Vegetables Butchered or Simply Chopped?

As vegetarianism — especially its vegan avatar — gains strength in traditionally carnivorous cultures, the attempt to ‘meatify’ vegetables is inevitable.

So far, the most obvious manifestation of this trend has been the rise in ‘mock meat’ creations — assuming that vegetarians are secretly yearning for flesh. But, more recently, it is the rise of the ‘vegetable butchery’ in upscale western stores that threatens to get under the skin of strict vegetarians.

Vegetable butchers are, according to available definitions, those who not only chop green produce expertly but also help utilise all parts of such intricate comestibles as artichokes, squashes and the like. Such prowess, at least many Indians would aver, were common among homemakers of yore, with leaves, peels and seeds being as thriftily utilised as the vegetables.


That it has now morphed into a profession bespeaks a general erosion of quotidian skills. The moot question, of course, is what differentiates a vegetable butcher’s work from the packets of ready-to-cook cut carrots and cauliflowers routinely found in supermarkets today, other than the fact that a ‘butchered’ rather than a ‘chopped’ tag presumably fetches a higher price. Even more importantly, would vegetarians actually prefer their vegetables to be butchered or just genteelly chopped, sliced, julienned or grated?