The Jazzy Vegetarian Interviews The Savvy Vegetarian
Savvy Vegetarian was interviewed by the Jazzy Vegetarian, Laura Theodore, today on Blog Talk Radio, along with cookbook author Robin Robertson. What fun! This post is a close approximation of the transcript.
1) What is a Savvy Vegetarian?
Well informed about vegetarian diet & nutrition, persistent and patient in transitioning to a vegetarian diet, balanced between the real and the ideal, practical, able to laugh about it all – especially at your self! The idea behind Savvy Veg is we provide support so that anybody can easily become a savvy vegetarian, and not have to suffer for the cause.
2) What inspired you to launch the Savvy Vegetarian website?
I had a tough time getting started as a vegetarian, in the late sixties. I had serious malnutrition, and my cooking was a disaster. I persevered because I was too stubborn to do anything else! I gradually figured things out. After a few years we moved to a place where there were many vegetarians, and lots of support. I got used to an easy veggie life, and took it for granted.
In the mid-nineties, we moved to a meat-and-potato town for 6 years. What a shock! It was back to the dark ages! In a city of 100,000 people, the nearest natural food store was 10 miles away. There wasn’t a single vegetarian restaurant. Most people thought that being a vegetarian was strange and unnatural.
But once in a while, someone would hear that I was vegetarian, and ask me to help them go veg. They were desperate! Here were people who really wanted to be vegetarian, living in such a hard core meat eating town, not knowing where to start. I figured there must be a lot more people like that out there.
I was just getting familiar with the web, and I thought I should start a website so I could help people go vegetarian – even though I didn’t have a clue how to go about it. That was in 2001. By 2003 my husband and I had launched the Savvy Vegetarian website. It was a mess – but it evolved.
3) Your website states: Savvy Vegetarian is for everyone, from life-long vegan to just thinking about vegetarian diet. What are a few tips for people just starting to add more vegetarian meals into their diets?
I always say over & over like a broken record - go veg gradually. Same with going a little bit veg. Take it easy.
To start with, stay in your comfort zone. Eat fake meat in your sandwich, have a veggie burger instead of a hamburger. Add tofu, seitan or chickpeas to your stir fry instead of chicken. Have one meatless meal a week, and build up to more. it’ll give you a chance to get acquainted with different foods, and learn how to cook them.
After you get used to all that, start eating more healthy food like fresh veggies and whole grains every day, no matter what else you’re eating. Eat more salads, more fresh fruit. Soon you’ll start liking it, then it’ll get to be a habit, and edge out the not-so-healthy foods.
When you’re ready, start pushing your boundaries. Try new foods, buy cookbooks, experiment. Have fun! There’s so much variety, so many tasty things to eat – vegetarian food is a big adventure!
4) Please share a quick and savvy holiday recipe with us today! (preferably under 7 ingredients)
Here’s a great dairy free whipped cream, Cashew Cream – with 5 ingredients. It was adapted from a recipe on the UK animal protection site Uncaged. It’s rich and delicious - everybody loves it! And easy:
- Take 1 cup of raw cashews, simmer in 2 cups unsweetened apple or pear juice for 5 – 10 minutes, until soft. Then cool for a couple of hours, or overnight in the fridge./li>
- Use a blender to blend the cashews and juice./li>
- Add 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil or sunflower seed oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract and blend until the mixture is smooth and thick./li>
- Gradually add powdered sugar 1 Tbsp at a time until the cashew cream is sweet enough to your taste. Personally I didn’t think it needed any sugar/li>
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the cashew cream into a plastic or glass container with a tight lid./li>
- Seal and store in the fridge – it’ll keep for up to a week.
Listen to the interview with the Jazzy Vegetarian on Blog Talk Radio
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HI - I have been a veggie for some time. I have recently had a nutritional consultation and was told that I am a fast metabolic type and that I should be eating meat, as the veggie diet does not provide the quantity in relation to carbohydrates ie: there is always too high a carb to protein ratio - even in quinoa. Any suggestions as to how to increase the protein levels, as I’d like to remain a veggie? Thanks!