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

288 Pages·2008·97.8 MB·English

by  Jae Steele

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