THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
DECEMBER
1998
In This Month's Issue:
- Recipes
- This Month's Article - Full of Beans!
- Readers' Contributions
- Vegan Product Review
- Vegan Nutrition - Iron
- In The Veganic Garden
- Vegan Websites
- Book Review
- The Wildlife Database
Recipe of the Month
Pauline's Chili Bean Stew
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of skinned, chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbs tomato puree
- 1 pt (550 ml) vegetable stock
- 3 oz (80 g) dried red kidney beans
- 3 oz (80 g) dried butter beans
- 2oz (55 g) dried black-eye beans
- 1 peeled, chopped onion
- 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into large pieces
- 1 potato, peeled and chopped into large pieces
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp cornflour, mixed with a little cold water
Method
Recipe Serves 2. Serve this stew with crusty bread.
- Soak the dried beans overnight in cold water, or in boiling water for 1 hr. Drain.
- Prepare carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and onion as described above.
- Place all of the ingredients into the pressure cooker, except for the cornflour.
- Bring to pressure. Cook the stew for * 16-17 minutes. Release pressure and remove the lid.
- Stir in the cornflour and cook the stew, uncovered, until it has thickened.
* If you have an older pressure cooker, then you may need to adjust this time. Read your model's instructions and find out the recommended time for cooking butterbeans, then add on 1 or 2 minutes extra. Note: if the time is very different from the one given above, then you may need to add some extra fluid as well.
(See the December 1997 Vegan News for links to Christmas recipes.)
Readers' Contributions
Nigel Bedrock from Norbury, London has sent in this recipe for Vegan Cauliflower Cheese.
Ingredients:
- 1 large cauli
- 1oz (25g) vegan margarine
- 1oz (25g) flour
- 1/2 pint (275ml) soya milk
- 2 teaspoons miso
- 2 teaspoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- pepper to taste
Method:
- Wash the cauli, break into large florets and boil in a large pan - I add the leaves too (yummy!).
- Meanwhile place the margarine, flour & milk in a large pan and heat slowly, stirring with a whisk.
- Bring to the boil and whisk until thickened - add milk or flour to get a custard type texture.
- Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients - ensure miso does not boil as its enzymes will be destroyed.
- Place cauli florets on plates and pour over sauce.
- Serve with salad, veg burgers or whatever you like.
This recipe is adapted from a sauce recipe devised by Amanda Sweet in her excellent book The Vegan Health Plan (ISBN 0-85140-699-8).
December Product Review
If you can't find a vegan Christmas pudding in your local shops, then The Village Bakery sells an animal-free pudding by mail order.
This section was updated in March 2009 and several products have been removed as they are no longer available.
Vegan Nutrition - Focusing on Iron
Iron is an essential trace element which is needed by the human body mainly to form the red blood pigment haemoglobin, but it is also found in the muscle protein myoglobin and is a constituent of a number of enzymes.The daily dietary intake of iron, as recommended by the Department of Health (UK), is 1.7 mg for young babies, 7.8 mg for 1 year olds, 6.1-8.7 mg for children, 11.3-14.8 mg for teenagers, 14.8 mg for adult women and 8.7 mg for adult men. When the diet is low in iron, iron deficiency anaemia can occur once the body's store of iron has been used up and common symptoms of this disease include breathlessness, palpitations, giddiness, tiredness and poor concentration. Are vegans more prone to iron deficiency anaemia than omnivores? Studies have shown that iron deficiency is no more common in vegans than in the general population and that on average British vegans have a dietary iron intake of more than double the recommended amount. The best vegan plant sources of iron are listed below:
Iron-Rich Plant Foods:
(In mg/100g)
- Dulse = 150 mg
- Kelp = 100 mg
- Cumin Seed = 66.2 mg
- Hijiki = 29.0 mg
- Nori = 23.0 mg
- Blackstrap Molasses = 16.1 mg
- Kombu = 15.0 mg
- Wakame = 13.0 mg
- Bran = 12.9 mg
- Arame = 12.0 mg
- Pumpkin Seeds = 11.2 mg
- Sesame Seeds = 10.5 mg
- Wheatgerm = 10.0 mg
- Sunflower Seeds = 7.1 mg
- Soya Beans = 7.0 mg
- Soya Flour = 6.9 mg
- Chickpeas = 6.9 mg
- Lentils = 6.8 mg
- Millet = 6.8 mg
- Dried Peaches = 6.8 mg
- Parsley = 6.2 mg
- Dried Apricots = 5.5 mg
- Fresh Yeast = 5.0 mg
- Oats = 4.6 mg
- Dried Figs = 4.2 mg
- Rye = 3.7 mg
- Wholewheat = 3.3 mg
- Beet Greens = 3.3 mg
- Chard = 3.2 mg
- Spinach = 3.1 mg
- Buckwheat = 3.1 mg
Please note that only 1-8% of the non-haem type of iron present in plant foods is absorbed, but that iron absorption can be increased by consuming iron-rich plant foods at the same meal as foods which are high in vitamin C (e.g. orange juice, fresh salad or cauliflower). And don't forget that cooking in iron pots and pans will also provide additional iron.
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?
It's usually fairly quiet in the veganic garden this month. So, if you've already swept up the leaves, planted your new fruit bushes and finished making any new raised beds, then sit down by the fire and thumb through the seed catalogues, for December is a good time to plan out what you are going to grow in the veganic garden next year! It's also a good time to catch up on your reading. So, this month I am going to take a look at what the new 1999 Organic gardening Catalogue has to offer in the way of gardening books and new gardening products.First of all, if you would like to attract more wildlife into your garden in 1999, then you may be interested in these two new wildlife books. in this catalogue you will find 'Gardening for Butterflies' by Dr Margaret Vickery (£5.50) (No longer available in 2009 catalogue.) This book lists the top 100 butterfly plants and helps you to identify some of the butterflies which are likely to come into your garden. On the same page, for £15.99, you will also find 'The RSPB's Birdfeeder Garden' which profiles a 100 of the trees, shrubs and plants which can be planted in order to attract more birds into your garden (No longer available in 2009 catalogue.) Alternatively, The Sprouters Handbook (price £5.45) will tell you how to produce your own sprouts and salad greens and is well worth reading (This book is still available in 2009 Catalogue - Order Code: BKTS).
Other new gardening goodies which you will find in the 1999 catalogue include: 'Barlotta Lingua di Fuoco' (still available in 2009 catalogue) - a red striped bean which can be eaten fresh or dried, horseradish 'throngs', several new, organic apple trees (still offered in 2009 catalogue) and a very hot chilli pepper called 'Habenero' (order Code: CPHA, still offered in the 2009 catalogue). If you would like an up-to-date copy of this catalogue phone: 0845 130 1304 or order one online.
On the Web - Vegan Accommodation:
This section was updated in March 2009. As these links were no longer available they have been removed. If you are looking for vegan holiday accommodation, then please visit the links page where you will find more up-to-date information on this subject.
December Book Review
The Absolutely Animal-Free CookBook by Wendy Turner. (The Book Guild Ltd.)
A collection of fifty quick and simple vegan recipes. This cookbook shows you how to produce mouthwatering meals without using any animal products whatsoever. You will find a good selection of recipes for soups, pates, dips, desserts, cakes and biscuits and for your main course why not try stir fried tofu with oyster mushrooms and spring onions, wild mushroom risotto, oven pizza with roast vegetable topping or a vegan version of one of the old favourites, such as chilli-con-carne, bolognese sauce, toad in the hole or stuffed peppers? All of these quick and tasty recipes use readily available, mainly fresh ingredients and the whole cookery book is nicely illustrated with ink drawings of vegetables - I particularly like the one of the carrot washing itself on page 17!
I found a copy of this book in my public library.