Brighton chef conjures vegan versions of meaty favourites
If you are hovering on the brink of veganism but somehow just cannot quite abandon your old favourites like shepherd’s pie and fish and chips, then Brighton plant-based chef and author Aimee Ryan has got just the book for you.
With the news that a record number of Brits took the Veganuary pledge, Aimee is making the vegan-lifestyle just that little bit easier to jump into with her new book Great British Vegan (published by White Lion) which features vegan versions of traditional British dishes.
Yes, you can also have a vegan version of fish and chips; you can even have a vegan pork pie – and you probably will not even be able to tell the difference. Aimee calls it a ‘porkie pie’ – a pun on the ‘lie’ you might miss.
You can also have bangers and mash, Lancashire hotpot, spag bol, beefy mushroom stew, haggis with neeps and tatties and Sunday roast plus the full range of traditional pub grub – all in vegan versions. Aimee admits she is not a fan of fake meats. She does not need to be. Rather than fake chicken, she might use mushrooms; her porkie pies do not rely on fake pork. Lentils and walnuts do the trick. Aimee (@WallflowerKitchen) certainly would not ever try to persuade someone to become vegan; it’s about making it easier for them to try if they want to –without using animal products and without compromising on flavour and familiarity: “My dad was a very meat and two veg kind of guy, and I didn’t ask him and I didn’t force him, but I just cooked this food for him. And by osmosis almost, he has just realised that it tastes better and is actually better for him.”
Aimee’s book comes at a time of change, with growing numbers of vegans and more and more people thinking about what they eat, perhaps accelerated by the pandemic.
A survey has claimed 37 per cent of people are generally eating healthier with more fruit and veg and that there has been an upswing in cooking from scratch (25 per cent) as well as people being more experimental with recipes (19 per cent).
More than a quarter of us are eating less meat, but there is still a significant fear of missing out. The survey claimed that the dishes most likely to be missed by Brits included fish and chips (44 per cent), Sunday roast (42 per cent) and a full English breakfast (38 per cent).
Aimee’s book will capture the mood of the moment…
Aimee became a vegan seven years ago, and back then, she recalls, it was something that was still seen as a little bit weird, a little bit of an outsider: “Now it is completely the mainstream.”
She started her food blog in 2012 and had started following a few vegan blogs. She found herself becoming more and more curious as to what being a vegan meant.
“And for the first time I started seeing really horrifying footage of factory farming and dairy farming. I just had no idea how awful it was. Once you have seen something like that, you can’t just forget it. I decided to challenge myself and give myself a go at a month of veganism. And actually I just found it very easy. I thought it was going to be intimidating but it really wasn’t. I thought there was going to be so much that I had to think about, but actually it just came really easily and I really enjoyed it.”
Initially there was an element of not wanting to “contribute to extra suffering”, but importantly she loved the food…
“If you use the word plantbased, you are obviously having a diet centred around plants. Veganism is more about the philosophy, the belief, about avoiding harming animals, and I think that if you have that belief, you will naturally be more mindful about what we are doing. Now it is about tempting others out of their comfort zone. There are so many brilliant vegan books out there, but people still think of vegan food as being salads and quinoa. It doesn’t have to be.”