Grateful for Beans

This Sunday morning, I woke up and started in on my breakfast. I didn't want anything fancy, but I was craving some really solid protein, the sort of food with substance that would last me through my planned walk downtown.

What I put together wasn't revolutionary: multigrain toast with peanut butter, a bunch of grapes, and a half cup of pinto beans straight from the can as a side--no sauce, no seasoning, no nada.

The toast was good, as were those sunny, fat green grapes from Chile, but those beans. Those. Beans. They were creamy and salty and rich and profoundly satisfying.

They were more than just what I was in the mood for, more than just what my body happened to be craving. They tasted heavenly. And as I ate them, I was instantly and profoundly grateful for those simple little guys.

My favorite thing about eating vegan is the way my attitude has changed toward food. Yes, my taste buds have definitely changed--even low sodium rice cakes and plain veggies taste pretty damn scrumptious--but it's more than that.

People focus on what you have to give up when you become vegan, on the denial aspect on it, but they forget that you get to eat fabulous, fresh, colorful food every day, food that doesn't just sustain your body but nourishes it.

Veganism introduced a new form of gratitude into my life: gratitude for my ability to afford fresh vegetables year round, for the time I have to prepare them, and for their availability at my local supermarket. Gratitude for beans and lentils, hummus and split peas, avocados and asparagus and kale. And I'm grateful every time I get to eat just exactly what I want, when I want it.

A surplus of gratitude, even over plain old beans--how can extra gratitude ever be a bad thing?

Bookshelf: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Distance. It’s essential to writing nonfiction of all sorts, including book reviews, and I have to start this review by saying that Jonathan Safran Foer and I are both lacking the necessary distance to write on the subject of factory farming.

Eating Animals is hard to review because I ended up agreeing with Foer’s conclusions so completely. I believe that Foer shares my fault: while the early chapters of this book state again and again that he is trying to create a fair, balanced, and thorough examination of the consequences of eating meat, an examination that would address the social, historical, environmental, and ethical implications of carnivorism, he is unable to do so. His investigations very quickly lead to such moral outrage over the cruelty of factory farming that his book is essentially hijacked; no matter how much page space he gives to the thoughts of farmers and slaughterers who are in favor of our current factory farming system, I knew very early on where Foer’s argument was going.

Fortunately, it was a place that I already wanted to be.

Foer started writing Eating Animals because he was about to have his first child, and after a lifetime of switching back and forth between vegetarianism and omnivorism, he felt it was morally imperative to make a firm decision on the subject of eating meat. He started by thinking about what eating meat meant in his larger culture (he’s Jewish) and in his family’s unique traditions, and moved on to personally visiting factory farms and slaughter houses and interviewing those who work at both institutions.

I won’t go into details here as a courtesy to the squeamish, but what he found was so shocking that it didn’t take long—maybe 50 pages—to figure out that he is well on his way to permanent vegetarianism. Foer does an admirable, shudder-inducing, nauseating job of describing the lives of factory farmed pigs, chickens, and cattle and the casual brutality perpetuated by the underpaid and overworked laborers being exploited by the factory farming system.

When I say “cruelty” and “brutality,” I’m not talking about slaughter; I don’t have a conceptual problem with humans, natural omnivores and hunters, killing animals for consumption. I’m talking about the largely unregulated, profit-driven factory farming industry that sees animals not as beings worthy of healthy, relatively painless lives and quick, respectful deaths but as protein production units. I’m talking about the short, filthy, disease-ridden, anxious, brutal, stifling lives these animals live in tiny cages. I’m talking about the cruelty that comes from stressed, underpaid, and unregulated human beings given complete power over animals and the abuses that spring naturally from that kind of power.

Beyond the hideous cruelty of the system, there is also the heinous environmental impact of factory farming to be considered, not to mention the terrible costs to our public health in the forms of mutated flu viruses, antibiotic resistant bacteria, epidemics of food poisoning, asthma and disease related to pollution from factory farming facilities, and the skyrocketing health costs that come from heart disease and cancer (both of which have been linked to the over-consumption of meat). Foer does great job of covering these issues whenever he takes a break from describing the farms themselves.

While I do fault Eating Animals for its lack of balance and its occasionally wobbly, indistinct structure, the highest compliment I can give it is that it has changed my life. It cemented my decision to move toward a vegan lifestyle. I literally shudder when I see meat now, because I know what happened to that animal. I know the moral cost of that meat. Foer has so convinced me that I don’t think I can ever allow myself to purchase factory farmed meat or eggs again. Not when there are so many other options available to me.

Basically, Eating Meat is a fabulous book if you are like me: interested in the environment and animal welfare and willing to be radicalized. If you’re not, this is a book that will sicken you and cause some painful cognitive dissonance. No matter what, you should be aware that knowing what factory farming really means will force you to make a moral decision about participating in our current food system; whether that is a good thing or not is up to you.

Snow Day the Third: Only Weather-Essential Vegan Cornbreads Must Report to Work

Holy moly, another snow day!

My parents have been requesting a link to the killer vegan cornbread I made for them a couple of weeks ago. This is a perfect accompaniment to any snow day soups that might be simmering in kitchens out there on this cold, wet Kansas morning.

I've always been on the fence about cornbread. For a long time, the only cornbread I knew was made from a Jiffy box. It was neon yellow, dry, crumbly, and largely tasteless, and it felt like little more than a distraction from whatever spicy stew or chili was at the center of the table.

But, as I've gotten older, I've encountered some truly delicious cornbreads, my absolute favorite being a sweet, spicy jalapeno cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet at Houston's on the Plaza in Kansas City. I went to dinner there with a friend and learned that, while the cornbread isn't on the menu, they'll make it special for those who know to ask for it.

But this cornbread actually rivals Houston's. That's right, a vegan cornbread is equal to the best cornbread I've ever had. If I can just incorporate jalapenos into this recipe, then I basically never need to leave the house again.

I won't repost the recipe here because I followed it nearly verbatim from the original. (By the way, according to the description at Food.com, this recipe was developed by an 11-year-old vegan baker for a cornbread contest which she, predictably, won.)

One note: this recipe calls for combining ground flax seed and water into what is known as a "flax egg." When exposed to water, flax swells and becomes all glue-y, which makes it an ideal substitute for eggs in binding vegan baked goods. It also makes for pretty little brown flakes in the final product, which I find visually appealing!

My flax egg, on its way to getting gummy.

This recipe calls for boiling the flax and water together for three minutes, but I've never seen that direction anywhere else, so I ignored it. Instead, I combined the flax seed and water, stirred them together, microwaved them for about 30 seconds, and waited until the mixture got a little gloppy. (Yes, that is a technical term.) It worked just fine.

Also, I replaced one tablespoon of flour with 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten for extra structure and sliceability. One of the Food.com commenters recommended it, and the substitution worked well, though you probably don't need it if you don't have any gluten on hand.

Trust me: this is tasty even before baking.

Oh, and have I mentioned the best thing about vegan baking? Like, the best thing ever? YOU CAN ALWAYS LICK THE BOWL WITHOUT FEAR OF SALMONELLA POISONING FROM THE EGGS. I strongly recommend that you at least lick the spoon after making this if not the whole bowl: trust me, it's worth it.

Vegan baking: GAME. CHANGER. Vegan cornbread: a very sweet snow day treat!

For a Spicy, Lazy Snow Day: Vegetarian Curried Chili with Chickpeas

Happy snow day, everybody!

In case you don’t live in the Midwest, about 10 inches of snow has been dumped in the middle of Kansas. Most schools and businesses were closed around 9:00 p.m. last night, long before the first snowflake had even hit the ground.

Today, I’ve baked a loaf of bread and made granola bars, but if I didn’t have a bunch of leftovers that I needed to eat this week, I’d totally be making this chili instead of blogging right now. It's just perfect for a chilly, blustery day like this!

Now, let me start with a caveat: I don’t really like chili.

Growing up, my parents adored chili. Some winters, they made it twice a week, and we always had leftovers two of the five remaining nights. It was perfectly fine chili—my favorite chili, even, with its rich tomatoes and approachable spices, hearty with kidney beans and ground beef—but by the time I went to college, I couldn’t stand the sight of the stuff. Never again, I thought.

Eventually, after about three years without it, I started to crave chili again during my senior year of college. I played around with a bunch of vegetarian chili recipes, got disappointed, and gave up.

But about a year ago, I stumbled upon Emeril’s spicy delicious magical unicorn of a vegetarian chili; I made a lazy person’s simplified, pantry-friendly version of it and was in love. Here was a chili I could get behind!

But the true origin of this chili came one night when I wanted to make it and discovered that I was short on both black beans and chili powder. After poking through my cabinets, I came up with a solution. Hence my magical curried chili with chickpeas was born!

This is a rock ‘n’ roll vegan chili. It’s hearty and swampy and satisfying and subtly exotic. The curry powder isn't noticeable, but it does add a layer of richness and aroma that's unusual in a chili. But most importantly of all, it doesn’t mess around: it is spicy. And award-winning! (I tied for first place in my office’s chili cook-off this year. I was waaaaaayyyyy too proud of myself!)

So, yes, this chili does pass muster, even with omnivores. In the words of my ground beef-loving, chili con carne-venerating father, “I would actually eat this again.” Which, in case you don’t know him, is very high praise.

This chili is a snow day essential, and it’s likely that you have everything you need on hand to make it. Even if you’re missing some of the ingredients, it’s a very flexible recipe: as long as you have the onions, garlic, corn, tomatoes, beans, and chili powder, you’re going to come up with something pretty tasty.

Note: I just saw The Delta Saints at a local venue. Half of the band is from Kansas, and they were shockingly good. If you like really loud blues-influenced Southern rock played by some technically skilled white kids wearing suspenders, definitely check them out. They put on a good show.

Happy snow day, Kansas!

The view from my kitchen window around noon today. What do you think? About 10 inches?

Curried Vegetarian Chili with Chickpeas (Lazy Woman’s Version)

2 TBSP canola or vegetable oil

1 ½ cup chopped sweet yellow onion

1 cup chopped sweet bell pepper (orange and yellow are best, but red works and even green will do in a pinch)

2 TBSP minced garlic (I don’t measure this out, but 4 cloves usually works for me)

2-3 minced Serrano peppers (jalapenos are a fine substitute, but please always watch out for pepper burns when you’re chopping!)

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2 cups of corn kernels (I use frozen sweet corn microwaved to room temperature)

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1 ½ TBSP chili powder

½ TBSP curry powder (replace this with more chili powder, if you don’t have curry on hand)

1 TBSP cumin powder

½ tsp salt (add more later to taste)

¼ scant tsp cayenne powder (if you want a milder chili, go with 1/8 tsp or skip it altogether)

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1 large can diced stewed tomatoes (4 large fresh tomatoes work as well)

1 can tri-blend beans, rinsed and well-drained

½ can black beans, rinsed and well-drained

½ can chickpeas, rinsed and well-drained (feel free to use whatever beans you have on hand—a can of kidney beans and a can of black beans makes for a perfectly delicious substitution!)

1 small can of tomato sauce (optional—I’ve made this without the tomato sauce, and it’s a little less soupy but perfectly tasty)

1 scant cup water

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To taste, salsa for spice and richness, salt, additional oil for richness, and red wine vinegar or lemon juice for acid and tang.

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Optional toppings and accompaniments:

chopped cilantro

sliced avocado

Daiya vegan mozzarella

vegan sour cream or vegan onion raita

vegan cornbread

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium or medium-high heat. Once warm, saute the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and peppers for about 3 minutes.

Add the corn kernels and saute for another 5 or 6 minutes.

Add chili powder, curry powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne to the pot and mix well, sauteing for another 30 seconds to a minute.

Add canned (or fresh) tomatoes, beans, tomato sauce, and water to the pot. Bring back up to a low boil and simmer for 20 minutes. (Or, add these final ingredients, bring to a low boil, and leave on low in your crock pot until needed.)

After 20 minutes of simmering (or hours of crock potting), taste the chili and add the "to taste" ingredients as needed (salsa, salt, oil, and red wine vinegar or lemon juice). Serve with cornbread, a blizzard, and bluesy southern rock. 

The Humdrums: Roasted Garlic Hummus

I'm just going to get it over with and admit it: this post is a cliche. A vegan blogger "experimenting" with hummus, that most hippie-ish of all hippie foods? That bland protein paste that so many people insist on smearing on a pita and calling a "meal"? That beige staple of the Mediterranean and patron saint of sad veggies wraps everywhere? It has been done. A lot. 

But it is a starting place, and it was the very first thing I decided to make when I chose to start veganing it up.

Also, when I don't have hummus, I'm lost. Snacks and quick-grab lunches become well-nigh impossible. Hummus is always there for you, always ready to go. And if you can't be with the tzatziki sauce or guacamole or (let's face it) veggie cream cheese spread that you love, good old friend-zoned hummus is always there for you. Maybe not in your heart, but, you know, he'll always help you move a couch.

Not only was I out of hummus a couple of weekends ago, but my favorite grocery store hummus, Sabra's roasted garlic, hadn't been on sale for a few weeks, which meant that I was considering shelling out nearly $5.00 for 12 ounces of the stuff. The below recipe probably cost me less than $3.00 to make, AND I got about twice as much hummus out of it than I would buying it pre-made.

A basic hummus recipe is a lot easier than people think: chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, salt, garlic, and lemon juice, meet my good friend Mr. Food Processor. That's. About. It. Even the exotic-sounding tahini is just unsweetened sesame seed paste, which happens to taste a little tangy and almost spicy. (If you ask a shelf stocker, you can find it at most grocery stores without too much trouble.)

And now for an admission: the first time I made this particular roasted garlic hummus recipe, I misread the recipe and made it wrong--super wrong--and really didn't care for it. Naturally. It was way, way  out of proportion. The second time around, I treated the recipe right and it was pretty damn tasty. (Though it did give me atomic garlic breath that was vanquished only by a good tooth brushing.) 

Ideas for the future:

• Blend a batch with dried red pepper flakes, a little chili olive oil, and maybe even a dash of chili powder or cumin to eat with chips and salsa. 
• Blend in a little bit of red wine vinegar, kalamata olive pieces, and maybe even some fresh spinach for a pita-ready Greek-style hummus.
• Edamame hummus. THAT IS A THING AND IT IS DELICIOUS. 

Basically, this recipe, like hummus in general, really welcomes variations and making it to taste. And it was easy to make--the hardest part by far was cleaning those damn nooks and crannies at the bottom of my food processor. Why do they make them like that?!

Note: I have had this post sitting in my drafts for three weeks. Veganism is going well--returning to blogging . . . now that's going to take some dedication!

About In the Key of Vegan

Welcome to In the Key of Vegan! 

For 2013, I'll be trying something fresh, exciting (I hope), and new: weekday veganism.

I'll be using this blog to post vegan recipes, pictures of my weekly cooking attempts, profiles of my favorite ingredients, updates on my vegan transition, and . . . well, whatever else suits my fancy. This is a blog about experimenting in the key of vegan--this blog isn't meant to be prescriptive, inflexible, or alienating. Vegan shamers or non-vegan shamers are welcome to close this tab and head right on back to refreshing their email inbox. ;)

About Me

After more than a year living as a weekday vegetarian and a little over three months of dieting based on calorie counting, I discovered that I was perilously close to becoming a weekday vegan without much thinking about it.

For most of my weekday vegetarian life, I subsisted on vegetables, breads, hummus, hard boiled eggs, and a tremendous amount of cheese. However, that diet actually lead me to gain weight, and when I began calorie counting as a way to get back into a healthy BMI range, I quickly realized that cheese just wasn't worth the calories. Hence my thick slices of cheddar were slowly replaced with a sprinkling of feta and then, eventually, with avocado, hummus, and nut spreads.

Once the leap from largely vegetarian to largely vegan started to seem more like a hop, there were plenty of reasons to do so. While veganism has largely been associated with the "cruelty-free" movement, I decided to join in primarily for environmental and health reasons.

Consuming meat (particularly that of ruminant animals) and dairy as produced by the industrialized food system is incredibly inefficient and harmful to the environment. Furthermore, meat and dairy products, while perfectly healthy when consumed in moderation as part of a varied diet, can also contribute to serious health problems.

Hence my veganistic tendencies. At this blog, you'll find weekly recipes, an overview of some of my favorite cooking ingredients, and a whole lot of enthusiastic screwing up! I'm a fairly inexperienced cook, and a very inexperienced vegan cook (hello, people, I grew up on chili, goulash, tuna casserole, Jell-O, and pizza!), but what I lack in experience I make up for in enthusiasm and my willingness to look like a well-meaning doofus in a public forum. You'll also find music because, well, I felt like posting music along with my recipes. Hit the play button if you like!

Here are some FAQs to get you started:

• What exactly does "vegan" mean?
• It means eating only plant-based foods and avoiding all foods derived from or produced by animals. This includes meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. There are plenty of good resources out there--Google it and go wild! 
• What is the environmental impact of eating meat?
• A lot has been written about this, and there are a lot of different factors in industrial meat production that contribute to global warming and pollution. You can find some good stuff about this at the Freakonomics blog, the World Preservation Foundation, Scientific American, and The Guardian. 
• Wait, how can veganism be healthy?
• Usually, vegan diets are extremely low in cholesterol and saturated fat and force you to avoid processed and high sodium foods, so vegans tend to be less likely to suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Also, veganism encourages you to eat a lot of whole foods and nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables. In fact, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics generally finds properly planned vegetarian and vegan diets to be at least as healthy as and often healthier than the typical American diet. Moreover, there's increasing evidence that vegan diets can do a surprising amount to prevent cancer. 
• Don't you miss out on important vitamins and minerals by skipping meat and dairy?
• Sometimes, depending on your diet, yes. Iron, calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D are some of the most cited vitamins missing in a vegan diet, but those can easily be replaced by eating carefully and adding a multivitamin if you're not getting your recommended daily intakes. Personally, I only really worry about iron because I'm prone to anemia, so I try to eat a lot of beans and spinach and take the occasional supplement. 
• Why "weekday vegan" instead of going all the way?
• I was a strict vegetarian for a year in college, but that diet left me slightly anemic and very annoyed. It forced me to skip potlucks and dinners with friends. I felt like I was always throwing wrenches into plans and making life complicated for my carnivorous friends. (And I ate a frozen meal for Thanksgiving dinner that year, for goodness sake--it was heartbreaking.) For me, strict vegetarianism or veganism would be alienating to others and frustrating to myself. I choose weekday veganism because it allows me to socialize freely a few days a week while still making a big difference five days a week. I believe in flexibility and not letting the ideal be the enemy of the good, which is, in part, what this blog is about.

Have more questions? Post them in the comments below and I'll add them to my list!