Vegetarian Star

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is usually a reflection on racial equality and the gains this activist (who’s family embraced a veg diet) made in schools and other aspects of public access.

Equality is not just restricted to being able to eat at a restaurant, but also the ability to access quality, affordable food at supermarkets. Some might argue that we haven’t reached equal opportunity in this area.

Bryant Terry, vegan chef, author and food justice activist, gave his thoughts about how access to wholesome food may be connected to institutional racism at culinate.com:

Bryant Terry

“The first thing that comes up for me when I hear that question is the fact that just one percent of farmers in the United States are African-American, and that since the 19th century African-Americans have been systematically denied access to land.”

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Emily Deschanel Is Walk For Animals 2011 Spokesperson (Video)
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author

Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is for Veg Star’s fantastic graduate students out there, in the middle of another grueling semester.

When a writer at Riverfront Times wanted to conduct a, ahem, “scientific” experiment on vegan goods, she tested the hypothesis that “Vegan baked goods are always readily identifiable as being vegan.”

In other words, this skeptic wanted to prove that vegan desserts are cardboard, pasty, granola pyramids of disaster. Sure hope she didn’t bet her thesis on it.

Materials for vegan chef and author Bryant Terry‘s vegan dessert included a coconut pie crust made from coconut oil in place of butter, a chocolate pecan pudding filling with non-dairy rice milk, maple syrup and arrowroot powder, a fantastic thickener for pies, puddings, gravies and other dishes that doesn’t add fat.

Results: “I don’t understand how that is vegan.” (In non-scientific terms: How the heck does it taste so good?)

Conclusion, experimenter notes and recipe below.

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author
• Rory Freedman To Emcee LA Premiere Of “Vegucated”

Bryant Terry and Jidan Koon kept their wedding details eco-friendly, from holding the ceremony at their home using materials already owned, to using an ethical engagement ring from Brilliant Earth jewelry company.

The custom made sapphire is Jidan’s birthstone.

Brilliant Earth is an ethical jewelry company based in San Francisco that doesn’t source diamonds from regions where forces that are opposed to recognized governments control the areas and funds are used to support military action in opposition to recognized governments.

You may recall recent news stories about Naomi Campbell testifying about a diamond she received from Charles Taylor, a man accused of taking illegally mined diamonds from Sierra Leone insurgents in return for weapons that were used in a campaign of terror which killed 120,000 people and enslaved children.

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Emily Deschanel Is Walk For Animals 2011 Spokesperson (Video)
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Ellen DeGeneres Is Farm Sanctuary Adopt-A-Turkey Spokesperson
• Jon Bon Jovi Soul Food Kitchen Could Update Its 80s Animal Product Menu
• Russell Simmons Discusses Argyleculture Clothing Line

Bryant Terry Jidan Koon. Credit: Bridan-Kerry.com

Eco, vegan chef and author Bryant Terry is now officially unavailable in the line of single, vegan men who can cook to save the Earth and satisfy an appetite. Terry married Jidan Koon this weekend at the couple’s home in Oakland, California.

The couple loves to cook, combining foods from both African and Asian cultures, and for their engagement party, Terry and Koon created Afro-Asian Jung, a soul-food twist to a traditional Asian tamale-like food “jung,” that wraps a plant-based filling inside bamboo leaves.

“While glutinous or sweet rice is traditionally used to give jung its trademark stickiness, we used three kinds of rice to add color, texture and depth of flavor,” writes the couple at Hyphen Magazine. “For additional filling, we used peanuts (a staple of African and African American cooking as well as a symbol of long life for Chinese), black-eyed peas (a symbol of good luck for African Americans), and shiitake mushrooms (a symbol of longevity in Japan and China).

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Emily Deschanel Is Walk For Animals 2011 Spokesperson (Video)
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author

Bryant Terry

Food justice champion and eco-chef Bryant Terry doesn’t use any animal products in his recipes, but the author of Vegan Soul Kitchen would prefer to keep the “V” word out of conversation.

He told Oregon Live why:

“One of the things people associate with vegan cuisine are all those processed “meat” products, like textured vegetable proteins, which I avoid entirely. I just like cooking with real food. I want people to really understand that when they’re eating plant-based, real foods it’s flavorful, delicious and healthy. That’s why I originally didn’t want my book labeled “vegan.” It’s a good way to encapsulate what I’m doing, but it’s also limiting because it’s bigger than veganism. It’s about this rich history and tradition of African Americans, and people in the South eating good, local, seasonal food. I think people need to understand that since the perceptions of African American and Southern cooking are so negative.”

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author
• Rory Freedman To Emcee LA Premiere Of “Vegucated”

Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry

Vegan chef Bryant Terry appeared on The Martha Stewart Show today and demonstrated his recipe for Spinach with Ginger and Chile.

The episode was meant to promote Terry’s mentor and local food proponent, Alice Waters‘ new book, In The Green Kitchen.

Part of the fun with trying new recipes is discovering an herb or spice you’ve never worked with fresh before.

Remember when you ditched the spice rack and headed for the produce section to check out those weird, finger looking plants called “ginger?”

Grab Bryant’s recipe featuring fresh chile, ginger and spinach at Martha Stewart.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author
• Rory Freedman To Emcee LA Premiere Of “Vegucated”

Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry

When Bryant Terry, author of Vegan Soul Kitchen and co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, with Anna Lappe became vegetarian, he was one of the most militant people in the world.

“It caused so much stress and conflict in my home,” he said at the Changing Courses: Race, Class, Sustainability and Food lecture at Arizona State University.

He went so far as to bury a whole chicken in his mother’s front yard so she couldn’t cook it.

Wow.

It’s recommended you eat “foods from the ground” to be healthy, but you can never make chicken grow from it.

Terry said that when cooking with oils, put spices like garlic in the oil before heating it.

And don’t expect to substitute tofu for every meat recipe–sometimes you have to get creative.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author
• Rory Freedman To Emcee LA Premiere Of “Vegucated”

Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry

The top 10 hottest male chefs have been profiled at Black Voices, and vegan chef Bryant Terry is hotter than a dish of haberno and serrano peppers drizzled with Tabasco sauce.

The food activist and author of Vegan Soul Kitchen takes traditional southern recipes like butter milk biscuits, removes the dairy, supplements pork and other meats with plant based protein like seitan and rounds it off with known southern vegetable players like seasoned greens.

“Based in Northern California, this “eco chef” and cookbook author is dedicated to promoting a “just and sustainable food system.” A friend of the environment and a pro in the kitchen? Perfect.”

Other hot chefs are the list are “Take Home Chef” Curtis Stone, Season 2 “Top Chef” contestant Sam Talbot and the British hottie but the mouth is potty Gordon Ramsay.

You’ll have to scroll down through the interview with “Top Chef Masters” Marcus Samuelsson before you can click through the slideshow.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Bonnie-Jill Laflin Thinks Tofu Scores A Slam Dunk
• Linda McCartney Food Range Adds Four New Products
• Meatless Mouthful–Meagan Duhamel Scores Gold Medal With Diet
• Dr. Oz Welcomes “Complete Idiot’s Guide To Plant-Based Nutrition” Author
• Rory Freedman To Emcee LA Premiere Of “Vegucated”