It was one low-cost example, jeez, there's freakin' thousands of them, i'm not a fucking cookbook, I was just making a point.
chillis (no idea what that is)
I can forgive you the others since like, I think some of them are called different things in the US, but you don't know what a freakin chilli is? LMAO. Anyway what I described (dhal) is a staple of every Indian persons diet for the most part. Unless they're a coconut.
With regards to the other questions, the thing is that not every vegan has the exact same perspective or reasons or feelings. At it's most basic level going vegan is just avoidance of eating animals and animal by products. Some people do it for strictly health reasons, some for strictly moral reasons, some do it for green/ecological reasons and even some for religious reasons (True Rastafarians are all vegan, in fact the BEST vegan restaurant I've ever been to was a Rasta run place in Tacoma, WA). Some do it for a combination of any or all of the above.
So with that in mind you can't really say "vegans believe X because Y". What's frustrating is that most people question it, not because they actually care or want to be educated on the subject, but simply to try and pick holes in it to justify their own behaviour. Now admittedly, I can be an asshole about it online because I enjoy the occasional rant and sometimes I need to vent, but in real life I have NEVER, EVER tried to make anyone feel bad about eating meat. Not once. And yet I still have to deal with this barrage of inane questions by meat eaters (and sometimes even dairy eating vegetarians) who feel defensive and threatened purely from what I do, when I've said nothing to make them feel that way. It's annoying. And quite telling. If I really feel like somebody is legitimately interested and not just trying to be a dick, I'll point them in the direction of a few great books and sites. Maybe offer a couple useful statistic. For example, if meat consumption in the US was reduced by as little as 10%, you could feed an extra 100 million people using that same land to grow vegetables. How many people die of starvation every year? 20 million. Or to make people feel a little more personal about it - dairy consumption leads to a 3x higher risk of fatal prostate or ovarian cancer.
As for plants, every living thing on this planet operates on similar molecular and biological levels. What causes humans and animals to feel pain? Our central nervous system sending impulses to our brains. Plants have neither of those things.