Old regimes die hard…

As a newbie to this style of eating, I still felt the need to have something on my plate that resembled the centre of the meal. Sadly, many of the prepared food recipes, burgers and the like, that I came across were pretty tasteless, bland and boring. Moreover, the recipes were seemingly only truly edible when they were slathered with mayos and various chutneys to reduce the dryness and over-beany textures. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the above additions, but this kind of cancelled out the advantage I was seeking in trying to find a more healthy way of eating from time to time. As a result, I found myself increasingly resorting back to meat and fish 7 days a week.

Time for a mindset change

But I didn’t want to just give up, so I began to research some alternative ingredients that plant-based eating offered. I became curiouser and curiouser about the amazing base ingredients I discovered, particularly their heritage and provenance. This was a step in the right direction, unfortunately for me, the ingredients whilst good for you and providing a great base texture, lacked the flavour kick for the taste buds, and so I was left scratching my head again. I then started to think differently not just about the ingredients, but how I was combining them and I decided to adopt the same approach that I would when creating my own recipe for fish and meat dishes. I have always loved to experiment with spices, and enjoy the incredible power they have when blending with meat or fish to enhance flavours. I started to treat the exciting plant-based ingredients I discovered in the same manner. I was now at last becoming, a plant-based foodie, beginning to essentially design food for other foodies!! 

The path to enlightenment!!

As I continued to experiment, I found tasting conversations with friends and family revealed the same frustrations I’d had. The encouragement I received to pursue the challenge further was somewhat selfish on their part as they wanted the same results as me! At this point I must credit my dear friend and foodie innovations expert Nev Moon, whose knowledge of food and nutrition helped enormously – he has free PLANTED for life!

It’s about the ‘sides of it’ 

I spent the next twelve months working on my recipes and would call upon my friends and family to do regular taste-tests (for which I am eternally grateful). For every tasting session, I’d present the recipe in burger format, until it dawned on me whilst preparing yet another tasting session that not everyone wants a burger all of the time. So I started to experiment with alternative styles (kofta, falafel, etc.) and quickly realised that I’d just opened the door to a whole new world of sides and accompaniments, that worked perfectly and that were more naturally relevant to each style that the recipe was presented in. For example, the kofta stick shape allowed the recipe to sit alongside a delicious wild rice and pea combination, topped off with a sprig flat leaf parsley. The falafel ball shape works perfectly with a wholemeal pitta or roti and a natural tomato salsa. Suddenly I had a range! 

OK… ‘Seitan’ really? And how do I even say ‘Quinoa’?!

What I loved about the time I spent developing my recipes, was that it allowed me to discover my ‘nutrient heroes’, amazing plant-based ingredients with extraordinary nutritional powers, but often with names that people might not be familiar with. I mean, what first pops into your head when you hear the word Seitan? How do you even pronounce Quinoa? But what’s in a name? In this case the answer is the start of something amazing. When these heroes are combined with their supporting ingredients and coupled with natural sides for each of the three styles, you’re presented with an eating experience that will have your tasted buds singing in the aisles!

The continuous journey, join me!

I recognise that many of you may choose to pursue a flexitarian lifestyle for a number of reasons or perhaps you are already 100% plant-based? Either way, I hope that sharing my continued journey of plant-based recipes via PLANTED will sustain and nurture those choices for the future.

We welcome and love any feedback and also sharing menu choices, to inspire us to create future recipes.

Write to us leaf@plantedlondon.com, and we are grateful of a like or follow on our social where we promise to keep it interesting!

Meanwhile Keep flexing!!

                            

 

 

Founder

Planted London