Nutrition Blog 2: Plant Based Diets

A plant based diet, also known as vegan, is a diet or lifestyle that does not use animal products. In these diets they focus on whole foods such as, vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts. Since people following these diets don't eat animal products, they do not consume dairy, gelatin, eggs, honey or any meat or fish. Like any other diet there are right and wrong ways to do these diets, highly processed vegan “meat” is not much better for you than real processed meats. But there are of course plenty of delicious, healthy plant based whole foods.

One of the main benefits from a vegan diet is that only animal based products contain cholesterol, so by removing these from the diet it eliminates cholesterol intake. This can help with weight loss and can help reduce risk for heart disease and diabetes. Another benefit is that if following properly you can get much more nutrients from these raw whole foods than you would from animal products. A vegan diet can also reduce risk of some cancers because of the increase of fruits and vegetables consumed. As well as the health benefits, there are so many environmental benefits from going vegan. Some people say it single handedly is the best thing you can do for the environment. The amount of carbon that is being emitted from mass animal farms is heavily polluting the earth. It is also very sustainable to be vegan and saves on mass amounts of water used for animal farming. To make these animal products, a lot of energy is needed and wasted. As well as eating plant based is much more ethical for the fact of eating animals alone.

In my future I definitely will contribute to incorporating more plant based food in menus. The future is vegan and sooner than later we will all need to make the switch to save the earth. I think that even one plant based meal can change anyone's opinion on the idea. As a cook, we need to show people that eating plant based is delicious and it needs to be incorporated in everyone's diet. The earth needs our help and it can be as easy as starting to add one plant based meal a week. I think that cooks have the power of changing people's minds about food and it is so important to push this for our future.

Cashew Cream Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

125g raw unsalted cashews (soaked)

5g nutritional yeast

2g dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic

2g onion powder

150g uncooked pasta

150ml oat milk (or other plant based milk)

1 green onion for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Boil pasta in salted water. To a blender add soaked cashews (soaked in warm water for 1-2 hours), mustard, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. Add oat milk as needed, some plant based milks can change the flavour so add in small amounts to adjust consistency. Blend until very smooth.

Next, pour the cashew sauce through a sieve into a pot and simmer for 5 minutes. Add pasta and save water. Add pasta water one spoonful at a time, mixing, until desired consistency is reached.

Garish with chopped green onions and some more nutritional yeast!

Reflection:

This is a recipe I make quite often so the ingredients were very accessible to me. I have definitely learned something new every-time I make this, whether it is to strain the sauce, soak the cashews, or adding vegetables. I really like to add things like carrots and potatoes into the sauce to make it more filling and nutrient dense. This recipe is super delicious and so easy to make! I like this recipe because it still gives a creamy and rich flavour without the dairy.