Help-Want to be WFPB vegan
- Thread starter gjclayton
- Start date
anarchycuisine
Newcomer
Hi there! This is my first post as well : )
I understand you 100%! I took the course by the Center for Nutrition Studies and got really excited about WFPB food but neither YouTubers nor doctors nor any cookbook could satisfy me. I just started creating recipes on my own and ended up actually putting a lot of time into it. I went to learn in some of the best vegan restaurants in Berlin (and supposedly the world). They are not WFPB but I thought it'd inspire me and it did! I've been full-time exploring whole plant-based foods for 2 years now and the reason why I commit to it so much is that it does need time and dedication by a lot of people for a food culture to transform.
The foods we are used to from a conventional vegan diet and non-vegan diet all have a certain culinary standard that has evolved over time. It is not easy to quickly reinvent the foods that brought you joy with whole plant-based foods. I'm absolutely not saying that a wfpb diet can't match up. I feel strongly that whole plant-based foods appeal to our true nature and don't only have unequaled culinary potential but their charms act more deeply and the satisfaction we can get from them is beyond the quality of any other food I know. I have cooked multiple courses even completely raw vegan for 20+ leaving everyone amazed (and decided to work in non-vegan restaurants because it's just a much higher level) but even now, I still don't feel like I have a personal food culture that I'm completely satisfied with. This is a topic with depth. But every day, I discover something completely new that paves the way for great food in the future that hopefully inspires other home cooks and chefs.
My advice to anyone struggling to enjoy a wfpb diet is to focus on good cookbooks that celebrate whole food rather than wfpb cookbooks or YouTubers. For sure, it's worth checking them out but I haven't found anyone that I'd recommend and who consistently cooks good food. I can recommend Ottolenghi books, especially "Plenty", "Plenty more" and "Simple". "My New Roots", "Vegetable Kingdom", "Zaika", "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, "The Vegetarian Flavor Bible" (not a cookbook) look good to me as well, even though I haven't worked with them that much. Many recipes are vegan (some books are completely vegan) and they just make you understand cooking with whole foods, above all with whole veg, in general. Often, you can just ditch the oil or replace with whole grains and you have a really delicious wfpb recipe right there.
I personally ended up using a little oil in my recipes but always knowing what I use it for (heat agent, flavour intensifier, flavour medium, smoothness, etc) and trying to keep it at a minimum. I have created lots of delicious recipes that don't use oil and it was really interesting and challenging as a cook to do that. But you can certainly face some difficulties because that is pretty new territory.
One main thing to consider when cooking oil-free or low is that you need to find the satisfactory stimulation you can achieve with oil elsewhere. This is something one could write books about but generally, with vegetable dishes you want to focus more on lighter, floral notes. So incorporate occasionally herbs, fresh ginger, fresh or dried fruits etc in the finish (during the end, the more volatile aromas the more heat-sensitive they are)
Good luck!
I understand you 100%! I took the course by the Center for Nutrition Studies and got really excited about WFPB food but neither YouTubers nor doctors nor any cookbook could satisfy me. I just started creating recipes on my own and ended up actually putting a lot of time into it. I went to learn in some of the best vegan restaurants in Berlin (and supposedly the world). They are not WFPB but I thought it'd inspire me and it did! I've been full-time exploring whole plant-based foods for 2 years now and the reason why I commit to it so much is that it does need time and dedication by a lot of people for a food culture to transform.
The foods we are used to from a conventional vegan diet and non-vegan diet all have a certain culinary standard that has evolved over time. It is not easy to quickly reinvent the foods that brought you joy with whole plant-based foods. I'm absolutely not saying that a wfpb diet can't match up. I feel strongly that whole plant-based foods appeal to our true nature and don't only have unequaled culinary potential but their charms act more deeply and the satisfaction we can get from them is beyond the quality of any other food I know. I have cooked multiple courses even completely raw vegan for 20+ leaving everyone amazed (and decided to work in non-vegan restaurants because it's just a much higher level) but even now, I still don't feel like I have a personal food culture that I'm completely satisfied with. This is a topic with depth. But every day, I discover something completely new that paves the way for great food in the future that hopefully inspires other home cooks and chefs.
My advice to anyone struggling to enjoy a wfpb diet is to focus on good cookbooks that celebrate whole food rather than wfpb cookbooks or YouTubers. For sure, it's worth checking them out but I haven't found anyone that I'd recommend and who consistently cooks good food. I can recommend Ottolenghi books, especially "Plenty", "Plenty more" and "Simple". "My New Roots", "Vegetable Kingdom", "Zaika", "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, "The Vegetarian Flavor Bible" (not a cookbook) look good to me as well, even though I haven't worked with them that much. Many recipes are vegan (some books are completely vegan) and they just make you understand cooking with whole foods, above all with whole veg, in general. Often, you can just ditch the oil or replace with whole grains and you have a really delicious wfpb recipe right there.
I personally ended up using a little oil in my recipes but always knowing what I use it for (heat agent, flavour intensifier, flavour medium, smoothness, etc) and trying to keep it at a minimum. I have created lots of delicious recipes that don't use oil and it was really interesting and challenging as a cook to do that. But you can certainly face some difficulties because that is pretty new territory.
One main thing to consider when cooking oil-free or low is that you need to find the satisfactory stimulation you can achieve with oil elsewhere. This is something one could write books about but generally, with vegetable dishes you want to focus more on lighter, floral notes. So incorporate occasionally herbs, fresh ginger, fresh or dried fruits etc in the finish (during the end, the more volatile aromas the more heat-sensitive they are)
Good luck!
