Monthly Archives: May 2014

Raw, Vegan Food on the Go – Nākd Bars

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Did you know that serendipity is one of the hardest words to translate into any other language? Well, a near-perfect example of such a happy coincidence happened to me recently. As I mentioned here I’ve been trying to get back into some healthier habits lately, but one of the hardest things has to be those moments when you need to pick up a quick snack on the go. My local supermarket has recently started colour-coding the nutritional information on the front of their packaging and trust me, the amount of glowing red labels is enough to make you run for cover (or leave empty-handed!)

It seemed therefore like a little ray of light when I spotted they had started selling Nākd Bars. Made up of less than a handful of natural, raw ingredients, they are wheat, dairy and gluten-free, with real nutritional value. I picked up a ‘Cashew Cookie’ bar to have at my desk as a mid-morning snack (OK, so it may not have made it past 9am) and spent a good five minutes raving to my colleague about how good it was.

So where is the coincidence? As luck would have it, a few hours later an email dropped into my inbox inviting me to try out and review a range of… Nākd Bars! You can probably tell from the above that I jumped for joy at the prospect of testing their other flavours.Nakd Bars Review

Natural Balance Foods, who make Nākd Bars and other equally yummy-looking wholefood snacks, are a British company that got started a decade ago exactly to provide unprocessed snacks that can be eaten on the go. The classic Nākd Bars come in nine different flavours, all with only a few ingredients and occasionally some natural flavourings. Upon trying them all, the thing that amazed me was how each of them is so true to their name despite so little having gone into it – it definitely shows how unnecessary a lot of sugars and flavourings are in most products like this!Nakd box review

Nakd Flavours ReviewThe nutty flavour of the ‘Cashew Cookie’ that I’d first tried was sweet but not sugary, with a rich lightly chewy texture. Of the other flavours, I was most curious to try the ‘Rhubarb & Custard’ as it was so hard to imagine quite how that would or could work. I tucked into one of these first and honestly, it tasted just like rhubarb and custard sweets! The real treat however, had to be the bars with cocoa in – ‘Caffé Mocha,’ ‘Cocoa Delight’ and ‘Cocoa Mint’ were all as good as any chocolate bar with an even richer texture and dark heavenly taste.Rhubarb & Custard Nakd Bar

I was already convinced after my first try that these were going to become my ‘go-to’ snack but I’m even more certain after trying the rest of their flavours. Their website offers free UK shipping and international shipping options so be sure to check out their full natural foods range.

What is your go-to snack when you’re out and about? Share your recommendations below!

Simple Soy Tofu AKA How to Transform Your Tofu by Freezing it

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Freezing tofu transforms the texture and allows it to soak up flavours even more effectively. This recipe uses a simple marinade of sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli flakes and black pepper to create a perfect addition to just about any dish.

Tofu is a divisive food: some people love it in any form, some only like it cooked in certain ways, whilst others are adamant they don’t like it at all. This recipe is intended to appeal to all of these people.

Since tofu is such an expert at absorbing the flavours it is marinated and cooked in, its texture can be the real make-or-break element. Freezing tofu then thawing it before cooking brings about a complete transformation; the soft smooth tofu you put into the freezer becomes replaced with a new spongy ingredient that, well, behaves exactly as though it were a sponge. When you fry it, crispy edges form and you have a delicious and versatile addition to any meal (it actually makes a great snack too, hot or cold!)

The same rules apply here as to regular tofu in that there is no end to the different ways you could flavour it. It’s really does feel like a new ingredient altogether if you’ve never used it before though, so in this recipe I’ve kept it super simple with just sesame oil, soy sauce, chilli flakes and black pepper. I put all of my effort into the tofu and served it up with a simple vegetable stir-fry, rice noodles and hoisin sauce for a fully vegan meal.

Freeze your tofu in its original packaging (or in a pot if you are using leftovers) at least twenty-four hours but ideally a few days before you plan to make this then allow a full twenty-four hours to defrost. The liquid soaks up quickly so leaving for ten minutes to marinate is sufficient.Simple Soy Tofu AKA How to Transform Your Tofu by Freezing itIngredients:

400g block of firm tofu, frozen and left to thaw

1-2 tbsp sesame oil

4 tbsp soy sauce

1tsp dried chilli flakes + ½ tsp to serve

½ tsp black pepper

1-2 tbsp olive oil, for frying

Method:

1. Remove the tofu from the packaging (retaining the pot it came in, if applicable) then cut into around three or four large chunks. Wrap in kitchen roll and place on a plate with a heavy pan or pot on top. Leave for around half an hour to drain.

2. Remove the tofu from the kitchen paper. There will still be a lot of liquid left in the tofu at this stage so squeeze each block between your palms (being careful not to squirt yourself with it!) over something that can catch the water. Hold the tofu lengthways across your palm as you squeeze to prevent breakage.

3. Cut the tofu into 1cm thick slices. Squeeze each of these slices in the manner above to remove any remaining water. Place the slices back in the original container the tofu came in or in a similar sized pot – using a pot this size keeps the marinade near the tofu and ensures it is all soaked up.

4. In a bowl, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the tofu, taking care to cover each slice fully. Leave to marinate for ten minutes. Slice into 1cm wide strips.

5. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add in the olive oil followed shortly by the tofu pieces.

6. Cook, turning frequently, until the sides have crisped and turned darker. The oil will be soaked up quickly, add more if it starts to stick. Remove from heat and sprinkle addition with chilli flakes.

7. Serve with, or cook into, your chosen dish they are accompanying or simply eat as a snack. They can also be enjoyed cold.Frozen Tofu Step 1 Frozen Tofu Step 2 Frozen Tofu Step 3 Frozen Tofu Step 4

Frozen Tofu Step 5Have you ever tried freezing tofu before cooking with it? Share your marinade ideas below!

Veg Week 2014: Vegan Spinach Pancakes | A Vegan Challenge With ‘Fire Style Magazine’

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To celebrate National Vegetarian Week 2014, The Tofu Diaries has invited fellow bloggers to get involved and share! Today’s guest blog is from Matt who is taking on the challenge of cooking his first ever (intentially) vegan meal using my vegan spinach pancakes recipe. Matt talks us through the experience, pulls me up on one glaring error in the recipe (so shameful!), and gives us his verdict on eating vegan.National Vegetarian WeekSo; first things first, my full disclosure is this: I am not a vegetarian. In fact; even the thought of a meatless meal fills me with dread. As the fantastically yellow family the Simpsons once sung, ‘You don’t make friends with salad.’ Well, in this case, they were wrong.

I’ve known Natalie for a long time; in fact we met whilst backpacking across Southern Europe. The sun was shining, it was exhausting heat but we befriended each other over a cup of Costa’s finest. This may or may not be true. The point is, I’ve met Natalie on a few occasions, and she’s lovely.

So after being propositioned I decided that it may be worth looking at something I had never considered before, and considering the rapid weight gain I seem to be unintentionally achieving, should have probably looked at earlier; a meat-free meal.

I’m not going to lie; the thought of this terrified me to my very core. Then again, I also like a challenge. So, after consulting with my better half, we decided after looking through a lot of delicious recipes that we would opt for the classic… Spinach Pancakes. Bear in mind I don’t even really like the idea of savoury pancakes so you can see how big of a step this was for me, but, as I said, I like a challenge. Thankfully, they turned out to be delicious.

First things first, Natalie doesn’t list the ingredients entirely correctly as I bought all the ingredients but when I was reading the recipes where the instructions were to add the tomatoes. I had no tomatoes. Now apart from that; I’m so thankful that this came my way as first off, I wouldn’t have ever tried it, and secondly, I now have something new that I can cook when my vegan friends come around! I feel very cultured. I will be applying for Come Dine with me now I possess this vital life skill.

Well, I had to refer back to the recipe but this was a pretty easy meal to do with relatively little that could go wrong. I managed to source most of the ingredients from my local supermarket so I was more than chuffed with that, and all in all it came to under a tenner so again, win-win.

I was slightly worried whilst stirring the spinach into the pancakes that the consistency felt a little thick, which was slightly true for one of the pancakes but the rest were perfect. To be honest though when I brought it out of the pan two of the pancakes looked like spinach bread, and I’m genuinely considering making these again to see if I can use them as a bread substitute; whether this is a good idea or not is another argument altogether. I was mostly worried about sourcing the products but as I say, they were all readily available. This has genuinely made me think I may cook one vegetarian meal a week just to build up my repertoire if anything!Making the vegan pancakesI took some pictures as I was indeed thinking that this could be a flop. As it turns out, it wasn’t. And it tasted better than I thought. So, not only can I say that I’ve enjoyed a vegetarian dish, but I also enjoyed savoury pancakes!

I may have burnt/over-cooked the topping a little, but apart from this (and the obligatory pancake flipping that I think I should have done maybe one minute later) there were virtually no hiccups. I also now know that me and my girlfriend own weighing scales.

Cheers for the challenge Natalie, I was sceptical, but I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Thanks to Matt for giving vegan cooking a go and for sharing his tale. I hope he has been won over to go meat-free for a meal every now and then! Be sure to check out his blog where he can usually be found charting his dining experiences around Leeds and his journey as a dad-to-be.

Veg Week 2014: How to Start Growing Vegetables the Eco-friendly Way

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To celebrate National Vegetarian Week 2014, The Tofu Diaries has invited fellow bloggers to get involved and share! Today’s guest blog is from Tom who is going to be sharing his tips and some great resources for getting started growing your own organic vegetables in an eco-friendly way. With summer on our doorstep (in the Northern Hemisphere that is), these should come in handy when you’re out in the garden. Since I am moving house in July and going to be having a garden for the first time in a long, long time, I’m going to be putting a lot of this into practice then!National Vegetarian WeekFor a vegetarian, there’s nothing more important than making sure your fruit and vegetables are top-quality and free from artificial additives. One great way to make sure your food is grown in an eco-friendly manner is to grow it yourself – but how do you do this?

Getting started

Composting

If you’re considering growing your own organic food, a composter is a perfect place to start. A compost bin allows you to throw away all your vegetable cuttings, old fruit, leaves, grass and any other organic material to create a new soil source. As more materials are added they will decompose, and break down into a useable (and organic) soil to use in your garden. An even balance between green (grass, peelings) and brown (paper, leaves, straw) will produce the best results. To find out more about composting, have a read of Recycle Now’s guide.

Soil

Aside from composting to create a new source of soil you should try to use only natural soil – no Miracle-Gro or the like. This is because whilst it may help plants grow quickly, it is filled with artificial chemicals to make plants grow quicker than they should – chemicals which will be absorbed by your vegetables.

Recycling and upcycling

Recycling and upcycling are both perfect ways of saving both money and the environment. Old jeans can be stuffed with padding and sewn up to create a new kneeling mat, whilst an old CD, hung from a branch, can scare away squirrels and other unwanted wildlife that might try to munch on your vegetable patch.

Choosing what to plant

When choosing what to plant, take a moment to think about where you’re going to plant it and the climate you live in. An apple tree will provide apples all year round, but will take up a lot more water than cabbages. If you’re going to plant more than one kind of seed, consider how much water each plant requires and try to plan accordingly.

Keeping it going

Once you’ve started and have begun to harvest your organic produce, there are a few more things you can do to further your organic growing efforts.

Encourage wildlife into your garden

Birds, bugs and bees are all part of a healthy garden, and can actually help your gardening. Worms can aerate your soil, bees can help pollinate any plants you have and birds can pick at bugs that might try to eat your plants. A healthy, thriving garden will have all sorts of nature working together to create a miniature eco-system, and encouraging it in rather than spraying harsh pesticides to keep it out will help it to grow naturally.

Making it sustainable

Sustainability is important when gardening, as it ensures your garden can continue for as long as you need or want it to. Lucy from Smallest Smallholding says “There are two fundamental factors you need to take into account when building an eco-friendly garden. Firstly, you need to think about what is already to hand, and secondly, the three ‘R’s ‘- reduce, re-use, recycle.” Recycling will help you to keep your garden growing for as long as you need it to, whilst reducing the amount you waste will help the environment.

Some final tips…

  • Anything that has harsh chemicals in – from store-bought compost to weed killer – will have a natural alternative. Look around before committing to using something with chemicals in that could get into your food
  • Make the most of what you have – if you have a small garden, try planting things like carrots and potatoes that won’t take up much room
  • If you’re unsure how much time you can dedicate to eco-friendly gardening and growing, start small and see how you go
  • If your garden is shaded, try to plant vegetables in the place with the most sun

The most important part of organic gardening is to enjoy it – you’re growing your own food, saving the planet and saving money; what’s not to enjoy!

For more information on how to help your whole garden become eco-friendly, read this guide. How do you keep your garden eco-friendly?

Thanks to Tom for this very helpful guide. Unfortunately Tom doesn’t have a blog to share with you – he has simply shared his expertise out of the goodness of his heart and in the spirit of Vegetarian Week!

Veg Week 2014: Supporting Teens Gone Veg | Guest Post from ‘Smart Girl Veg’

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To celebrate National Vegetarian Week 2014, The Tofu Diaries has invited fellow bloggers to get involved and share! Today’s guest blog is from Rachel whose work helps to support young vegetarians in their journey towards a meat-free lifestyle. As someone who made the decision to give up meat very young I wish Rachel’s book ‘The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian’ had been around back then! She is here to tell us more about why she chose to focus on teenagers, the concerns they may have, and how parents can support their children in their choices.National Vegetarian WeekHi, everyone!

As a US-based registered dietitian nutritionist and author of The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian, I’m excited to help my UK friends celebrate National Vegetarian Week.

Smart Girl’s Guide to Going VegetarianThe Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian and the corresponding blog smartgirlveg.com are both written directly for the teenage vegetarian. Why did I choose to focus on teenagers? A few reasons:

1. Anecdotal evidence suggests that teenagers are the group most likely to experiment with vegetarianism. I have found that at least ¾ of the vegetarians I meet first went veg (or began their journey to veg) when they were teenagers. What’s more, I also meet a good number of adults who tell me that they’re not vegetarian now, but they were for a brief while in high school or college. Ask around and I suspect you’ll find the same (and if any scientist out there wants to conduct actual research on this topic, I’d love to hear the results).
2. Teenagers who go veg have special needs above and beyond those of adults who give up meat. More on that later.
3. I spent my teenage years transitioning from a meat-eating diet to a vegetarian one. That experience set me on a path to pursue nutrition as a career, and to develop a passion for educating and assisting teenagers who are in transition mode when it comes to their health. Long story short: I was a cruddy vegetarian, and it took me years to figure out that being healthy was more about what I was adding to my diet than it was what I was removing from it. I aspire to save others from the same trouble.

You may be wondering what’s so special about a teen gone veg. Here are some of the unique concerns for a younger person:

Control. Most teenagers are living at home with their parents; others in eat at a school cafeteria. Limiting your diet is one thing. Limiting your diet when you’re not the one doing the grocery shopping? Totally different.

Doubt. A teenager who decides to give up meat is much more likely to hear “oh, it’s just a phase” than an adult making the same choices. Many adults also jump to the conclusion that a teenager who eliminates meat from her diet may be dabbling in disordered eating behavior. There is some research suggesting that young women who have had an eating disorder are more likely to have been vegetarian at one point or another, however giving up meat is not indicative of disordered eating (that said, adults should always be aware of red flags for disordered eating in teens, which giving up meat in conjunction with several other characteristics can be considered. Read more about this in The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian).

Nutrition. All vegetarians should take care to get proper nutrition (including protein, zinc, B12 and more), however teen girls in particular have the added challenge of getting enough iron. Most teenage girls, vegetarian or not, don’t get an adequate amount of the nutrient, and since meat is one of the easiest ways to get iron into your diet, it can be hard for vegetarians to meet their daily needs.

Of course, with a little guidance, support, and good food, any of these hurdles can be easily overcome. If a teenager in your life is choosing to go veg on some level—whether they’re testing the waters by giving up red meat, going vegan, or anything in between—be sure to take their decision seriously and use the transition as an opportunity to bond. Share great blogs like this one, ogle beautiful vegetarian food on Pinterest and Instagram, tweet your ideas for Meat Free Monday (UK) or Meatless Monday (US), take your teen grocery shopping with you and, of course, sit down to delicious, health-enhancing meat-free meals together. You will both be nourished and nurtured from the experience.

Did any Tofu Diaries readers first go veg as a teenager? If so, please share your experience! How did you handle challenges when it came to control, doubt, and nutrition?

Thanks so much to Rachel for sharing some insights into her work and helping along the next generation of veggies. Be sure to check out her and follow her blog for more!