The VeganAbler

03/10/2025

Grace Jerk Sauce is . I couldn't decide whether to use it with , , or , so I did all three.

Soaked the TVP chunks for half an hour, squeezed out the water, and then mixed the sauce into it with tofu cubes (rectangles, actually 🤓) and chopped mushrooms.

(You know how it took a long time to marinate animal flesh? Tofu, mushrooms and TVP suck it up in SECONDS!)

Fried red onions, then added the mix. I chopped up some sun-dried tomatoes and threw in the spinach that had become too wilted for a salad, and some chopped cilantro. (Doh! I have celery...that would have worked well.)

Scooped out some to cool. Put a tortilla on top of the pan until it was warmed through, then plated with jerk veggie meat and a bit more chopped cilantro (cuz I ain't got that soapy gene...😋).

Partially this was a test to see whether the jerk worked better with the TVP, tofu, or mushrooms, but the end result had a different lesson -- the variation of texture works well. (If you think about it, using chunks of unfortunate animals, or grinding them up, you get one texture. 🤨 ) If I did it again I think I would sauté the mushrooms with the onions instead of marinating them, and add celery for an even more varied medley.

Lots left for future meals -- may put it on rice or pasta.

To keep from springing the , I didn't add salt (the sun-dried tomatoes and sauce were salty enough). Make it healthier by water-frying the onions. Wrap it in a lettuce leaf instead of a tortilla. Trying to impress an omnivore? Add some coconut oil for that saturated fat mouthfeel, but remind them that this meal has zero cholesterol.

01/09/2025

MILESTONE BIRTHDAY WISHES

On January 9th I enter a new decade of my life. It is also the day, 11 years ago, that I stopped eating animals. For my birthday this year I've decided to forgo gifts and instead focus on raising funds for Go Dharmic, a cause near and dear to my heart. I believe that supporting their mission is the best way to celebrate and share the joy I've experienced through my work with them.

My journey with Go Dharmic started almost one year ago. when I was presented with the incredible honour of joining the organization to head up their US operations.

Working for Go Dharmic has been an incredibly rewarding experience, having the opportunity every day to carry out our mission to Love All Feed All Serve All. Witnessing the direct impact of our work on the lives of others has been deeply moving. Whether its feeding nourishing vegan meals to those suffering from food insecurity, to planting mangrove trees to fight climate change and protect the environment from biodiversity loss , every contribution, no matter the size, will help them continue their vital work and make a lasting difference in the lives of those in need.

This work has taught me invaluable lessons about compassion, empathy, and the power of collective action. It has instilled in me a deep sense of purpose and a desire to contribute to a better world. I believe that everyone has the capacity to make a positive impact, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this meaningful work.

I invite you to join me in supporting Go Dharmic. Together, we can create a brighter future for ALL beings on this planet.

10/16/2024

Yuval Noah Harari has his thumb on the pulse on everything The VeganAbler Collective is about -- understanding instinctual eating, shaping our youth to global awareness, the power of stories shaped by communities, collective wisdom (and stupidity?!), future trends and crises, and owning and leveraging humanity's "superpower" through precarious modern transformations.

The VeganAbler Collective is for anyone who already is changing the world through food, or wants to. Let's build a meaningful community that prepares for the imminent tidal wave of veganism! 🌊🌱

Are we in the midst of World War III? What's the role of fiction in human evolution? Why do we tend to overconsume food?Big or small, every detail in our beh...

10/13/2024

The The New York Times said it back in 2019 -- if you won't be vegan, "at least respect their efforts to build a sustainable future."

Where is your head at in 2024?

This was inspired by Sailesh Rao's most recent blog which mentioned this NYT article while reacting to the WWF (the one without Hulk Hogan) making the right conclusion in their recent report about agricultural impacts but making the erroneous judgement that every country should be like India...who export their bovine flesh and chain their identity to a perpetually growing dairy industry.

https://climatehealers.org/blog/a-plea-for-courage-at-the-world-wildlife-fund/

Vegans are to food emissions as cyclists are to fossil fuels. If you can't/won't curb the harms of your consumption at least provide the maturity to acknowledge those who do and resist schoolyard bully instincts to diminish them.

10/08/2024

Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese

The irony is not lost on us that we have praised Murielle Banackissa’s commitment to the movement which emphasizes that our food deserves our time and attention…and then we devoted a few hours poring over her to determine which would require the least shopping, prep, and cooking time. Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese was a winner, as it promised 15 minutes from start to finish and all ingredients on hand.

Even more startling was that it called for pre-cooked sweet potato, and included a note that one could give the hapless root vegetable 🥔🔪a dozen stab wounds with a fork and nuke ☢️ it for five minutes in a microwave!

Our bemusement aside, this recipe served the purpose of a last-minute meal on a day where the household was passive-aggressively challenging someone else to step up to make dinner.

It was a savory hit, especially surprising since two of the diners professed to dislike sweet potato. Sriracha was on hand for those who wanted a spicier bite, and we can imagine future variations of this which load on paprika or chili powder.

The natural comparison was made to our house recipe for vegan mac and cheese sauce, derived from the website veggieonapenny.com, which relies on ¼ cup of olive oil for a much richer mouthfeel (and less healthy result 😏). When the recipe said to adjust salt and nutritional yeast to taste, we doubled their quantities.😳 Still, there was an appreciation for the intended flavors (much heavier on the garlic than ours) that makes this a good recipe for on-the-fly management of the (fat/sugar/salt) to either eat healthier or increase the appeal.

will be at the International Vegan Film Festival where the cook book competition winners will be announced -- will you?

10/06/2024

As we mentioned before, in judging the International Vegan Film Festival's cook book contest we haven't served the book Fermenter: Dry Fermentation for Vegan Fare justice as we have resisted indoctrination into the "fermenter culture" (pun not intended, but anticipated) wherein we would source the nifty spores and specialized gear...but a sit down with this book tempts one to adopt that identity. We are sheepish 🐑to admit that we selected Chef Aaron Adams' simpler and time-sensitive recipes to try out (though we did read about koji beets and growing one's own tempeh burgers with fascination!).

For those who have worked in a kitchen, "Hot behind!" is what one says when moving a pot or pan from the stove on a path behind someone else (if carrying knives or edged tools the call is "Sharp behind!"). Aaron confesses that he can't resist responding "Thanks!" as if "hot behind" were a compliment rather than a warning. The double meaning becomes a triple meaning now that his hot sauce recipe bears the same name.

Andrew's garden didn't have enough habañeros to raid, so we went looking for cayenne peppers in the grocery store (Ethan's preferred pepper sauce), but discovered that fresh cayenne are typically rare in Toronto grocery stores. We found red Thai peppers which look similar, if somewhat shorter - and therefore less heat, right?😏 (Wrong - after we were already committed we discovered the upper end of cayenne peppers is about 50,000 scoville rating, whereas Thai peppers are 100,000, or 11 times the heat of a jalapeño.)

Fermenter guides one through the various tools, terms, and techniques of a fermenter, including followers (we used plastic wrap) and weights (we put $4 worth of 50¢ pieces into a container and put that in a zip-lock baggie on top of the plastic wrap). Covered with a breathable cloth we fermented the peppers in brine and two cloves of garlic for two weeks.

Blending it up (with its own brine, some vinegar, and thickened with 1/4 tsp Xanthan gum) we found a few victims to taste test. Perhaps it would be worth a sidebar for this recipe to share techniques of dampening the heat when the capsaicin blows your cap off. Adding 4 Tbsp each of water, vinegar, lime juice and agave syrup we filled the first bottle at nearly full strength and then diluted the hot sauce with a LOT of capers and their vinegar (we have an inadvisably enormous giant jar of them from COSTCO). After blending more xandthan gum into what might be called hot caper sauce we filled another bottle labeled "medium" and continued to dilute the rest with mayonnaise and sauerkraut juice left over from our first batch of Ruby Kraut (our next recipe from Fermenter...stay tuned!).

The cook book competition winners will be announced at the International Vegan Film Festival on November 16 in Toronto. will be there!

10/04/2024

Billie Eilish pinned her favorite restaurants and shared it with her fans as a suggestion of or places where they can dine before or after concerts in their city. As for a , Tenon Veggie is in our top three (two? one?!)

We haven't been to Hawker Restaurant -- would love to hear from someone who has!

153 places - http://BillieEilish.lnk.to/google-tour Adopting a plant-based diet is one of the most impactful ways you can help heal our planet. Here are some great local plant-based options when you come to my shows. - Billie