Accidentally Vegan + Recipe

At the beginning of this year (2018), I started to record each day whether I ate vegetarian, vegan, meat, or fish. My aim was to get 3-5 days of the week eating vegan/vegetarian, 2-3 fish or meat. I hit the goals pretty well and for the first two months, without much pressure to be vegan/vegetarian, I was eating vegan/vegetarian for half of the days of the month (non-consecutive days, but for example, 14 days total in February). After about three months, I felt as though I was actively trying to be vegan/vegetarian at all costs everyday, rather than just recording what I ate. Also, I would try and avoid to have a taste of something with butter (for example, something my flatmates offered me) so that I could record as having a 100% vegan day instead of a vegetarian one. So, I decided to stop keeping track of my diet each day and just eat what I wanted. However, it would be interesting to do it now, and truly only record it without trying to alter it, as I notice there are several days that I find I eat accidentally vegetarian/vegan and I may well still hit those goals without trying. So, I may start it up again and let you know.

In spite of that, for anyone who is full-time vegetarian/vegan, I have massive respect. The reason I attempted to monitor and reduce my animal product intake is because the benefits to the planet are massive. Reducing consumption of animal products is the single largest way to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses. What I did not realise at first was that ‘animal products’ includes milk! Thus, this is the rationale of the vegan diet. I’m not trying to villianize animal products or drinking milk, but rather I’m simply trying to raise awareness, as when I became more aware, I was able to reduce my animal product consumption without infringing upon my enjoyment and happiness, but also eliminate things that were not absolutely necessary.

I normally do not consume any milk products when I eat at home or cook for myself, so going ‘accidentally vegan’ is a common and easy occurrence for me! And I think that eating ‘accidentally’ vegan/vegetarian is the best for me, because then I don’t feel as though I’m restricting myself at all, but I just eat what I want and it happens to be nice for the planet as well. I think what was surprising to me when I did this challenge at the beginning of the year, was that I found it really natural for me to eat vegetarian or vegan regularly. It was also a gift to my bank account.

To be clear, I love to eat everything and I really do love eating vegetables. My friends can’t believe it when I say there’s nothing that I don’t eat or don’t like. Below is a photo of one of my meals—pescatarian, with smoked mackerel—and you can see the quantity of vegetables I eat at a normal meal time… And it’s genuinely not because I feel like I should or I’m supposed to. It’s embarrassingly the case that I really enjoy it. I think that’s why it’s quite easy and natural for me to be vegetarian or vegan, because when I’m not extraordinarily hungry I can just eat vegetables or salad with some hummus or olives and that is a vegan meal.

Because I like to eat this way and I also have a passion for cooking, I’ve decided to share some recipes! I have gotten some questions from friends asking for good recipes in the past, so without photos (yet) I’ve decided to begin sharing my favourite, simple and delicious ‘accidentally vegan’ recipes. The first is a zucchini and white bean salad! I will share other recipes as well, not just vegan ones, but I thought I’d start off with this one, as it would please everyone—except for the courgette (zucchini) haters. It’s a handy one to make ahead and eat when you don’t have time to cook or are too hungry to wait to make something (which happens to me a lot). I adapted this one from The Clever Carrot’s Provençal White Bean Salad.  Basically, I simplified it, and I still find it incredibly delicious even though it’s even simpler than it already was! I love the cannellini beans it’s made with, which I think are absolutely delicious. I had this for dinner one night after a run, straight out of the fridge, and it was perfect for a warm summer evening, after a hot and sweaty run.

Serves one very hungry person, or a side for several 

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini (courgettes, for the Brits)
• 1 can of cannellini beans
• large handful fresh herb (parsley and/or basil), chopped
• olive oil
• red or white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 sprigs of fresh oregano, optional

First, I cut the zucchinis into half disks, about 1 cm thick. These I sautéed in olive oil until they were cooked through and soft. I then added them to the cannellini beans I previously rinsed. Next, I finely chopped up the leaves of parsley to add to the mixture of the zucchini and beans. This was then mixed together. If you’re not serving the salad immediately, I would wait for the dressing although it’s probably fine to put it on in advance as well, it just depends on how you like it. Later, when I was ready to eat the salad, I mixed together olive oil (around 1-1.5 tablespoons) with maybe 2 teaspoons of vinegar (I don’t measure these quantities out, I just do it by eye). This ratio can be adjusted to your liking, although I find I prefer it with more oil than vinegar. I added dried oregano and dried basil to this dressing and whisked it together before pouring it over the salad. I seasoned it with salt and pepper throughout, but don’t forget to do this at the end as well in case it is missing either!