http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-go-vegan-and-a-shepherds-pie-recipe.html
How to Go Vegan and a Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
By, Mark Reinfeld, Intent
We mentioned in our last article how important it is for those who care about our environment to look at the impact their food choices have on the Earth’s limited resources.
Here are five suggestions for those wishing to include more plant-based foods in their diet as a way to go green.
1. Go Slowly. It took years for you to develop your current eating habits. Most people are not willing or able to make radical changes overnight. Many times when people do make drastic changes, they find themselves falling back to old ways when the going gets tough. (Some people are of course ready to go cold Tofurky – only you can decide!)
2. Create a plan. Take a look at where you are at and where you would like to be. You can approach this in several ways. You can commit to having one vegan day a week for a month. Then go up to two days a week the second month, three days a week on the third month…(you get the idea) until you arrive at your desired outcome. Another way is to have vegan snacks for the first month, vegan snacks and breakfasts for the second month, vegan snacks, breakfasts and lunches the next month and so on. An even more gradual approach would be to have one vegan meal a week for the first month, two vegan meals a week for the second month… Make the changes at a pace you are comfortable with.
3. Choose wisely. Remember the importance of feeling satisfied at every meal. Look for vegan alternatives that come close to the taste and texture of the foods you are craving. There are many plant based products on the market now that can make this a delicious transition for you.
4. Educate yourself. It’s extremely helpful for sticking to your convictions to learn about the full impact our food choices have upon our health and the health of our planet. Check out the following books for starters: Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, Diet for a New America, The China Study, and The World Peace Diet.
5. Be gentle. Please don’t beat yourself up if you find yourself falling back into old ways of eating. Simply accept and acknowledge that it takes time to retrain your body and mind to eat in new ways and remind yourself why you are exerting the effort. Stick to your plan as much as possible.
Here is another recipe that is typically made with animal products. This is for a hearty main course from our book Vegan Fusion World Cuisine that will satisfy omnivores and vegans alike.
Shepherd’s Pie
45 min prep / 1 hour 10 min cooking / 9” x 13” casserole
10-12 medium Potatoes, ½” cubes (approx 12 C)
1 C Coconut, rice or soy milk
2 Tbl Olive oil
¾ C Onion, diced
1 Tbl Garlic, minced
¾ C Carrots, ½” cubes
½ C Celery, sliced thin
½ C Red bell pepper, diced
½ C Mushrooms, sliced thin
2 lbs Tofu, extra firm, crumbled
¾ C Peas
¾ C Corn, fresh or frozen
¼ C Tahini
4 tsp soy sauce
2 Tbl Basil, fresh, minced (1 ½ tsp dry)
2 Tbl Italian parsley, fresh, minced
1 ½ tsp Sea salt, or to taste
1 Tbl Thyme, fresh minced (½ tsp dry)
1 tsp Sage, fresh minced (½ tsp dry)
2 tsp Barley malt syrup
½ tsp Black pepper, ground to taste
½ tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
¼ tsp Cayenne pepper, or to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Place potatoes in a large pot with filtered water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft, approximately 15 minutes. Drain well, place in a large mixing bowl with coconut milk and mash well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. While potatoes are cooking, place oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add carrots, celery, bell pepper and mushrooms, cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water if necessary to prevent sticking. Add tofu and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Place in a large mixing bowl with remaining ingredients except potatoes and mix well.
3. Place tofu vegetable mixture in a well oiled 9”x13” casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes, using a spatula to create a smooth surface. Score pretty designs on top with a fork. Bake until slightly golden brown and completely cooked, approximately 25 minutes. Cool for 10-15 minutes.
Variations: Potato layer may be placed on the bottom, topped with the tofu layer. Once refrigerated, this creates a more solid foundation, and allows for different sized pieces to be cut and served individually.
Serving suggestion: Serve with Mushroom Gravy (see below).
Mushroom Gravy
10 min prep / 15 min cooking / 3 ½ cups
1 Tbl Olive oil
1 medium Onion, ¼” dice (1 C)
¾ C Shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
1½ Tbl Garlic, minced
2 C Filtered water or vegetable stock
¼ C soy sauce, or to taste
Pinch Nutmeg, ground
Pinch Cayenne pepper
Roux
2 Tbl Spelt flour
2 Tbl Olive oil
1 Tbl Filtered water
1. Create a Roux by placing spelt flour in a small bowl. Add 2 Tbl olive oil and 1 Tbl filtered water and whisk until a thick paste is created. Set aside.
2. Place 1 Tbl of olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining ingredients except roux mixture and cook for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally. Add roux mixture and cook until gravy has a thick consistency, approximately 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Ready to save the planet? Post your green intent and blog about your green successes and struggles, tagging your posts “greener life.” We may feature your post in this series!
Mark Reinfeld is the founding chef of the Blossoming Lotus Restaurant. He is the coauthor of Vegan Fusion World Cuisine, winner of 9 national awards. His latest book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw coauthored with Jennifer Murray and Bo Rinaldi is available through booksellers everywhere. Please visit www.veganfusion.com for more information.
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33 comments
add your comment »I'm not vegan but I'd like to at least give it a try. Thanks to Care2 the milk and eggs on grocery store shelves make me want to cry. There just don't seem to be enough vegan options at the grocery store or in restaurants. I can go without a lot of foods but not sure about pizza...selfish I know. :(
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Care2 vegan shop for other products ...
http://my.care2.com/veganstuff
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Sabrina M.
Actually, we're not really omnivores. Our anatomical make up proves otherwise. So you see a plant-based diet is better for our species.
Be careful where you read negative reports on soy and other vegan-related topics. Keep in mind the Meat and Fish industries have been trying their best to debunk the whole vegan lifestyle. Funny thing though, there have been vegans, especially vegetarians through out the ages.
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On March 1 of this year I went on a vegan diet, the results have been so much better than I anticipated. It is amazing. After years of having heart problems, Ive even noticed big improvements there. I would recommend a vegan diet to everyone breathing.
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This is a great article, but I have serious reservations about using the phrase "cold tofurky." I went vegan nearly overnight. I've also given up real addictions to nicotine, and caffeine overnight. They are two very different experiences. There was zero withdrawal from animal products. It is not an addiction, but a set of habits and preferences. Cheese acts as a mild stimulant, making it somewhat addictive, but I've seen no indication that the same is true for any other animal product. Saying "cold tofurky" makes everything sound much, much more difficult. There are no headaches, no loss of sleep, no detox symptoms, no wild mood swings, no loss of energy. Animal products (with the possible exception of cheese) are not addictive. It's as easy to choose to eat tofurky over turkey as it is to choose broccoli over green beans. Choosing decaf over regular is a different story altogether.
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I, too, avoid soy. However, I'm still able to enjoy veggie dishes: spaghetti w/o the meat but loaded with squash, carrots, onions; stir fry with all sorts of vegetables, no meat; kung pao chicken w/plenty of vegetables but w/o the chicken. And of course there's vegetable soup, pasta salads, potato salads, tossed salads....
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I would love to eat more vegan - but does every vegan recipe have to contain 242323470902701414.6 ingredients. I am not a cook and these days on a bit of a budget (who isn't) so the entire ingredients of a local supermarket (or local green grocer) make this lifestyle hard. Will check out some of the recipes on the other websites, but a simple vegan site would rock. And yes, I know just eating a vegetable is vegan more or less - but those of you burgeoning cooks know what I mean!
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When growing up we had meat with every meal and it was the largest portion on the plate. Now I eat meat maybe twice a month. I have replaced the meat out of chili and doubled the beans and will cut up some chunks of green pepper and sweet potato in it. Instead of hamburger in spaghetti I grate several zucchini and carrots instead. Now the vegetables are the main course. Now I never eat pork,lunch meats, or hot dogs. My diet is so much cleaner. Even if meat eaters would cut their consumption down to eating meat twice a week its really very easy.It would cut down on the factory farms and pollution so much! I never thought I could live without meat at every meal. Now I don't ever miss it.
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I also stopped eating meat (chicken being the only meat, which also made it easier) after seeing a video of the horrors a few years prior. I though, agree with the first comment of buying sustainable and from local markets. People should have a choice and consumers voices are a powerful tool if used consistently. To buy from a local farm that treats their farm animals in a decent and humane manner, even when it is for consumption, sends a loud and clear message. Each consumer has a choice and the supplier needs that business so there's the power.
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Veganism is not possible or probable for me. HOWEVER, I do eat vegetarian breakfasts and (often vegan... homemade veggie soup is a wonderful thing!) lunches and save my meat consumption for dinner, and I usually have a vegetarian dinner 1-2 times per week. My eggs come from either my neighbor's aunt's farm up the hill, or Country Hen, which is only about 40 minutes from my house. My milk comes from an organic farm 4 miles from my door. Even if veganism isn't possible, use sites like eatwild.com or NOFA to find farms and dairies near you that practice sustainable food production.
And I do think that if all you're doing is subbing soy fake meat products for your real ones, you're not really helping, and you don't really want to be vegan. Soy is heavily processed when it's made into "meat" and requires lots of energy and is shipped from places that are most likely far away from your house. Try looking locally and really actually just eating more vegetables, rather than buying processed foods with cutesy names like facon and tofurky. -.- I suspect my omnivorous diet is much healthier and greener than many vegans because I eat a variety of fresh, unprocessed locally grown vegetables and source my eggs and dairy from local farmers. I eat tofu maybe 6-8 times a year. Eating clean and local is just as important as eating low carbon footprint items, and heavily processed and salted soy is not clean or even that healthy.
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