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Get It Ripe: A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking and Living PDF

288 Pages·2008·97.8 MB·English
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Praise for get it ripe jae offers practical advice and truly delicious recipes in her friendly, never-judgmental voice. This book is a breath of fresh, yummy air. — Jessica Porter, author of The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics Get It Ripe is awesome! Here is a book that tells us how eating luscious foods will make us healthy. jae pays homage to Eastern traditional understandings of the body and the most recent fndings of Western nutritional science. Her enthusiasm for healthy eating is contagious. With her simple-to-follow and uncomplicated recipes, she creates dishes that will tempt vegans and omnivores alike. In this book, packed full of culinary tips for beginners and seasoned chefs, jae has gone well beyond the basics of vegan eating, affrming that we vegans never have to compromise on taste. — Ruth Tal, owner of Fresh restaurants (Toronto) and author of Juice for Life, Fresh at Home, and reFresh get it ripe A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking & Living jae steele get it ripe A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking & Living jae steele GET IT RIPE Copyright © 2008 by jae steele 2nd printing: 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical – without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a license from Access Copyright. ARSENAL PULP PRESS 200 – 341 Water Street Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 1B8 arsenalpulp.com The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and the Government of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program for its publishing activities. The author and publisher assert that the information contained in this book is true and complete to the best of their knowledge, however it is intended as a reference volume only, and not as a medical manual. The information provided here is designed to help you make informed decisions about your health. It is not intended as a substitute for any treatment that has been prescribed by your doctor. If you have concerns regarding your health, we urge you to seek competent medical help. Text and design by Electra Design Group Cover photography by Kristin Sjaarda Food photography by Roderick Chen Food styling by Alison Lush Illustrations by David Powell and Ann Powell Author photograph by Michelle Clarke Editing by Bethanne Grabham Printed and bound in China Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication: Steele, Jae, 1980- Get it ripe : a fresh take on vegan cooking and living / Jae Steele. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-55152-234-0 1. Vegan cookery. 2. Cookery (Natural foods) 3. Veganism. I. Title. TX837.S84 2008 641.5’636 C2008-901630-0 table of contentS 7 Acknowledgments part 4: diSh it oUt 104 eleven: Drink Up 9 Preface 112 twelve: Breakfasts 12 GF, SF, NF & R: What the Symbols Mean 124 thirteen: Muffns, Quick Breads & Biscuits part 1: informed eating 137 fourteen: Dips & Spreads 13 one: The Way We Eat: Food Choices 145 fifteen: Salads & Dressings 22 two: Eat Ripe: A Manifesto for a Vegan 155 Sixteen: Sauces, Gravies & Marinades Whole Foods Diet 163 Seventeen: Soups 37 t hree: Break It Down: The Ins & Outs of 179 e ighteen: Main Dish Bowls & Additional Digestion Entrées 54 four: When a Peach Ain’t Just a Peach: 201 nineteen: Cakes, Pies & Crumbles Organic, Local & Other Food Quality Considerations 222 twenty: Cookies, Puddings & Other Sweet Treats part 2: Stocking Up 63 five: Your Pantry: Essential Ingredients part 5: fUrther healing 247 twenty-one: Cleansing 70 S ix: Where to Shop: Navigating Food & Detoxifcation Co-ops, Farmers’ Markets & Your Local Grocery Store 253 Appendix 76 S even: Your Tools: Essential Kitchen Equipment 253 Mouth-Watering Menu Ideas 256 Resource List part 3: the SkillS 258 Index 84 eight: Getting Started: Reading Recipes, Measuring, Prepping Methods 88 nine: Preparing Vegetables, Grains & Legumes: Cooking & Sprouting Methods 97 ten: Making Great Baked Goods To all the fne folks in whose kitchens I have cooked. acknowledgmentS i have been blessed with an impressively Steele. I really appreciate your encourage- generous and skilled cheerleading squad. ment. Thank you for pouring roast beef Meet the team I’d like to thank: gravy on the Spelt Sunfower Bread I bring to Team Captain: my mum, Nancy Steele, the Sunday night dinners. And my little brothers, wonder woman wearing a dozen hats. I’m not James and Charlie – enough with the teasing To all the fne folks in whose kitchens I have cooked. sure I will ever be able to truly thank you for already! Maybe now you believe my food your limitless support. choices don’t make me nuts? Assistant Captain: Elise Moser, my secret Ann Powell, skilled illustrator and warm agent. What a blessing that you should have supporter. myriad skills that you were willing to offer Sharon and Harry Weisbaum. I am so to help get me through this process with a blessed to have you two for all that you bring greater amount of ease. You’ve truly been the to my life. midwife in this adventure. Cheendana, who planted the seeds that helped to shift the way I looked at food and The Squad: the natural world. Ryan Johnston. You always want the best Michael Armstrong. You generously give for me and give me so much. I am such a big support, and supply me with great organic fan of yours, and am so grateful for everything (and often local) produce. we share. Michelle Clarke, who always licks the batter David Powell, who makes amazing meals out of the bowl. that for years I was too picky to appreciate. Daphne Gordon. You have been so gen- And who provided most of the illustrations erous with your time and space and thoughts. that line these pages. Kristin Sjaarda and Roderick Chen – who Alison Lush, food-stylist extraordinaire. made sessions with cameras such fun! Thank you for your reliable support in so many Caroline Dupont, one of my greatest areas, and for believing in this project since health inspirations! I’ve got some deep appre- my very frst zine. ciation for what you put out into the world and Andrew Fair, my favorite cooking the time you’ve given me personally. companion. You are wonderfully generous. Maya Guruswami, who has offered a wealth My dad and step-mum, Gerald and Alison of knowledge and enthusiastic support. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • 7 My chosen family, The high-quality ingredients without breaking Big Cedar Crew: es- the bank! Enthusiastic, belly-warming thanks! pecially Tim, Karla and Thanks also to La Maison d’Orphée (maisonor Heather Holland, and phee.com) and MaraNatha (maranathanut Derek Pinto. You nourish me, and I am butters.com) for your support. I’m so glad blessed to have lived and grown your food products are becoming increasingly with you all. available. Ann-Marie MacDonald and The people who run the organic farms Alisa Palmer, as well as Isabel and where I’ve gotten dirty: La Récolte d’Osiris, Lora, who have one of my favorite Osho Gardens, Stein Mountain Farm, Stowel kitchens, where many a recipe Lake Farm, the Miller Family Farm, Alpha in this book was created! And Farm, and the Sun Run Centre. thank you for your enthusiastic My recipe testers, many of whom I’ve never taste-testing. met, and especially Alisa Marrs Fleming who Susan Baker, who has offered help with was so enthusiastically committed right down enthusiasm. to the wire! Howie Shia and Marco Crawley. I’m so glad All the dedicated readers of my blog, I have you two to ask about the kind of techy Domestic Affair – especially those of you who things I’d rather know nothing about. offer encouragement and feedback in the Anna Lee-Popham, Adrienne Connelly, comments! Rebecca Singer, Eric Arner, Emily Bitting, And fnally, to the fne folks at Arsenal Melina Claire, Bryn Rawlyk, Daniel Mongraw, Pulp Press – to Brian, Shyla, and especially Dan Olsen, Cathy Bouchard, Lindsay Shapiro, Bethanne – a sweeter editor I couldn’t ask for. and Gayla Trail. Thank you all for the skills, I’m so thrilled that you’ve introduced me to recipes, and/or encouragement you brought this exciting world beyond zine making! to the table. Bob Walberg and Omega Nutrition (omeganutrition.com), Eden Foods (eden foods.com) and Cocoa Camino (cocoacamino .com), who made very generous donations that allowed me to test these recipes with 8 • GET IT RIPE preface The book you hold here in your hot li’l hands devouring cookbooks like trashy romance is the product of almost a decade of self-edu- novels or studying holistic nutrition – the cation, formal education, work-exchanges on more I wanted to share what I was learning organic farms, family dinners with meat-eaters with others. I had been making zines – cut ’n’ and wheat-eaters, and a whole lot of time in paste-style magazines – since high school and the kitchen – my kitchen, my parents’ kitchen, at frst this seemed to be the perfect way to kitchens I shared in co-op houses, my friends’ share what I was learning. It all started with a kitchens, my friends’ parents’ kitchens, a cookzine I called Vegan Freegan, then I pub- vegan restaurant kitchen, and a vegan bakery. lished four issues of Ripe, then Root came In high school I quit eating meat, but I ad- along, and one simply titled Cookie Zine. I’ve mired the commitment of my peers who were made it my mission to make food that is sat- full-on vegans, bestowing them with a kind isfying for everyone, steering clear of bland, of rock-star status. It got personal a couple overcooked dishes or those with unappetizing of years later, though, when I fell in love with favor combinations that vegan cuisine can be someone who was vegan. He was charming, in its least-inspired state. My most enthusi- and passionate about wanting nothing to astic project has been to create vegan baked do with the consumption of animals – in the goods that don’t taste stereotypically vegan. food he was eating or the belt that held up his You know what I’m talking about – muffns pants. I wish I could boast that my conversion that look like hockey pucks, or cake that isn’t to more ethical eating habits had been based decadent enough for you to crave a second on political action, but in truth, that came slice. And I want to make this kind of informa- later. The boy soon left to work for an animal tion available to the folks who wholeheartedly rescue organization in California, but the veg- embrace all things DIY (do it yourself) – as in anism stuck, and it changed my life. Truth be cooking with fresh whole food, from scratch, told, when I started writing and collecting the in your own kitchen – in a personal context information that came to be this book, I was that is more accessible than what is found in writing it for me. After a twenty-year love affair glossy food magazines. with dairy, I was doing my darndest to learn Writing cookzines led to creating a food- how to be vegan, and do it well. based blog called Domestic Affair (domestic The more I got into food – whether it was affair.ca). Online, my recipes are immediately PREFACE • 9 available for scores of people to see. I swoon better than taking a supplement. We need when I think of the thousands of cookzines to know how to pronounce it (keen-wah) so and blog print-offs in kitchens around the we can ask for it in our local grocery or health world, pages spattered with squash soup or food stores. And then we need to know what globs of peanut sauce. And it never ceases to do with it so that it doesn’t just sit there to thrill me that something I tried out in my in the pantry gathering dust or is prepared kitchen one afternoon has been recreated in a less than delicious way that leaves us by someone I don’t even know for a road uninspired to try it again. If we don’t consider trip picnic or their kid’s birthday party, all the nutritional factors of foods, we’re not by way of a zine or blog. For me, this excite- allowing foods to nourish us the way they ment is rooted in a sense of connectedness. were meant to, and we’re certainly not getting Community action and grassroots efforts are the full spectrum of nutrients we need. If we important to me. I worry that we shell out tons want to “get it ripe,” we need all the informa- of cash to faceless big businesses that churn tion to help us make the best choices for our out additive-packed meals, and then raise our body, mind, and spirit. eyebrows at organic broccoli selling for three You can spark up a conversation about dollars a head of broccoli at our local food food with almost anyone. (My knowledge and co-op. By creating my cookzines, I hoped to opinions have served me well in many social encourage a food-positive movement that situations, helping to avoid awkward silences.) supports DIY cooking with whole foods in- Food – what with all the media buzz around stead of insta-meals from a box: food that considerations like organics, local foods, anti- really nourishes us, that we can build commu- oxidants, and omega-3s – is a hot topic these nity around. days, but it’s also very personal for people. Now, with a couple hundred recipes in Dishes reminiscent of our childhoods are print, my handmade cookzines have become comforting for us. We celebrate with food all the building blocks for a full-fedged cook- the time. We go out to eat, be it at a fancy book. I’ve taken the recipes that I’ve devel- restaurant or an inexpensive hole-in-the-wall, oped over the years, picked my favorites, to experience exciting tastes, textures, and seasoned them with more nutritional informa- colors that differ from the day-to-day fare we tion, and now offer them to you in a palatable, have at home. But in this age of information perfect-bound cookbook. and choice, we also have to consider where As a holistic nutritionist, I of course believe we should get our food (the farmers’ market that how we eat has a strong impact on how or the big box grocery chains?), and who we’re we feel and how our bodies function. Working supporting (local farmers or proft-driven with clients, I have found that when people agribusiness?). need more calcium in their diets, a sugges- “Oh, I don’t like vegan food,” my yoga tion like “Eat quinoa” is not helpful enough. teacher said to me one summer evening as we We need to know why eating whole foods is were leaving class. 10 • GET IT RIPE

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.