Savvy Vegetarian Saturday Rant: Martha Stewart, Biz Stone, Kathy Freston, Farm Sanctuary, Vegan Diet

Martha Stewart has jumped on the vegan celebrity bandwagon with Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, President Clinton and many others.

Savvy Veg just watched Martha’s Vegan Show ^[1] where she made Seitan Bourgignon and Parsley Leaf Salad with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and energy bars with Veganist author Kathy Freston.

Then Martha talked with Gene Bauer about how Farm Sanctuary rescues and shelters animal victims of factory farming. Lots of views of beautiful happy animals. Yay Farm Sanctuary!

Food is always fascinating, and the recipes were interesting enough that I watched that part of the show twice. A huge sacrifice! Because it was impossible to pause, turn off, or mute the almost non-stop commercials. Very Annoying!

If Martha Stewart wants to go vegan, that’s awesome! But I admit that I have a cynical view of celebrities publicly outing and celebrating their veganism in ever greater numbers. It might motivate lots of people to adopt a vegan diet, but I’m afraid it’s more a Flavor of the Week thing, and next week all the celebrities will be All Beef All of The Time.

Anyway, back to the vegan recipes. Martha & Biz started the Seitan Bourgignon by opening a package of prepared seitan, I assume unflavored, looked like about 12 - 16 oz. That was browned in 2 Tbsp olive oil.

Then they added a couple of carrots sliced, 2 chopped shallots, 15 pearl onions, 3 -4 cloves minced garlic, a bay leaf, and about 1/2 cup chopped parsley, lots of pepper and a little salt, and stirred it around a bit. Then they added what looked like 2 cups of red wine.

After all that simmered covered for a while , they removed everything from the pot, and made a gravy by combining Earth Balance veggie spread and flour, then adding it to the liquid. Then they added back the seitan & veggies and a huge amount of crispy fried shitake mushrooms. Voila! Seitan Bourgignon.

Naturally, I would have done a few things differently with the Seitan Bourgignon recipe. I’d have stir fried the garlic & onions first in a couple tsp (not Tbsp) olive oil, then added the carrots, then the seitan. Seitan doesn’t need to be cooked to death like beef. I wouldn’t have crumbled up the bay leaf - that just makes it a lot harder to remove.

I can see why Biz Stone’s wife throws him out of the kitchen when she’s cooking. Not only does he talk non-stop, but he crumbles up bay leaves! He’s kinda cute though so I forgave him.

I would have used 1 Tbsp olive oil instead of several Tbsp Earth Balance for the gravy, and chick pea flour instead of white wheat flour, and roasted it in the oil before adding to take away the raw taste. I’d have added fewer mushrooms (very strong taste, a little goes a long way), skipped frying them but cooked them with the stew.

I might have used a stalk of celery to replace part of the onion as I’m not big on onion. I’d have put in the parsley at the end to add some fresh green-ness to the recipe. And added the salt and pepper at the end, to taste. There’s sodium in everything, so I always salt at the end of cooking.

See how easy it is to be an armchair cook? Martha & Biz do all the work under hot lights, and I get to relax in front of my computer and second guess & criticize & change everything! Way more fun.

Besides the salad, I’d also serve the Seitan Bourgignon with quinoa or brown rice. Gotta have some whole grain to balance out the nutrition! That’s what’s different about vegan nutrition. It’s not just a mater of replacing the beef or chicken with seitan or tofu or beans in your favorite recipes, as Kathy Freston suggested to Martha Stewart.

Healthy vegan diet means a whole different way of thinking about food and nutrition than with a meat based diet, where the veggies and grains, if eaten at all, are side dishes to the meat, which is considered the Big Nutrition Essential. With a vegan diet, a variety of whole foods eaten throughout the day works together to give you the nutrients you need to be healthy.

Now that I’ve got all that off my chest - nothing like a good rant to get your juices flowing - I must say I was tickled to see Martha using her fingers to clean off the spatula, and picking up a piece of seitan that fell on the counter and throwing it in the pot. If Martha does it, it must be OK for me to do it, so I’ll stop feeling unhygenic and start feeling natural and right about my fingerliness! And you can too! Go Martha!

Watch the Vegan Show with Martha Stewart ^[1]

Happy Vegging! Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

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^[2]All About Quinoa, Gluten Free Vegetarian Quinoa Recipe ^[2]