The 30-Minute Vegan - Mark Reinfeld [3]
Our general approach in the kitchen emphasizes minimizing the use of processed and packaged foods. Not only is this much better for your health, the reduction in packaging is good for the planet as well. In our recipes, we often list homemade alternatives to packaged products, such as to canned beans, commercially made vegan mayonnaise, or sour cream. For your comfort and pleasure, we do include some of our favorite processed “transition foods,” such as vegan cream cheese and vegan butter for those just beginning to include more plant-based foods or for special occasions.
Going Green with Vegan Cuisine
A vegetarian diet is one that does not include meat, fish, or poultry. Vegan food contains no animal products or by-products. It’s vegetarian without the dairy or eggs. For this reason, vegan cuisine is often referred to as “plant-based.” The reasons people choose to enjoy vegan foods are many. First and foremost, vegan foods taste incredible, as you will discover when you sample the recipes in this book. People also turn to vegan foods for weight loss and disease prevention. Numerous studies show that many illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, certain forms of cancer, and obesity can be prevented and reversed with appropriate changes in diet and lifestyle.
A plant-based diet also helps protect the environment. Now with more attention than ever on global warming and greenhouse gases, people are realizing that making changes to our diet is the most effective impact we can have on our planet. The environmental footprint of a vegan diet is a fraction of that of a meat-based diet. A recent United Nations report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, shows that 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the livestock industry, more than the entire world’s transportation industry combined!
Vegan foods represent the best utilization of the earth’s limited resources. It takes 16 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef. It’s astonishing that the beef industry continues to flourish when we see so much in the news about food and water shortages and people going to bed hungry. For more information on veganism and organic foods, please see appendix A.
About VeganFusion.com
Vegan Fusion World Cuisine is a style of food preparation that draws upon culinary traditions from around the globe. In our books and classes, we share tips and tricks based on years of experience at our restaurants and feedback from countless customers.
Visit our Web site, VeganFusion.com, to learn about the vegan lifestyle, sign up for our free newsletter, and find out more about our books: Vegan Fusion World Cuisine (the winner of nine national awards, including a Gourmand Award for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in the USA, Best New Cookbook by PETA, and Cookbook of the Year by VegNews) and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw.
How to Use This Book
The recipes in each chapter are more or less listed from “lighter” to “heavier.” Virtually all of the recipes can be completed in less than thirty minutes, including preparation and cooking time. Several recipes do have cooking or baking times that exceed this time frame, but the labor time is under thirty minutes in every case. You’ll find that we’ve also included many exciting variations to the recipes, some of which may also take longer than thirty minutes. These are clearly noted. The clock starts ticking once the ingredients have been gathered and are ready for use. The time doesn’t include searching through the cabinets for tools or ingredients.
Read through the recipe carefully, perhaps even twice. Make sure you have everything you need and gather it before you begin. Also remember that with practice, everything becomes easier. The more you make a recipe, the faster you will become.
Use these recipes as a starting point for