Luqaimat, which are “essentially mini donut holes in date syrup
By Lucia Rivera, Vegetarian Resource Group Intern
In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Hannah Greene has discovered a plentiful variety of vegan foods to enjoy and restaurants to visit. After nearly 2 years vegan in Abu Dhabi as a university student, Greene has discovered “how universal veganism can be.”
Beginning at her campus dining hall, Greene has been able to try dishes at a vegan lunch counter and also has vegan food offered at “a salad bar, a grill, and a rotating meal counter” on campus, along with pasta and pizza.
“From the dining hall, I rely mostly on colorful combinations of roasted vegetables, salad bar ingredients, dal curry, and endless amounts of hummus. The dining hall vegetable selection changes enough to keep it interesting, and I made several easy dorm-room recipes that I relied on quite often with a microwave and blender (lots of steamed vegetables, homemade hummus, vegetable lasagna, peanut butter sandwiches, oats, chia pudding, and delicious smoothies),” Greene explained.
But it is beyond her dining hall where Greene has enjoyed her favorite vegan meal in Abu Dhabi and experienced the diversity in cuisines that the city offers.
“The most common restaurants are probably South Asian cafeterias and Arabic/Lebanese restaurants, which offer so many amazing vegan options. The complexity of the population means you could find cuisine from literally anywhere in the world, so there are always amazing vegan options nearby!” Green said.
For vegans in Abu Dhabi — whether visiting or living there– there are many vegan options for eating out. From Ethiopian food, to Japanese food, to Afghani food, vegans like Greene have no problem finding enjoyable and cheap options in the city.
“Within Abu Dhabi, my favorite dish is the vegan platter from Bonna Annee Ethiopian restaurant! This beautiful dish comes with peanut curry, cabbage, spinach, spicy lentil curry, stewed potatoes, and beetroot, all on a platter of injera bread. Also, the servers at this restaurant are so incredibly nice!”
While there is no “usual” cuisine in Abu Dhabi according to Greene, some of the local Arabic/Lebanese food is vegan without any adaptations necessary. This includes flatbreads like Za’atar manakish and desserts like luqaimat, which are “essentially mini donut holes in date syrup with sesame seeds.”
“A lot of Arabic/Lebanese cuisine is naturally vegan and delicious: hummus, falafel, vine leaves, fattoush salad (delicious salad with pomegranate and dried pita on top), tabbouleh, mouhammara (walnut and pomegranate), eggplant salad, moutabbal (eggplant and sesame spread), and fatayer (spinach wrapped in dough),” Greene said.
Additionally, Greene hopes that any vegans visiting Abu Dhabi enjoy the variety of restaurants without only sticking to “American” mainstream restaurants. This also will help one keep their meals low-cost.
“My favorite thing to do is to wander around the city without any destination in mind, exploring whatever streets seem intriguing and stopping at new restaurants along the way. There are many familiar ‘Western’ or ‘American’ restaurants, but the most flavorful and affordable restaurants are the ones with menu items you may never have seen before! English is the most widely spoken language, so you can relatively easily communicate that you are ‘full vegetarian’ and don’t eat ghee, egg, labneh/laban (yogurt), cheese, or any other animal products.”
Greene is glad to have gained a better understanding of how “fundamentally delicious and simple” vegan food can be across the world. She has also become part of an international vegetarian community.
“Being part of the Veggie Might Student Interest Group helped create a community of vegans, vegetarians, and people trying to cut down on meat consumption, helping us be supportive of all […] Living here and enjoying so many different cuisines showed me how universal veganism can be; of course many fancy restaurants and stores make vegan dishes extra expensive, but vegan food can be fundamentally delicious and simple,” Greene said.
For any vegans heading to Abu Dhabi Greene also recommends the Facebook Group “Abu Dhabi Vegans.”
Below is excerpted from a previous article titled “Donating Stock To The VRG,” by Roger Lowe.
Updated by Steven Kaplan
The purpose of this article is to encourage you to consider creative ways to donate to The Vegetarian Resource Group or other nonprofits for outreach projects. It is not intended to be used for financial, tax, or legal advice. Each person’s financial and tax situation is unique, and the information in this article may not apply to your situation. Please note that there are numerous proposed tax laws that may change, or may have changed as of the printing of this article.
Before donating stock to The VRG or any other nonprofit, you may want to consult with a financial or tax professional to discuss how such actions may affect your tax liabilities.
Donating Stock May Increase the Size of Your Gift
Many people who think they have little in the way of disposable income may have considerable stock holdings that they’ve acquired through inheritance or regular contributions to a mutual fund. Perhaps they have accumulated stock through an employee stock ownership plan, or through stock options that some companies offer employees in lieu of larger salaries.
These stockholders may not have large salaries or substantial amounts of cash on hand. Perhaps they are very committed to The Vegetarian Resource Group and its mission, and would like to make a donation, but a large cash gift, for whatever reason, is unfeasible.
For example, let’s consider the Smiths, an imaginary family of four, whose annual household income is $50,000. The Smiths are very committed vegans and live frugally. Their $50,000 income must cover a mortgage, child care, health insurance, contributions to a 401(k) plan, and savings for future expenses. The Smiths donate $1,000 to The VRG every year for promotion of vegetarian options in restaurants and other food service venues. They would love to be able to make a larger gift of $10,000, but their other obligations make that seem impossible.
However, ten years ago Mrs. Smith inherited 1,000 shares of stock in Yummy Veggie Dinners Inc. The shares are in the Smiths’ brokerage account. Since her inheritance, these shares have increased in value from $2,000 to $10,000, an impressive $8,000 gain.
While she would like to make a substantial gift to The VRG, it has never occurred to Mrs. Smith to donate stock. Yet by doing so, she can make that $10,000 gift she could not otherwise afford.
Even though the Smiths could never manage a cash gift of this magnitude, once they consider their stock holdings, their giving capacity increases significantly. They are now able to help The VRG, while leaving their 401(k) and savings plans untouched.
Substantial Tax Savings
Consider the Smiths’ case. If they sell their 1,000 shares of stock and donate the proceeds, they would have to first pay tax on the $8,000 profit. With a capital gains rate of 10% (for example), the Smiths would owe $800, leaving them with only $9,200 to donate to The VRG, instead of the $10,000 they’d planned.
The Smiths would be much happier if they could give the entire $10,000 to The Vegetarian Resource Group. Donating the stock directly allows them to do this.
Another tax advantage comes with the Smiths’ itemized deductions. If they sell the stock, pay the 10% capital gains tax, and donate the remaining $9,200, they can deduct that $9,200, yielding an income tax savings of $1,380 (assuming a 15% tax bracket). However, by donating the stock directly to The VRG, the full $10,000 can be deducted, for an income tax savings of $1,500. Both the Smiths and The VRG benefit from this arrangement.
When to Donate Securities:
The ideal time to donate any security is under the following two conditions: 1) you have a net gain on the stock, bond, fund, or other security; and 2) you have owned the security for at least one year and one day. You will not have to pay capital gains on the increase and the entire value of the donation will qualify for charitable contributions on Schedule A. If you have purchased that security at different times at different prices, your separate purchases (called lots) with the lowest prices will usually have the highest unrealized capital gains and are the shares you should donate.
For example, let’s say you have 300 shares of ABC. You bought 100 shares for 700 dollars. A few months later you bought another 100 shares of ABC for 500 dollars, and several months afterward you bought another 100 shares for 800 dollars. Now each 100 shares is worth 2,000 dollars or six thousand dollars altogether. If you are only donating 100 shares you should donate those you had bought for 500 dollars since those have the biggest capital gain which you won’t have to pay taxes on, and The VRG will get two thousand dollars which you can deduct on Schedule A.
If you have held a security for one year or less, or if you have a net loss, then do not donate it yet. Instead donate cash. Keep an eye on your security; as soon as it meets both of the above conditions then it will be worthwhile to consider for donation.
Steve Kaplan is a long time vegetarian. His website is at http://truecontrarian.com. He assists people with their taxes and investing.
Most people believe salads consist of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and perhaps peppers. But most of us want a lot more out of a salad. It’s easy to prepare a delicious hearty salad.
Debra Daniels-Zeller’s article “Warm Weather Salads Fit to be Meals” from a previous edition of Vegetarian Journal offers tips and recipes including Shiitake Mushroom, Quinoa and Greens with Toasted Cashews; Greens with New Potatoes and Kidney Beans; Spinach and Bean Salad with Mustard Croutons; Lime-Infused Black Bean, Corn, and Tomato Salad; 3-Bean Salad with Sweet Onions and Arugula; Soba Noodles with Marinated Tofu and Baby Kale; Marinated Tofu; Grilled Vegetable Salad with Lemon-Cashew Dressing; and Lemon-Cashew Dressing. Read the entire article here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2015issue3/2015_issue3_salads_meals.php
Jacqueline Dunnington’s article “Elegant Eggplant” that was featured in a previous issue of Vegetarian Journal offers recipes for Eggplant Caviar; Japanese Eggplant in Sherry-Soy Sauce; Curried Tomatoes and Eggplant; Eggplant Caponata; Eggplant, Bean, and Corn Ragout; and Moroccan Eggplant and Leek Soup. Enjoy all these international eggplant dishes!
– Does anyone have a suggestion of a cookbook for baby to toddler food? Baby is turning 1 and having less interest in milk but I’m tired of making steamed veggies and pasta. Also looking for ideas to ensure she is getting enough b 12.
– My 8 year old son just participated in a interview with a psychology research lab at Yale (via Zoom). They are studying emotional development and development of ethics in vegan and nonvegan kids. They are recruiting 8-10 year old vegan and nonvegan kids and they have a particular need for vegan kids.
– Videos produced and shared by vegan kids and parents on various topics.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids/ is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.
Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.
Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.
When I was 14-years old, I was the only vegan teenager I knew. While trying to find others online, I became frustrated to see people promoting and repeating advice and viewpoints that are counterproductive to the movement. For example, I saw one adult vegan tell teenagers in his Facebook group that they do not need to worry about obtaining adequate Vitamin B12.
Not only is health advice like that rampant online, but the attitudes and advocacy advice often is just as bad. Assuming non-vegans are awful people and treating them that way, to the point of even wishing them harm, is not going to help our movement grow. I wanted to see a website where I could connect with vegans my own age, while at the same time getting high-quality advice and support targeted to my perspective as a teenager. I couldn’t find one, so I decided to create it: www.veganteen.net
For years, I have collected stories on my website from vegan teenagers around the world, as well as written answers based on real questions from teenagers who have contacted me … I realized early on in creating my website that I was not qualified to answer all the questions other teenagers asked me, so I found some adults to act as advisors.
One challenge I’ve faced is that most people in Generation Z do not want to read much. I can spend countless hours preparing a balanced blog article…but someone in a YouTube video will get infinitely more attention making incendiary statements. So I have had to console myself with the fact that there’s now a website with high-quality advice for vegan and vegan-interested teenagers who want it.
A final challenge is how I have spent a lot of time since age 14 answering every single question I have received from vegan- and vegan-interested teens through email and social media. One of my peer advisors recommended starting a mentor program in hopes of staying in better contact with people who reach for help, so I made one. Two vegan teens besides myself have volunteered to serve as mentors (though unfortunately people who ask to join don’t always follow up)…Obtaining the #1 Google ranking for my website veganteen.net took years of work creating content and optimizing my website for search rankings.
Someone who reached out to me is Ameliarose Allen, a musician my age, who asked to represent VeganTeen at Hudson Valley VegFest and other events once or twice a year. She has represented Vegan Teen for a couple of years now and provides free stickers and such with our logo at her performances.
My biggest achievement so far is co-authoring Veganism and Perspective in Vegetarianism and Veganism: A Reference Handbook, which was published in June 2019. David E. Newton invited me to contribute as an author to this edition of his Contemporary World Issues series, published by ABC-CLIO of Santa Barbara…I asked another vegan teenager to co-author, because I know he’s an environmental science major.
In March 2019, I represented my age group as a non-profit educational table at Nashville’s VegFest…One of the members of my VeganTeen Facebook group came up for the day from Alabama. A lot of the teenagers at VegFest were not vegan, and I hope we encouraged them to move in that direction. Another local activity I have participated in is the Cube of Truth…I became encouraged to participate in these events when I attended Youth Empowered Activist Camp in the summer of 2018.
I now understand that, sometimes, if I don’t do it, no one else will…The best illustration of this realization’s effect on me is that I started my school’s first environmentalism club in Fall 2018…What I am proudest of is our Earth Day education event encouraging students to use an online personal environmental impact calculator. Many students participated, and one of the key entries in the calculator was meat consumption.
I have searched several scholarship lists and see this one listed a lot; it is one of the most generous on every list. I think this scholarship helps get my generation thinking about vegetarianism even more than they are already and associating it with something positive.
My perfect life in 5 years would be studying as a medical student at a prestigious medical school. I would like to become a type of physician who counsels people to avoid animal products daily. However, I am also extremely interested in the promise of computer simulations and organ-on-a-chip technology to create more reliable alternatives to animal testing in chemical and pharmaceutical development.
February 20, 2021 is the deadline for the next Vegetarian Resource Group college scholarship awards for graduating high school seniors. For information on other scholarship winners or scholarship applications, see:https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
BRANDON
By Anna Sherwood, 2020 Vegetarian Scholarship winner
“Hi Brandon*! Care if I sit here? Every day at lunch, I’d seen Brandon sitting alone at a circular table on the cafeteria’s edge. “Uh, yeah, I guess,” he said. The obvious fact hit me: Because he’s blind, Brandon didn’t recognize me as one of the attendees of his Blind Experience club’s first meeting. I sat down, introduced myself and made small talk, but Brandon was reserved and unfamiliar with regular teenage lingo. I felt empathy towards Brandon and glad to have an excuse to sit with him; now, I wasn’t sure he wanted my company.
The Blind Experience club’s unofficial purpose is to help Brandon, the school’s only blind student, make friends, so I didn’t give up. After many awkward lunches together, Brandon eventually revealed his jocular, bold, and sarcastic personality. He also opened up about his difficult home life and obstacles at school. As Brandon came out of his shell, I began stepping out of my comfort zone and growing as a person. Overcoming self-consciousness, I helped Brandon navigate between classes. I pushed through social anxiety to encourage people to attend the club and sit with us at lunch. After being tearfully frustrated when most of my friends wouldn’t attend meetings or get to know Brandon, I branched out to the people who did, including those I wasn’t sure I’d have something in common with.
By the school’s end, Brandon and I had changed each other’s lives. He had become one of my best friends, and we both had made new friends through the Blind Experience. We were calling and texting one another frequently, often in a group with other club members, and I’d thrown him a well-attended birthday party. About a dozen members were coming regularly to the Blind Experience.
My success in improving Brandon’s situation and its positive effects on my own life inspired me to attend an activism camp the following summer. Since age 15, I’ve worked fairly anonymously with people to make the world a better place through my website for other vegan and vegan-interested teenagers. However, I’d been too socially fearful to advocate on behalf of people or causes in regular life. Because of Brandon and activism camp, these fears no longer hold me back.
I wish I could say Brandon and I lived happily ever after, but my family moved away that summer. The same month, our good friend, one of the club’s most loyal members and the kindest person I’ve ever known, passed away. The Blind Experience still meets, but our group chats have gone silent. And, in a school of 3,000 students, Brandon is sitting alone at lunch again. I now understand that, sometimes, if I don’t do it, no one else will.
* Name changed to protect privacy.
Don’t forget: February 20, 2021 is the deadline for our next college scholarship awards for graduating high school seniors. For information on other scholarship winners or scholarship applications, see:https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm
Many people are out of work today and suffering financial distress. Here’s some inexpensive vegan dishes by Holly Green published in a previous issue of Vegetarian Journal. You can prepare Vegetarian Chili; Spring Rolls; Chickpea Curry; Veggie Lasagna Rolls; and Mexican-Style Stuffed Peppers. See: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2012issue1/2012_issue1_ghetto_vegetarian.php
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has approved a special solicitation and has opened the Combine Federal Charity (CFC online) pledge portal and mobile giving app from April 20 through June 30 to accept supplemental, one-time or recurring donations to the CFC-participating charities of your choice via credit card, debit card, or bank transfer. This is an opportunity to help even more if you are able. If you did not make a payroll pledge during the 2019 campaign, you have the additional opportunity to pledge via payroll allotment. See: https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
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