Hail The Humble Potato
White potatoes are one of those foods that nutritionists and food magazines flip-flop over. Are they good for you, or not? Do they make you fat, fill you up, or both? Should you forgo them forever and simply fall in love, monogamously, with their distant cousin, the sweet potato?
Skip the Snack Attack with Filling Grain Bowls
Bowls are my go-to food when I eat lunch in a restaurant. Yet, I rarely make them at home. They’ve always seemed like too much trouble: Each part — grain, veggies, dressing — takes time to prepare, time I’m not willing to spend mid-day. But a meal I had last week changed my attitude.
How To Sneak More Veggies into Your Meals
In survey after survey, when asked, “why don’t you eat more plant-based meals?” respondents say, “my family/spouse wouldn’t stand for it.” I get it. I’m married to a VEGAN who isn’t wild about vegetables. Okay, that may be an overstatement. Since he’s likely to be reading this, I’ll cut the hyperbole: I’m married to a vegan who does not like most raw vegetables (with the exception of celery), and the only form of kale he likes is crispy kale chips.
Thankfully, there are creative ways to sneak nutritious veggies into meals. Because no matter where you land on the eating spectrum — omnivore, pescatarian, vegetarian, plant-based — it’s always a good idea to add more plant-based nutrients to your diet. Here are some of my favorites.
Satisfy Sugar Cravings with These Simple Mug Cakes
Do you crave sugar when you’re exhausted? I do. And I’m not alone.
There’s a physiological reason: When we’re tired, our “hunger hormone,” ghrelin, increases, making us feel hungrier, and our “fullness hormone, “leptin,” decreases, making us feel less satisfied when we eat. Making matters worse, exhaustion triggers our bodies to our crave quick sources of energy, typically in the form of carbs and sugar.
Which is why, as a not-very-good sleeper who is often exhausted, I rarely keep cake and cookies in my house.
Exhaustion => Sugar Binge
Sweet, Savory, Nutrient-Rich: It’s Root Vegetable Season!
This has been one of the ickiest winters ever on the East Coast. Snow, rain, below-freezing temperatures, ice, slush. Repeat. It’s weather that calls for warming soups, stews, and pasta. Those of us who try to eat locally grown food are up to our ears in root vegetables … and searching for new ways to prepare them.
Why should we be eating more root vegetables? And how do we make them delicious?
How to Eat More Vegetables!
This was a Big Week … Social media sensations, restaurateurs, cookbook writers, and regenerative farmers, identical twins Steve and Dave, better known as The Happy Pear, visited the Boston area from their home-base in Ireland, and cooked for 70+ plant-based and vegan-curious fans at my Greener Plate Launch Party. The day before the party, when they stopped by to check out my kitchen, Steve went straight into my refrigerator, where he discovered a half-dozen plant-based cheeses I’d bought last weekend at the Rhode Island VegFest. Which meant it was time for a cheese-tasting. The winner: Rebel Brie.
The Happy Pear have a simple motto: Eat more veg! They love food … but only real food. The duo’s joy is palpable. It’s easy to understand why they are beloved by so many; their joy is infectious. It is impossible to be in anything but a good mood when you’re with them. If a pharmaceutical company could bottle what it is they have, Prozac would go out of business.
Confession: I was slightly mortified when Steve opened my pantry cabinet, and I proudly pulled out my favorite veggie stock to show off (ah-ha, I thought — bet you don’t have this in Ireland!). After reading the label, he declared it to be “not healthy enough.” Too many non-pure ingredients, and (just a tiny bit!) saturated fat. (I’m still using it).
It’s Easy to Eat More Vegetables
The Happy Pear makes it easy to eat more veg, by creating delicious, plant-rich, simple recipes you can whip up in no time. Why and how do they do this?
Plant-Based Recipes You’ll Want to Make Again and Again
First, a big welcome to all of the new GoodNewsVeg subscribers who have come to us through the 10-Day Greener Plate Challenge. I’m glad you’ve found your way here! And, if you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time; the Challenge starts on February 4th. Click for more info. You’ll be joining 700+ eaters from around the world (a special welcome to Happy Pear followers from Ireland). I promise you’ll learn tons about the link between climate change and food, and have fun doing it. Plus there are awesome prizes.
Now, for today’s topic: What are you going to make for dinner tonight?
Eat to Fight Climate Change
Last night I called a friend in Los Angeles, to ask if she was safe from the fire that’s raging in southern California. She was fine, she told me, but her daughter had evacuated from Santa Monica. My husband and I had planned on retiring to California, but after spending a year there a few years ago, and experiencing “atmospheric rivers,” mudslides, and fires, we decided to stay put in the Northeast. We think fondly of the good ‘ole days, when our concern about California was “only” earthquakes. Yes, it’s freezing in Boston now, but as they say, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” We wear lots of (unattractive) suitable clothing. So does our dog.
The recent California fire got me thinking about a farmer friend from Vermont, who told me after two devastating floods in the state, “I am so anxious about climate change, sometimes it keeps me awake at night.”
She’s not alone. “Climate anxiety” is a thing. Researchers at Harvard and Yale tell us the Rx for climate anxiety is to figure out what you can control, then do it. There are two high-impact climate actions each of us take. Both involve your kitchen.
7 Effective Food Justice, Health, Environmental & Animal Welfare NGOs
And now a break from our regularly scheduled post on what to cook for the holidays, to ways you can amplify your impact on the health of the planet, and animal welfare. To round out the year, I’m offering advice on where to make end-of-year, tax-deductible donations. (If you need ideas for a Holiday Dinner, click here. And for tasty appetizers and sides, click here).
8 Plant-Forward Cookbooks You’ll Actually Use
Best guess is that you now buy way fewer cookbooks than you did a few years ago. Searching for a recipe that uses that perfect butternut squash you picked up at the market, or discovering a new, wowza dinner party dish, is often easier to do on-line. And yet. There’s something about the creativity, photography, personal and food narratives found between the covers of an A+ cookbook that keep me returning to the Cookbooks section of my local bookstore. But the bar has been raised.
A Vegan-Curious Guide to Thanksgiving
First, a Thanksgiving history lesson: The reason Americans celebrate Thanksgiving is thanks to writer and magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who successfully lobbied president Abraham Lincoln to proclaim it a national holiday. The proclamation did not mention turkey … and neither does Thanksgiving dinner in my home! And now, onto the food ….
Last Thanksgiving, I cooked dinner for 22 graduate students. The meal was 100% plant-based. Some, but not all, of the guests were vegan. Yes, it was a ton of work. Yet, delving into my favorite recipe websites for new ideas, revisiting my own site to discover readers’ favorites, shopping for ingredients and cooking the meal (over two days), is work I love to do.
The payoff was enormous: Watching 22 grateful young people, sitting crammed together at mis-matched tables, eating off of mis-matched plates with mis-matched utensils (who has service for 22?), enjoying a home-cooked, plant-based Thanksgiving meal, made my heart sing.
Dairy-Free and Delicious: Recipes + Tips for Everyday Cooking
In 2019, when my husband Max announced, out of the blue, that he was transitioning from 25+ years as a vegetarian to 100% plant-based eating, which meant giving up dairy, I said, “Good for you!” No way I planned to follow him there. Waking up to face the day without that splash of light cream in my morning Peet’s coffee seemed unfathomable. And pizza without mozzarella? Nope.
Cozy Comforts: Warm Recipes for Fall
Here and now: I’m sitting at my desk, clacking the keyboard of my laptop, wearing a scratchy wool pom-pom hat, a hefty fleece tunic layered on top of a red plaid flannel shirt (I’m in Vermont! It’s the state uniform!), and black corduroy leggings. Occasionally I wrap my hands around a mug of (too-rapidly cooling) hot ginger tea. It’s a raw, rain-drenched day in New England.
Though my Nest thermometer is registering a brisk 60-degrees, I refuse to turn on the heat. Doing so would acknowledge a harsh reality: winter is coming.
No. No. No.
Dinner for Tim Walz: Recipes with Fake Meat and Real Flavor
I recently I fantasized about cooking dinner for Kamala Harris. Now I’m turning to her running mate, Tim. There’s no getting around it: Coach Walz is a Midwestern Meat & Potatoes Man.
Among Tim’s favorite foods:
- Corn dogs
- Cheeseburgers (double cheese)
- Tater tot casserole
- Runzas (a Midwestern favorite, comprised of seasoned ground beef in a roll with sauerkraut, cabbage, and onions)
- Soft Serve ice cream
The list is enough to make this East Coast, plant-based, health-conscious home cook fall off the sofa. And yet. I have a plan for that! (Which is way more actionable than a concept of a plan).
Summer to Fall: Simple Seasonal Suppers
As the lazy days of summer morph into Fall, our schedules tend to get busier. School, sports, cultural events, neighborhood gatherings — no matter what you’re into, the Fall seems to bring more. Which often translates into less time for cooking.
There’s no getting around it: Plant-based meals require more creativity than throwing a marinated chicken breast in the oven, or a turkey burger onto the grill. But creativity doesn’t necessarily mean complicated. What it does require is parking your shopping cart in supermarket aisles you often speed by:
- The Mexican food section (Fun Fact: In 1992, salsa surpassed ketchup as the top-selling condiment in the U.S.)
- The Asian food section
- Spices beyond McCormick’s dried oregano and parsley
- Canned beans
Taking the time to creatively stock your pantry, spice rack, and refrigerator door, translates into faster mealtime prep and — money back guarantee — always more savory and creative meals.
Kamala’s Coming to Dinner!
If you could invite 2 people (dead or alive) to dinner, who would they be? When I pose this question at dinner parties, answers range from Thomas Jefferson to Tom Cruise. More often than not, my answer is a politician. Topping my list now: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Which got me thinking, what would I cook for Kamala and Tim?
Guilt-Free Goodies: Dessert Recipes
Did you know that Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Mousse, and Blueberry Cobbler — just about any dessert, in fact — can all be made without a single egg, or an ounce of dairy? Which means all will be 100% cholesterol-free. With just a few substitutions, and no fancy or artificial ingredients, you can learn how.
Use Your Kitchen to Fight Climate Change
I’m writing from Vermont, where people are rebuilding roads and salvaging their homes after the latest in a series of heavy rains and floods. Small farmers continue to grapple with submerged fields. A friend who works on one of those farms recently told me,
“I am so anxious about climate change, sometimes it keeps me awake at night.”
She’s not alone. “Climate anxiety” is now a thing. And for good reason. Let’s review what happened just last month, July 2024:Read More
Cool Recipes to Beat Summer Heat
With much of the U.S. wilting under a heat wave, who feels like cooking? Not I. And I always feel like cooking. Case in point: Last Fall, I came down with COVID a few weeks after my husband had recuperated from his latest bout. My case was mercifully mild (thank you, Moderna). I called my doctor, primarily to learn how long I’d be contagious. My first question: “Will I give my husband COVID if I cook dinner?”
My doctor’s response: “You probably have the same strain he had, so you will not reinfect him, but if you have COVID, and he doesn’t, don’t you think he should be making dinner for you?”
More than Romaine: Light & Hearty Salads for Every Craving
Did you hear last week’s Good News? The Caesar Salad turned 100! Feliz Compleaños, Caesar. You may be wondering, why a Spanish congratulations to a salad most famously eaten in Italian restaurants? Because it was invented in Mexico. By an Italian immigrant, Caesar Cardini.
In honor of the Caesar’s Centennial, I’m gifting you my two favorite non-fishy, non-dairy, uber-umami, Caesar dressing recipes. Both are thick and creamy, which makes them happiest coating sturdy greens like kale and/or romaine. Unlike the original, neither has any cholesterol, are chock full of “good” fats and copious amounts of fiber, anti-oxidants, and protein. Which is why I Hail Caesar!
The Plant-Based Nomad: 8 Top Dining Travel Tips
“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have been the two most beautiful words in the English language,” Henry James wrote in Portrait of a Lady.
I couldn’t agree more. Summer afternoons come in all flavors, from lazing around the backyard reading, to combing the streets of a new city in search of lunch. Whether you’re going to a local beach, a far and distant land, or anywhere in between, I’ve got you covered.
A Frank Talk About Fiber and Health
Let’s be honest. At some point, everyone’s plumbing gets clogged. It happens to the best of us. I always knew fiber was important in that department, but it wasn’t until my cholesterol started to rise that I learned fiber’s out-sized impact on our health.
How in the world could I, a person who eats no animal products (the only dietary source of cholesterol), and very little processed food (full disclosure: I have a weakness for chips), have elevated cholesterol? Genetics and aging are involved, but a nutritionist helped me see it wasn’t only what I was eating (e.g., saturated fat in luscious coconut milk curries), it was what my diet was lacking: fiber. Who knew?Read More
7 Plant-Based Dishes Every Cookout Needs
My friend Sharon loves bringing people together at her picture postcard-perfect, pastoral Vermont home. She marks milestones — her sons’ engagements, birthdays, the arrival of two new international exchange students she hosts each spring — with cookouts. Everyone contributes the sides, and Sharon provides the main course: sausages, which guests impale with a tree branch (plenty of free branches in Vermont!) and cook over her family’s infamously smoky homemade fire pit, big enough to seat twenty guests around its perimeter. For those who take a pass on the sausage, there are veggie and beef burgers. Last spring, Sharon told me, was the first time requests for veggie burgers surpassed beef.
Cooking Like Your Life Depends Upon It
The food we eat is responsible for 24% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The only industry that produces more greenhouse gases than our food and agriculture systems is electricity production, which comes in at a close 25%. As someone who spends hours a day searching for, reading, and testing eco-friendly, plant-based recipes, I think a lot about our collective FoodPrint.
New York Times Cooking‘s most popular recipe of all time has been viewed more than 24 million times since it was first published in 1994. Guess what it is? (No Google cheating!)
Hint: If only half of the people who viewed the recipe made it, 12+ million pounds of beef would have been consumed.
Earth Day Tools to Help You Eat for a Greener Tomorrow
Last Monday, April 22, was Earth Day, a holiday created in 1970 by U.S.-based activists desperate to raise awareness of the escalating environmental crisis. Millions of people participated in the first Earth Day demonstrations; in NYC alone, 100,000 celebrants managed to close 5th Avenue. A few months later, an enthusiastic bi-partisan Congress passed legislation creating the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). President “I am Not a Crook” Nixon’s signature gave the agency a green light.
Ah, the good ‘ole days….
Flexitarian? How to Eat More Plant-Based Meals.
A few years ago, my husband Max wrote a book called, “Better, Not Perfect: A Realist’s Guide to Maximum Sustainable Goodness.“ Here’s my favorite sentence from that book:
“(E)ach positive step a person takes should be encouraged, rather than highlighted for what it lacks.”
We should strive to do better, and congratulate ourselves for moving in the right direction — yet recognize perfection is out of reach. This is the approach I’ve taken to food over the last 30+ years.
Reading Frances Moore Lappe’s, Diet for a Small Planet, decades ago, turned me into a vegetarian overnight. Unlike when I stopped eating meat, my shift to a 100% plant-based diet was more gradual. Of course I knew the health benefits (i.e., stronger immune system, reduced inflammation, decreased risk of cancer), but it took a set of self-imposed, better-not-perfect rules to quit my milk and cheese habit:
Breakfast! The King-Prince-Pauper Diet
I was shocked to learn this: The calories you eat at breakfast are less fattening than those you eat for supper. Here’s how it works:
Assume you eat 300 calories for breakfast, 500 for lunch, and 1,200 for supper. If you switch the timing of your calories, and eat 1,200 for breakfast, and 300 for supper, you’ll lose weight. Eating the exact same food.
What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking
An insane amount of my brain’s real estate is devoted to food. My internal food-chatter is relentless — while I’m walking my dog, watching a not-very-engaging TV show, or at 3 a.m. trying to fall back asleep. Should I turn my fresh kale into maple-sesame chips, or use it to make Meera Sodha’s luscious Tuscan kale saag? What should I make for the dinner party I’m throwing three weeks from now? Do I have enough dark chocolate chips to make another mousse? Yes, I’ve tried meditation and yogic breathing. Neither works. I’ve come to accept who I am: A woman who loves thinking about, discovering, and cooking creatively flavored plant-based suppers. There are worse habits.
My Interview with Climate Champions
Over the last two weeks, 450+ Good News Veg readers, Beantown Kitchen enthusiasts, friends and family, participated in The 14-Day Greener Plate Challenge’s maiden voyage. Every day, Challengers woke up to an email on topics ranging from how to calculate your environmental FoodPrint, how to choose sustainable seafood, and the top-rated dairy-free ice creams. Congratulations to all of the Challenger Graduates! Read More
The Shift to Plant-Based Soul Food
Did you know that Black Americans represent the fastest-growing plant-based demographic in the country?
The Pew Research Center reports 8% of Black Americans eat vegetarian or plant-based diets, compared to 3% of the non-Black population. Much of the recent growth is attributed to COVID. Black people were disproportionally affected by the epidemic, due to higher incidences of COVID risk factors like heart disease and diabetes. As a consequence, there’s increasing recognition, within the community, of the relationship between food and health.
Love at First Slice: How Pizza Became Our Love Language
I fell in love with my husband Max over pizza. We were in college, and it was all we could afford. And all we wanted to eat. Decades later, I can still close my eyes and imagine the mouthfeel of that chewy, slightly salty crust, and how the hot, gooey, mozzarella left a burn on the roof of my mouth for days. The first gift I gave Max was a t-shirt: Pizza Makes Me Passionate
Pizza is still our favorite food. It’s the only meal Max cooks, and each one is a masterpiece. We eat it to celebrate every birthday, anniversary, and, of course, every Valentine’s Day. With a bottle of California Cabernet on the side.
Cooking Made Easy: The Ultimate List of Plant-Based Recipe Websites
Every day, I scour the internet in search of plant-based recipes that inspire healthy and flavorful eating. Some websites are culinary goldmines, others, well, less so. I’m excited to refresh my list of top picks and share these culinary gems with you.
All About the Sauce: 5 Simple Saucy Suppers for More Flavor in 2024
January is a big month for making resolutions. Most require us to quit something we find pleasurable. The increasingly popular Veganuary campaign admonishes you to stop eating animal products. Similarly, Dry January demands that you stop drinking alcohol.
This approach has never worked for me. As soon as someone tells me, “don’t eat that!” I crave it even more. Now that we’re a few weeks into 2024, I bet more than a few Veganuary and Dry January participants are chiding themselves for not sticking with their admirable resolutions. Read More
My Road to Climate Change and The Greener Plate Challenge
Over the last dozen years, my husband Max, various dogs, and I have driven from Cambridge, MA to California four times. Last year in California, we felt as if we’d been dropped into a dystopian movie, Climate Change Ground Zero. Read More
Cleansing, Feel-Good Feasts: Chili and Cornbread
Many of us ring in each new Year with a food-related New Year’s resolution: Eat less. This year, instead of eliminating foods, how about adding to the list? Start with my favorite nutritional superpower, beans. Spice and mix them into a hearty chili, and you’ll have created the perfect dish to detox from less healthy, or — dare I say? — excessive holiday eating and drinking.
10 Tasty Plant-Based Gifts for Every Foodie’s Wishlist
Last year, when my husband Max and I took off on an extended road trip, we rented our house to another family. Which meant we had to empty everything out of our kitchen cabinets, bedroom closets and drawers, the office desk drawers — all of it.
Take a moment to reflect on what that would be like in your home. What did I learn from the experience? We had way too much!
The 7 Best Vegan-ish Cookbooks of 2023
It’s time to update my list of favorite vegan cookbooks. This year, I’m not kicking any of last year’s recommendations off Good News Veg Island. They’re Evergreen Treasures. Some of my new additions have been around for years — it just took me a while to find them. Two are vegetable-forward, not 100% vegan. But both are so good, I had to include them in my list.
Paul McCartney Wants to Take You to Brazil
Who was your favorite Beatle? Mine was the cutest, Paul McCartney. Now, more than five decades later, I’ve rekindled my Paul Love. Recently I learned that McCartney and his daughters, Mary and Stella, were co-founders of Meat Free Mondays, a campaign to encourage people to adopt a climate-friendly approach to eating — cutting back on dairy and meat.
The Cutest Beatle is going back on tour. And he’s upping his commitment to the Meat Free Monday Foundation by making the following offer: Free VIP tickets to the final show of his Got Back Tour, in Rio de Janeiro.
Read on to:
- Enter Paul’s sweepstakes (it’s a fundraiser, but you can enter for free).
- Use Meat-Free Monday’s Impact Calculator, to see the world of difference you can make by going meat-free for a single day.
- Watch a short video of The Cutest Beatle making his case for Meatless Monday.
- Learn how to cut back on meat and dairy easily and slowly.
A 21st-Century Thanksgiving
Mains & Sides to Impress
Freedom from Want, Norman Rockwell
What would a modern-day Normal Rockwell Thanksgiving painting include? Perhaps that iconic turkey. But at least one, probably a few, at the table would not eat it.
Listen up, Thanksgiving hosts! For everyone at your table to be satisfied, you have two options (neither requires you to torture a non-meat substance into resembling a turkey).
- Wowza! Vegan Main Course: A sure-fire way to say, “I care” to a vegan at your table.
- Plant-Based Side Dishes: Thanks to Miyoko’s butter, traditional standards are easily vegan-ized. No one will know (except, of course, the vegans, when you discretely whisper in their ears during cocktail hour, “you can eat the sides.”).
Beyond the Main: Tasty Vegan Appetizers and Sides
Do you know anyone who includes a traditional appetizer course as part of an average weeknight dinner? I don’t. Who has the time to fuss with that?
Yet, if you broaden the definition of “appetizer,” to mean anything you eat before the main course, lots of people do. Including my husband and me. In fact, it’s become a running joke in our household. Sometime around 5 pm, my husband plants himself at the kitchen island, typically when I’ve started to prep dinner. I turn from my cutting board and ask him, “What would you like as an appetizer?”
Eat Your Values: How Food Can Reduce Your Environmental Footprint
Donald Trump eats meat. Bill Clinton does not.
As a political activist who has attended more gala fundraisers than there are lawsuits against our former Orange President, I often wondered, as my comrades and I were served over-cooked chicken and tough fillet dinners, how can all of these kind-hearted, generous people, who care deeply about alleviating suffering, and the health of our planet — be eating animals?
Good News Veg is a preach-free zone, so I will educate and advise. Want to calculate your carbon FoodPrint?
Hetty McKinnon: The Recipe Creator Who Stole My Heart
I’m obsessed with recipe-creator, food writer, and cookbook author Hetty McKinnon. As a slightly disgruntled subscriber to New York Times Cooking (not enough plant-based recipes; too many chicken sheet pan dinners), about a year ago, I realized the few NYT recipes I had incorporated into my dinner rotation were contributed by the same person: Hetty McKinnon.
3 Questions for a Stress-Free Dinner Party
Think about the last time you hosted a dinner party or an extended family meal. At what point while you were cooking or setting the table to be perfectly “just so,” did you think, Why the hell did I decide to do this?
My friend Patti says, “If you don’t hate your guests by the time they arrive, you haven’t worked hard enough.” Dinner Party Hosting Anxiety (DPHA) is a thing, experienced by even the most seasoned host. I blame Martha Stewart.
Plant-Based Protein Made Easy
True or false? People who eat plant-based diets are often protein-deficient.
True or false? Vegans who are not protein-deficient put so much time into figuring out how to eat enough protein, many ignore their partner, neglect their children, fail to care for their pets, and compulsively Google “symptoms of protein deficiency.”
Dinner in a Bowl: Protein-Packed, Dairy-Free Soup
I hate sheet pan dinners. Love the concept — throw all your ingredients onto one pan, slide it into the oven, and a few minutes later, you have a meal. And yet. Most plant-based sheet pan dinners don’t work. Why?
Ingredients cook at different rates. The broccoli comes out burnt (“charred” seems to be the acceptable term, but burnt broccoli by any other name is still burnt), the carrots too hard, the tofu too tough … you get the idea. Making a decent sheet pan dinner requires maintaining a vigil in your kitchen for 30-40 minutes while you slide a hot! hot! hot! sheet pan into and out of the oven to add and subtract ingredients. Because they cook at different rates.
You can tell I’ve attempted a sheet pan dinner when I have burn marks on my wrists.
The Solution?
One pot soups. The concept and implementation work. You have more control over the ingredients, and your wrists emerge from the process unscathed.
Ode to the Tomato | Plant-Based Dishes for Tomato Lovers
Over the last few weeks, home gardeners and farmers across the country have plucked gazillions of ripe tomatoes off their vines. Some are candy-like treats (typically the baby Cherries), others, meh … bland and/or mealy. And yet. There’s no reason to leave any tomato behind.
I’ve scoured and devoured the internet, building this collection of plant-based tomato recipes to ensure you taste every ripe tomato in your bounty. They’re the best of the best.
Pining for Pesto
Do you remember your first time? I do.
It was 1983. We were in Vermont, renting a house with a group of friends for the weekend, among them Fabio, from Italy. We took turns making dinner. Fabio made pasta with pesto. After that night, there was no going back to red sauce for me.
To this day, pesto is my favorite food. Tossed with penne or gemelli and ample amounts of crisp-sweet broccolini; smeared on crostini, cherry tomato on top; dolloped onto a bowl of steamy vegetable soup; smothered on pillowy-with-a-crunch pan-fried gnocchi; the base of a summer-fresh pizza; mixed in a salad of fusilli, fresh arugula, basil and tomatoes.
When I quit eating dairy, pesto was my final frontier. Pesto without parmesan? No other food tested my commitment to a plant-based diet so intensely.
And then.
I interviewed my friend Seba, an Italian plant-based food investor, food snob (in the best sense of the word), Tuscan wine-maker, and chef. Seba told me, “Use fresh basil and garlic, and high-quality olive oil. Parmesan isn’t necessary.”
I disagreed. (But give it a try, and see for yourself).
And now, because I like you, and because I love cows, I am going to share what I learned during my months-long quest to discover Winning Plant-Based Pesto:
- Follow Your Heart Parmesan (shreds, not chunk) is so good, I am certain neither Seba nor Fabio would detect them in my pesto. (Violife and Whole Foods brands are good too, but I prefer Follow Your Heart).
- No plant-based cheese will win a blind taste test against dairy cheese. A hearty, flavor-packed pesto needs a salty, slightly musty flavor. That’s what Follow Your Heart delivers.
- Basil is not the only herb that makes mind-blowing pesto. Fennel fronds? Who knew? (Be open, and click below).
- Pine nuts make my taste buds sing, but as their price has skyrocketed …in the words of John Lennon, all I am saying is give walnuts and sunflower seeds a chance.
- Scads of vegan pesto recipes call for nutritional yeast. Do not do this. Nutritional yeast has its place in many plant-based dishes. Pesto is not one of them.
- Trader Joe’s extra virgin olive oil is my go-to.
** NOTE: Most of the recipes I’m sharing here call for dairy parmesan. PLEASE replace it with Follow Your Heart or another plant-based parmesan, at least once. Then Open Your Heart by reading this beautiful essay from Best American Food Writing 2021.
SH*T! Vegans are Coming to Dinner!
What to do when an omnivore wants to invite a couple of vegans to a dinner party? If you’re my friend Chris, you spend months reading recipes until you find it, the perfect wowza! dish.
Only an over-achiever like Chris would attempt a vegan lasagna. Frankly, if I had landed on the recipe I would have kept scrolling. Lasagnas take a lot of time, and eliminating dairy is a challenge.
Chris nailed it. Even her meat-loving, fly-fisherman, vegan-skeptical husband said, more please. The casserole was flawless and beyond delicious. I’ve added it to my dinner party repertoire.
And yet.
Chris had many challenges, which I asked her to share with you.
Reading it, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel Chris’s pain. You’ll cheer for the damn no-cook noodles, and best of all, you’ll learn how to make Vegan Lasagna Bolognese.
Comfort Food
Quiz Item #1: Which of the following do you consider comfort food?
- 1) Grilled cheese & fries
- 2) Meatloaf & mashed potatoes
- 3) Pizza
- 4) All of the above.
Quiz Item #2: Why does comfort food typically = unhealthy, not-great-for-us food?
This week I needed comfort. My husband, dog Becca, and I arrived home in Vermont, after six months on the road. Last November, we took off in our Honda CRV, down the southeast coast, across to Arizona, up and down the California coast, and landed in Berkeley for two months.
Favorite restaurants:
- Plant (Asheville, N.C.)
- Thai Vegan (Albuquerque, N.M)
- Gracias Madre (L.A.)
- Baia (San Francisco)
- Lion Dance Cafe (Oakland)
The drive home was brutal. Zero-visibility white-out, wind gusts of 70+ mph through the Salt Flats of Utah. Snowstorm at 8,000 ft. approaching Vail. Trump 2024 signs plastered on barns across Missouri.
Ten days of breathing the stale air of I-70 highway motels; lunches of peanut-butter-on-a-rice-cake-with-a-side-of-vending-machine-pretzels; salt-infused restaurant dinners (insert any entree here) everywhere.
I hungered for my own food: clean soups, fresh salads, pasta with crisp vegetables, tossed lightly — not drowning — in sauce. I missed my Boos cutting board, (alphabetized!) spice drawer, the condiments inside the door of my refrigerator.
Cooking our first meal back home, I had an epiphany: Preparing a healthy meal comforts me as much as eating it. Measuring, chopping, and stirring, knowing the end result will make me (and Max) hum with delight, is my Comfort Place.
These are the first 3 meals I made. Try one, two, or all three. My hope is they’ll bring you comfort, too.
- Pesto pasta with broccolini. Last summer I experimented with pesto recipes that did not use parmesan. It is with informed confidence I proclaim:
- The secret to dairy-free pesto that sings: Follow Your Heart dairy-free parmesan. No one has been able to tell it’s not the “real thing.” Not even my dear friend Marjorie, who refers to my pesto as Green Gold.
Save clean-up time by dropping the broccolini into the boiling pasta during the last minute. Close your eyes while eating, and imagine yourself on a sidewalk cafe in Genoa.
- Black bean burritos: The great innovation here is orange juice. Wrap the tortillas in foil and heat them in the toaster oven for a few minutes. Pile any or all onto the warm tortillas and beans:
- Mexican rice,
- Violife Cheddar Shreds,
- Guac, lettuce, salsa,
- The Forager Project Sour Cream (dairy-free, coconut and cashew milk-based, stunningly decadent for so few calories).
- Wonton Soup: Go to Trader Joe’s (or a supermarket, but TJ’s are the best) and buy two bags of frozen veggie dumplings. Ignore the recipe step that instructs how to make your own. If you do, this soup is ridiculously easy; 15 minutes to put together.
- Use any veggies you have on hand (bok choy rocks this)
- Chinese cooking wine is a must. Buy it here. You’ll use it again and again, I promise.
- Substitute veggie stock for chicken stock; go for No Chicken Broth if your store has it.
BONUS: Considering a road trip this summer? Don’t leave home without these phone apps:
What’s Up With Kale?
People have strong opinions about kale.
Some — including the health & fitness editor of Philadelphia magazine – hate it so much, they are willing to risk their professional cred by publicly confessing, “I Really, Really, Really Hate Kale.”
Some love it so much, they are willing to go up against fast food behemoth Chick-Fil-A for the right to announce their enthusiasm. (Yes, Chick-Fil-A sued an Eat More Kale t-shirt seller).
To quote the late, great John Lennon, All I am saying, is give kale a chance.
Here’s my beloved geeky Youtube star, Dr. Michael Greger, demystifying why kale’s so friggin’ good for you — in 2 minutes! (If you can’t get enough of this guy, who I understand may be an acquired taste, here’s another 4 kale minutes).
Summary: It lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, and boosts immune systems. It’s a Powerball of health.
Because I love you, and I want you to live a long, healthy life, I’m going to help you find your way to Kale Love. If you’re already there, gather ’round with the non-believers, and read on for some of the best kale-inclusive recipes around.
Start with this kale primer. Then, move on to 10 Ways to Eat More Kale.
Marla’s World Famous Kale Chips have made kale-believers out of kale-naysayers. They’ll make you wonder why popcorn became the default movie theater food, not kale chips. (Warning: If eating the chips with another human, make sure you ask, “do I have dark green flecks on my teeth?” when you finish).
By now, I bet you’re craving life-changing, kale-affirming soup, salad, stew, and pesto recipes.
Against Perfection
What do you see in this photo? Take a few moments to list the nouns, verbs, adjectives — yes, even the judgments — that come to mind.
Here’s what I see: Fear. Embarrassment. A raucous dinner with friends. A fun-fueled mess.
What you don’t see: Me backing away from this stove, in defeat.
The trouble started when I asked my friend Irina, our dinner host, “What can I do to help?” Irina was busy mixing the sauce for Pad Thai. She handed me a bowl with batter, a jar of kimchi, and said, “make the kimchi pancakes.”
That’s when fear set in. I have never made a decent pancake. They come out too thick, spongy and raw inside, or too thin, and stick to the pan. Which is why I avoid pancake recipes.
“Of course you can make pancakes,” Irina told me. “You write a cooking blog.” More fear.
I rolled up my sleeves, splashed a smidgeon of sesame oil into the frying pan, and warmed it.
The batter was way too thick. Had I tested it before I poured it into the pan, I would have known to add water.
Pancake #1: Thick, spongy, and raw inside. Embarrassment.
Pancake #2: Too thin, stuck to the pan. More embarrassment.
Watching me struggle, another guest, our friend Paola, said, “I’ll make the pancakes. I’m really good at them.” But even Paola was not good enough to turn these pancakes into a success.
Why?
The Golden Age of Veggie Burgers
Do you remember your first restaurant burger?
Was it thick and juicy? A grainy grey disc? Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun? (Remember that TV ad?).
My first was a grainy grey disc at Gino’s, a chain founded in 1957 by three Baltimore Colts (rant alert: I will never forgive the Colts for moving to Indianapolis, nor do I consider the Ravens my home team). Though I could not have been more than four or five years old, I felt strongly that a Gino’s burger was far superior to McDonald’s.
I still crave burgers — but not the meat. Which makes me oh so grateful to be living in the Golden Age of Veggie Burgers. (It is also the Golden Age of Fake Meat Burgers, which I’m glad exist, but won’t eat).
Shake Shack, Burger King, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s offer non-meat burgers. At lunchtime, hipsters across the world (!) line up at plant-based chains like Slutty Vegan, Hart House, Hip City Veg, PLNT Burger, and Vegan Junk Food.
This is all good. But not good enough. Because I can make better, healthier burgers at home. And so can you. To quote one of my favorite, non-vegan chefs, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, “Good vegan burgers don’t have to suck.” Here are a few, non-sucky, yummy burger recipes to get you started:
2023 Guide: 10 Essential Kitchen Tools for Plant-Based Cooks
Last year, I debuted my first annual Essential Cooking Gadgets list for the vegan kitchen, inspired by my friend Jan’s wisdom that the right kitchen tools make all the difference. After trying her velvety New York-style cheesecake (made with her KitchenAid Mixmaster), I was sold. Although I’ve not eaten cheesecake in some time, I have held on to Jan’s advice, and assembled a group of reliable gadgets and appliances that make cooking easier and more fun.
Stevie Wonder, Angela Davis, Crab Cakes & Me
What do the singer, the activist, and I have in common?
We love The Land of Kush, a Baltimore vegan soul food restaurant that serves the World’s Best Crab Cake.
As a native Baltimorean, crabs are in my DNA, the only food I missed (for 32 years!) as a vegetarian. Imagine my happiness when Veg News published The Land of Kush’s crab cake recipe. I ripped it out of the magazine, filed it in my Recipes folder … and never made it. The ingredient list was daunting.
My solution: I scheduled a trip to Baltimore to visit my mother, arrived a night early (don’t tell her), and booked a hotel near The Land of Kush.
Sinking my teeth into that crab cake — crisp-perfection on the outside, moist, flaky chunks of meat seasoned with Old Bay on the inside — I closed my eyes and hummed. I wanted to marry that crab cake.
But I did not want to make that recipe.
Thus began my search for a crab-less, easy-to-make crab cake. And because I like you, I’m going to share what I learned.
Enjoy, hon.
11 Best Recipe Websites (According to Marla)
From 30-minute weeknight meals, to gobsmacking dinner party wowzers, these websites will have you covered. In my humble opinion, they’re the Best of the Best.
Warning: Once you get scrolling, you may not be able to stop. (I have the name of a good massage therapist who can help with those tight lower back and neck muscles). Happy hunting!
Let’s Talk Tofu.
It took Americans 216 years to go from tofu-ignorance to tofu-contempt.
- In 1770, Benjamin Franklin became the first American known to write about tofu, in a letter he sent from London to Philadelphia. He enclosed soybean samples. (And, one can only assume, a how-to manual).
- In 1986, a Roper poll published in USA Today named tofu “America’s most loathed food.”
Changing the attitude of a tofu non-believer requires, first and foremost, eliminating its squishiness. There’s a two-part solution:
- Start with extra-firm tofu, and
- Invest in a tofu press. Slide the tofu block into the miniature vise, and leave it there until you hear a little voice yelling, “uncle!” (Anywhere between 20-minutes and 24-hours).
Now that you’ve drained the excess water from the protein-rich, low-fat food, you’re ready to crisp it up to make salad croutons, spice it up for Chipotle-esque burrito bowls, crumble and bake it to mimic ground beef for chili, turn it into an Indian tikka masala that will rock your world, add it to a veggie stir fry or a coconut curry noodle soup.
Either you love tofu, or you haven’t prepared well.
These recipes will have you, your friends and family, asking, “please, may I have some more?”
Read More
Just Say No! to Cold Turkey
January 1st kicks off yet another Vegan Holiday, this one a monthlong celebration, Veganuary. (We’ve barely had time to recuperate from World Vegan Day, celebrated a mere two months ago!). Vegans are considered by many to be joyless and dour, yet we certainly have busy holiday calendars.
Veganuary is intended to make our New Year’s resolutions lists, up there with Dry January.
I’ll say it loud, and I’ll say it proud: I’m vegan, and I’m anti-Veganuary.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’d be thrilled if hundreds — even dozens — of Good News Veg readers went vegan this month. A good place to start would be the Epicurious 5-Day Comfort Food Meal Plan. Or, read why chef J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (who unapologetically hunts, cooks and eats meat) decided to take the 30-day vegan challenge, how he felt about it halfway through, and the 60 Great Vegan Recipes he created for the task.
Why am I against Veganuary?
Take the Plunge. Make Soup.
I never understood why people ate soup. What’s the point of filling up on a non-alcoholic liquid before a meal?
Then, in grad school, when I went vegetarian after reading Diet for a New Planet, and it dawned on me I had to learn to cook, I made my first soup. (Curried pea, a recipe my classmate Prashant gave me — admittedly an odd choice for my first, but it was simple and delicious). Now I got it.
These days, I make soup at least once a week. Sometimes, if it’s light enough, I eat a bowl before the main course, but mostly I’m drawn to soups substantial enough to be the main course. Add a salad, a side of kale chips (note: I’m kinda famous for these), a piece (or two) of crusty bread, and you’ve got a vitamin-packed dinner. And the next day’s lunch.
This Bon Appetit primer on how to make dairy-free, creamy soups is short, sweet, and spot-on.
Now let’s get this started…
My 10 Favorite Cookbooks
In the early days of my learning-to-cook journey, (before Al Gore invented the Internet), I was a sucker for just about any cookbook that had “Vegetarian” in the title. My library was impressive. It took a cross-country move (i.e., packing) for me to realize I didn’t cook from most of those books. Some had a couple dog-eared pages with smears of dried sauce, signifying my go-to recipes. But the rest? Inspired writing, and hunger-inducing, air-brushed food photography do not always translate into useful cookbooks. I gave many of them away. (Today, I’d deposit them in my Little Free Library, but those weren’t invented yet, either).
Now, here’s how I buy a cookbook.
Holiday Meals: Vegans, Vegetarians, Gluten-Free, WTF?
Show me a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table without a single guest who’s vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free, and I’ll show you a self-sufficient fishing village off the coast of Alaska.
When Aunt Marlene stopped eating gluten, her back pain finally disappeared; cousin Marissa, home from college, is preaching against factory farms; vegetarian Uncle Joe is running a half-marathon on Boxing Day, longing for pasta. What’s a host to do? (Hint: Answering Tofurky on this quiz will get you a C+, not an A).
Today’s a Holiday! Who Knew?
Do you have World Vegan Day on your calendar? I didn’t. Imagine my horror when I remembered, just two days ago, that vegans throughout the world celebrate their veganocity today, November 1st. With so little time to plan, what was I to do?
I channeled my Inner Vegan Martha Stewart. Here’s what she said: Go to your backyard, and harvest the soybean crop you’ve been lovingly tending throughout the year. Today’s the day! It’s time to make tempeh. You’ll need to soak, de-hull, and mash your beans — but why settle for a decent product that’s readily available for less than $5, when you can spend days making your own? Nothing says, Happy World Vegan Day! like a gift platter of Vegan Martha tempeh. And don’t forget to download stencils of festive vegan themes, to decorate …
That’s when I asked Vegan Martha (politely), please stop!
I’m celebrating World Vegan Day by sharing a sampling of my favorite plant-based weekday suppers with you — simple pasta, tofu, Indian dal, enchiladas, and no-fuss burgers.
If you read these recipes and think, “nope, not ready to tackle any of this quite yet,” that’s okay. Reading is the first step. Happy Cow will happily guide you to a nearby plant-based restaurant.Read More
Welcome Back Good News Seekers
Throughout the interminable four years that Donald Jessica Trump labored to break America, I did my best to help you (and myself) get through America’s Nightmare, by publishing 105 issues of Good News from the Resistance. Now, I’m back with more Good News –news about my new-found passion, thanks to pandemic-imposed downtime: How to make delicious food. From plants.
The idea germinated with my husband Max: During the early, scariest days of COVID, he decided to go full-out plant-based. I didn’t know what to cook. We’d been vegetarian for decades, but eliminating dairy was a challenge. No more pesto (parmesan), Indian curries (butter), or bean burritos with shredded cheddar. The thought of hosting post-lockdown dinner parties (my favorite social activity), left me somewhere between fearful and despondent. What would I serve? Tofu? No one would come over. Witty conversation and Max’s Cabernet-heavy wine cellar would go only so far.
And then.