THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
MAY
1997
In This Month's Issue:
- Recipes
- This Month's Article - What is A Fruitarian?
- Readers' Contributions
- Vegan Product Review
- Recycling Tips
- In The Veganic Garden
- Queries
- Vegan Websites
- Book Review
- The Wildlife Database
Recipe of the Month
How to Make Your Own Soya Yogurt
You should be able to purchase natural soya yogurt quite easily in your local health shop. However, it is much cheaper and very easy to make your own.You can if you wish purchase a special yogurt maker to make your yogurt in and there are many types of yogurt maker available for this purpose.
Yogurt, can however, be can be made just as easily in a vacumn flask. In fact this method of making yogurt saves energy because the yogurt does not need to be heated by electricity while it is being made. When purchasing a flask, it is better to choose one with a wide neck if possible, as it is easier to remove the yogurt from it after it has set. However, yogurt can still be made in an ordinary narrow-necked flask if you loosen the yogurt with a spoon before pouring it out.
The quantities given below will make one litre of yogurt. If this is too much, then adjust the quantities of ingredients used. (For a small flask 1/2 Litre may be sufficient.)
Equipment:
Vacumn flask or yogurt maker
Thermometer (yogurt makers often have a special yogurt making thermometer.)
1 litre of soya milk
2-3 tablespoons of live, natural soya yogurt
Method
- Make sure that everything you use in yogurt making is thoroughly clean.
- Bring 1 litre of soya milk to the boil. Remove the soya milk from the heat and pour it into a large, clean pyrex jug. Allow it to cool down to blood heat (hand warm) by standing the jug in cold water.
- While the milk is cooling down to the correct temperature, switch on the yogurt maker and allow it to warm up, or if using a flask, pour boiling water into it.
- When the milk reaches the correct temperature, add 2 - 3 heaped tablespoons of live, natural, soya yogurt to the warm milk and stir well to disperse the yogurt starter. I usually use 'Sojasun' which is Vegetarian Society approved and contains live ferments of Bifidobacterium longum and Acidophilus, but any variety of soya yogurt will do as long as it is live.
- Pour the yogurt into the yogurt maker or warmed vacumn flask. The yogurt will take about 6-8 hours to set in a yogurt maker. If you are using a vacumn flask then start your yogurt making at about 4 pm and leave it in the flask overnight. i.e about 16 hrs. The exact time for both methods depends really on how you like your yogurt.
- The finished yogurt will keep in the refrigerator for about five days. Don't forget to save a small amount of it to start off your next batch of yogurt with. (If you want to keep some starter yogurt while you go away on holiday then freeze a few tablespoons and defrost before use.)
- Flavourings and sweeteners can be added to the yogurt just before eating if required. e.g chopped fruit.
Strawberry Yogurt
Take 2 pots of yogurt and place them in a blender with half a small punnet of cleaned and chopped strawberries. Blend until smooth.
How to Make Your Own Soya Cheese
Home-made soya yogurt can also be converted quite easily into cheese. Take a pot of fresh yogurt and, after it has cooled, pour the yogurt into a piece of muslin. Tie the muslin with cotton and hang the muslin bag over a container to catch the drips. (You could for example tie the cotton onto a pencil/ruler which has been suspended over the top of a bowl or jar.) Leave the yogurt to drain overnight in the fridge and when it is fairly solid, remove the muslin bag and pat the 'cheese' into a round shape and roll it in mixed herbs. You could also experiment by adding other flavourings such as chopped chives, onion, garlic etc.
Readers' Contributions
This is your space, so if anyone would like to send in a contribution! A favourite recipe, short article, or some information that would be useful to other vegans perhaps?The following contribution has been sent in by I-A
This is in response to a request in this forum about how some of us handle 'Why are you vegan?' I like to keep things simple, without a lot of explanation (that can be misconstrued as defensive, offensive, preachy, holier-than-thou, faddish, new age nutty, mad-female disease etc.)
I just say 'I have no choice'. And in fact, that is the truth. I refuse to elaborate unless the person is honestly curious. I'll say, 'I lost my taste for meat and dairy'. If asked to explain, I say 'It happened after I went on a cleanse'. Then some say 'Why don't you see a doctor' to which I reply 'The doctors I see applaud my dietary change'. Some say, 'why don't you try some meat occasionally - your taste will come back.' To which I reply: 'I don't ever want it to'.
My story is that all my life I knew all the reasons to be vegan. But I really had no guidemap to get there. I had a lifetime's worth of eating and social habits which intertwine with work, and no time to play games with my nutrition, protein intake etc. I felt it would be like switching airplanes at 30,000 feet. I also didn't really believe that premium 'thinking protein' could come from non-animal sources. Right after a cleanse I did, my body took charge and refused to let me go back to any meat or dairy. They smelled poisonous, vile, rank, and nauseating. I didn't know of the word 'vegan' - when someone asked me what kind of vegetarian I was, and I said what do you mean, and he said 'vegan' I thought he was referring to some alien cult diet from Vega.
I starved while I re-learned how to eat. I learned a lot about myself. For the first time in my adult life, I'm cooking regularly. I do think more clearly. I do feel calmer and lighter. I did make terrible nutritional mistakes along the way. I feel re-born in some way because I'm now out of the insanity. This way of becoming vegan is more like being thrown out of a plane at 30,000 feet, rather shocking, but one does flourish eventually.
What is miso? Miso is a savoury paste, made from soya beans which have been fermented using traditional methods. In Japan, a wide range of products are created by mixing the spores of the fungus Aspergillus oryzae with cooked soya beans and/or grains. A substance called 'Koji' is formed, which is then fermented a second time in order to create miso (and other condiments such as shoyu and tamari sauce).
May Product Review
There are many different varieties of miso available, which vary in both taste and colour according to what they are made from and the proportion of salt and sugar used. Hatcho Miso is the strongest tasting miso and takes 18-24 months to ferment. Milder tasting varieties of miso include: Mugi Miso which is made from Barley, Genmai Miso which is made using brown rice and Shiro Miso made from sweet rice. Miso can contain quite a lot of salt but it is rich in vitamins and minerals and has many uses. Add it to soups, sauces, dips, dressings, spreads, casseroles, or rice and vegetable dishes. I even use it to make a pizza topping! (See Leah Leneman's quick pizza recipe on p.46 in 365 plus one Vegan Recipes, or try her miso soup on p.19.) Miso is frequently used in Japanese vegetarian cookery.
Sanchi produce a range of miso products including: Hatcho, Mugi, Genmai and Shiro Miso. These are available from most health food shops.
Recycling Tips
Before you throw anything away think! Can it be reused? Here are some suggestions:
Polystyrene Take-Away Cups and Yogurt Pots
- If you are keen to try growing some of your own food or other plants, then both yogurt pots and polystyrene cups make excellent plant pots for potting up seedlings. (Polystyrene cups are also good for germinating seeds in.) Polystyrene is environmentally damaging so avoid take-away food and drinks whenever possible. Be well organised and take a supply of vegan eats and a flask or bottle of drink with you when you travel away from home. Avoid making unnecessary litter! If you have a take-away coffee shop near you, you may be able to obtain some used cups from them, or non-vegan friends may be willing to keep their yogurt pots for you. Wash them out. They can both be re-used for many years.
- Water A precious resource - don't waste it! Every time you wash vegetables, salad, or fruit, save the water. Save all your uncontaminated water and by the end of the day you will probably have 1-2 buckets full! Use it to water the plants in the garden or green house. Water left over from rinsing dishes, cars or windows may also be suitable if fairly clean and uncontaminated. So the next time you are about to pour it away -
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?
Sowing and Planting
Although May is usually warm, there is still a good chance of frost. So, I usually start off my runner beans indoors towards the middle or the end of the month. If you remember, I suggested earlier that you kept your cardboard toilet roll tubes for this purpose. Cut each toilet roll in half across the width, stand the tubes in a garden tray and fill each one with potting compost. Plant one runner bean seed in each tube and stand the tray in a sunny position. When the runner beans are well-grown and the danger of frost has gone, the plants can be put outside. The card board tubes are biodegradable and will rot in the ground. However, it may be better to cut off the tubes with scissors before planting out, as sometimes the birds like to pull the tubes up if they are visible! And, don't forget to errect your bean poles, if you are growing climbing beans! Alternatively, you can put nets on your fences for the runner beans to climb up, but if you decide to use nets, make sure that they are at least 6 inches off the ground. This will ensure that hedgehogs do not become entangled in the netting. They can freeze to death if trapped in this way in cold weather. Not a very nice way to reward your slug-eating friends!Sweetcorn can also be started off indoors in a similar way. I usually put sweetcorn plants out at the beginning of May and cover them with cloches made from plastic bottles which have also been cut in half, but if you live in a more northern area of Britain, then the middle or end of May would probably be a more suitable planting time. Sweetcorn needs a sunny, sheltered position in order to grow well. Trailing courgettes, melons or pumpkins will all grow well in the same bed as sweetcorn.
Keep making sowings of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, main crop peas and radishes this month. Ridge cucumber plants can also be sown outside, or alternatively you can plant out indoor grown ones. May is also the month to sow many of the butterfly nectar plants mentioned last month. Make sowings of Honesty, Wallflowers, Sweet William, Alyssum or Aubretia.
Composting
Take a look at your compost heap to see if any of the compost is ready for use. In fact, I usually keep mine until June and put it on the sweetcorn, runner beans and tomatoes when they are established. However, now that the weather is getting hotter, the compost heap material should convert far more rapidly so don't forget to keep adding all your vegetable peelings, tea leaves/coffee grounds and grass cuttings etc. More details on how to make a compost heap are available in the November IssueHow to Attract Wildlife into the Garden
Bird Plants
Birds are a very important way of controlling garden pests and are particularly important to gardeners who want to avoid using pesticides. Thrushes for example will eat snails and can thus prevent much damage to your crops.Unfortunately though, birds also like to eat fruit and can devastate fruit trees and bushes quite quickly, as well as eating up your earthworms! They also eat caterpillars which can be an advantage if you are trying to grow cabbages, but isn't so good if you have just planted special plants in order to encourage caterpillars to breed in your garden!
On balance though, having more birds in the garden is a tremendous asset to the veganic gardener, so if you would like to increase the number of birds visiting your garden, then try planting some of the plants or trees listed in the tables below.
PLANTS TO ATTRACT BIRDS Apple Mint Berberis Bramble Burdock Chickweed Dandelion Evening Primrose Fruit Bushes! Groundsel Hawthorn Hogweed Holly Honeysuckle Ivy Knapweed Michaelmas Daisy Nettles Snapdragon Strawberry Sunflower Teasel Thistle
TREES WHICH ARE ATTRACTIVE TO BIRDS Alder Ash Beech Birch Bird Cherry Oak Pine Rowan Yew As well as providing food plants for the birds, you can also attract birds into your garden by providing good nesting sites for them. Evergreens and thorny plants are both very good for birds to nest in as they offer some protection against cats and other predators. And of course bird baths, bird nesting boxes and bird feeders will also increase the number of birds coming into your garden.
If you want the birds to eat your garden pests, but would also like to grow your own soft fruit and/or fruit trees, then you may have to deter the birds from eating the fruit, if they become too much of a nuisance. One way of doing this is to plant Virburnum, Elderberry, and Wild Cherry which are all much loved by birds and will distract them from your soft fruit! Nets, rattling tin cans, scarecrows and slices of onion hanging from fruit trees, are also suitable deterrents for this purpose as well. Surrounding strawberry beds with Lavender is also supposed to deter birds from taking them.
Any Queries?
Is there a vegan equivalent for parmesan cheese? I am looking for something to sprinkle on top of my pasta.
D M Morris. Bangor. Wales.Florentino make a dairy-free parmesan style seasoning called Vegetarian Parmazano. It is made from soya milk and is suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. It can be used on pasta, baked potatoes, risottos and pizzas. It can be bought in some health food shops and in large supermarkets. Alternatively, Engevita tastes very nice on top of spaghetti sauces etc.
Other Interesting Vegan Websites.
Fruitarian Universal Network
This site has interesting fruitarian recipes including: melon mix, banana soup, fruit salad, blueberry mousse, tomato salad and pineapple and apple ice-cream.
These links were updated in March 2009 and all redundant links were removed.
May Book Review
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
A forest garden is a garden which is modelled on a natural woodland. It is often used to produce food. In this excellent book, Patrick Whitefield explains why we should have a forest garden, how the forest garden system works and the many benefits of this low maintenance form of gardening.
The book contains much useful information on the types of trees, fruit bushes, perennial vegetables and herbs which can be used when designing the three layers in a forest garden. The final plant sizes, expected food yield and the conditions that each plant prefers, are all given in order to help you select the plants which are most likely to grow well in your own garden.
No matter what size your garden is, this book will provide you with all the information you need to create your own mini-forest system. And, if more of us used our gardens in this way, it would help to counteract the never-ending destruction of the world's forests and to alleviate some of the problems that this is causing.