Thursday 20 August 2015

Vegan Challenge

Recently I was challenged to go vegan for a month as part of a health experiment…. As a committed ‘meatarian’ I was worried about how to get enough protein, complexity and flavour in my food.
So to start, I did a bit of research to find out the best high protein vegan foods and aimed to eat a wide variety of unrefined grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, and vegetables everyday…
Key ingredients were:
• quinoa
• pumpkin seeds
• beans (kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, black-eyes, lima beans)
• tofu, tempeh
• nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashews)
• seeds (hemp, flax, sunflower)
• vegetables (brocolli, spinach)
and surprisingly other things:
• bagels, spaghetti, wholewheat bread, and bulgar wheat (which also contain amounts of protein).
I also came up with some recipe ideas to kick-start my challenge and then kept a diary for 30 days.
Mon 20 July
Meatless Meatballs with Pasta and
Red Sauce
Tues 21
Pumpkin, Orange and Ginger Soup
Wed 22
Baked potatoes with Baked Beans
Thurs 23
Breaded Tofu with Pesto-Roast Cauliflower Pasta
Fri 24
Roasted Portobello Mushrooms in home-made BBQ Sauce with Grated Beetroot and Salad in Burger Buns
Sat 25
Garden Salad with Toasted Seeds and Nuts
Sun 26
Roast Chicken (oops!) with Roast Vegebles and Yorkshire Pudding
Mon 27
Bubble and Squeak
Tues 28
Pasta and Mediterranean Tomato Sauce
Wed 29
Braised Florence Fennel with Tamari Lentils and Mashed Potato
Thurs 30
Vegetable Risotto with half Rice-half Lentils
Fri 31
Marinated and pan-fried Tofu served with Couscous and Orange Salad with steamed Bok Choy and soy and tahini dressing
Sat 1 Aug
Baked Potatoes and home-made Coleslaw
Sun 2
Garlic pittas with Hummus and Salad
Mon 3
Mexican Beans with steamed Rice
Tues 4
Marinated and pan-fried Tofu served with Stir-fry and Noodles
Wed 5
Pasta with roast Brussel Sprouts, toasted Walnuts and Olives
Thurs 6
Green Pea Risotto
Fri 7
Kumera and Garlic Soup, blanched Veggies with honey-roasted Carrots
Sat 8
Lentil Soup, Buckwheat Salad and Meditteranean Vegetables
Sun 9
Potato, Carrot and Celery Casserole with Dumplings
Mon 10
Tamarind and Chickpea Curry with Rice
Tues 11
Lentil and Tomato Pasta
Wed 12
Roast Veggies with Green Salad
Thurs 13
Tofu Stirfry with toasted Peanuts
Fri 14
Pasta and Tomato Sauce
Sat 15
Cauliflower Curry with Rice and Chutneys
Sun 16
Pasta with Pesto, with chunky Tomato and Red Pepper Sauce and fresh Rye Bread
Mon 17
Breaded Tofu with Pesto-Roast Cauliflower Pasta
Tues 18
Stir-fried Veggies and Mushroom Pasta
Please send me your ideas too… I would love to get them :o)
I also took some photos and have 2 or 3 really great recipes that I will share here... in a day or so :o) Happy eating... Deborah

1 comment:

  1. Kia Ora!
    My boyfriend and I are vegans living in Coromandel town, been vegan for a year now and loving it. It was great to see your challenge in the Chronicle. I see you have created some delicious recipes that we will use for years to come, would love to see more! We are vegan for ethical and environmental reasons and have done quite a lot of research during this time on the nutrition as well. It is very easy getting enough protein, in fact people don't need to really think about it at all (only if they get enough calories in each day). Plant food does contain a complete amino acid composition ( reference here = http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/105/25/e197.full ) and we are able to consume certain plant foods with different amino acid compositions throughout the day to ultimately have the complete amino acid profile. Vegans on average get the same amount of protein as meat eaters without supplementation or planning diets around consuming protein ( reference here = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4081456/ ) . Personally I don't think about protein at all but it is more important (for everyone) to consume as many minerals and vitamins as possible, two of which vegans need to think about which is Omega 3 (through eating a tablespoon of chia seeds everyday) and B12 (which is though either supplementation or fortified foods such as soy milk and marmite.

    I hope that you have enjoyed this experience and feel much better for it, from being (almost) vegan for a month you have saved (on average) 33 lives, over 83000 gallons of water and reduced your carbon footprint by 80%

    Cheers,

    Steph =)

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