THE VEGAN NEWS 

SEPTEMBER 1998

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In This Month's Issue:

Recipe of the Month

Pistachio Risotto

Method

  1. Wash the rice under running water. Drain. Put the rice, oil and garlic into a pan and cook for a few minutes using a gentle heat.

  2. Add the onions (or chopped leek if using) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Pour in the water, increase the heat slightly, then cover the pan and simmer the rice for 25 minutes.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, or until the rice and vegetables are tender and all of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the pan.

Recipe Serves 2

This risotto is nice served with a sprinkling of Parmazano, crusty bread and a tomato salad. * Note: I used rice which took 30-35 minutes to cook, however you may need to adjust the cooking time a little, if the rice you are using has a different cooking time. Add the vegetables about 10-15 mins before the end of the cooking time.

(This recipe is a slightly modified version of a recipe in 'Vegan Vitality' by Diane Hill.)

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Readers' Contributions

I often prepare my own pesto which I call 'student pesto' as it's much cheaper than 'the real thing'. Prepacked pestos are rather expensive in Germany and usually contain parmesan. If you prepare your own pesto, it's still expensive, as you'd need at least two bunches of basil and pricey pine nuts. I use parsley instead of basil and replace the pine nuts with either sunflower or pumpkin seeds, then I add garlic and olive oil and mix the pesto in the food processor. Of course it tastes completely different, but nonetheless yummy. You can sprinkle the pasta with Gomasio which gives it some of the salty taste of parmesan and it even looks a little like parmesan.

Melanie Oerter, Siegen, Germany.

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September Product Review

This month, I am going to review three vegan soya products, which all avoid using genetically engineered soya beans.

Kitchen Garden Organic Soya Mince (T.V.P.).

This T.V.P. is made from Zimbabwean soya beans which are organically grown in a crop rotation system. Soya mince is made from pressed soya cake and the oil is usually extracted by using a petrochemical solvent such as hexane. However, no solvents or steam are used to extract the oil from Kitchen Garden Soya Mince and it contains about 8% soya oil and is rich in lecithins and vitamin E. I tested this product by using it to make a chilli-con-carne and it really did taste nicer than usual! I purchased my 250g packet from a branch of Traders Fair, but look out for it in your health shop if you don't have a Traders Fair near you.

Plamil Egg-Free Mayonnaise with Garlic

This very tasty mayonnaise is made from sunflower oil, water, cider vinegar and pea protein and is completely free from artifical colours, flavours or preservatives. I particularly like this garlic-flavoured version, but there's also a plain mayonnaise if you don't like garlic. I use this product to make potato/pasta salads and coleslaws and it's also very nice in salad sandwiches, but use it sparingly as it's quite high in fat. 

Plamil Concentrated Soya

Made from water, soya protein and sunflower oil, this soya milk provides enough calcium, B2, B12 and D2 for the average vegan requirement and is certified as having no genetically engineered content. It's also sugar-free and has no artificial colourings, flavourings or sweeteners. A 500 ml carton of concentrated Plamil soya can be diluted with water to give a litre of soya milk, or it can be used undiluted as a dessert dressing instead of using cream. It's ideal to take on holiday, as the carton is small and of course a smaller carton is better if you are trying to reduce the amount of rubbish in your dustbin, too! Look for this product in your health shop. (Plamil no longer produce this concentrated soya milk - information updated in March 2009.)

You can obtain more information on Plamil's range of dairy-free products at their web site. 

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What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month? 

Harvesting Your Crops

I hope that you have all had a successful gardening year. Well it's harvest time once again folks - time to bring in all of your tasty home-grown fruit and vegetables! Onions should be brought in urgently if you didn't harvest them last month and as soon as there is any sign of frost, bring in any remaining green tomatoes and ripen them indoors. Many types of sweet corn, beetroot, runner beans and calabrese can also be harvested in September.

Seed Sowing

This month, sow 'Broad Leaf Prickly' spinach and winter lettuces. I would recommend the lettuce 'Imperial Winter' - it's available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. Last year I had a very good crop of these lettuces which I was able to harvest in April/May. My winter lettuces survived the winter well, without any protection, but no doubt it's possible to get an even better crop if the lettuces are protected with a fleece or cloche. Other salad crops (e.g. landcress or rocket) can also be sown this month. Plant out any indoor-raised spring cabbage plants sometime between mid-September and mid-October - I use the variety Offenham. This year I am also going to make a sowing of 'Green in the Snow' (Chinese Mustard) as this very hardy plant can be eaten in winter salads or used in stir-fries.

Other Garden Tasks

Put any mature compost on top of the soil as you start to clear your raised beds this autumn. Also, start to collect up any leaves that fall off the trees at the end of this month, as these can be used to make leaf mould.  The autumn is also a good time to plant new fruit trees and soft fruit bushes.

Pest Control

June turned out to be a very wet month this year - in fact, the ideal weather for slugs and snails! And these slimy creatures have been very troublesome in my veganic garden this year. Usually, I simply plant a few extra plants for them to eat and take no further action against them. However, this year, at the beginning of June, I put out my young runner bean plants as usual and by the end of the month they had all been eaten up. So, in desperation, I resorted to growing some in a tub (which I placed on top of the garden table!) but they still managed to climb up and nibble at the leaves. One night I went outside after it had been raining and there were so many snails walking round my garden that I decided to round them all up. I collected between 50 and 100, left them in jam jars for the night, then the next day we all went for a short walk down the cycle track where they were released from captivity. I continued to collect them up at regular intervals over the summer and with some help from the local hedgehogs and my frogs, I finally managed to regain control without using any pesticides.

Ants have also been a big problem in the veganic garden this year. You don't need to tell these tiny creatures to eat up their greens! Whole lettuces have disappeared overnight and it appears that they are also fond of fennel seedlings. Unfortunately, covering young lettuce plants with plastic bottles doesn't do that much good as the ants simply crawl underneath the bottles and start to nibble.

I obtained a good crop of broad beans this year, but unfortunately in early June, the blackflies arrived. A spraying with ordinary household soap didn't have much effect, probably because it kept pouring down each time I sprayed. So I tried a stronger solution, this time of Bio-D washing up liquid which was much more effective. (You do need to keep spraying at intervals though, particularly if it keeps raining.)

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Your Comments!

Just thought I'd drop you a line to say how much I enjoy reading the 'Vegan News' on the Internet. If I would dare to criticise at all, it would be that in some of your recipes and product reviews you refer people to 'get this product at your local Sainsbury's' and in the last issue, referred to a product available at Boots.

Concerning supermarkets - as a vegetarian for 10 years and vegan for the last 2.5, my wife and I try to shop as much as possible at health food stores. I know that supermarkets are getting much better with non-animal foods, but as vegans, should we really be supporting the largest retailers of meat/dairy products in the UK? We do still shop at supermarkets, but are really trying to cut down as much as possible. There is also the point with Sainsbury's that they are only supermarket chain still selling exotic meats (ostrich, crocodile and kangaroo) and have been the subject of a long campaign by VIVA.

Concerning Boots, well, I have personally avoided Boots for 3 years. Although they have a range of cosmetics etc that are 'animal friendly', they are also a pharmaceutical manufacturer and do conduct/commission animal testing. I would therefore class them as 'vegan unfriendly'.

This comment was sent in by Martin Doyle.

What do other readers think about this comment?  I also do most of my shopping (about 90-95%) in health food shops and from my local fruit and vegetable market.  - Editor.

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Other Interesting Vegan Websites

The Vegan Society
An excellent site and a particularly good starting point for obtaining information for the new or intending vegan. You can now visit their online Shop.

Information for New Vegans
If anyone has just gone vegan, then they might find this old Vegan News article useful. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Find out about PETA's campaigns, visit PETA Kids, order a book from the bookstore or purchase something from their catalogue. 

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September Book Review

 Vegetarian Baby by Sharon Yntema. (McBooks Press.) Price $16.95.

'Vegetarian Baby' is a valuable guide to raising healthy children on a vegetarian diet and in my opinion this book has much to offer the vegan parent.

In 'Vegetarian Baby' Sharon Yntema starts off by looking at how vegetarian babies are fed in other cultures and at the different types of vegetarian diets. She then goes on to cover the areas of the vegetarian diet which are most likely to cause concern, looking in detail at protein, calories, calcium, iron and the vitamins B12 and D. Chapter Three covers the vegetarian diet in pregnancy, breastfeeding and weaning and includes several interesting interviews with vegetarian parents. The rest of the book is devoted to the preparation of vegetarian baby food and contains many of the author's own quick and nutritious vegetarian baby recipes which are ideal for the working vegetarian/vegan parent and use only natural foodstuffs. There are recipes for alternative baby milks, recipes for weaning your baby and recipes for the older baby of up to 14 months. And most of the recipes are suitable for the vegan baby, or could easily be made so by using vegan yogurt in some of the recipes.

Although this book is published in USA, a lot of the recipes could be used just as easily by UK vegetarian/vegan parents because most of the ingredients are measured out in tablespoons or teaspoons. However, please note that RDA s do vary between countries and I would recommend that any UK parents, purchasing this book, should contact the Vegan Society (UK) if they need to know more about the current British RDAs.

A new, revised edition of Vegetarian Baby can be ordered directly from the McBooks Press website for $16.95. (Information updated in March 2009)

Vegetarian Children by Sharon Yntema. (McBooks Press.) Price $9.95

In 'Vegetarian Children', Sharon Yntema looks at some of the outside influences which can cause difficulty when vegetarian parents are trying to pass on their values to their children. Paying particular attention to the effects of peer pressure, the author offers support and guidance to enable vegetarian parents to bring up their children more effectively in a predominantly meat-eating and junk food-orientated culture. Two chapters of the book are devoted entirely to vegetarian children's health issues and as well as containing useful height and weight charts, this section of the book covers topics such as dental health and vitamin supplementation and looks at some of the research studies which has been carried out on vegetarian children's health. Other issues which are explored include: school lunches, child development (including how morals are developed) and other vegetarian-related topics that parents might want to discuss with their children, such as world hunger, environmental safety, animal rights and community action.

This book has a good bibliography and although it is not specifically a vegan book, it nevertheless contains some interesting ideas and is well worth reading.

Updated in March 2009 - This book does not seem to be available.

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