I’ve decided that my inquiry project for this term is going to be making a series of plant-based recipes in an effort to introduce more plant-based foods into my lifestyle. I think I have a pretty typical amount of animal products in my life compared to the average person. I consume dairy daily, meat most days, and lots of eggs (I live on a farm and get them for free, which is a definite plus!) I’m not looking to switch to an entirely plant-based diet, but I think reducing our consumption of animal products even in small ways is an important step to diminish our footprint and live more sustainably.With that said, there are some plant-based foods that actually have a terrible impact on the planet (such as almond milk). So I want to examine the ingredients of my recipes and investigate their impact on the planet: are they actually better than animal products?
Growing up, my family made a lot of pretty simple, meat-and-potatoes type meals (what I now think of as “white people food”). When we did eat plant-based, I remember mostly thinking that it didn’t have a lot of flavour, and just generally was not as enjoyable, so I am really on a mission to find plant-based foods that we can truly enjoy.
There are lots of way to eat plant-based; some of them far cheaper than a diet of animal products and some of them far more expensive. I’m trying to maintain a fairly conservative student-friendly diet with experiment, and hoping not to spend exorbitant amounts on new exotic ingredients where I can avoid it.
There’s one more part to this challenge: my partner is a type 1 diabetic, and needs to eat simple carbs and some types of sugars in moderation. We generally look for complex carbs with lots of fibre. So I am going to be keeping this in mind when searching for plant-based recipes to try.
I follow some great Vegan and Plant-based creators on social media such as TikTok, so I’m going to compile a list of recipes. I think I’m going to try for one main dish or larger/more complicated recipe, and one smaller recipe/side dish/snack per week.I’m hoping to include recipes from some food cultures that involved amazing plant-based traditional flavours, such as Indian food.
So the criteria for my personal rating system will be?
- how sustainable and earth-friendly are the ingredients?
- how cost-effective are the ingredients in comparison to animal products?
- how diabetic-friendly is it?
- how yummy is it?