By Sara
Growing up, we learned so much of our current food choices based on the culture in which we were raised. Whether you have a weakness for Mom’s red curry, Dad’s barbeque ribs, auntie’s “red sauce” or Grandma’s holiday pozole– the food we grow up eating has a lasting impact on how we continue to eat throughout our lifetime.
So you decided to eat a plant-based diet– now what do you do?
Can you make your favorites easily into a plant-based meal?
I like to look at the meals I enjoyed before my vegan journey and re-create them into healthier meals that I still enjoy. Simply increasing the content of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes is a great place to start. Avoiding high fat and sugary foods is also good practice.
“When you get right down to it, the meat that people love to eat is all about the spices and flavor enhancers we use.”
Omitting meat: You can substitute low-sodium vegetable broth for any beef or chicken broth in recipes. Substitute meat in soups and stews by throwing in some mushrooms, beans or young green jackfruit.
Eliminating oil: We omit oil from our cooking, and instead will saute’ veggies without oil, using a tablespoon or two of veggie broth if things start to stick. I’ve learned many recipes for salad dressings that I make myself, many have berries or other fruit in them, and these are so much more enjoyable on salads, when you know how many calories you are saving from this one change alone!
Dairy substitutions: Cheesy sauces can be recreated with nuts, seeds, even beans and spices. For instance; this Christmas I made a lasagna with italian spiced tofu to replace the sausage. Instead of the cheese I used a cashew and sunflower seed based cheesy sauce and loaded the lasagna with vegetables. It ended up being a truly tasty lasagna, and it is now in my repertoire for special-occasion meals.
There are so many plant-based milks now that you can use to replace dairy milk, your imagination is your limit! It is easy to google vegan substitutions for different animal-based products, and then re-create your cultural favorites.
When you get right down to it, the meat that people love to eat is all about the spices and flavor enhancers we use. I don’t know anyone who enjoys a slab of cooked plain meat without any added seasoning. The herbs, spices and marinades make the flavors we love– which allows us to transform vegan dishes into mouth-watering meals!
Try it and let us know what you made. We’d love to hear about your experiences with this venture into a plant-based lifestyle!
