I am also an unabashed Oprah fan and have watched her show religiously for years. Over the past few seasons she has done several shows about food trends and the food industry. She introduced me to Michael Pollan, a journalist and author who advocates eating real food (check out his hilarious recent turn on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me to learn more), and Kathy Freston, an author who promotes veganism.
Little by little, these shows have been impacting my food-shopping and eating behaviors. Some of the changes I have made over the past year include seeking out farmers' markets and buying locally-grown produce. I switched to organic milk and now buy eggs from cage-free, vegetarian-fed chickens. I stopped buying many of the pre-packaged and convenience food items that used to line my shelves, opting to cook from scratch as much as possible. And I read labels now, choosing foods without chemical additives whenever possible, even if they cost a little more.
Recently both Pollan and Freston were on Oprah, talking about changing the way we eat. The approach they both recommend is that we begin by becoming aware of what we are eating, where it comes from, how it is grown, handled, and manufactured. Then "lean into change," meaning we adopt healthier eating habits a little bit at a time. I decided to try eating one vegan meal a day this week. This is much less of a sacrifice than it sounds since I eat a lot of Korean food prepared by my vegetarian mother. I also eat a lot of food from other countries (Mexican, Japanese, Italian, etc) that either are normally not made with animal products or can be tweaked to leave them out and still produce delicious results.
There are just a couple of problems with cooking vegan, namely my son and The Geek. If I'm an unabashed carnivore, then they are both AVOWED meat-eaters. When I told my son about this idea he asked (and quite mournfully, I might add), "What will I eat my cereal with? What will I put in my sandwiches?" The Geek, who is much more pragmatic about these things, joked "It's been nice knowing ya!"
So the challenge is to create vegan meals in which avowed carnivores won't miss the meat. Hmmmm...
The Solution is Savory
I received a pasta maker for Christmas and I was eager to try it out so I decided that my first vegan meal would be homemade udon. I've blogged about this dish before so I won't go into too much detail. I used the Memmi soup base again but, since I was eating with The Geek, I added mushrooms to add depth of flavor (referred to as umami) that you would get from a meat-based stock.
I also stir-fried some spinach with carmelized onions and bacon salt (a completely vegan seasoning).
Busy Mom Modifications and Tips
- I used Andrea Nguyen's udon recipe. It is super easy to do if you have a food processor.
- To minimize the mess, I knead my dough in a large glass bowl instead of on a floured surface.
- I made the udon over two days. I mixed and kneaded the dough the first day and then rolled and cut the noodles using the pasta maker the second day. When done this way, it is certainly do-able for a weeknight meal.
- Even though I refer to these noodles as udon, technically they are not. Unfortunately the pasta maker made the noodles too flat to be udon, which is typically thick and round. I'm not familiar with all the different types of Asian noodles and their proper names but in Korean we call this kind of noodle kalgoogsoo. In the future I will use the pasta maker to roll the dough to the desired thickness but then cut and pull the noodles by hand to achieve the udon shape and texture.
- I think a soup base made just with Memmi broth tastes just fine but it definitely benefits from the addition of vegetables such as mushrooms, onions, and root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes.
The Results
The Geek LOVED the meal and was quite content when we were done eating. He said that he did not miss the meat at all due to the fact that the meal was so savory.
Ratings
- Difficulty: Easy
- Time to prepare: 20 minutes to make the dough, 30 minutes to cut (using the pasta maker) and cook
- Prognosis: Will definitely make both these dishes again
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