Melissa Wijnen’s vegetarian Polish dishes

Melissa Wijnen, HR assistant at FASoS, saw most of her hobbies disappear due to the corona virus: travelling, going to festivals, going out to dinner, seeing friends, going to the gym. But it is also thanks to the corona pandemic that she gained a new hobby. With more time on her hands due to the corona crisis, she discovered her love for cooking.

In January 2020, Melissa went to New York with her roommate. “We went to such good restaurants and our hearts were stolen by Magnolia Bakery. It was all we could talk about when we came back. Our family and friends were seriously wondering what could be so great about a banana pudding. Not long after we came back, Magnolia Bakery published a cookbook and my boyfriend decided to buy it for me so he could share in the joy over their desserts. I made the banana pudding for my family to prove them how great it was and they finally understood my enthusiasm.”

Food has always been a big part of Melissa’s life. Melissa’s upbringing involved eating traditional Polish dishes, as her mother is Polish. These meals mostly include a lot of meat, something Melissa isn’t too fond of. “When I lived with my parents I had to eat whatever my mom made. It was all delicious food but I just didn’t really like that meat was involved in a lot of dishes’’. And so Melissa adopted a vegetarian lifestyle when she moved away from home. The biggest reasons for this were her compassion for animals and the wish to contribute to a reduction of global warming.

But somehow the vegetarian meals she prepared couldn’t fully satisfy her. “What I missed from the vegetarian dishes I cooked was the connection with the traditional Polish kitchen. Food was a big part of my childhood and I fondly recall cooking traditional Polish dishes with my mom and grandma. I became a bit nostalgic at some point and discussed it with a friend. She found a cookbook that contained all traditional Polish dishes where the meat part of the dish was replaced with vegetarian options. I was super excited! So for Christmas, my boyfriend and I decided to prepare a huge vegetarian Polish meal. While my mom was a bit hesitant at first when I said I wanted to cook a vegetarian Polish dish for the family, at some point she stood in the kitchen looking at my boyfriend and me and said: ‘I am so proud of you!’ My boyfriend jokingly said she was more proud of me that moment than she was when I received my diploma,” Melissa says laughing.

“When I told my mom I wanted to eat vegetarian, she thought ‘oh Melissa and her funny ideas’. But now she really likes what I cook and she tries out some dishes herself. My dad wants to be supportive of my vegetarian lifestyle as well, but I know he sometimes misses meat when I cook for him. The constructive criticism from my friends and family motivates me to keep improving my vegetarian cooking skills. I’m glad we can enjoy tasty (Polish) vegetarian dishes together.’’

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