cooking skills, the presentation, the ingredients - all things need to be more diversified. We'll enlarge the path for developing veggie dishes, to give even non-vegetarians a will to try."

"What excites me most is when a meat eater says, 'Veggie dishes are also tasty. I can accept having it once a week or a fortnight.' That's the biggest acknowledgment for me as a chef," he said.

(Top Photo: Jinxiao Toufu made by Yang Jie /CGTN Photo)