As we announced last week, Planet Forward joined the Meatless Monday campaign – a non-profit initiative in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  It’s part of an eco-friendly worldwide movement to reduce consumption of animal products in favour of more plant-based meals to fight global warming and improve our personal health.   As we enter our second week, we will get into some vegetarian pantry basics and a recipe.  As we progress through the campaign we will continue to post recipes, tips and updates on the campaign.

A vegetarian menu is a powerful and tasty way to achieve better health. The vegetarian eating pattern is based on a wide variety of foods that are satisfying, delicious, and healthful. Vegetarians avoid meat, fish, and poultry. Those who include dairy products and eggs in their diets are called lacto-ovo vegetarians. Vegans eat no meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or dairy products.  Just thought I’d get that out of the way.  Our recipes will always be either vegan or lacto-ovo with vegan substitutions.

A vegetarian pantry that is stocked generally contains:

• Grain products: rice (especially brown, arborio, jasmine, basmati and sweet), millet, couscous, quinoa, kasha, wild rice (aquatic grass), buckwheat, barley, polenta, and whole grain flours.
• Pasta and noodles: pasta made from grain products (e.g., wheat pasta, rice pasta), noodles (e.g., udon, buckwheat etc.). Try to avoid quick-cook noodles; these tend to have a lot of the healthy nutrients removed and are often high in trans-fats.
• Legumes: dried legumes (peas, split peas, lentils,  chickpeas/garbanzo, kidney beans, pinto beans etc.), tins/cans of legumes, shelf-stored tofu.
• Nuts and seeds: Nuts and seeds should be eaten quickly to ensure that they remain fresh. Only purchase small amounts at a time. It is handy to always have on hand walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, pecans and sesame seeds. Peanuts are a personal choice given modern allergy problems. Nut and seed butters are also very useful to keep on hand; consider tahini, peanut butter, cashew nut butter, almond butter etc. Some require refrigeration on opening.
• Condiments/Seasoning/Spices: Braggs amino acid, soy sauce, shoyu, tamari; look for low sodium options.  Vegetable broth/stock cubes, liquid or powder – check ingredients carefully.  Seasonings such as herbs, spices, salt, pepper etc. and flavoured vinegars, dressings.    Mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise should be on hand as well. If you are not going to be eating eggs you can try Vegenaise.
• Of course fresh fruit and vegetables should always be aplenty but they’re not a pantry item.

I think that is pretty much the basics covered.  If you have these options in your kitchen, you will be able to whip up a vegetarian meal at any time.

I will leave you with a quick (and delicious) black bean burger recipe.

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno pepper
6 saltine crackers, crushed
1 egg, beaten (if vegan, use equivalent egg-replacer)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (omit if vegan or use dairy-free option)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mash black beans. Mix in onion, jalapeno pepper, crushed crackers, egg, cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Divide into 4 equal parts, and shape into patties.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; use more or less oil to reach 1/4 inch in depth. Fry patties until golden, about 5 minutes on each side.  Eat as you would a meat-based burger.

I think that’s it.  Now that we have the basics covered we can explore more recipes.  Feel free to send me your vegetarian recipes to share.

To join the movement, participants sign an online petition and encourage those around them (including local restaurants) to go vegetarian on Mondays.  Go to the Meatless Monday site in your country or you can go to www.meatlessmonday.com to learn more.  Don’t forget, if this Monday passed you by, next week is another chance to go meatless for an eco-friendly cause.  Join us.

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