My Transition to Veganism | Top 3 Vegan Cook Books
Veganism or "plant-based diets" are the hot new thing on the internet and it seems like every new nutritionist on instagram or youtube is on some sort of gluten/lactose/meat/fun free diet and quite honestly, if you had asked me four years ago if I would ever consider giving up one of the above, let alone all animal products, I would have rubbished you and thought you were pulling my leg. But over the past two years, I've been seriously investigating and toying with the idea of not only going vegetarian but going completely vegan. If you've stuck around with this blog long enough, you'll remember the time in 2014 where I discovered Deliciously Ella and from then on, it's been a whirlwind of discovery. However, it wasn't until lately when I genuinely thought, you know what, I'm really going to do this.
I've always had quite an academic upbringing so videos of animals being slaughtered didn't really have much effect on me; I needed stone cold facts and when I really truly watched Cowspiracy, things started to fall into place. Cowspiracy is an independent film which is what really drew my attention. The film maker had nothing to gain, he was merely trying to convey a message. There was no charity he was trying to guilt you into supporting or anything like that, in fact he was crushing many big charities. This spiked my interest. The UN Studies he were quoted, appealed to my inner scientist and it wasn't long before I was watching Forks Over Knives and delved into the hefty China Study. I now had the facts and wasn't really prepared to continue eating meat from such an unsustainable industry. But there was no emotional impact - it was merely scientific. So I watched Earthling which is quite possibly one of the most graphic things I've ever seen in my life. This was the emotional push I needed. I was wholly unprepared to continue compromising my health and the environment for something I liked but didn't need, and I was certainly unwilling to inflict more sufferance than was necessary.
But I wasn't really able to go cold turkey. I didn't want to risk going cold turkey like I'd tried many times only to come crawling back at the sight of bacon. So I went veggie. I already don't really eat much dairy due to a mild intolerance and meat was surprisingly easy to cut out. So I decided to document my journey to veganism. This is part one.
The first thing I then did was investigate recipe books as as much as I try to come up with ideas, so far, my lunch options include falafel or falafel. Obviously there are more ideas out there but I've just had a brain melt.
- Deliciously Ella | Everybody knows about Deliciously Ella. Whilst she is plantbased, she's also very focused on a really healthy & natural way of cooking - focusing on nutritional as well as everything else. And she has loads of cake options. Get in.
- Keep It Vegan | I've not heard anything about this but the recipes are amazing. I've already pin pointed at least eight recipes I want to try. This also won a Peta award so it must be on it!
- Thug Kitchen. Eat Like You Give a F*** | I was sold by the name. There are recipes for everything here and it's really helpful as there are options for food you love. It's almost the complete opposite to Deliciously Ella in the way that it's for food you love, just vegan versions. Also, the graphic design in this book is just, yes. And it's for cooking on a budget, say goodbye to mega expensive Holland&Barrett ingredients and hello to Aldi buys. I'm all in.
(I may or may not have also pre-ordered Niomi Smart's plantbased cook book as well... I'm obsessed.)
What are some of your favourite cookbooks?