Whoever said that being a vegetarian means giving up good taste never had lunch with the Birdie family of Lawrence.

Purviz Birdie is a whiz in the kitchen, and today she has cooked up a feast intended to prove that you don’t have to eat meat in order to eat well.

Arranged on the kitchen table is a colorful, aromatic spread of Indian dishes — scented with ginger, garlic, onion, cayenne pepper and tumeric — that contain not a bit of meat or animal by-products.

Purviz has prepared bowls of Chick Anarkali with chunks of textured vegetable protein flavored like chicken; Tofu Anarkali; a large platter of potatoes and spicy, shredded mock meat; and bowls of basmati rice, dal (a stew of lentils and cabbage) and a dish made of spinach and mustard greens.

And for dessert: a homemade, vegan chocolate-orange cheesecake topped with slices of mandarin oranges.

Don’t be scared off by the mention of ingredients such as soy-based vegetable protein and tofu. They don’t detract from a thoroughly delicious meal that only the most committed of carnivores might turn up his or her nose.

“I just replace all my meat dishes with the mock meats, and we’re not missing anything,” says Purviz, a Raintree Montessori School teacher.

Her eldest daughter, Aryenish, a 17-year-old senior at Lawrence High School, agrees.

“People are beginning to realize that being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you can’t eat. I actually eat more,” she says.

Great American Meatout

The Birdie family — its other members are Purviz’s husband, Tiraz, a mechanical engineer, and daughter Parendi, 12, a sixth-grader at Raintree Montessori School — are a good example of people who have decided to make the transition to a vegetarian diet.

Aryenish Birdie, 17, became a vegetarian when she was a sophomore at Lawrence High School. Inspired by her example, her family has given up meat.

It’s a lifestyle choice that’s celebrated each year with an event called “The Great American Meatout,” billed as the world’s largest annual grassroots diet-education campaign.

The point of the one-day Meatout — the 19th annual observance of the event is Thursday — is to educate people about vegetarianism, urging them to “kick the meat habit on March 20 and explore a wholesome, nonviolent plant-based diet.”

Aryenish, bound for Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., in the fall, is the reason the Birdie family decided to go vegetarian.

She gave up eating meat as a sophomore, and eventually became a vegan, giving up all animal by-products, too.

“I’ve always loved animals. Once I educated myself about what goes on, as far as factory farming and the way animals are killed for food, I just couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening,” she says.

“My parents have always been so animal friendly. We don’t buy products that are tested on animals. We don’t kill spiders or anything. Vegetarianism seemed like the next step to me.”

Purviz Birdie prepares dal, a lentil and cabbage stew, at her Lawrence home. Birdie uses textured vegetable protein or tofu to replace meat in her cooking. All of the meals she prepares for her family are vegetarian. She hopes to soon be marketing five flavors of her own vegan cheesecakes.

Making the dietary change wasn’t that difficult for Aryenish, a member of Animal Outreach of Kansas, a Lawrence-based animal welfare group.

She did it gradually, over the course of two months.

“I never really liked fish, so I took out all seafood first. Then red meat, pork and then chicken was last. I was doing it in increments. If I had done it all at once, it would have been hard,” she says.

“I always tell people (trying vegetarianism), ‘Take it one step at a time. Don’t do it all at once.'”

Dropping meat and animal by-products hasn’t reduced her to a diet of lettuce and spring water, though.

“I’m actually eating more. There are all these fake meats (textured vegetable protein flavored to taste like fish, chicken, beef and pork). Instead of meat being the centerpiece of a meal, there are so many other things to eat,” Aryenish says.

“It tastes exactly the same to me, but it’s cruelty free.”

Following daughter’s lead

Purviz Birdie, Lawrence, prepared these vegetarian dishes. They are, clockwise from far left, basmati rice, potatoes and shredded mock meat, cheesecake, Tofu Anarkali, Chick Anarkali and dal. A dish made of spinach and mustard greens is in the center.

Purviz — persuaded by her daughter’s ideas and inspired by her example — became a vegetarian herself about 10 months ago.

“Aryenish and I went to see ‘The Witness’ (a film about one man’s journey to animal welfare activism) at Liberty Hall, and I couldn’t watch the last 10 minutes. I had tears running down my face,” she says.

“I understood that I couldn’t justify eating animals once I realized they were the same as my dogs, as far as feeling pain and suffering.”

Purviz and Tiraz, who emigrated to the United States from Karachi, Pakistan, in 1984, had contemplated adopting a vegetarian diet once before.

But it was Aryenish who eventually led the whole family to take that step.

“I feel healthier,” Purviz says. “I’ve lost weight, and I haven’t had to cut down on the amount of food I eat.”

All of the meals she prepares for her family are vegetarian. Purviz is a talented cook and she has made the transition away from meat much easier.

“It’s going well. My wife really makes excellent food. Without her cooking, it would be more difficult,” Tiraz says.

So good, in fact, that Purviz hopes to soon be marketing five flavors of her own vegan cheesecakes in Lawrence, under the name Happy Cow Desserts.

Vegan cheesecakes are a specialty of Purviz Birdie, Lawrence. They contain no animal by-products, no cholesterol and no saturated fat. This one is chocolate-orange flavor.

Though she’s still working out the details, Purviz has settled on these flavors: chocolate raspberry, chocolate orange, mocha almond fudge, New York-style with cherries and Hawaiian.

“I love to cook. I learned from my mother. My earliest memories are of opening up my mom’s magazines and trying out the recipes,” she says.

Purviz, who likes to cook Chinese and Indian dishes, buys soy-based meat substitutes from The Mail Order Catalog for Healthy Eating, which has a Web site online at www.healthy-eating.com.

Aryenish isn’t worried about being able to maintain her vegan diet when she leaves Lawrence for school this fall.

That’s because the cafeteria at Hampshire College offers vegan selections at every meal.

“But I’ll still want my mom to send me food,” she says.