MUNICH, Germany Neo-Nazis are keeping their black combat boots and bomber jackets in the closet as they try to force their way into mainstream German society.

Security officials say many young fascists are adopting more stylish and less intimidating images, with some branded "nipsters" after embracing hipster-style clothing as well as techno and hip hop music.

Far-right extremists even recently launched a "Vegan Cooking Channel" on YouTube featuring masked young men preparing simple recipes and providing household tips.

A screengrab from a neo-Nazi vegan cooking show on YouTube.

"If the young people don't find skinhead types attractive, then they [the neo-Nazis] will simply die out, so they have to find something new," said Daniel Koehler, an expert on radicalization who has counseled right-wing extremists in the past. "There are many different ways in which neo-Nazis now portray themselves" that are "not immediately seen as the violent skinhead, neo-Nazi type," he added.

"When they find new recruits, who have grown up with the Internet, a different type of music, a different clothing style, they will bring them in," Koehler told NBC News.

Issues such as animal rights, the environment, equality for women are sometimes used as a smoke screen by the extremists as they try to lure followers to their scene.

Germany's far-right NPD party once launched a youth welfare service, which offered to help young people find jobs. It has also tried to bring its extremist ideology to young people through with the release of so-called "schoolyard CDs."

Contemporary right-wing bands such as Kategorie C, which offer "Anti Sharia Team" T-shirts to fans on its website, and rapper Makss Damage, whose lyrics include "Kill these anti-German sons of b******," are among the new generation of artists making waves.

And in April, two far-right extremists wearing Cookie Monster costumes were arrested by police, while trying to lure in young children with leaflets reading, "To be German is cool."

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Neo-Nazis Embrace Vegan Cooking, Techno, Hipster Clothes

Abebe, the owner of Abyssinia, a popular Ethiopian eatery in Nairobi, shows some of the foods permitted during the culture's pre-Christmas fast. Orthodox Ethiopians typically eat just one vegan meal per day for 40 days before the Christmas feast on Jan. 7 Gregory Warner/NPR hide caption

Abebe, the owner of Abyssinia, a popular Ethiopian eatery in Nairobi, shows some of the foods permitted during the culture's pre-Christmas fast. Orthodox Ethiopians typically eat just one vegan meal per day for 40 days before the Christmas feast on Jan. 7

An Ethiopian kitchen can be a place of both succulence and self-denial.

In the kitchen of Abyssinia, a popular Ethiopian eatery in Nairobi, the owner, Abebe, demonstrates how his cook prepares the dish called kitfo. It's raw minced beef whipped together with cardamom and chili and a spicy butter with a texture and taste closer to delicate cheese than to steak tartar.

Kitfo is actually Abebe's favorite food, but it's one he hasn't been allowed to eat for the past month. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the world's oldest, observes Christmas on Jan. 7, following a calendar similar to the Coptic church. The 40 days prior to Christmas (including Dec. 25) are observed with a vegan fast.

That usually means just one meal per day, in the afternoon or evening.

This 40-day Nativity Fast also observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic and Coptic Church, among others typically prohibits meat, dairy, eggs, oil and wine. (Some traditions are ambiguous about whether fish may be eaten.)

The church considers refraining from some meals and some foods to be a form of purification and spiritual preparation. While the term "vegan" was coined only 70 years ago, prohibitions against eating meat and dairy for extended periods have been around for millennia. But no church has as many fasting days as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Abebe says that at a time of year when others are gorging, there's something gratifying in self-denial.

"In fact that gives a psychological edge to those of us who are fasting," he says, adding that the hungrier he gets, the closer he feels to God.

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A 40-Day Vegan Fast, Then At Last, A January Christmas Feast