Extra: How to Eat More Plants in 2025

Notes on vegan, or plant-forward, cooking from an obsessive home cook

Thanks for reading my newsletter! This is an extra edition with some practical notes on plant-forward or vegan cooking. The next regularly scheduled edition of Ultracold will be a Media/Diet roundup on January 13th.

Find me on X, Instagram and TikTok. I’d also love it if you shared this letter with a friend.

HOW TO EAT MORE PLANTS IN 2025

In January of 2020 and 2021 I was still on Facebook and less cynical about Instagram and social media more generally, so I took it upon myself to make daily posts of what I considered to be tips on how to use the new year as an excuse to move closer to vegetarian and vegan eating. At the end of both January’s I compiled all the posts into two long documents that I would then share with curious friends and the occasional coworker. Both times this effort left me unsatisfied. It mostly invited combative comments from old schoolmates and recipe requests from older family members who mistook my cause for a pursuit of thinness, or thinness camouflaging as wellness. I was distinctly not changing any minds.

In the years since, as I shifted my media consumptions from food blogs to more intersectional and journalistic food writing, I have come to believe that the best way to motivate people to eat less meat is to lead by example, not necessarily with lots of commentary but rather just showcasing how not consuming animal products does not have to lead to a life of scarcity or reduction. If people can notice the abundance and pleasure of food and flavor first, then realize that it’s all been done more sustainably and kindly, that may make the dietary choice, and ideally the lifestyle choice, feel if not aspirational then at least worth considering. I have also come more to terms with the fact that veganism can hide a whole lot of harm if it does not intersect with a desire to eat locally and seasonally and with an interest in both worker’s rights and preserving cultural practices. I still really believe in veganism, but it is certainly not a panacea to all of the ills of late stage capitalism, and it certainly can be coopted by it. This makes it much harder to prescribe the lifestyle or write about it as a set of simple steps.

I know perfectly well that almost half of new year’s resolutions fail by the end of January so it is statistically unlikely that a dietary change that starts with the flipping of the calendar page will be the one that really sticks, but I am also fundamentally a corny person, and a big believer in ritual. Sometimes if you’ve been thinking about something for a while, a meaningful date can help you make a decision, and having more tools and resources is rarely a bad idea. So, in the spirit of those old posts and documents, below are some notes about how to eat less animal products and more plants. I have divided them in two sections: the first is about planning and setting intentions for eating and the second is about actual cooking, offering some broad strokes on how to approach cooking with plants. If you are not a planner feel free to skip ahead. If you, on the other hand, love a to-do list and a vision board, consider starting at the top.

Salad with marinated tofu, herbs, lime, golden beets and avocado

NOTES ON INTENTIONALLY CHANGING YOUR DIET AND PLANNING FOR IT

1. Pick a concrete goal. Good goals are often goals that you can be held accountable to and it’s easiest to practice accountability if your goals are measurable. Numbers really help with this. Will you eat vegan or vegetarian or meatless once a week? Once a day? Every Friday? Five times a month? Write this down and treat it as a plan that you want to look forward to, whether it be because you like a challenge, or because you know it will bring you satisfaction.

2. Start with things that you know that you like, for the moment avoiding unfamiliar ingredients, elaborate substitutes, or cooking techniques that may feel like a big risk or undertaking. Write down four of five vegan or vegetarian dishes that you know you like for sure. It may be helpful to look beyond classic American cuisine to find examples.

   Here are some that would go on my list: hummus and pita with olives and a cucumber salad or a tabbouleh, curried vegetables or lentil dal with rice or roti, falafel sandwiches, veggie stir-fries and dumplings, vegetable fajitas or tacos, black bean burritos, veggie sushi or ume onigiri, veggie spring or summer rolls, potato pierogies, bean empanadas or arepas, veggie poke or bibimp bowls, miso soup, black bean soup, Turkish red lentil soup, veggie tagine and couscous, avocado toast with extras, cold noodles salads with edamame, Thai coconut milk curries, roasted vegetable pizzas, bean chili, cold bean salads.

3. Take a look a your list and assess whether all your ideas are nutritionally rounded meals, they should have something like: a starch (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc.), a protein (beans, tofu, tempeh, soy curls, seitan, lentils etc.), a vegetable (try for more than one and of more than one color) and a fat (avocado, olive oil, peanut butter, tahini, olives). Add anything that may be missing. Be loose with this step if you need to - personal health and nutrition are much more complex than making a single meal perfect.

4. Look up a few recipes for the dishes on your list that seem the easiest and most accessible. Make rough notes on how many things you’d need to buy and how many steps making the dish would include. Alternatively, take stock of your fridge and pantry and determine which meals you may already be able to build with what you have.

5. That’s it! Now you have a goal and a list and all that’s left is to start checking things off.

Lemony marinated beans with dill, grilled zucchini, cucumbers, bed of lettuce

NOTES ON THE BASICS OF COOKING WITH PLANTS

(which are not all that different from basics of cooking with anything else)

In my opinion, more often than not, when we crave a dish we’re craving a specific texture, flavor or spice more than a specific medium for those things. Identifying what a craving boils down to at that level can help me transform it into a meal with whatever I have on hand and without ingredients that I do not want to consume for ethical or other reasons. In this sense, cooking with plant-based ingredients or cooking vegan is not all that different from what many of us are traditionally taught about cooking - it’s only the vessels for flavors and textures that change.

I would argue that, roughly, most foods taste good because they are one or more of the following things: charred or smoky, fatty or creamy, salty, spicy, sour and bright, umami, crispy or chewy. All of these characteristics can be successfully transferred to plant-based ingredients.

I have long believed that being a “good vegan cook” is not as much of a thing as just being “a cook that understands what makes food good,” and that’s what I aspire to in the kitchen. This means that I rarely want my vegetables to taste exactly like some animal product, but it does mean that I am always trying to understand just what characteristics and techniques make non-vegan dishes taste good. You’ll rarely find me claiming that, for instance, a mushroom stew tastes just like one with beef, but if I see my grandmother put plum jam and bay leaves into hers, and sear the meat first to get some char and fat into the base of the dish, I will almost certainly be trying that with a shiitake or a maitake as well.

Here are some observations from my years of vegan cooking:

1. Marinating. Marinating animal proteins is a really common technique and can whole-heartedly be applied to plant-based proteins as well. Marinated beans are great in salads or as a dish of their own. Though tempeh and tofu can require extra handling (just like some tricky cuts of meat do!) they too can be infused with a lot of flavor by being marinated after being pressed (for tofu) or steamed (for tempeh). Soy curls and seitan also really benefit from marinades as neither has a very distinctive flavor on its own. Sometimes I sear them after marinating, sometimes I simply cook them in the marinade until it reduces to a sauce (adding a cornstarch slurry always helps), sometimes I bake them in the oven while working on the rest of the meal. Any marinade that works for chicken or fish will also work wonders for a soy-based protein. Here’s one very simple marinade to begin with, but really I am often just reading animal-forward recipes and stealing their marinades for whatever I have in the fridge, and think that you can do the same.

2. Grilling, charring and roasting. Most vegetables can be roasted at 400F for 20-40 minutes after being tossed with some sort of an oil and salt (and whatever spices you like). My general approach is to check after 20 minutes and then either give the baking trays a stir and leave the vegetables in for a little longer or take them out if they seem done. Roasting brings out different flavors than boiling, it produces a texture that is satisfying to chew, and for many vegetables it helps natural sugars caramelize which makes them more savory. When I am low on time or without ideas or just encountering a somewhat new vegetable, my first instinct is to do a sheet pan roast then serve it with a simple dressing, and either a bean salad or a bean-y dip, maybe a good slice of bread too.

   Throwing vegetables on the grill or searing them in a pan can give them smokiness and savoriness that we often associate with barbecue. It also helps with texture for spongy items such as mushrooms - if you think they’re too slimy and soft otherwise, give them plenty of time on the grill or in a scorching hot cast iron skillet and their flavor will shine in a new way.

   Tying into the note above, many vegetables can be marinated after grilling or roasting. This works particularly well for zucchini, green beans, baby eggplants and bell peppers - leave them on the grill or the sheet pan long enough to get charred in places, then toss them with olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, minced parsley, some salt and a crushed or minced clove of garlic two then let sit for 10-15 minutes or longer. I grew up eating fish this way, drizzled in the oil and garlic mixture straight from the grill, and have been delighted to find that the same approach gives many vegetables a great flavor too.

3. Creaminess. The kind of fatty creaminess that we often associate with dairy can typically be approximated by blending nuts (cashews, almonds, macadamias, even walnuts) or seeds (sunflower, hemp or pepitas) into smooth sauces. I am also a fan of using silken tofu in creams and creamy sauces, and have used it fairly successfully to make pasta sauce in the style of either Alfredo or mac’n’cheese.

   While nut and tofu-based creams do have a bit of a sweet and nutty flavor, they can be adjusted by adding lemon juice or apple cider vinegar for brightness and tang, and salt and spices such as garlic powder or a touch of mustard. Nutritional yeast, miso, ume plums, and even a bit of sauerkraut or kimchi brine are also power players when it comes to giving a plant-based cream an extra kick. This can take a bit of finessing and won’t always taste exactly like dairy cream but the texture can scratch the same itch and make for a nice base for more complex sauces.

   Many vegetables can also be blended into very creamy sauces. Some examples are: steamed cauliflower, raw carrots, steamed beets, canned artichoke hearts, raw zucchini. Adding a bit of oil and a plant milk or broth to the blender will help with the texture here. I learned about this from Amy Chaplin’s Whole Food Cooking Every Day and have made her base zucchini dressing many times, sometimes as a dressing, sometimes in place of mayonnaise in pasta salads and sandwiches.

   Finally, I think marinated tofu is wonderful in salads that call for feta (great recipes here and here) and have also made many Caprese-adjacent platters with slices of firm silken tofu. The latter does require somewhat generous dressing as silken tofu itself is more of a custardy vessel for flavor than anything else, but especially on warm days I find this kind of meal very satisfying. On a similar note,

   Julia Tausch
   has all the notes on turning tofu into a ricotta-style spread here.

4. Seasoning. Being fearless with seasoning is essential when cooking with most vegetables. There is something to be said about simple vegetables that have been slow-roasted or braised for hours, and sometimes just salt, fat and heat will bring out incredible natural flavors, but I think that being adventurous with pairing vegetables, especially when roasted, with various spice mixes has the biggest pay off if you’re crunched for time or low on energy.

   Some spice ideas for roasted vegetables (toss them with oil and spices in a bowl then spread out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper): cauliflower with turmeric and salt, potatoes with paprika, garlic powder and salt, beets with salt and dried rosemary, zucchini with salt, red pepper flakes and oregano or basil, butternut squash or sweet potato with chili powder, cumin and salt.

   

   Tofu in a soy balsamic marinade, smashed potatoes, roasted summer squash and peppers dressed with olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar

   Mixing salty and sweet. Many dishes that are flavored by addition of smoked meat or bacon, like soups, really benefit from the sweet, smokey and salty mixture of flavors in those ingredients. While you can buy liquid smoke, these flavors can often be replicated or approximated by mixing soy sauce or tamari with maple syrup and a bit of smoked paprika or chipotle pepper sauce. This is a great addition to bean or pea or lentil soup. It can also make for a good base for marinating vegetables before they get roasted or plant-based proteins before pan frying or grilling them.

6. Sour, bright and acidic. I grew up in a family that never had a meal without something salad-adjacent at the centre of the table so I am really committed to the idea of including a tangy, or tangy and crunchy, vegetable with most meals. For my family it was always very simple: lettuce, tomatoes and occasionally onions dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. While living in America introduced me to the concept of dressings and vinaigrettes, I still often make salads like this, just mixing everything in the bowl. But there are other options too, like kale massaged with lemon juice and salt (you can stop massaging once it gets soft and almost floral to taste), which makes for an excellent base for adding roasted vegetables or beans, like cucumber slices quickly marinated in lime juice and sesame oil, or thinly sliced radishes tossed with apple cider vinegar and salt, which I also like to scrunch with my hands some.

   In my mind, bean salads (or marinated beans, if you make them in advance) also fall into this category, whether they be white beans tossed with an Italian vinaigrette and chopped up roasted red peppers, chickpeas with lemon juice and chopped mint or parsley, or kidney beans with thinly sliced red onions, red wine vinegar and pumpkin seed oil. Though these technically work to add brightness and something fresh to the meal, they can easily be a centerpiece, especially served alongside a roasted starchy vegetable, piled on toast or mixed with pasta for a pasta salad riff that only gets better as it sits in the fridge.

7. Funky flavor. This is a flavor that’s often attributed to dairy products, but can be added into a dairy-free diet by using fermented products. Miso is a favorite of many vegan chefs and a great addition to sauces trying to be cheesy or gravies that need something more complex than salt. Kimchi and sauerkraut can be a good addition to soups and stews that need a sourness that’s deeper than just adding vinegar or lemon juice. Fermented bean curd packs a similar punch but it is more pungent and more salty. Nutritional yeast is another fan favorite in this category - it is not an active yeast and does not taste like the kind of yeast you’d use for bread, but I also have never felt that it is super cheesy per se. There is a great savoriness to it, however, which makes it a great for sauces and soups that would usually include cheese. Finally, ume plums or their paste can add a note of sourness, saltiness and funk all at the same time. Here, again, I would refer you to Julia Tausch for her anchovy paste substitute that harnesses all the great fermented things.

8. Texture. In addition to roasting, vegetables can certainly also be breaded and fried or seared and braised or slow-roasted. Whatever cooking technique results in textures you already like on some food, someone out there has figured out how to do it with some plant or something plant-based. Some examples: breaded then fried tofu (here’s

   Alicia Kennedy
   ‘s tofu katsu method), tempura vegetables, braised cabbage, slow-roasted sweet potatoes, braised tofu or tempeh, braised mushrooms, air-fried anything.

Rainbow carrot and seitan stir fry with noodles

Let me know anything I may have missed in the comments below.

Best,

Karmela