84 Part III: Sticking to Your Guns: Staying Vegan Special equipment to consider The preceding sections cover the basics, but in this section I want to introduce you to a few more fun and useful kitchen items that can add a lot of power to your recipe repertoire These items allow you the versatility to save time and dish washing and increase your success when attempting more complicated dishes and party menus These specialized tools include the following: ✓ An immersion or “stick” blender for blending soups in the pot and creating smooth, creamy sauces without using the extra dishes that a counter top blender does ✓ An electric rice cooker for cooking all kinds of grains and saving space on the stove ✓ A toaster oven for quick reheats and toasting without having to use the whole oven or the microwave (whose safety and healthfulness is questionable; see the nearby sidebar, “Rethinking the microwave”) ✓ A food processor for chopping, grating, and mixing larger quantities quickly ✓ Washable kitchen scissors for cutting herbs, opening packaging, and trimming veggies ✓ A mortar and pestle, sometimes called a suribachi, for grinding herbs, spices, mixtures, and pastes ✓ A silicon or nylon pastry brush (the new silicon brushes are much easier to clean and can be used for both sweet and savory applications) ✓ A funnel for pouring homemade sauces, purees, and other liquids into smaller receptacles Rethinking the microwave A microwave may seem like a kitchen musthave, but as you turn the corner and start down the path of a healthier way of eating and living, I encourage you to reconsider the microwave’s role in your kitchen According to many doctors and nutrition experts, microwave ovens create carcinogenic compounds in food and destroy much of the nutrition found in natural foods Apart from these health concerns, microwave cooking tends to encourage reliance on frozen and processed meals Cooking or reheating natural foods on your stove top or in a toaster oven takes a tiny bit more time, but it tends to be healthier and tastier! Chapter 7: Cooking and Shopping Like a Vegan Filling Your Kitchen with Wholesome Whole Foods It’s simply smart (and easy!) to stock up on a variety of whole foods, those foods that have all their original, edible parts intact (see the nearby sidebar “The skinny on whole foods” for more info) Fresh, packaged, canned, and frozen whole foods allow flexibility for your personal tastes and nutritional needs Fresh foods are definitely more healthful, but it’s unrealistic to think that everyone can rely completely on fresh food So stock your cupboard with the basics listed in this section to provide yourself with a variety of menu options Rely on these packaged, canned, and frozen foods to round out your on-hand options Whole grains and other cereal products, legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils, as well as herbs, spices, seasonings, and canned and frozen goods are inexpensive and smart pantry essentials To ensure your success, prepare your pantry in steps with a clear goal of where you want to go Compile lists of foods you want to accrue over time, choose a handful of beginning recipes, and cut yourself some slack: This transition will be bumpy for a while With a little practice and continued education, your new vegan lifestyle will work out nicely! Great grains Whole grains and other cereal products provide excellent complex carbohydrates, minerals, and energy in the form of protein and healthy fats These nutritional must-haves are so versatile that they’re an excellent choice for every meal: breakfast porridge, side dish, or entree for lunch and dinner You can even bake them into breads and desserts! Eating grains in whole, stoneground, sprouted, split, or cracked varieties ensures that you’re getting great nutrition When buying cereal and grain products like pasta, bread, crackers, and boxed cereal, check the ingredients for natural sweeteners like agave, molasses, and brown rice syrup These sweeteners are more healthful than the more refined options like high-fructose corn syrup and white sugar Multigrain and sprouted grain products are easier to find these days Products labeled “multigrain” offer more nutrition and amino acids (read: complete protein!) from a variety of grains Sprouted grain breads and cereals are made using soaked and sprouted grains that are mashed together and baked into a loaf The sprouting activates the grain’s enzymes, which create more protein, vitamins, and minerals and often create a product with higher protein and fiber The nutty, rich flavor of these products is wonderful 85 86 Part III: Sticking to Your Guns: Staying Vegan The skinny on whole foods The most common reasons for choosing a vegan lifestyle are to improve your health and reduce your impact on the environment — and whole foods help you on both fronts Eating whole foods ensures your body’s access to unadulterated nutrition that it can use while creating true vitality Whole foods also require less energy to produce and package than highly processed foods So consuming whole foods reduces your carbon footprint, the amount of pollution your actions and purchases contribute to the environment via plastic, fuel for transportation, and energy for production An apple with the skin on is a whole food A peeled apple is not Whole foods contain more nutrition and health benefits For instance, an unpeeled apple contains more fiber and heart disease–preventing flavonoids Similarly, brown rice is a whole grain and a whole food, while white rice is a processed or refined grain (it isn’t in its original state, and it isn’t a whole food) Brown rice still has its outer layers, the germ and bran, attached, which gives it more energy and nutrition White rice has been processed to remove the germ, bran, and natural fats This removal extends the shelf life of the rice, but leaves it devoid of its original nutrition and energy Whole grains are unpolished, meaning the outer layers haven’t been polished away; the intact outer layers help maintain the foods’ healthsupportive fats But these fats are more likely to oxidize and turn rancid, so proper storage is an important factor Check out the later “Storing Your Goods to Ensure Freshness” section for more information on proper food storage Including a variety of whole foods is necessary to ensure a healthy vegan diet The best way to start cooking with whole foods is to take it easy on yourself: Master a few whole food recipes and techniques and repeat them until you get really comfortable Simple menus with fresh, quality ingredients taste great and improve your health Slowly transitioning your cooking style will ensure your success After these recipes and techniques become second nature, you can expand your repertoire and get creative Flip to Part IV for some recipes to get you started Whole grains and whole-grain products bring balanced energy and fantastic nutrition to your everyday diet — and using them couldn’t be easier! Consider a variety of grains, such as the following, to ensure good options for taste and texture: ✓ Bulk whole grains like brown rice (short grain, long grain, jasmine, and basmati), millet, quinoa, amaranth, barley, spelt, oat groats, kamut, teff, and rye ✓ Whole-grain pastas in various shapes and flavors ✓ Whole-grain baking and pancake mixes ✓ Cornmeal polenta that’s premade, dry in a box, or in bulk Chapter 7: Cooking and Shopping Like a Vegan ✓ Frozen whole-grain pancakes, waffles, premade pizza crusts, vegan tortellini, and ravioli in various flavors ✓ Breads (sliced or fresh, locally made whole-grain loaves), pita bread, tortillas, English muffins, bagels, and rolls ✓ Whole-grain breakfast cereals and hot porridges Luscious legumes Filling, cheap, nutritious, and delicious — legumes have it all! Useful for meals of any ethnic bent, these versatile bundles of energy are easy to find, store, and prepare This food group is a large plant family made up of beans, lentils, peanuts, and peas Beans are tiny powerhouses of protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, calcium, iron, potassium, and B-vitamins When you get the inevitable question, “Where you get your protein and iron from?” your answer is simply: “Beans!” Beans are good for you and easy to find Even if your local supermarket only carries a few varieties of dry beans and lentils, you can stock up on countless varieties from any ethnic market Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Hispanic, and even specialty European grocers often carry many kinds of beans whether they’re dried, canned, or frozen Common frozen varieties are soybeans (also referred to as edamame), green beans, and peas Canned beans are convenient because they’re already cooked, and you can choose from countless types The most common canned beans are chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans), kidney, black, adzuki, navy, and pinto You also can find cans of soups and chili mixes containing black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, lentils, and peas The available choices for dried beans are too numerous to list here, and because they’re so cheap, you can feel confident when picking out a few types of beans with exotic-sounding names Beans and peas often lurk in premade products in the supermarket deli or freezer section Lentil and pea soups made with vegetable stock may be found on the hot deli counter Check out the packaged veggie burgers made with mashed beans, falafel, and hummus mixes made from chickpeas You can find the hummus mixes freshly made in the deli or dried in packages Dried bean flakes can be a time-saver as well Simply add water to create a cheap, yummy, protein-packed side dish or burrito filling 87 88 Part III: Sticking to Your Guns: Staying Vegan Digesting beans and legumes more easily Some people have difficulty digesting beans and other legumes, and in turn develop gas, bloating, and other intestinal problems If you have these issues, here are a few tips for alleviating them when cooking and eating legumes: salt interferes with the cooking process and the bean won’t cook completely Plus, adding vinegar toward the end of cooking helps break down the indigestible sugars in beans, making them easier to digest ✓ Chew beans thoroughly and eat smaller amounts ✓ Cooking with herbs and spices such as fennel, epazote, or cumin helps your body digest beans more easily ✓ Choose smaller beans, such as adzuki, lentils, mung beans, and peas, because they’re usually easier to digest Larger beans like pinto, kidney, navy, black-eyed peas, soybeans, garbanzo, lima, and black beans are harder to digest and should be eaten in smaller amounts and less often Luckily, soy products such as tofu, soymilk, tempeh, and miso are easier for most people to digest ✓ Season beans with vinegar, salt, miso, or soy sauce near the end of cooking If these seasonings are added at the beginning, the ✓ Place to inches of kombu or kelp seaweed in your pot of beans to aid in digestion, add nutrients, and soften the beans ✓ Soak your beans for eight hours in clean, cold water Drain the soaking water and rinse the soaked beans to remove any released oligosaccharides, or sugars, released by the soaking process Cook the soaked, drained beans in fresh water as directed Combined with whole grains, vegetables, or mock meats, beans are a fabulous savior to the harried, healthy home chef Stock up on some of the following products: ✓ Dried, bulk, fresh, canned, or frozen beans and peas ✓ Brown, green, red, black, white, or yellow lentils ✓ Several of these types of beans: lima, pinto, navy, mung, soy, great northern, cranberry, chickpeas, white cannellini, black-eyed peas, adzuki, anasazi, black, or kidney Babies under 18 months shouldn’t eat beans because they can’t digest them properly However, maturing digestive tracts can usually tolerate lightly processed soy-based foods like tofu and soymilk, steamed green beans, and peas Head to Chapter 21 for more on baby vegan diets Fruits and veggies Buying and eating more produce is on everyone’s New Year’s resolution list, but it can be tough to decide which items you should buy fresh, frozen, or ... energy in the form of protein and healthy fats These nutritional must-haves are so versatile that they’re an excellent choice for every meal: breakfast porridge, side dish, or entree for lunch and... is wonderful 85 86 Part III: Sticking to Your Guns: Staying Vegan The skinny on whole foods The most common reasons for choosing a vegan lifestyle are to improve your health and reduce your impact... plastic, fuel for transportation, and energy for production An apple with the skin on is a whole food A peeled apple is not Whole foods contain more nutrition and health benefits For instance,