First published in Seaport Scene

The Internet is awash with recipes; good vegan ones are easily found or adapted from non-vegan recipes. Don't be afraid to modify them to suit your taste, or your part of the world.  Save those that appeal and work for you; repeat them a few times to become comfortable with the new cooking regime.

I try to avoid faux meat dishes, but this patty recipe is as popular as any meat patty and so much healthier.

Potato and Veggie Burgers

Mash

• 2 cups cooked or canned black beans
  

Add the following and mix thoroughly

• 1 carrot, grated
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 3 potatoes, grated
  
• 4 spring onions, chopped
  
• 1 cup corn kernels 
  
• 2 portabella mushrooms, finely chopped 
  
• Garlic
  
• 1 tsp aromatic mix
  
• ½ cup rye flour
  

Shape the mixture into patties.

Cook on a non-stick surface for about 3 minutes on each side, or in a hot oven for about 6 minutes each side.

Serve as in a hamburger, or as a part of a plated meal.   

First published in Seaport Scene


The Internet is awash with recipes and good vegan ones are easily found or adapted from others. Don't be afraid to modify them to suit your taste, or your part of the world.  Save those that appeal and work for you; repeat them a few times to become comfortable with the new cooking regime.

Avoid triggering the old meat or cheese desires by avoiding faux milk, meat or cheese dishes.

Make full use of seasonings, if there is a choice between not eating enough and using salt as an appetite stimulant, choose salt; much of the bad wrap for salt comes from its association with bad food.

Environmentally speaking, vegetable food miles from anywhere, are not as costly as locally grown meat.  Given that a whole-food, plant-based diet defends us from so many threatening diseases, the origin of the food is not so important. 

Stick to a whole-food, plant-based diet for health and wellbeing, for weight loss and strength.  Remember that all animals source their energy and growth from plants, either directly or through eating animals who have derived their energy and growth from plants.  Humans are one of the former group; we developed not from successful hunters but from successful gatherers and cooks of seeds and plants.

First published in Seaport Scene


Proteins, carbohydrates, trace elements, fats, amino acids and any other element of food advertised, promoted or discussed by the media, dieticians and others are all abundantly available in a vegan diet.  The first essential is to eat a profusion of what is good for us.

Of all plant-based foods the most essential for good nutrition and health are starch-rich plants such as potatoes, kumera, carrots, pumpkin, rice, oats and wheat.  The bad wrap some of these get is based on how they are served, such as oil-fried chips and buttered vegetables or how they are processed, such as white rice and flour.  People have lived for many months on sole diets of brown rice and others on potatoes.  They would have died if they tried living on a sole diet of say broccoli, cabbage, lamb, beef or milk.

Once a plate is well stocked with starch, bright vegetables, mushrooms and fruits can be added to provide other trace elements, colour and taste appeal.

Whilst many meat based meals are presented with distinctly small parcels of different foods, vegan meals are often better presented as colourful mixtures such as curries, stews and similar concoctions.

First published in Seaport Scene


The health giving values of a plant based diet is not the only value point.  

The much-reduced cost of living, by avoiding animal products, makes it very easy to enjoy any vegetable you choose and there will still be funds left at the end of a week.  Another satisfying aspect of a vegan lifestyle, avoiding meat, milk and processed foods, is that our ecological savings are the equivalent of giving up driving a car, or never flying again.

The problem for the cook is to provide meals which are attractive to all comers, most of whom are expecting a meal with meat being the centrepiece of view and/or flavour.  

I have produced a graphic chart which divides vegetables up into 6 groupings.  If any meal incorporates 4 or more of these groups you can be assured of a fully sustainable meal with sufficient variety to be enjoyable.

First published in Seaport Scene
Early on in my journey into vegan living, I tossed out all the forbidden foods from our kitchen.  It is too easy to slip back to habits of a life time and turn to oils and fats to enhance flavours.

Cooking without oil is one of the first hurdles to overcome.  The alternative is surprisingly easy and the result indistinguishable from oil sauté.

Create a pot of vegetable stock by roasting a few veges then boiling the browned result for an hour or so.  I leave a pot on the stove and when any vegetable offcuts, fruit cores, citrus skins etc are around I throw them into the gently simmering pot and once a day, sieve off the stock.  

With your stock pot simmering, heat your pan, throw in a dessertspoonful of hot stock followed by whatever you are cooking. As the liquid evaporates, add another spoonful of stock, never more than one at a time, so that the pan retains its maximum heat.  Toss in the condiments that you normally use and serve.  That’s it.  No oil, no spattering, no grease around the kitchen.  You hardly need detergent to clean up.

Approximately 75% of the world’s population live on a vegan/vegetarian diet, however only 3% of the western population are practicing vegans and up to 10% are vegetarians. What the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ die from strongly reflects our dietary differences.

In broad terms a vegan is someone who does not eat any food from animals, whereas vegetarians have a variety of personal rules; mostly they do not eat meat, but are happy eating milk products and eggs.  The reasons for not eating meat include religion, concern for animals and health.

I am a vegan for my health.  There is an outstanding amount of scientific evidence showing the positive effects of eating only plant based whole food, including prevention and often curing a wide range of diseases.  My vegan lifestyle means I avoid all animal based products and processed foods, including vegetable oils and flour based products. I eat to my heart’s content starchy and green vegetables, fruits, grains and seeds. 

The change to vegan cooking has been a fascinating learning experience and having lost weight and gained health, my desire is to share the pleasures and rewards of cooking vegan meals through these pages. 

I am verbose and relentless in speaking out in favour of a plant based whole food life-style.  I enjoy reaffirming the value of being a vegan and am also enjoying the positive comments that come back.  Further it is delightful to know that the tide is slowly turning as more people adopt this way of life.

Locally, I publish in our local Picton Newspaper "Seaport Scene" a fortnightly column.  I intend to present the same content on this blog.

Each piece will have a by-line "First published in Seaport Scene".