Vegan Cooking and the Importance of Skill-Building
A vital process in becoming plant-based or eating healthy is to gain cooking and preparation skills, and utilize spices, herbs, sauces and dressings.
I often have clients who say, "I am not really enjoying eating this way, it's not very flavorful or satisfying."
When I delve further into exactly what they are eating as they attempt to be plant-based or vegan, I frequently find they're eating meals that make me reply,
"I can completely understand why you don't want to eat this way. If I was eating like you are eating I wouldn't want to be healthy or plant-based either."
You must learn to use your full spice and herb cabinet, and learn about dressings and sauces and cooking techniques.
Before I went vegan, the only things I used from the spice cabinet were salt and pepper. Now, I have nearly the grocery store's entire array of spices, and I use all of them!
Before I went vegan, I never made homemade sauces, dressings and marinades. Now, they are the foundation of most meals as they are what give the meals unique flavor.
Before I went vegan, I had far less cooking skills than I do now. Now I know how to make tofu crispy, how to cook tempeh deliciously, how to make a salad be as impressive and tasty of a dish as any kind of meal.
Please make the time to learn proper recipes, and be sure to use your sauces and dressings and spices.
I can understand why people don't want to be healthy if their idea of healthy is unseasoned beans and peas in a bowl or the kind of sad salads I grew up with: spring mix, nasty store-bought Italian dressing and a few carrot shreds.
You can make healthy food that is so delicious, you don't even think about animal products or junk food.
Of course, our cravings for animal products and junk food can be due to emotional reasons, but we can’t expect to be satisfied with bland food that has bad texture!
I truly never, ever miss animal products. I think vegan food is so delicious if you just invest the time to learn how to make it yummy.
I have a few recipes here on my website, but am not a chef, so here are some of my personal fave recipe blogs and book authors. Some are fully vegan and some are not but offer great vegan recipes:
Photo by Alex Lvrs via Unsplash