THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
JANUARY
1998
In This Month's Issue:
- Recipes
- This Month's Article - Wool
- Vegan Product Review
- In the Veganic Garden
- Your Comments
- Vegan Websites
- Book Review(s)
- The Wildlife Database
Recipe of the MonthVegetable Stew and Sage Dumplings
Ingredients
- 1 medium potato
- 3 carrots
- 1 medium turnip, or half a small swede
- 1 leek
- 1 small onion
- 5 oz (150 g) of cooked butterbeans, or a small tin of drained butterbeans (optional)
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 and a quarter pints (700 ml) water, or vegetable stock
For the dumplings:
- 4 oz (120 g) self raising wholemeal flour (or plain flour with 1/4 oz (5 g) baking powder, added)
- 2 tsps dried sage (or mixed herbs)
- 1 and a half tbsps olive oil
- Cold water to mix
Method
- Peel and wash the vegetables and chop them into 1 " pieces.
- Mix all the dumpling ingredients together in a bowl and add enough cold water to give a stiff dough. Divide the dough into four and roll each piece into a ball. Put the dumplings into a microwaveable dish and cover with cling film, leaving a small gap for the steam to escape.
- Put all the vegetables into a pan and add the water and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins.
- Add the cooked beans to the stew and cook for a further 10-12 mins, or until all the vegetables are tender.
- Microwave the dumplings for 3 and a half minutes (time for 650 W oven) and allow to stand for two minutes.
- If the stew needs to be thickened, then add a tablespoon of cornflour - mixed to a smooth paste with a small amount of water - and cook for a few more minutes.
- Divide the stew between two bowls and place the dumplings on top. Serve with crusty bread and a sprinkling of Engevita yeast flakes.
Recipe Serves 2
Plenty of colds and flu going around this month! So if you're feeling a little under the weather, or if your not getting all the nutrients you need from your diet, then you may find it useful to take a supplement.
January Product Review
Seven Seas Multivitamins Plus Minerals for Vegetarians and Vegans
These vitamin tablets contain a combination of fourteen vitamins and minerals and are specially formulated for vegetarians and vegans. Approved by the Vegetarian Society and registered with the Vegan Society, these vitamins do not contain any sugar/sweetener, artificial colours, lactose, flavours or preservatives and can be used by both adults and children over seven. Each tablet contains the vitamins A, D, E, C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, folic acid, B12, pantothenic acid and the minerals: calcium, iron and zinc.
Sanatogen One-A-Day Vegetarian
A special vegetarian vitamin and mineral supplement which is approved by the Vegetarian Society. Sugar and lactose-free, these vitamins do not contain any animal ingredients or artificial colours/flavours etc. Each tablet supplies: vitamin D, B2, B6, folic acid, B12, calcium, iron, zinc and copper. A 60 tablet pack costs £4.89 (One tablet to be taken daily.)
March 2009 Update: H& B produce a good vegan multivitamin and mineral tablet, which costs less than the Seven Seas one mentioned above.
Top of Page
You will find a comprehensive list of the products
which are suitable for vegan babies in the Animal-Free
Shopper, which is available from the Vegan Society.
The information in this section has been removed because these products were no longer available in March 2009.
| VEGETABLE | VARIETY | REC. PLANTING DATE | COMMENTS | CROPPING DATE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broad Bean | Aquadulce Claudia | November or February/March | Fixes Nitrogen | June/July |
| Broad Bean | *The Sutton | Mid February/early March | Fixes Nitrogen | June/July |
| Pea | *Feltham First | February | A compact plant but crops well | June |
| Garlic | Printanor | Nov-February | Only available Oct-Feb | August |
| Beetroot | Detroit Globe | April-June | Nice pickled, but can be grated and eaten raw. | Aug-Nov |
| Runner Bean | Painted Lady | Sow indoors and plant outside beg/mid June | Has pretty flowers | Aug-Oct |
| Runner Bean | Kelvedon Marvel | Sow indoors and plant outside beg/mid June | Can go stringy in dry summers | Aug-Oct |
| Lettuce | *Tom Thumb | Sow indoors in March | Good dwarf variety | June onwards |
| Lettuce | Saladini | Sow outside from beg June | A cut and come again lettuce | July onwards |
| Cress | Land Cress | Sow outside in August and in April | Tastes like watercress | Available for most of year |
| Onion | Stuttgart Giant | Plant onion sets in Feb/March | Stores well | Harvest in August |
| Pumpkin | Baby Bear | Sow indoors in April, plant outside in June | This variety has hulless seeds which can be eaten | Harvest August/September |
| Peppers | I use seeds from shop-bought peppers! | Sow March, indoors | Can be grown in containers indoors | August onwards |
| Radish | Black Spanish Round | Sow in August outside | Has a strong flavour. Nice grated in salads. | Winter - Spring |
| Radish | Summer Cross F1-(Mouli) | Sow outside from July | Worth growing if you want to try out some Japanese/Chinese recipes | Harvest from October |
| Tomato | Alicante | Sow indoors, beginning of April, plant out beg June | Reliable cropper | Ready end August-September |
| Sweetcorn | Kelvedon Glory F1 | Sow indoors, plant out mid may | Likes a sunny position | August |
| Strawberry | Temptation F1 | Sow indoors Jan/Feb and plant out in April | Should fruit in first year | Harvest Aug-Oct |
| Parsley | Champion Moss Curled | Sow outside in May and August | Very nutritious! | Available for most of year |
| Basil | Bush Basil | Sow indoors in April, plant out beg June | Grow in container to reduce slug damage | July/August |
| Green Manure | Field Bean | Sept-Nov | A good nitrogen fixer | Grow to 18" then compost or use as mulch |
| Comfrey | Bocking 14 | Buy as plants, April-August | Use as a mulch, a compost activator, or as a feed for tomatoes/pepers | Harvest 3-4 times/year |
If you are having difficulty finding any of these varieties of seeds locally, then most of them can still be obtained from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Blackbird - About 25.5 cm in length, the female blackbird is brown and the male is black with a yellow bill. Blackbirds eat earthworms, caterpillars, slugs and berries. During the autumn and winter, blackbirds will visit the bird table and eat household scraps. (They are particularly fond of apples - so don't throw away those bad apples.) They will also eat strawberries, so keep your strawberry plants well-netted!
Thrush - There are two types of thrush - the song thrush and the mistle thrush. They are both very similar in appearance, although the mistle thrush is usually bigger than the song thrush which is about 23 cm long. However, you are most likely to see the song thrush in your garden, as the mistle thrush prefers the open country. Both types of thrush are brown in colour with a paler, spotted breast. Their diet consists of worms, snails, slugs, caterpillars and fruit and berries in the autumn. If you hear a song thrush hammering a snail against a stone, in your garden, then consider yourself lucky, as slugs and snails can do an awful lot of damage.
Wren - Are great insect eaters. I have several wrens which rummage in my ivy looking for insects. The wren is a tiny brown bird with a short cocked up tail and measures only 9.5 cm. It eats insects, insect larvae, spiders and small seeds.
Wood Pigeon - Large grey birds of about 40.5 cm. Their diet consists of seeds, green plants and small invertebrates. They adore Brussels sprouts and other brassica leaves and will take peas and beans and also the buds off your soft fruit bushes. They do a lot of damage in the veganic garden, particularly in spring and early summer. If they are a problem in your garden, then you will need to use netting, or even a scarecrow!
Hope that you like this month's article on wool, Shell!
Other Interesting Websites
Cooking Without. By Barbara Cousins. (Thorsons)
Cooking Without is a collection of recipes free from added gluten, sugar, dairy products, yeast, salt and saturated fat. Barbara Cousins is a nutritional therapist and the book is about improving your health through what you eat (and provides proof that a dairy-free diet is good for you!). Although the book is not a vegan cookbook, many of the recipes are suitable for vegans, and several more can be adapted by using an egg substitute (the book contains a recipe for an egg replacer). The recipes are easy to prepare and tasty.
There are some interesting breakfast recipes such as: Pear and Carob Delight and Banana and Maize Cereal; starters such as Carrot and Cashew Nut Paté; soups such as Fennel, Celery and Leek; main courses such as Polenta Pizza and Vegetable and Fruit Kebabs with Orange and Ginger Sauce and desserts such as Almond Fruit Bake and Banana and Mango Ice Cream. A useful book to borrow from the library, even if you don't want to buy it yourself.