I have particularly enjoyed writing this book of vegan – or dairy-free vegetarian – recipes. When I first started writing about vegetarian cookery, part of the pleasure for me lay in the challenge of creating delicious dishes from a limited range of ingredients, and in people’s surprise when they realized how good they could be.
In many ways, being a vegan today feels similar to how it felt being vegetarian when I began my career. Now, though, vegetarianism is pretty mainstream – eating out, buying ingredients or ready-made meals are all relatively easy, and friends and acquaintances no longer recoil in dismay at the thought of having to cook for a vegetarian. Vegans today, however, have much the same difficulties vegetarians used to have. Packets in shops have to be scrutinized carefully – whey seems to be in almost everything; the choice when eating out or buying prepared foods is often limited and, yes, you’ve guessed it, friends find it difficult to know what to cook, exclaiming, “Well what on earth do you eat, then?” They worry, too, about whether or not malnutrition has set in, perhaps destroying a few brain cells along the way.
Poet Benjamin Zephaniah explains what vegans eat more eloquently than I ever could in his rap poem “Vegan Delight” – my warmest thanks to him for allowing me to include it. This book gives around 160 recipes and variations for creating some of the dishes he mentions and others which I have found to be easy to make and good to eat. And here, I’ve suggested some vegan menus to give you a few ideas for combining the recipes. Regarding the nutritional aspect of a vegan diet, I have discussed the main issues of concern here, and I am indebted to Dr Michael Klaper for permission to use his nutrition chart. Follow this and you’ll eat well and feel fit and full of vitality.
Vegan Delight
by Benjamin Zephaniah
Ackees, chapattis
Dumplins an nan,
Channa an rotis
Onion uttapam,
Masala dosa
Green callaloo
Bhel an samosa
Corn an aloo.
Yam an cassava
Pepperpot stew,
Rotlo an guava
Rice an tofu,
Puri, paratha
Sesame casserole,
Brown eggless pasta
An brown bread rolls.
Soya milked muesli
Soya bean curd,
Soya sweet sweeties
Soya’s de word,
Soya bean margarine
Soya bean sauce,
What can mek medicine?
Soya of course.
Soya meks yogurt
Soya ice-cream,
Or soya sorbert
Soya reigns supreme,
Soya sticks liquoriced
Soya salads
Try any soya dish
Soya is bad.
Plantain an tabouli
Cornmeal pudding
Onion bhajee
Wid plenty cumin,
Breadfruit an coconuts
Molasses tea
Dairy-free omelettes
Very chilli.
Gingerbread, nut roast
Sorrell, paw paw,
Cocoa an rye toast
I tek dem on tour,
Drinking cool maubi
Meks me feel sweet,
What was dat question now?
What do we eat?
© Benjamin Zephaniah, 1994
If you eat according to the suggestions given in this book, you will get all the nutrients you need. The vegan diet is a healthy one, as study after study has shown. Yet, because meat-eating is part of our culture and due to the messages portrayed through advertising by and on behalf of the meat and dairy industries, people still worry that they may be lacking in nutrients if they follow a vegetarian diet, and even more so if they follow a vegan one. The nutrients most vegetarians and vegans are concerned they may not be getting enough of are protein, iron, calcium and vitamin B12, so I will comment briefly on these.
Protein
Protein is the nutrient most people mention first when they ask about whether or not a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthy, but, really, there is no problem with getting enough protein with either kind of diet. Grains, pulses (legumes), soya milk, nuts and even potatoes all contain protein and the amounts add up during the course of a day, so protein deficiency is extremely rare in the affluent countries of the world. Additionally, nutritionists often say that vegetarians and vegans have to mix, combine or balance proteins of different types in order to get the correct number of amino acids. This is not correct. In 1993, the authoritative and respected American Dietetic Association stated: “Plant sources of protein alone can provide adequate amounts of the essential and nonessential amino acids, assuming that dietary protein sources from plants are reasonably varied and that calorie intake is sufficient to meet energy needs. Whole grains, legumes, vegetables, seeds and nuts all contain essential and non-essential amino acids. Conscious combining of these foods within a given meal, as the complementary protein dictum suggests, is unnecessary. Additionally, soya protein has been shown to be nutritionally equivalent in protein value to proteins of animal origin and, thus, can serve as the sole source of protein intake if desired.”
Iron
Iron deficiency is one of the most common problems in the Western diet, but what is often overlooked by doctors and others is that scientific studies have shown that vegetarians and vegans are no more likely to suffer from this than meat-eaters. In fact, research has shown their iron intake to be as high or higher than that of meat-eaters. A study of British vegans in 1978 found the iron level “normal in all the vegans and no subject had a haemoglobin concentration below the lower limit
