Ask the experts

The team from Veganuary answer your questions about veganism

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ach month, send us your questions and we’ll pitch them to those in the know. Whether you’re unsure about the best way to cook tofu, or you need some vegan dating advice, we’ve got your back.

Q

I’m new to vegan cooking. What are the best newbie cookbooks?

This is a great time to try vegan cooking as there are so many excellent cookbooks available.

We’d recommend two by So Vegan. The first is Vegan in 5, which — as the name suggests — offers super tasty dishes with just five ingredients. Ben and Roxy really know how to help new vegans, which is why we also recommend their second book, One Pot Vegan. Again, really tasty food made simple.

The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer is also a game-changer. Half the book is vegan; half vegetarian but most of those can be adapted to be vegan very easily. These are meals cooked in one tin in the oven, which makes creating mid-week meals super easy.

We’re also big fans of Rebel Recipes by Niki Webster (see her on page 20), Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen, and What Vegans Eat by Brett Cobley, which are big on flavour, little on fuss. If you like really fresh and vibrant wholefoods, there is none better than Happy Food by Bettina Campolucci-Bordi, and for the best lunch boxes, try Bento Power by Sara Kiyo Popowa. It’s fair to say that some of her recipes have changed our lives!

Q

What’s the best vegan alternative to fish?

That very much depends on what you are looking for but thankfully, there is now a great vegan version of just about every fish product. So, here goes...

For tuna, we’d recommend Good Catch (shop.goodcatchfoods.com), which is brilliant in sandwiches or in a pasta bake, and Fry’s Battered Prawn-Style Pieces (fryfamilyfood.com) are delicious dipped into a sweet chilli sauce.

For a midweek meal, or a so-wrong-it’s-right sandwich, we still think VBite’s fish fingers (vbites.com) are hard to beat. And Quorn’s vegan Fishless Scampi (quorn.co.uk) is also a firm favourite at Veganuary HQ.

If you’ve got refined tastes, try Zeastar’s Sashimi Zalmon (vegetarianexpress.co.uk), which is admittedly a mouthful of a name, but also a tasty mouthful of a meal, especially when its resting on top of thickly slathered vegan cream cheese on a bagel.

And look out for the Thai-style Fish Cakes and New England-style Crab Cakes coming to Tesco (tesco.com). We hear rumours that these are VERY good.

If you’re up for a challenge, you can make incredible vegan battered fish from banana blossom and there are plenty of recipes online. If this seems like too much work, look out for it on menus, as many fish and chip shops, as well as mainstream restaurants, are starting to offer this tasty meal.

For more from Veganuary, visit veganuary.com.

Email Gemma.Tadman@primeimpact.co.uk with your questions about veganism and looking after the planet.