Flexitarianism: Chef Day Radley

Flexitarianism

With the increase in more of us shifting the balance of our diet away from meat, to a more flexible plant based diets.

The term ‘vegan’ has been pinballing across mainstream media over the last few years, but have you tried it? With the advent of flexitarianism (eating vegan on a part time basis) you can test out plantbased eating. This is a great way to enjoy the abundance of vibrant vegan fare without making the leap to 100% herbivore. Vegan cuisine has come on leaps and bounds. From the dark days of dry nut roast to today’s excess of insanely attractive animal-free food on Instagram. Vegan food never looked and tasted so good.

It seems like every day a new vegan product hits our supermarket shelves. That is a sea-change that should be celebrated but what if you’re not into frozen burgers and ready meals? You need to know how to make epic vegan food from scratch. This often perplexes even the most ardent foodie. The top question vegans are asked is ‘What DO you eat?!’. Our Western food history has centred around meat, fish, dairy Chef Day Radley of The Vegan Chef School, London, shares her tips on approaching being a

flexitarian through vegan dishes. and eggs so it’s no wonder it stumps most people. However, vegan cuisine is not only versatile and varied, it is continually expanding and evolving.

Vegan cuisine has taken many ingredients and techniques from around the world. For example, the Japanese technique of using avocado as a creamy fat for desserts, or the Chinese technique of using wheat gluten to create ‘meat’. We have taken a wealth of preexisting plant recipes, using them as a foundation upon

which we have built our evolution of vegan cuisine. It is a cuisine that is borne of ingenuity and innovation. It is unashamed creativity, it discards any ‘old rules’ that do not serve it. The UK has proved particularly fertile ground for vegan cuisine. Bold inventiveness is welcomed in our food industry.

Exploring vegan cooking can be fun rather than frustrating. With a few key tips you can easily bring great vegan food into your weekly diet.

USE FILLING FOODS Meat eaters are used to that ‘full feeling’ at the end of a meal that, without it, they often feel like they haven’t eaten enough. Of course that isn’t true, that heavy feeling is due to eating food that doesn’t digest easily. However, it is a physical feeling many people are expecting which we can create by using more-filling foods. Make sure you don’t just eat salad leaves and vegetables. Instead try eating mushrooms, aubergine, tempeh and tofu with a variety of grains.

UMAMI Umami is one of the tastes, along with sour, salty, sweet and bitter. Umami is of particular importance in vegan food as it is said to be the taste that is missed by people who have recently gone vegan. The taste of umami is a ‘pleasant savouriness’ and is a great balancer to many sweet vegetables. My go-to umami ingredients are miso, yeast spread, mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, wine, tamari, nutritional yeast and toasted nuts and seeds. Incorporate an umami ingredient to your dishes to ensure this important taste is in every dish.

DON’T JUST OMIT – REPLACE Merely removing the non-vegan ingredients from a meal will leave a dish unbalanced and boring. It is fine to adapt recipes and something I encourage particularly for family favourites. But any ingredient that is removed must be replaced with an ingredient that is either a straight swap or has a similar taste and texture. For example, the parmesan sprinkled on pasta can be swapped for toasted and ground pine nuts. The texture, appearance and taste is very similar. NOT ALL VEGAN CHEESE IS CREATED EQUAL Non vegan food can often be similar between brands but this is not the case for vegan food. There is a huge difference between brands, vegan cheese having the most variation. Unfortunately, the first vegan cheese to appear in UK supermarkets tasted terrible. As many people assume that one vegan cheese is representative of all vegan cheese this put many people off trying it ever again. Vegan cheese can be excellent, from creamy ricottas to stinky blue cheeses and everything in between.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN HAVE Many people approach vegan food by focussing on what cannot be eaten. Right off the bat they mourn the loss of favourite foods. But the majority of people who incorporate vegan food into their diets find that the ingredients they eat actually expands. It is a journey where you become more exposed to a wider variety of foods as time goes on.

Approach vegan cuisine as something to explore, investigating ingredients you have heard of but never tried.

For more information:

theveganchefschool.com