Go Vegan for Vegan Month!

November 2nd, 2010

November marks the start of Vegan Month 2010! It’s a chance for all the vegans out there to prove to their meat-eating, cheese-loving, butter-spreading friends that there are many ways to enjoy delicious food without being cruel to our bodies, animals, or the environment—and if you’ve ever been curious, it’s the best time to get yourself started on a vegan diet!

The easiest way to ease yourself into eating vegan is to get your hands on some tasty autumn vegetables!  Try adding squash, dark leafy greens, cauliflower, broccoli, or sweet potatoes to your daily diet.  Add fruits like apples, pears, cherries, cranberries, figs, and dates for a meal that will fill you up with hearty fall flavor—without a hint of meat or dairy!

For a main dish, try this recipe for Butternut Squash Pie It has egg and Parmesan cheese, but those are easily replaceable—for eggs, you can try silken tofu, bananas, or even applesauce!  For the Parmesan, you can try out this substitute, made from organic walnuts and sea salt.  To make it a true vegan masterpiece, try adding some herbs and garlic for that perfect flavor ‘kick’.

If you can’t live without your sugar fix, it’s easy to vegan-ize some of your favorite classic fall deserts like apple pie and pumpkin pie just by switching out some of the ingredients (see above for eggs!).  So long as you keep the signature fall spices like cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, your non-vegan friends won’t know the difference!  This Easy Vegan Pumpkin Pie recipe is a great starter recipe for the amateur vegan cook.  (The recipe for those mouthwatering cupcakes at the top of this post?  You can find it here.)

Veganism is not for everyone, so we’re not telling you to drop all eggs and milk immediately.  But adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet supplies you with nutrients like vitamin A, calcium, iron, and fiber—without the extra fats and empty calories you get from meat and dairy. Also, eating vegan is not only healthy for your body, but healthy for the environment too—since you’re not eating as many animal products, you’re not contributing to animal cruelty!

Experiment with old recipes and make them new, or look for something completely unusual.  Taking the small steps to add vegan dishes into your diet goes a long way to protecting your health and our planet.

What are some of your favorite Vegan dishes?  Leave a comment below!

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(Writer:  Renee Estey.  Editor:  Jessica Smith.  Pictures courtesy Whole Foods Market and Vegtimes.)