A System for Vegan Eating

At last writing, I was looking forward to the release of I Can Cook Vegan. It's here! I've read it, but haven't yet made any recipes.

The recipes look great and Isa's writing is entertaining as always. Still, I realized there was something I was hoping for from it that I didn't get: a system for composing vegan meals.

I've had, since I was very young, a guideline for composing dinner. It's my mom's ideal, and it is practically reflexive with me: a protein, a starch, a hot vegetable, and a cold vegetable. I've expanded what fits in those categories over the years. The great carb controversies have left me often using beans as the starch where in previous decades that slot went to potatoes, rice, bread, and other grain dishes. Cold vegetable usually means salad. And some meals bring all these pieces together, such as my lentil stew which has lentils in quantity to cover both the protein and the starch, and vegetables enough to cover both servings.

Even with the flexing I've done to that formula over the years, it shapes most of the meals I make. And it causes me to stumble sometimes when I want to plan a vegan meal.

Look at that lentil stew! It's a lovely, warm, filling meal, and it's also an awkward fit to protein-starch-veg-veg.

Time to throw out protein-starch-veg-veg? Time to make a different archetype for my meals? I'm not sure yet.

But my mind is on systems, and I have a feeling something tasty is on its way.