Tag Archives: NVW2014

Veg Week 2014: Banana Breakfast Dahl | Guest Post from The Pulse

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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 Shonalika who is sharing her love of lentils and using them imaginative ways. This tasty, nutritious breakfast dahl recipe makes a fantastic alternative to porridge in the mornings!National Vegetarian WeekHi! I’m Shonalika, and I’ve recently started a food blog entitled The Pulse. (My name rhymes with Metallica, in case you were wondering about pronunciation – not that you’ll need to pronounce it order to make my recipes!). As you can probably guess, my blog is centred around one of my favourite food groups, the legumes, which are so important for those following vegan and vegetarian diets. They’re also insanely versatile – if you’re a follower of vegetarian blogs like Natalie’s, then you’re more likely than not to have come across numerous recipes involving pulses, whether used whole in chills and salads, pulverized for hummus and dips, pounded into gram flour for everything from bhaji batters to pancakes, and used in sweets such as the traditional besan laddoo and the not-so-tradition black bean brownie.

One of my legume-y creations is Breakfast Dahl, so-named because it was whilst making a bog-standard pot of dhal that I suddenly realised the process was exactly the same (if a little longer) as making a bowl of porridge, giving an end result with a very similar consistency and texture. So… why not try making porridge out of lentils, instead of oats? A quick swap of vegetables for fruits, turmeric for cinnamon, water for milk, and I was hooked. Since I first started making these I’ve tried myriads of flavour combinations, and frequently post these on my blog.

So, I knew the subject of my guest post had to be lentil porridge: the only trouble was, which? Something fancy for the occasion, like Salted Caramel Apple, or a flavour combo known, familiar and well-loved as Peanut Butter, Banana, and Chocolate Chip?

After much deliberation, I realised that the concept of eating lentils for breakfast will be new to most people, so I went with the basic “template” for a lot of my breakfast dahls. Banana porridge is the easiest to make and simplest to customise, and hence a good one to start out with! Feel free to alter this recipe in any way you choose – swirl in jam, nut butters, extra fruits, top with nuts, seeds, coconut, or chocolate. As a matter of fact, you could do a 50/50 mix with lentils and oats if you’re uncertain about diving right in – just add the oats later as they take a shorter time to cook. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Breakfast DahlBanana Breakfast Dahl (Serves 1)

Cook time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients:

1/4 cup dry red split lentils

1/4 cup water (freshly boiled from a kettle will increase cooking speed)

1/4 cup milk of choice

1/2 banana (45-50g)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/16 tsp salt

Sweetener of choice, to taste (Optional)

Any additional toppings/ingredients e.g. the rest of the banana, nuts, nut butters, dried fruit, berries, shredded coconut, maple syrup, chocolate chips!

Method:

1. Measure out lentils and rinse very thoroughly. (This can be easily done in the cooking pot itself.)

2. Add water and milk and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and keep partially covered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more liquid if required.

3. Mash banana, then add to lentils along with vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Stir and sweeten to taste.

4. Transfer to a bowl, add any additional toppings and dig in!

  • This recipe makes a very thick porridge. I love making them like this because I can then pour milk on top and have the two remain somewhat separate – it’s like eating baked oatmeal, only squidgier! To help achieve this effect, a tablespoon of flaxseed or chia added at the end can work wonders. If you prefer a thinner porridge, on the other hand, just increase the amounts of cooking liquid.
  • To save yourself cook time, you can easily make multiple servings of the plain dahl (just milk, water and salt). I usually make around 3 servings at once, then microwave them up with all the fruit and flavours added in the morning.

Thanks so much to Shonalika from The Pulse for this unique and versatile recipe. Be sure to check out and follow her blog for more!

Veg Week 2014: The Science Behind Meat Alternatives | Guest Post from ‘Chemily Blogs’

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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 Emily, an undergraduate chemistry student in Birmingham, who is putting her scientific prowess to incredible use by researching in-vitro meat and current meat substitutes. Her research is going to be presented at a research conference in Shanghai this summer. I’m very excited to share this post with you on the work being done in this area as well as the ethical and environmental issues surrounding it.National Vegetarian WeekEveryone has their own reasons for not eating meat; health, ethics, or even just a dislike of the taste. All valid reasons – after all, it’s your stomach, so you should be able to choose what goes into it. Now more than ever, though, there is a strong environmental argument for vegetarianism.

I understand I’m probably preaching to the converted, so I’ll keep it brief. Livestock farming used 30% of global land. A recent study conducted by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency showed that while vegan protein sources have a carbon footprint of 1 to 2 kg of CO­2 per kg of product, beef production can have a carbon footprint of up to 129 kg of CO2 per kg beef. It is worth mentioning at this point that the carbon footprint of meats – beef in particular – varies considerably depending on the production methods used; essentially, it’s a trade-off between animal welfare and environmental concerns. Other meats are not quite as bad as beef, with pork weighing in at up to 11 kg of CO2 per kg, and poultry at up to 6kg. Although not as significant as beef, this carbon footprint is still three times bigger than that of plant-based alternatives.

Of course, as I’m sure anyone who’s had to answer the question, “but where do you get your protein from?” will know, the world isn’t going to just go vegetarian overnight. It might be expensive, cruel, and bad for your bowel, but at the end of the day people just like beef. New research is looking into ways around this.

You’re probably familiar with most of the meat alternatives on the market. Some are pretty much accepted by meat eaters; I know plenty of people, vegetarian and otherwise, who cook with Quorn, and tofu is served up in plenty of restaurants. Most people, however, are a bit reluctant to have this be the only source of meat in their diet.

For years, scientists have been looking into “lab grown meat” as an alternative to farming. This involves using cells taken by a harmless biopsy from the muscles of a living farm animal to culture stem cells, which can then be used to grow muscle cells, or “myofibres”, in a lab. These cells can be used to produce edible meat products without the need for slaughter.

A burger produced in this way was served up last year in London and was fairly well received. The fat content was much lower than your average piece of meat, as it was made entirely from muscle fibre; this made for a very lean burger, which apparently didn’t do a lot for the flavour. The media focus was mostly on the cost – which was around £200,000 for the burger – however as a proof of concept it was successful. Scientists are now looking into making the process more efficient, and producing a product that more closely mimics the meat people are used to eating.

So, if the process can be scaled up, we now have the technology to produce meat without the need for slaughter. For many vegetarians this could become an ethical grey area – although I for one don’t see a problem with it. What do you think? Would you be up for trying it?

Thanks so much to Emily from Chemily Blogs for this very informative and fascinating article. Be sure to check out & follow her blog for more!

National Vegetarian Week on The Tofu Diaries

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National Vegetarian Week bannerThis week, May 19th-25th is National Vegetarian Week here in the UK. The aim of NVW is to challenge people to go meat-free for the week as well as to help more of us learn about the benefits and ease of living compassionately and thoughtfully by going veg.

Though I and many of you don’t need any convincing, in honour of NVW 2014 I have opened up The Tofu Diaries to a selection of my fellow bloggers to share their insights, recipes, and some other very exciting things. It’s very exciting to have such a diverse range of posts to share with you all – one guest post will be featured each day (at 6pm) for the whole of this week so be sure to check back! I also urge you to check out and follow the blogs of my wonderful contributors!National Vegetarian Week