I have never made falafel before this week, but I am always on the look out for high protein foods these vegan days. I happened upon this box of telma Falafel Mix in my supermarket’s Jewish food section.
I appreciate Jewish food, I love how they have the food marked – PARVE – so I know it’s vegan without having to read the box. I don’t know if this is necessarily the best falafel mix, but it is made in Israel under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate of Haifa.
I also bought the telma tehina sauce to go with my falafel. (Unfortunately they don’t have a website) I didn’t make the serving suggestion on the front of the box, I made a nice salad with them instead.
It is a pain to have to fry them in a 1/4 inch of corn oil, but other than that, I really loved them and the tehina sauce.
From what I’ve heard, just b/c somethign is marked Parve doesn’t mean it’s vegan. It means it’s made in the jewish tradition, but it can still have animal products in it.
Humm, okay. I usually read the back of the box as well. I thought it meant that it could be eaten with animal products, and Jewish tradition says you cannot eat dairy and animal products together, thus if it is not an animal product, it is vegan. See my thought?
parve is neutral — neither dairy nor meat, it can be eaten with either. you’re probably safe assuming something parve is vegan, since it couldn’t be eaten with meat if it contained dairy products (and vice versa).
Thank you! After looking at so much Jewish food that said parve, I felt it was something like that and now you’ve answered that burning question.
Unfortunately, parve does not by any means mean vegan (or even vegetarian).
Non-vegetarian items that can be parve include:
– fish
– eggs (not vegan)
– Jello-brand gelatin (comes from slaughtered animals)
– Mono and diglicyrides that are from animals (not vegan; sometimes not vegetarian).
wow!
what is all about?
As a religious Jewish from Israel let me make some order here:
There is a MEETy product made out of meet or chicken or any other Kosher animal, that product may be MEETy if it contain any animal material or made in an environment of meet.
and there is a DARY product made out of milk of cattle or sheep’s or any other Kosher beast , that product may be DARY if it contain any milky material like fat or powder or made in an environment of milk.
and between there is a PARVE product, made out of none of the above
By the way Telama Falafel is very good -but you can also make it yourself out of chick peas –
http://www.indianthai.com/recepie.asp?r7230.htm
bon apetit