Being vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up anything. In fact, you are gaining so much: health, bliss, peace of mind, and a sense that you are helping the whole planet and all its creatures. Being vegan simply means learning new things, like how to make a Caesar salad if you want it, without using anything that comes from an animal. This is possible and I can tell you: any recipe can be veganized! This week, it is my absolute pleasure to share with you a popular favorite: the Caesar Salad, now veganized!
Ingredients:
1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped
1/3 cup vegan mayonnaise
1/3 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon Tamari
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
½ cup croutons (see recipe below)
Garnish by sprinkling vegan bacon bits and vegan parmesan (see recipe below)
Method:
- Place chopped Romaine lettuce in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk mayonnaise, oil, crushed garlic, lemon juice, mustard, nutritional yeast, Tamari and black pepper.
- Pour dressing over lettuce and toss. Add croutons, and sprinkle bacon bits and parmesan over the salad.
Vegan Parmesan
Ingredients:
¼ cup raw cashews
¼ cup nutritional yeast
Method:
1. In a food processor, combine cashews and nutritional yeast. Blend until powdery.
Homemade Croutons
Ingredients:
3 slices of bread, cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon sea salt
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Cut 2 slices of bread (I used whole sprouted grain bread) into cubes.
- Place bread cubes in a large casserole.
- Drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil over bread.
- Sprinkle sea salt and oregano.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until bread is hard and crispy.
Enjoy, in joy and in health!
November 1st was World Vegan Day and the whole month of November is vegan month. It is a time when vegans like me, a mere 1% of the human race, focus and combine our efforts to bring awareness to the plight of our animal brothers and sisters. November is a month of reflection, in some cultures, the “month of the dead”, so let’s look at the logic behind using animals.
There was a time not so long ago, when the slavery of Africans was justified by the argument that they were inferior to the white man and lacked intelligence. It was claimed that slavery was actually necessary for the economy to run, and without it, the whole economy would collapse. The use of children as cheap labour was also justified with similar arguments. Today, hopefully all of us recognize that these arguments are erroneous, illogical and ridiculous.
Similarly, we must acknowledge that the slavery of animals and all the arguments used to justify their misery is equally erroneous, illogical and ridiculous. We now know that animals are highly intelligent, sensitive and have their own desires for freedom. They form families and have emotional bonds just like us. They express love and affection, just like us. They want to live, just like us.
We can live, in fact, we can thrive, on a plant-based diet, so why don’t we all start transitioning into one now? All protein, even the protein in meat, comes from plants, so why not eat plants directly? One of the problems with consuming animals for food is that it is terribly inefficient and unsustainable with our ever-growing population, estimated at 7 billion at the moment, not to mention, unbearably cruel. Farming animals uses way more labour, land, water, and fuel to grow not only the animals, but the crops to feed the animals. Eating animal products actually reduces the amount of food available to the human population. Instead of all this waste and inefficiency, why not just farm and eat the plant crops directly? You can feed 10 times more people with a vegan diet, than with an animal-based diet. With so many of us on this planet, we must use our resources as efficiently as possible.
In fact, there is no logic in our attitudes towards animals. How many of us love our dogs dearly, and yet ingest pharmaceuticals tested on dogs? How many of us claim to be animal lovers and sit down for a meal full of animal corpses and animal secretions? How many of us listen to the melodious chirping of our budgies and canaries, while we carve out the entrails of a turkey or chicken? How many of us cuddle kittens while we gulp down cow’s milk that has been stolen from calves and the calves themselves ripped away from their screaming mothers? Tell me, please, where is the logic in these unquestioned attitudes?
The time is now. Let’s start questioning everything. Let’s start speaking up. Let’s start choosing what’s right. Let’s start choosing compassion. Animals, too, deserve freedom, safety, love and tenderness.
The time is now. Evolve or die.
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“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
