Veganuary: A Devout Meat (ex)Lover’s Guide
It seems a lot of people are currently considering the bracingly radical prospect of “Veganuary”.
I switched from being a committed — almost spiritually so — carnivore to vegan (well, very nearly all-in vegan) since early 2020.
And its been, well…….amazing.
With the support (not least veggiebox generosity) of the inspirational Paula Carlson, over the past year, I’ve cooked and eaten and shared and loved so much incredible plant-based food.
And unsurprisingly I feel so much healthier too…
There are lots of compelling reasons to go vegan ……environmental, ethical etc etc, und so weiter (but not economic! — see below for details)
But in my view the best reason to go vegan is simply that the food is actually awesome — and I genuinely believe going vegan opens up lots of new ways to love food even more.
Which in my case is saying something,
In fact I’d say the challenge and excitement of a completely new diet has been one of the things that have kept me sane and really quite positive over this, well, collapsed (dairy-free of course) souffle of a year .
So I thought I’d share my experience and some very personal and decidedly non-expert tips.
Please note: I’m by no means a chef, let alone a nutritionist.
But if it’s about not just making the leap to being vegan, but actually enjoying it, then I would say I’ve been quite successful.
So I’ve noted this down primarily for prospective meat (ex)lovers who are contemplating what we might call going “The Real Cold Turkey”.
(But without the actual turkey, I suggest.)
This is because I feel — maybe unfairly — that this particular group requires more emotional labour than others at this delicate, daunting moment.
And frankly, if you belong to this formerly flesh-loving faction, the last person you want to hear from is a vegetarian considering giving up their beloved feta.
It. Is. Just. Not. The. Same.
And they will never understand.
(But maybe this is of interest to dairy-loving vegetarians too, if they are not already too offended)
So firstly — maybe we can put it this way — humans over history have created thousands upon thousands of absolutely gob-smackingly gorgeous meals and recipes (as well as, let’s be honest, some pretty awful ones — but they are out of scope here).
And it turns out that a very large number of the really, really good ones are exclusively plant-based (maybe even most of them? will look into that….).
What is indisputable is that there are far too many amazing meat and dairy free dishes out there for even the most committed and prolific food adventurer to go through a fraction of them in their lifetime.
What that means is, if you turn vegan, you can spend your whole life discovering, cooking, eating and enjoying truly astonishing food — without ever getting bored.
And it is my newly discovered, but deeply held belief that an intensely delicious plant-based dish is every bit as joyous as any meat dish.
Of course it won’t taste the same — and if you want it to, I’m afraid you’ll always be disappointed.
But it will taste differently amazing.
All the notes we look for in a glorious meat dish — richness, spicyness, tender chewyness, even that unctuous umami hit — we can find in thousands of vegan recipes.
The catch is — and some may disagree with this — in my experience, you do have to work harder to hit these culinary heights in vegan cooking, whether cooking at home or eating out.
But that’s not a bad thing.
In fact that’s a great thing!
It means you have to think more about the food you eat.
And actually most people, as far as I can tell, are not only very fond of, but also exceptionally good at thinking about food.
If you want to go vegan with style, it means thinking even more about food — not only indulgently (although definitely still do that), but also creatively and productively.
You need to think more carefully about the raw materials — not just the vegetables you buy (or even better grow…), but all the ingredients you use and also the herbs and spices you stock.
And to get the best out of vegetables, you really need to start tuning into the seasonal rhythm. Locally grown veg really do taste better — and even more so when they are the stars of the show and not just the underrated, over-looked and exploited walk-on extras.
Because: if you generally rely on processed food in your diet, I warn you now, relying on vegan processed food is going to be a fairly dismal experience.
To be clear, vegan processed food has improved massively in recent years and there is some really good stuff available (more on this too below).
Just not nearly enough to make life worth living.
SO — and this is the rub — if you want to give going vegan a good go, for the most part you’ve got to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and cook.
If you’re an enthusiastic cook already, going vegan forces you to be more creative, adventurous and adaptive with what at first appears to be a more limited set of options, but soon opens up to a bountiful vista of previously hidden possibilities.
And if cooking really hasn’t been your thing so far, going vegan is an excellent reason to get a handle on some of the cooking basics (which really isn’t that hard), that surprisingly quickly reveal to you what makes food so great in the first place.
It’s so, so worth it.
And let’s face it, we’re deep into the dark Corona winter, what on earth else have you got planned for the forseeable?
So here are my unordered Bakers’ Dozen of highly inexpert tips to guide your first steps into the meat-free forest.
Absolutely none of this is fact checked, it is profoundly unauthoritative and needless to say utterly, indeed brazenly, subjective….
1) Let go of meat and 2 veg
If like me you were raised in relative (make that absolute) privilege in Northern Europe, then meat and 2 veg is a bit like men and partriarchy: it’s so deeply baked into our brains, that we barely notice it’s there.
But for better or worse this mindset sub-consciously informs a huge amount of our food thinking….and often without realising, we feel a meal is somehow missing something if the meat bit isn’t quite there.
One common response is to find a meat substitute, and there are plenty of those available, either those made specifically with that purpose in mind, soy chunks of some kind, or seitan say, or there are other foods that fill the space. Sometimes that can work nicely, but a lot of the time, you end up with a meal which is quite like a meat-based meal, but just not quite as good.
And that, to put it mildly, can be a bit of a let down.
So the trick here is to realise that plants have flavours and textures all their own, and most of the best plant-based meals you’ll eat never considered inviting meat to the party in the first place.
For one thing, you can also let go of the idea of a main course as the focus of your mealtimes. Vegan cooking lends itself to dishes that can keep for a few days and can be circulated from one meal and then added to the next. That way you can have for example — some fresh local salad — with a really intense balsamic dressing, maybe some succulently roasted vegetables from yesterday, and then maybe rich spicy squash stew from today (with some beautiful mango chutney and fresh herbs on the side).
Likewise of course non-European cuisines often far more easily allow plants to be the focus of attention -an Indian curry or achari perhaps, a Thai stir fry, likewise North African tagines are easily made outstanding with veg instead of meat.
This way of thinking will free you up from feeling that you’ve made some kind of sacrifice, to realising that you’re opening up to so many different, exciting ways to think about the food on your table.
2) It’s not about cost…
Well it can be.
If you’re under serious financial pressure — and, as we all know, far too many people currently are — then going vegan is unquestionably your best chance of a healthy diet on as little as possible.
(But if you’re in that place, please make sure you squeeze in at least some fresh fruit and veg to your weekly intake...)
However, even for those with only very limited means, going vegan shouldn’t be seen as a cost saving measure, rather a way to upgrade to better quality local and ethically grown ingredients on the same budget.
Take it from me — and I’m an insufferable foodie, if it wasn’t clear already — I really look for the best veg and ingredients everywhere. Yet when I did calculations earlier this year, when we were all eating almost entirely at home, I was spending something like 70€ a week, including all household stuff. And I was eating the most sumptuous food I could get my greedy hands on
….and, dear reader, I was loving every shameless mouthful.
I think that should be a pretty affordable food budget for a lot of people.
If you want to see going vegan as a sacrifice, that’s OK.
But that’s definitely not for me — I went in directly the opposite direction.
3) The veg is the thing
Well, obviously — i would hope most dairy-eating vegetarians probably know all this already.
You really need to seek out the very best veg you can find.
Of course going to farmers’ markets is ideal, not just because the veg will taste better (which it will), but because you’ll be developing a positive, personal relationship with the food chain that nourishes you; you’ll be reconnecting yourself to your life support system.
Even better than that — find an organic veg box scheme.
Our box is from Plantage (https://www.plantage.farm/), a relatively new co-operative farm in Brandenburg outside Berlin. All the produce comes from the farm itself, and every Thursday when we pick up the box, it feels like a true achievement for the farm and an event for us (well that’s the Corona lockdown lifestyle for you…).
Working out what to do with the contents is part of the fun, but we pretty much use up everything, and learn some highly creative uses for zucchini along the way. And consequently, almost every meal we make from it is a richly satisfying one. Or an intrepid disaster (of which there are surprisingly few).
Of course — growing your own would be better still, if you have the space…..
To be sure, all of these options are for many, luxuries of time, money and space — but even those on tight budgets might be able to reach some of these things some of the time.
However, here in the real world, of course supermarkets are a necessity. I haven’t been to a UK supermarket in years, but here in Berlin the discount supermarkets do a good range of organic veg at a fraction of the cost of the bio supermarkets (our posh ones in Berlin), and quite a lot of the veg in them is locally grown. It’s the same stuff basically, but in less fancy surroundings.
Wherever it comes from, though, try to keep it as seasonal as possible.
4) Up your all-round ingredients game
This is one area that I suspect many vegans neglect, and they suffer terribly — and quite unnecessarily — as a result.
If you’re doing away with meat (or just dairy for that matter), you need to ensure that you have all the ingredients that bring out the very best your veg has to offer.
That means, for starters — a really top quality olive oil.
There’s a reason Italians always look alarmingly happy and live to 104.
When you have a good olive oil just opening the bottle is enough to set you off.
I have to stay I get really angry (thus invalidating point 7) when I go to a vegan co-operative and see an invariably disappointing range of lacklustre olive oils on the shelf.
Why?
Do you think Vegan should be martyrs to their diet?
Is vegan food just human fuel to you?
Vegans shouldn’t have to make do with the functional basics.
Vegans need — and deserve — the very best!
Likewise, other oils — rapeseed is a good neutral base, vinegars (a really good balsamic is makes an epic difference to salads, and well, just about everything really)
Also core carbs — pasta, rice, cous cous, oats.
Puy lentils make a really hearty veg ragu that works in a huge range of European-based dishes and salads. Or on its own.
Seek out the really good stuff — learn where it comes from.
When you find out what the food you’re eating means to the people who produce it — it always means more to you, and weirdly enough seems to taste better too.
5) We got the spice
Coupled with the ingredients, upgrading your spice rack is an essential step to making veganism not just tolerable, but actually making a plant-based diet deeply, richly enjoyable.
Without meat you have to work harder to reveal many flavours — and that means combinations of spices and herbs that can fuse with the veg to add new facets to the taste that’s there already.
My current rack is around 40 strong and still growing.
Not that I’m boasting you understand,
But if you have some spice envy, no-one would think less of you.
Roughly speaking there are groups of:
- European herbs — thyme,oregano etc
- Asian — cumin, nigella
- Arab/African — ras-al-hanout is always necessary for me
- Then the super intense spices — nutmeg, cinnamon and saffron
- And of course a comprehensive range of peppers and chillis at varying degrees of hottitude (incidentally smoked paprika is one of the easiest ways of instantly adding something close to meaty flavour to a dish)
There is a special kind of cooking nirvana you reach when you’re doing a level 5 Ottolenghi recipe, he’s throwing everything he can think of at you and you’ve got it all at hand. And you’re looking at the recipe and nonchalantly saying “But Yotam, which mustard seeds are best for this — I need you to be more specific…”
But then of course, it is super easy, much tastier and often much more convenient to grow your own herb garden — all you need is a window box (some direct sun is helpful but not essential).
This year I grew thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, parsley, tarragon, coriander, lemongrass, mint, basil and thai basil this year — all with reasonable success (and i’m hopeless, frankly, horticulturally speaking), and I had a whole new fresh herb larder I could raid any time I felt my recipe needed a lift….
6) Fermentation is the future
OK, I’m defining this absurdly broadly — to cover preserves too — but pickling and jarring is one of the oldest food traditions there is. Fundamentally fermentation allows you to take flavours and nutrients from one season into the next and beyond without requiring electricity, which is why its been so important to pretty much every food culture in history.
And it also allows you to reach intensities of sweet and sour that will add so much to anything you already have on the table.
And it’s very, very easy.
Currently I have on my shelves big jars of Zucchini pickle — made with the huge marrows we got in the summer, that works with any curry and spicy dish,
I also have preserved lemons — which is simply lemons, pepper corns, bay leaves and lots and lots of salt (salt is a recurring theme in this section…) — amazing in any tagine, and many stews.
Also I’ve been cooking up big batches of mango chutney — very easy to boil down a bowl of mangoes, vinegar and sugar to get a rick treacly, spicy sludge — that this year provided most of my Christmas presents, and adds a spicy, richness to so many meals.
Here in Germany, and much of Northern Europe, sauerkraut is of course the tradition and ludicrously easy to produce; more salt required here.
Add some ginger, chili, onions and you’re getting into kimchi territory (more or less — apologies kimchi experts).
There are so many pickled things you can do,
And of course bread is possibly the earliest fermentation of all. If you are gluten- tolerant — it takes while, but making sourdough is a wonderfully relaxed way to make an otherwise boring day at home, wholesome and satisfying.
Don’t put it in a jar though.
7) You don’t have to be an angry vegan. Be a happy vegan.
You may not have noticed but angry vegans have been steadily dying out throughout the 20teens.
Soon there will only be a few mating pairs left in the protected reserves of Finland.
And New Cross of course.
Fortunately being a happy vegan is much less exhausting for you and everyone around you.
This is actually a really important part to all of this, and points to one my biggest challenges with going vegan: namely, the social dimension of the food we eat, which for me personally is a really huge deal.
Food and how we eat with others to a very great degree, is what makes us human in the first place.
Pre-historic traces of breaking bread, sharing grain and rice are some of the earliest evidence we have of organised solidarity.
Arguably, it is only when humans learnt to strategically optimise food gathering and storing for the collective that we started to thrive as a species (although with disastrous consequences for other animals and, coming to think of it, the entire eco-system. But we won’t go there, its New Years Day — most likely you’re feeling a little fragile and you need comfort, re-assurance and, above all, to be validated that being human is probably fine. Of course it is — we’re great. Happy New Year!).
The point here —albeit somewhat laboured — is that eating has always been and always should be a fundamentally social ritual; something that binds us together with those around us, to nourish ourselves and to nourish each other.
And although becoming vegan is growing astonishingly rapidly in what we should probably call the Rich World, it is still a niche diet, and can potentially create difference between you and those around you. I really look for food to bond with people, regardless of their preferences (unless they take pleasure in eating dolphins or something).
And as even the most extreme meat eaters — Argentinian Pampas ranchers, say — will still eat 70 per cent plant matter, I think there’s plenty of scope of finding common ground with any people with any diet.
It may be different in other cities, but I have to say, Berlin vegan restaurants still have a tendency to sell themselves on being vegan, rather than on cooking gorgeous food, and happening to be vegan (although as a happy consequence of this city’s fractured history, we do have some great vegan Vietnamese restaurants).
But most places to eat out here these days have vegan options allowing any social dining-out event to be easily navigable.
When someone invites you round for a big dinner (if that is ever allowed again….), ask about the menu. If there’s nothing vegan on it, offer to bring a big dish for everyone to share.
Its pretty achievable to hit upon a few guaranteed recipe bangers, that can effortlessly draw more hungry attention than the host’s efforts (this can be quite awkward, actually — with great veggie powers, comes great responsibility).
8) You can very easily get all the nutrients you could possibly need a healthy balanced vegan diet and so much more….except for B12
If you’re worried about missing out on essential nutrients by going vegan, you’re worrying in the wrong place.
I’m not a nutritionist so please don’t take my word for it.
However….
If you base your diet on a mix of fresh fruit, greens and roots, add in some pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas) and make sure to use some good oils in your cooking — you’ll have a ridiculously healthy, fully balanced diet on your hands without even noticing.
One thing you need to watch for is getting the full 9 animo-acids that cannot be produced by your own body. Lots of foods have most of the them, i.e. pulses, soy-based foods, nuts; less have the full house. But there are still plenty of options for the full 9, including Flax seeds (which stir nicely into your porridge and make an excellent egg replacement in cakes) and Quinoa (which is easy to cook and works with countless other things) and many more.
Carbs are carbs (bread, pasta, rice etc) and serve as fuel, as with any other diet.
My approach to carbs consumption is quite technical and has taken many years to master:
If I still feel hungry I eat more.
If I feel bloated, I try to remember to eat less next time. And take a nap.
It seems to workout OK.
The one and only thing you really need in your diet but can’t get from exclusively plant sources is vitamin B12. B12 is essential for your nerve and blood cells, and producing DNA.
So really quite important, as a rule.
The easiest answer to this is to buy it as a supplement in any supermarket.
I have one every now and then, because I keep forgetting, which is probably terrible nutritionally speaking, but I seem to feel alright.
(Note: This is actually, nutritionally terrible advice; please take your B12 regularly)
9) Always cook far too much, but waste absolutely nothing…
Slow food doesn’t have to be inconvenient.
Cooking takes time — so if you’re doing some cooking, you might as well cook a big amount.
One of the great things about vegan food is that most of it keeps well in the fridge and can easily be frozen. In fact a lot of veg dishes actually taste better after freezing, as the flavours very slowly develop.
So, if you do a big hearty stew, or an outrageous curry, always have some containers at hand to put the excess in the freezer. That way you can quickly stock up on a frozen pantry of highly convenient food — that only needs a reheat, but happens to be healthy and wholesome too.
I like to ensure my freezer is stocked with 1 or 2 portion containers of 10 or more different meals that I can bung in the oven any time I’m simply too lazy too cook.
Which is quite a lot of the time.
10) Some meat and dairy replacements really work. A lot don’t.
Get over it.
If you haven’t tried oat milk, you probably should: it tastes utterly perfect in coffee and tea. And it will make you realise you probably don’t need milk anyway.
Other awesome dairy replacements include yoghurt, mayonnaise and some spreads (vegan block for example) — most dairy fiends wouldn’t notice the difference with any of these.
Cheese — well, that’s more complicated. Most of it is based on coconut fat — and can be used on burgers and in burritos. But in my view (admittedly, as an ex-cheese ultra-snob) on not much else, let alone on a cracker.
Perish the thought.
There are some smaller artisan vegan cheeses available that can taste really good, but they’re super expensive and hard to find.
Most meat replacements are similarly unsatisfying, if I’m honest.
You can find veggie bacon and chorizo — you may find them OK, you’re unlikely to find them much better than that.
Veggie sausages and burgers can taste outstanding — in fact the new generation of veggie burgers , Beyond Meat etc, make a good case for rendering meat burgers obsolete (although you do get the sense they came out of a lab rather than a field…)
But other foods that don’t try so hard to mimic meat can end up being much more successful alternatives — for example black bean tempeh with lots of spice and smoked paprika makes for really satisfying slabs of tasty protein that work in a lot of normally-meat dishes.
Liquid smoke is reported to be outstanding — I will be trying it out very soon.
But really, rather than pining for what you loved in meat, you can far more easily shift those flavours and feelings to dishes where meat was never a feature in the first place, and yet offer whole new dimensions of taste and texture.
11) But….some quintessentially meaty dishes have vegan alternatives that can taste even better….
Having said all that in point 10, there are some really great meaty comfort classics that, with some ingenious vegan tweaks — make for plant-based belters.
As mentioned above — veggie burgers are getting really great — with uncanny “mouthfeel”, as food technologists charmingly call it (as implied above, its not exactly clear how natural they are, but let’s face it, no-one eats burgers for their karma).
I cooked up some vegan doners recently — black bean tempeh chunks sautéed with onions, peppers, garlic, and with plenty of cumin, rosemary and smoked paprika.
Add some tahini and (plant-based) yoghurt garlic sauce, chili sauce, pickles, and salad — all shoved into a homemade pitta.
They were……MAGNIFICENT.
Though I say so, myself.
I cooked up this chili recipe from Meera Sodha recently — https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oct/03/meera-sodha-recipe-vegan-oven-baked-chilli-butternut-squash-recipe
– and with a soya sour cream, plus all the Tex-Mex trimmings, it can effortlessly fill a deeply delicious burrito.
Likewise, using a lentil ragu, and a layer of richly wine-sauted mushrooms — you can make a really hearty and delicious Shepherds Pie.
If you can overlook the paradox of vegan shepherds.
You can also make the a really delicious celeriac schnitzel — rolling slabs of the celeriac in breadcrumbs and then in the oven. It’s not the same of course (thankfully in my view — no light deprivation here), but with creative use of herbs and other veg, it’s really richly satisfying.
I’m not sure this counts as an alternative to a meat dish, but as well as being very easy, and astonishingly tasty, this amazing dish from Ottolenghi seems to reach a particularly primeval corner of our meat brains:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/11/yotam-ottolenghi-chickpea-recipes-confit-tandoori-polenta-chips-parmesan-braise
Just replace the yoghurt with plant-based yoghurt
So you see, you’ve got plenty, of seriously umami-rich options.
12) Find some great sources for recipes that you can go back to again and again
Of course this is key to being a successful vegan.
Meera Sodha’s column in the guardian is a freely available source of diverse and often quite unexpected vegan recipes: https://www.theguardian.com/food/series/the-new-vegan
We often find great vegan recipes on the German blog Eat This - www.eat-this.org — which may be a bit of challenge to non-German speakers (and me for that matter).
But what’s wrong with learning a bit of German too as you’re going Vegan?
Alternatively, you could use a translator (if you’re cooking ethically, you might want to consider translating ethically too and use http://deepl.com instead of the obvious)
The BBC is a good source too of course….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/diets/vegan
There are plenty of chefs who may not be vegan completely, but can be considered vegan friendly.
Perhaps a little unexpectedly I’ve always found Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s veg books inspirational -https://www.rivercottage.net/
Also Yotam Ottolenghi has published vegetable only cook books, but many of his others have vegan — or easily adapted to — vegan recipes.
https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes
https://www.theguardian.com/food/series/yotam-ottolenghi-recipes
And I must of course mention our very own conscious cooking and international superstar Yasmin Khan — http://yasminkhanstories.com/ — her recent soulful, flavourful cook books — Saffron, Zaitoun and Ripe Figs (coming out soon) — are not specifically vegan, but certainly vegan friendly…..
Maybe one day when she’s less busy she’ll produce a compendium of greatest vegan hits — we can but dream…
But really — I’m just sharing a very limited few — there are vast numbers of outstanding vegan cooks out there…the possibilities are endless…
13) Don’t cower in self-loathing at your pathetically weak non-vegan moments. Embrace them!
Just don’t tell the vegan police (as Paula C might say).
We are ending with maybe the most important point of all: Whatever reason you decided to try and go all in with the plant life around you, don’t be surprised if you have overwhelming pangs of passion for some of the food you left behind.
And — crucially — don’t worry about it.
You’re eating massively less of the harmful things than you once were and you’ve taken huge strides in the right direction. A bacon sandwich, or a big slab of brie, or an exquisitely seasoned, dry-cured rib eye — on the bone, cooked to perfection…..every mouthful just disintegrating into rich dark deep red velvety flavour in your mouth
……excuse me a minute……
………is not going to change that.
Well, not much.
Some might see you as some kind of food traitor.
Personally, I’m totally OK with it.
Mainly, of course, because you are completely validating me and my indiscretions.
And anyway, not being religiously adherent to vegan orthodoxy might upset some people, but it makes you look that much more human and accessible to others.
Like other people thinking of making the journey into our meat-free(ish) forest.
If they see it as less doctrinaire than they had thought, they might well be persuaded…..
So you see, by giving into your deepest carnal desires (food wise that is, although don’t let me stop you in other facets of your life) you’re not showing despicable weakness at all, you’re actually playing the long game;
you’re making veganism more accessible to thousands, if not millions more people — who might be persuaded simply by your indiscretions.
OK, this line of argument may be stretching it a little…..but do yourself a favour and go with me on this.
You can be a vegan without being an absolute vegan.
As far as I’m concerned anyway…….
And it’s fine.
It’s better than fine.
It’s absolutely great!
