The vegan chef

Get creative with vegan cooking

Credit: Hilary Henegar

Get creative with vegan cooking

For longtime vegans, cooking is often one of the more rewarding aspects of the lifestyle. It’s a chance to be creative, experiment with new ingredients and flavours, and approach food in a different way. Plus, it’s safer than cooking with meat and often much cheaper.

The deeper you get into vegan cooking, the wider your options become. Suddenly, you’ll discover a whole new world of spices, vegetables, protein sources and nationalities of food. Who, for example, would have guessed that East African food is easily made vegan or that flax seeds can be used instead of eggs?

 

Learn more about veganism

RESTAURANTS – So many Vancouver vegan-friendly choices!
GOING VEGAN – The Vancouver way…
THE FACTS – Why go vegan?
BE AWARE – Not all vegan food is sustainable…
VIDEO – Meet Vancouver’s vegan restaurateurs.
RADIO – What are vegans talking about?


And there’s a whole community of foodies out there in Internet land devoted to writing, talking and blogging about vegan cooking. Here, Granville Online offers a porthole to the online vegan cooking community, with sample recipes, recommended links and a wealth of information.

A sample of vegan recipes:

Vegan Chickpea Appetizer
Bhopla Bhaji-Pumpkin Vegetable
Mexican Bean Stew with Chipolte Avocado Cream (from B.C. cookbook author Dreena Burton)
Olive Oregano Wine Baked Tofu (from B.C. cookbook author Dreena Burton)
Vegan Pumpkin Risotto
Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies
Vegan holiday treats: Mini chocolate cupcakes and Oatmeal cookies
 

Vegan recipe blogs/website:

The Post Punk Kitchen – an absolute favourite!
VegWeb.com – an excellent catalogue of vegan recipes
ChooseVeg.com – lots of recipes and easy-to-follow videos
Vegan Lunch Box – culinary experiments of a vegan stay-at-home mom
Vegan Recipes, Resources and Cooking Know-How / Notes From the Vegan Feast Kitchen– two unbelievably thorough vegan cooking resources from cookbook author Bryanna Clark Grogan
 

Top recommended vegan cookbook:

I love the vegan cookbook series by Victoria native Sarah Kramer: How It All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan. Admittedly, I mainly only use the first book—my partner and I have learned most of our tricks from this essential guide to cooking vegan—but the others have lots of good stuff in them, too.

What I like most about the series is that you once you’ve accumulated a set of basic ingredients (flax seeds, non-dairy milk, almonds and red lentils, for example), you can make just about anything in the book. And, boy, are the recipes ever tasty! Most are hearty one-pot meals that are sure to satisfy even the most dedicated of carnivores. I can’t recommend How It All Vegan enough! (psst! This book makes a great gift for vegans and anyone else looking for some inspiration in the kitchen!)
 

Vancouver vegan-friendly restaurants:

Don’t miss our extensive list of vegan-friendly restaurants around Vancouver. These are places I go often because the food is delicious, the staff usually friendly and the experience easy-peasy (which is not always the case when trying to explain why I don’t want chicken in my salad!).