THE VEGAN NEWSTHE VEGAN NEWSThe Vegan News is written and edited by P M Lloyd.
Do you have a favourite vegan recipe that you would like to share with other vegans? Or perhaps you know of some useful vegan products that we can buy? If so, please e-mail the details to me at: pauline@bury-rd.demon.co.uk or fill in the form provided. I will try to publish some of your contributions in the next issue of The Vegan News.
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Recipe of the Month
There are many brands of tofu available. I like Sanchi firm tofu which has a longer life. But, Cauldron Foods also do a plain tofu, as well as smoked and marinated versions. Tofu is a very versatile, high-protein food and if it is coagulated using calcium, it is also a good source of calcium in the vegan diet. It can be used in many recipes as a substitute for eggs, milk, yogurt, or cheese and in various salad dressings and it is a very healthy food product as it contains no cholesterol. Packets of tofu can usually be bought in health food shops, or in the supermarket - where it is often found in the cheese section. I use Cauldron Food's plain tofu to make the banana tofu recipe below and the Sanchi version for the scrambled tofu. Sainsbury's also produce their own version.
Soya beans have been shown to contain substances which have anti-carcinogenic properties
and it is thought that the high consumption of soya products such as tofu, in Japan and
China, is responsible for the low incidence of breast and colon cancers in both these countries.
It is also thought that soya beans can lower cholesterol levels.
Ingredients
Method
Serves 4
Scheese Scheese is produced by Bute Island Foods. It is a solid, dairy-free 'cheese', based on soya. I
particularly like the cheddar version, which is quite strong tasting. I use it grated
and added to a white sauce for a lasagne, sprinkled on top of pizzas, or it is delicious melted on top of toast and
vegemite. It usually keeps for quite a while too and comes in many different flavours. Price about £2.40 for 227 g.
It can be obtained in some health food shops in the UK.
Before you throw anything away think! Can it be reused? Here are some suggestions:
... fill them with interesting pasta shapes (or flavors, or colors, etc.) and store them
on a shelf where they can be, not only useful, but decorative in your kitchen. Or
make a nice pasta sauce and put it in a jar ... place the jar of pasta sauce, and the jar filled with pasta in a small basket with some other decorations or side dishes, desert, etc. and
give it to a friend for holidays, birthdays, or someone who has just had an operation, had a baby,
or just plain doesn't like to cook that much (besides, it's a good way to provide a vegan meal for a
non-vegan (or even non-vegetarian) friend.
I found a second-hand sprouting kit in a charity shop recently. Unfortunately there
weren't any instructions with it. I have heard that sprouts are very nutritious, but how do I grow them?
Sprouts are very cheap to grow. They are also very good for you because of their
high vitamin and mineral content. They can be grown very easily on a windowsill. I would
particularly recommend alfalfa sprouts and mustard and cress. Sprouts can be grown in
special salad sprouters similar to the one that you have purchased. The main advantage of
a special sprouter is that several different kinds of sprouts can be grown at the same time.
'The Being Fare' salad sprouter for example can be obtained by mail order from: The Organic
Gardening Catalogue and also from Real Foods. However, a special salad sprouter is not essential
as most sprouts will grow quite happily in an upturned jam-jar. Mustard and cress seeds are
an exception as these are not usually grown in sprouters or jam-jars. The best way to grow
mustard and cress is usually by placing pieces of damp kitchen towel (or a paper tissue) into a shallow container
such as an empty plastic strawberry punnet. Sprinkle the seeds on top of the paper towel and keep them
damp. The punnet should be placed inside a brown paper bag until the seeds have germinated. Cut the mustard and cress with scissors when it is ready.
The amount of seeds to use when sprouting largely depends on your own requirements. One tablespoon of alfalfa seeds for example will make
approximately one jam-jar full of sprouts. Try not to consume more than 2 oz of sprouts each day as
they contain plant alkaloids that should not be consumed in excessive amounts. When ready the
sprouts can be used in salads or as a garnish for sandwiches. Mung bean sprouts can be used in
stirfries. Try mashing an advocado and spread it on Rye bread or wholemeal french stick. Sprinkle on some
Smokeysnaps and garnish with alfalfa sprouts and a few slices of tomato.
Plants for a Future is a non-profit making resource centre, supplying information on edible
and useful plants. They have a mail order catalogue of over 200 perennial plants,
which are grown on site using vegan-organic methods. They also offer many leaflets on such topics as:
Woodland Garden Plants, Edible Shrubs, Perennial Onions, Ground Cover Plants and The Urban Garden. You may find some of these
leaflets particularly helpful if you intend to create a forest garden. The site is open to visitors at weekend.
Both the catalogue and the leaflets can be obtained from:
Recipe 1 - Banana tofu
Recipe 2 - Scrambled tofu on toast
Method
Recipe Serves 2
March Product Review
Recycling Tips
Another good use for empty jars ...
Suggestion sent in by: H. Leah. Cleveland, Ohio.
Loo Rolls
Keep saving these up for your early summer seed planting of runner bean and sweetcorn seeds as mentioned in the
October issue!
Rags
If you have got any old clothes, sheets, towels/tea-towels etc. which are too old to be sent
to the jumble sale or charity shop, then why not start a rag bag? Cut them up into smaller
pieces and use the rags for all those dirty jobs, such as cleaning shoes, mopping up oil, paint and chemical
spills etc. You will not need to buy nearly so many disposable new cloths, which is far better
for the environment - and think of the money that you will be saving too!
Don't forget to save a few, whole, old sheets for decorating and other dirty jobs. They are very good for
covering floors and furniture.
Paper Bags
Clean paper bags can be used for wrapping sandwiches. The greaseproof linings from
inside cereal packets and the plastic and cellophane wrappings used to wrap loaves
of bread, can also be reused for this purpose too. (Dirty bags can be used to wrap up rubbish.)
Choose products wrapped in paper or cellophane instead of plastic whenever possible and of course
every time you take a bag of any sort think - is it really necessary anyway!
What's Happening in the Veganic
Garden This Month?
If you want to find out more about the wildlife in your garden, then
the following organisations can supply you with further information:Seed Sowing
Now that the weather is getting a little better, it is possible to start sowing seeds outside.
It is not too late to sow some broad beans this month. If the soil temperature has reached 13 degrees,
then outside sowings of leeks and brassicas can also be made. If you have a small garden then try the
dwarf Brussel sprout called Peer Gynt which is available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
It crops in the autumn. I would recommend that you use either The Lyon or Musselburgh for leeks. If
you have sown lettuces indoors they should now be big enough to plant outside. Cover the young plants with
plastic bottles for extra protection from the weather and from slugs. Welsh onion is an interesting perennial
onion which can be sown this month, or try White Lisbon - a salad onion. Towards the end of this month it should be possible to sow some
carrots and turnips and if it is fairly warm, a few rows of Parsley . Seeded tubers of early potatoes
can also be put outside in the second half of the month if they are well sprouted and the ground is warm enough.
My indoor sowings of strawberry seeds are doing well and will be put outside at the end of
next month in the new raised bed. Finally, if you have not yet planted out your onion sets then get those in. Clumps of Chives can be also be split and replanted.
Picking Garden Crops
My spring cabbages are now doing well and I shall start to pick of small amounts of leaves from the plants, leaving the centres to firm up.
The winter salad i.e. Land Cress, Claytonia and Corn Salad is greening up nicely. The Black Spanish Round winter radishes have now all been
eaten and replaced with my onion sets.
The Wildlife Garden
When designing a veganic garden, it can be useful to include a wildlife area. If present in the garden, hedgehogs
and frogs will eat slugs and visiting birds will keep down insect pests and remove the need for using toxic chemicals.
Bees and hoverflies are good pollinators and should be encouraged into the garden and butterflies and dragonflies are interesting to watch.
If you are wondering which plants to use when planning out your wildlife area, then visit
The Wildlife Database. Details of stockists of wild flower seeds
are available in the December Issue.
Wildlife Organisations
Any Queries?
D M Martin. Hull. Humberside.
The jam-jar method
SMALL SEEDS
Name Soaking Time(hrs) Amount Ready in days Shoot
Length(cm)
Alfalfa 6-8 1 tbsp 5-6 3.5 cm
Mustard and cress Do not
soak 3-4 tbsp 4-5 2.5 cm
LARGE SEEDS
Aduki beans 10-15 1 tbsp 3-5 2.5-3.5 cm
Chick peas 18 1 tbsp 3-4 2.5 cm
Mung beans 15-18 1 tbsp 3-5 1-5 cm
Sunflower seeds 10 1 tbsp 1-2 Grow until
same length as seed
Vegan Organisation Review
The Field
Penpol
Lostwithiel
Cornwall
PL22 ONG
Tel: Bodmin (01208) 873554 or 872963
Other Interesting Vegan Websites.
VIVA is a vegetarian and vegan charity which stocks many vegan books including: The Single Vegan by Leah
Leneman; Simply Vegan by David Scott; Vegan Nutrition by Gill Langley; The Vegetarian and Vegan Guide to the Lake District;
The Vegan Guides to Paris, Berlin and New York and Michael Klaper's book on Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet.
Books can be ordered at this site, but if you wish to order the books by mail, then the address for VIVA can be obtained
here.
The Rich Morris Site
This site has interesting links to the online version of the vegan-organics leaflet written by Plants
for a Future with VOHAN. It also offers links to the Eco-village project and to Plants for a Future's
online species database, which contains details on nearly 7000 useful plants that can be grown in a temperate climate.
VIVA Books
March Book Review
View all issues of The Vegan News