5 Hacks For Easy Plant-Based Cooking
With Veganuary under way and more people than ever committing to leading a more plant-based lifestyle, vegan food is bigger and better than ever. Of course, London is home to many great vegan outlets but when it comes to cooking vegan food at home, many of us are still a little intimidated. Here’s 5 hacks proving there’s no reason to be.
1. Seasoning is KEY
Whilst black pepper and salt should be crucial tools in everyone’s kitchens, they are most definitely not the only seasoning you should be using. The key to cooking great food, whether it’s plant-based or not, should be flavour. Inject some flavour into any meal by investing in good quality spices and dried herbs – not pre-packaged sauces that are often full of salt and sugar.
Enhance a veggie chilli with dried cumin, oven roasted potatoes can get a herby kick with some Lebanese Zaatar and level up any humble squash with a sprinkling of curry powder.
Stumped on where to get your fill of spices? Check out Rooted Spices for a whole host of them. Their House Blend is sure to liven up any meal.
2. Still cook your favourite meals
When thinking of what to cook, just think of some of your favourite dishes and simply, veganise them. Even the meatiest lasagne can be veganised: use vegan butter to make a roux, vegan cheese or a mix of breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast as a topping, and swap beef mince for a plant-based one or a mix of meaty mushrooms instead.
Of course, where you can, whole foods and vegetables should be used but sometimes you just want an easy meal.
Craving a chicken burger? Lots of supermarkets have great soy-based meat alternatives and brands such as Beyond Meat and even Bird’s Eye could easily fool any meat-eater.
3. Go international
British cuisine isn’t the most inspiring, let’s face it. With a new fledgling vegan community also, it’s often overlooked that many other countries and cultures have been adopting vegan eating for centuries. For this reason, it’s always good to look into other cultures for recipe inspiration and new dishes you can try to recreate.
Ital cuisine in Jamaica is born out of the Rastafari movement and based purely around wholefoods grown from the earth. Ital stew is different wherever you try it but is commonly a stew made up of greens, coconut milk, kidney beans, corn and lots of other vegetables.
Picture taken from Instagram @brunchinpairs
Similarly, Ethiopian cuisine is very easy to navigate as a plant-based eater. Due to a majorly Orthodox Christian community within the country, many Ethiopians have a specific vegan day of eating in the week. Berbere is the standout spice in a lot of Ethiopian cooking so is a key ingredient if trying to make at home. A lot of Ethiopian vegan dishes are comprised of lentils, greens and chickpeas all made to be scooped up in spongy Injera bread, made of teff flour and naturally gluten-free.
4. Base meals around your favourite vegetables
With all the plant-based alternatives on the market, it can sometimes be easy to forget that veganism should also underline the importance of vegetables in everyone’s diets too. As you would with meat, think of a vegetable you’d want to base a meal around and go from there. If you’d usually think of ways to use up the chicken or steak in your fridge, swap those for a head of broccoli or a block of tofu instead.
A handy way of making sure you use up all your veg is also to search for specific recipes based around them. An excellent new source of recipe inspo and ingredient information is The Periodic Table Of Veg.
5. Experiment with pulses and beans
Vegan meals can easily be bulked up with the help of pulses and beans so make it interesting and experiment. Never used Farro, Pearl Barley or Spelt? Now’s your chance to get creative.
Lentils don’t just have to be confined to soups and stews, make a fragrant daal or make an easy veggie Bolognese using them as a substantial base.
Similarly, beans shouldn’t just be limited to a tin of the tomatoey stuff you have with a fry up. You may not use a lot of others now but bulk up a chilli, add to tacos, make a warm salad out of white kidney beans, greens and lots of lemon and you’ll wonder why you waited so long.