It’s just that simple – alterations I’ve made to some of the Madd Hatter’s Kitchen recipes to adapt to the myriad of diets that my friends or family have adopted over the years. While in the past I’ve made little notes here and there in my recipes about ways to make them suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, or otherwise, there was really no way to quickly look for all the vegetarian foods or alterations on the site.

Alterations – what exactly does this mean? Well, I’m not a vegetarian, I’m not a vegan, I’m not dairy free, and other than a short two-month stint, I’m not gluten-free. So I don’t plan on retooling the site to be devoted to these types of foods, because that’s not how I cook. However, I love to entertain, and I want to be sure when I have friends and family over, they have something they can eat that tastes great. In some cases I do have a few of these pure recipes up my sleeve, but in many cases I alter my recipes, such as my poke bowl which is topped with edamame for vegetarian friends or those who don’t want to eat raw tuna. Or the cherry chai smoothie, which calls for yogurt, but at the end of my recipe I’ve noted a replacement to make this a suitable drink for a person on a dairy free or vegan diet.

So while you peruse the diet alterations section, you may see pictures that contain meat, eggs, cheese, et al, but scroll to the bottom of the recipe and you’ll see the recommended substitutions to satisfy the particular diet requirements. Of course, you can alter any recipe on the site, but these are recipes I’ve either tried or had someone else try, and I think they stay true my intention.

And while I’ve tried my best to learn in-depth about each of these diets, it is possible that I’ve slipped up and not realized an ingredient has casein or gluten or gelatin or something else. So I definitely welcome any feedback if you see such a slip up. That’s one way to learn!

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a note on this section by Courtney