Book Review: Veganist by Kathy Freston

If you ever were interested in exploring reasons to transition to a vegan diet (or even a partial vegan diet), this is the book for you. It, of course, covers the common anti-cruelty reasons, but Freston also pulls in experts in the area of nutrition, medicine, and the environment to explore myriad other reasons to leave behind eating animal products. The tone is non-judgmental and encouraging. The point, she says, and the reason she calls herself a veganist rather than a vegan, is the attitude. It’s not about being preachy, dogmatic, or self righteous, but making a positive change in your life and influencing those around you.

The book is organized into chapters Freston calls “promises.” Her promise is that switching to a vegan diet will change your life. Having eaten mostly vegan for nearly a year, I can personally attest to what she is saying. There is something to be said for making conscious and conscientious food choices every day. It connects you to your life, your body, your health in a way that not even physical exercise does. You will feel lighter and more energized, healthier. That is a promise.

Freston does not recommend making a drastic switch from a junk food, fast food filled diet to vegan all at once, but transitioning, one animal or animal product at a time. Soon, she says, you will find that you want to make more changes and by giving your taste buds a chance to transform themselves, you will desire real, whole foods even more than the cholesterol and saturated fat laden things you had been eating.

Veganist demonstrates that there is no down side to eating vegan. It improves your health, helps the environment, diminishes the demand for meat, thereby diminishing the public health risks associated with factory farms, and even can save you money. For example, the price of a pound of organic black beans at Whole Foods is $1.69. One pound of chicken breast at Walmart would cost me $2.99, and doesn’t feed nearly as many people as a pound of beans. And what about the environment? Freston argues that if every American ate vegetarian only one day a week it would have the environmental impact of removing half a million cars from the road.  

What about you? Would you be willing to cut back on your animal consumption if it meant a healthier you, a healthier wallet, and a healthier planet?

Just Substitute Tofu

Lately I’ve been trying more Asian cooking, primarily a little basic Chinese and Indian-style food. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Once I started this culinary ball rolling I began thinking of favorite Chinese take-out dishes, especially kung pao chicken. I love the spicy sauce, the crunch of the peanuts, the green onions. Could I, I wondered, recreate this favorite in my own kitchen using tofu instead of chicken?

A simple Google search for “kung pao tofu” brought up thousands of results through which I began slogging looking for recipes that didn’t require an unreasonable amount of ingredients or those that would require a trip to an Asian market. I settled on this recipe, substituting a red bell pepper (my favorite veggie) for the water chestnuts and celery. The result was delicious if just a little salty, though I think that was my fault. When salting the sautéing vegetables I forgot to account for the soy sauce and salted peanuts I would be adding later. Woops.

I also had a little trouble with my tofu. I had read that freezing the tofu, even just over night, would change its texture, making it a little chewier, and more like chicken. The only catch was that it needed to be well-drained before going into the freezer to keep water crystals from forming all throughout. Guess who didn’t drain her tofu thoroughly enough? The tofu ended up being a little more spongy than chewy, but still tasted good. Again, my fault.

One of my favorite things about cooking is finding a recipe I want to try again and again to tweak it until it’s exactly what I want. This kung pao tofu recipe will definitely be showing up on my menu again in the pretty near future.

Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe

I love food. Wait. Strike that. I LOVE food. And no trip home to the fam is complete without shopping for it, cooking it, ordering it, and eating food. Lots of food. On my recent trip to Seattle my mother introduced me to Chaco Canyon Organic Café. Located on the corner of 12^th Avenue and 50^th Street in Seattle’s university district this café represents the best of the Seattle lifestyle in food form. As the name states, the ingredients are organic (the restaurant itself is USDA certified organic), and the menu is vegan (the exceptions being dairy milk as an option for smoothies and coffee drinks). They even offer raw vegan dishes, such as the blueberry cheesecake I sampled (okay, I ate half of a slice, but to me that’s a sample).

Sustainability and responsibility are also hallmarks of Chaco Canyon. They use stainless steel beverage cups instead of breakable glass or plastic. Their dishes and furniture are second hand. The walls are filled with denim, repurposed as insulation. As I sat there eating my pesto melt sandwich (cilantro and pumpkin seed pesto, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, vegan mozzarella, and marinated red onion on ciabatta) I wondered if my corner of South Carolina offers any restaurants with a similar menu or philosophy. I simply have to find out. Downtown perhaps? If I find anything I will certainly try it out.

 
As I mentioned, I ordered the pesto melt sandwich. I also sampled the hummus and cucumber sandwich, the Tai peanut grain bowl, and (ahem) a few desserts. They also offer freshly made juices. I tried the Belly Rub, made with apple juice, lemon, mint, ginger and fennel. Everything I ate was wonderful. Those of you living in the Seattle area owe it to yourselves to try Chaco Canyon. The food is great, the desserts are scrumptious (and that is not a word I use in everyday conversation), the atmosphere is relaxed, and you can be happy knowing that your money is supporting a local business that cares about more than the bottom line.