Brian’s Vegan Journey Surviving the First Month

SURVIVING THE FIRST MONTH

Brian Hernandez’s search for better plant-based products and recipes continues as he learns to embrace—not just survive—his vegan journey.

January flew by! Between gearing up for live U.S. Pizza Team competitions at two brand-new trade shows and planning the team’s April trip to the World Pizza Championships in Italy, I haven’t even had a chance to remember that I’ve been vegan for almost a month …. he lied knowingly through his teeth. In truth, I’m reminded at every turn that I’m taking on this challenge, and you know what? It really hasn’t been that bad.

Hernandez used some of the leftover Impossible Taco Salad meat and made a rather tasty taco and white onion pie.

As 2021 ended on New Year’s Eve, I went to sleep nervous about the journey ahead. In my mad scramble to research recipes and learn how to make fake meat, I overlooked the fact that I hadn’t really mapped out a journey: meal plans and prep calendars, etc. In true form, I was gonna wing it. But this got me thinking about what I need to do in the next month. Not only just be vegan but plan out my route to the end so I’m not flying by the seat of my pants for every meal. To make sure I get all the nutrients, I got my daily RDAs and researched where to find them in nature. You can eat totally vegan and still eat terribly. As a completely hypothetical example, a bag of Skittles is vegan, but I should still limit my intake—I mean, one should limit one’s intake. I quit drinking in June and have lost 55 pounds since then. I’m making lifestyle changes. Exercise. Sensible diet. I thought I might try going vegan. I honestly haven’t noticed much of a change at this point. But that’s a good thing. No disruption in lifestyle.

Through endless label reading, I’ve noticed that most ingredient lists conclude with allergens, like wheat, soy, milk and nuts, making it easy to identify blacklisted items. It also sometimes says, *Contains less than 2% of an item, and further down it states, *May have come in contact with certain items.

So you have to pick your level of commitment. I won’t eat anything on the 2% list but draw the line at may have come in contact with. This approach could apply to a pizzeria. If you offer vegan, do you have a separate station like a true gluten-free operation, or do you add a line on the menu that says, “*May have come in contact with surfaces used by all the scary things like wonderful meats and cheeses”? Many true vegans don’t want any cross-contamination from any surface or tool used for meats. I’ve spoken with operators that offer a vegan version of every menu item. Others only offer vegan cheese. Some have a limited number of vegan pizzas or dishes. It’s a big commitment. I’m planning to speak with more vegan pizzeria operators and dive a little deeper into what they offer and how they do it successfully. Plus, I’m sure they’ll have some delicious recipes I can try out.

Hernandez gives healthier eating habits a try.

Early on, as I was failing at most vegan meat recipes, I found a nice little safety-net meal plan: steamed broccoli and Impossible Burger patties. Easy, tastes good and always ready to go. No complicated prep. I tried some vegan sausage links and chicken patties. All not bad, but definitely not the same. I tried chicken recipes that failed miserably. Found a passable pepperoni recipe. Finally got to the textured vegetable protein (TVP) hamburger. It works really well as a ground beef alternative. Properly seasoned, it’s also sticky enough to make little sausage balls or a nice crisped-up pepperoni. I will calculate how much it costs to make 12 ounces of that and other products vs. buying commercial brands. I have a feeling it will win the price war. And it’s easy enough to prep and have ready to mix at a moment’s notice.

Now the search is on for a good cheese! That’s one reason why I haven’t made many pizzas yet, aside from a couple with low-cost vegan cheese and a delicious marinara pie. All for fear that a bad cheese could sour me on any future vegan pizzas. For a nonvegan, most vegan cheeses are very salty, gritty, runny and taste heavily of nuts—that’s essentially what most of them are. I made a couple of attempts, including a failed creamy mozzarella that became a nice cashew sauce for my steamed broccoli. Recycle, baby! The vegan cheese companies have come a long way but still have a long way to go, in my opinion. I’m hoping someone out there can change my mind!

Fortunately, I have received products from Miyoko’s Creamery, Happy Little Plants and Burke to showcase in the PMQ Test Kitchen. I’ve got items like cream cheeses, garlic herb cashew cheese and liquid mozzarella—as well as pepperoni, Italian sausage and chorizo crumbles—to play with. Now it’s getting fun!

So far, I worry that I have been surviving my vegan journey but not embracing it. But I want to find as many pizza-related tips, products and techniques to help our readers who are interested in a vegan menu. I’ll keep rolling along and posting pizza recipes and my thoughts along the journey, but don’t judge me if I sometimes still fry up some bacon and feed it to the hamster just to get the scent in the house.

Miyoko’s Creamery and Happy Little Plants sent in some exciting new products for testing.

These TVP burgers cooked up nicely, didn’t they?

Gracie the hamster gets the last of the real cheese in the house with a hamster-sized pizza.

Follow Brian’s vegan journey at PMQ.com/bvj and email him at brian@pmq.com with your tips, recipes and other suggestions!