5 min to read
Photo by Noah Simon
The Lenten season always takes me back to my past as an Seventh Day Adventist.
As I watch even my nonpracticing Christian friends dutifully adhere to the season’s traditional dietary restrictions of no meat on Fridays by diving into a fish fry or crawfish boil, I’m reminded of the Adventists’ complex set of 24-7 rules around food and lifestyle that would send many New Orleanians into a tailspin.
Most Adventists are vegetarian, and if they do eat meat, they are prohibited from pork or shellfish. They also do not dance, drink or smoke.
When I moved to South Louisiana in 2015, the dietary and lifestyle rules I once followed seemed otherworldly in a society that may be better at celebrating life than anywhere else.
The flexibility of Lent amuses my once strictly adherent family. I’ve regaled them with the tale of the Acadiana man who got a letter from the archbishop clearing the way for alligator to be an acceptable food during Lent.
For Adventists, the rules are firm and there is no break after 40 days.
Adventists and mainstream Christian South Louisianans have little in common. Adventists worship on Saturday and avoid anything secular from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. They don’t wear jewelry or smoke. Many Adventists avoid caffeine and seeing movies in theaters. They are cautioned against adding too much spice to foods. Black pepper often is omitted — forget about cayenne.
Photo by Noah Simon
If the two groups do have anything in common, it’s how closely their identity is tied to the way they eat.
Diet, in many ways, is more than a lifestyle choice for adherent Adventists — it is a way of demonstrating religious commitment. In South Louisiana, the way we eat is a way of celebrating the culture with family and friends.
That’s why, when my mom gave me a cookbook my Aunt Dee helped edit in the 1970s for her church community in Charlotte, North Carolina, I was startled to find a recipe for “Momma’s Okra Gumbo.”
I began thinking about whether one could actually adapt Adventist recipes into something recognizable, and appetizing, to South Louisianians.
At the time my aunt wrote the cookbook, called “Meatless Meals,” she knew of only one other vegetarian cookbook, “An Apple a Day,” which was written by Adventists in Loma Linda, California. My mom received a copy of that book for her 13th birthday.
My aunt told me that she and other women in the church wanted to write something with a twist. So my aunt did what any good cook does -- she stole recipes from other sources and adapted them.
Adventists had created companies that produced soy products with names that conjured meat, such as “Big Franks,” soy shaped to look like hot dogs; “FryChik,” a canned soy product dyed and shaped to look like chicken nuggets; and “Breakfast Links,” which looked like little sausages.
My aunt’s church cookbook is full of these foods that were easy to find in the “Book and Bible House,” a place in my hometown where one could buy Adventist devotionals, meatless products and health foods.
Many of the church teachings come from church founder Ellen G. White, who preached the values of a healthy lifestyle and tied many rules back to Jewish law outlined in the Torah.
By Noah Simon
What I found striking when discussing the cookbook’s recipes with my aunt, who is no longer an Adventist, is how strictly following the vegetarian diet made her feel like she was being a better Adventist than others.
“Oh man, and if you didn’t have caffeine, you were closer to heaven,” she told me.
But going meatless was what people got stuck on. I remember a family bringing a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken to their first church potluck. Whispers rocketed around the Fellowship room.
When I attended non-Adventist birthday pizza parties, I hand-picked the pepperoni off my slice, which always puzzled my friends.
“There was something dangerous about meat — it was a sin,” my aunt said. “It actually wasn’t, but that was what the church considered.”
To this day, even people I know who don’t follow Adventism anymore still can’t bring themselves to eat pork, shrimp or oysters.
Adventists sought an identity based on healthy living, but that didn’t mean the meatless meals were always healthy, my aunt said. “There was lots of fats, lots of salts, lots of cheese to make up for not having meat.”
Thinking back on Seventh-day Adventist summer camp meetings, I recall the tiny convenience store on the campus of Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market, Virginia, that served deep-fried vegetarian corn dogs and soft-serve ice cream. The store was stocked with every form of Little Debbie snack cake because the company was Adventist-owned.
My aunt’s gumbo recipe, however, is a healthy dish. It has the traditional elements, such as the trinity of peppers, onion and celery. She includes okra and flour as a thickener. She replaced the chicken with a product known as “TVP” — textured vegetable protein — and the sausage with plant-based breakfast links.
My aunt probably didn’t know about the importance of roux, however, because there’s nothing in the directions about how to make it.
“We didn’t know what gumbo tasted like,” my aunt told me, so she included a huge amount — six cups — of okra.
I’ve adapted and renamed the “gumbo” recipe because, well, it’s really not one.
I’ve replaced the textured vegetable protein with Boca’s crumbled “beef” product. It provides a solid protein boost.
I realized from this recipe that there have been great strides made in spicing up vegetarian sausage to be more tasty.
Photo by Noah Simon
Even with my changes, this is a dish that I could serve to any Adventist, although they probably wouldn’t be accustomed to the spice boost. I dished up a bowl to a friend from Thibodaux, who enjoyed it as well. Even church founder Ellen White would likely approve of it, if I just cut out all that pepper.
Adventist tomato and okra stew
Serves 6 to 8
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup flour
2 onions, diced
2 bell peppers, diced
1 cup celery, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 28-ounce package frozen okra
4 cups vegetable stock or water
2 fresh tomatoes, diced large
2 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of Boca Original Veggie Crumbles
1 package of vegetarian sausage (about four large links) sliced into coins
Add flour and oil to a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Whisk together until roux is medium brown. Add onions, celery, peppers and garlic and cook until soft. Add chili powder, paprika, white pepper, cayenne and garlic powder to roux-vegetable mixture and stir.
Put okra into medium pot over medium-high heat and cook until defrosted.
Add okra to onion mixture. Once combined, transfer mixture into larger pot and add four cups of water (or vegetable stock), tomatoes, tomato sauce, Boca crumbles and sausage.
Cook on medium-low for about 45 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.
Photo by Ann Maloney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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One popular recipe found on just about every Adventist holiday table is known as Special K loaf, likely influenced by Kellogg’s cereal, which was co-founded by John Harvey Kellogg, an early Adventist who also founded a hospital and later broke with the church.
The high-protein, thrifty loaf is a great way to feed a large family and it is a dish that any Adventist or former Adventist would remember well, if not fondly.
Adventist Special K Loaf
Serves 6 to 8
1 pound cottage cheese (small curd)
6 cups Special K cereal
1 stick of butter, melted
6 eggs
1 packet Lipton onion soup
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix all ingredients and place in 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan. Bake at 350 for one hour until golden brown on top. Can be frozen, uncooked, for up to 6 months.
