Speaker 1: Like thinking about restaurant cooking, people are not cooking from
Speaker 1: scratch to finish for your order. For every recipe, we
Speaker 1: are prepping things in advance, like say blanching and shocking vegetables,
Speaker 1: so that once we go to saute them to order,
Speaker 1: they take a minute or two. They don't take the
Speaker 1: twenty minutes that the carrot might need. So these are
Speaker 1: strategies that professional cooks used too. It's just looks and
Speaker 1: feels different at home, and I think that's sometimes our
Speaker 1: notion of how to.
Speaker 2: Have something fresh at home sort of.
Speaker 1: Gets in the way of us being as efficient and
Speaker 1: effective as possible.
Speaker 3: You are listening to the Plant Based Diet podcast, where
Speaker 3: we talk about all things plant based. I'm mister Garfin,
Speaker 3: the host of this show and founder of Alternative Food Network.
Speaker 3: Join me in my amazing array of guests who are
Speaker 3: a mix of healthcare professionals, industry executives, and people with
Speaker 3: an interesting story to tell about their plant based journey.
Speaker 3: Let us help you with your journey wherever you're at
Speaker 3: to learn the what, why, and how to eat plant based.
Speaker 3: It's good to be back. Welcome to season five of
Speaker 3: the show. I've really never imagined that I would be
Speaker 3: hosting a podcast, let alone it running for this long,
Speaker 3: but you guys seem to want it, and since I'm
Speaker 3: a proponent of plant based eating, We'll just keep going
Speaker 3: on this journey together. This episode is being released in January,
Speaker 3: which is, of course, New Year's Resolution time. If one
Speaker 3: of your New Year's resolutions is trying to eat healthier
Speaker 3: and incorporating more plant foods into your diet, this episode
Speaker 3: is going to help you kick it off and will
Speaker 3: also give you tips on how to be successful with it.
Speaker 3: And who better to help than a plant based chef.
Speaker 3: I'm joined by doctor Chef Stephanie White, who is currently
Speaker 3: the director of Education at Auguste Escafier School of Culinary
Speaker 3: Arts and she also helped develop their plant based programs.
Speaker 3: She holds a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Culinary Arts
Speaker 3: Management from the Culinary Institute of America, a Master of
Speaker 3: Arts in Food Studies from New York University, and a
Speaker 3: doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Maryville University. Now, before
Speaker 3: we get going, I wanted to let you know that
Speaker 3: Culinary Medicine Recipe, which is another series produced by Alternative
Speaker 3: Food Network, which is the same company that produces This
Speaker 3: show is currently starting its second season. It's hosted by
Speaker 3: Triple Board certified physician doctor Sabrina Falk, and she's combined
Speaker 3: her passion for medicine and food to become a culinary
Speaker 3: medicine expert. Culinary medicine is a fairly new, evidence based
Speaker 3: field of medicine that blends the art of food and
Speaker 3: cooking with the science of medicine to prevent and treat disease.
Speaker 3: To quote one of her fans, doctor Falk has a
Speaker 3: fantastic scope across both the kitchen and in health, which
Speaker 3: allows her to reach many demographics with great comfort. I
Speaker 3: invite you to tune into Culinary Medicine recipe on your
Speaker 3: favorite podcast listening platform or on the Alterilternative Food Network website,
Speaker 3: which is Alternativefoodnetwork dot com. And now let's get started
Speaker 3: with the first episode of season five. Welcome to the show, doctor,
Speaker 3: Chef Stephanie. So nice to have you.
Speaker 4: It's so nice to be here. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: It's you know, it's always fun to have a chef
Speaker 3: on the show. I don't have many chefs, but when
Speaker 3: I do, I really think it's a great addition to
Speaker 3: the show because it helps people put into practice a
Speaker 3: lot of what we talk about on the show, which
Speaker 3: is plant based eating, and then they get to hear
Speaker 3: from a chef and maybe get some ideas for recipes
Speaker 3: and things like that. So I always love having a
Speaker 3: chef on the show.
Speaker 4: Awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm happy to help with the applicability and how
Speaker 1: to make it happen.
Speaker 2: It's one of the best things about being a chef.
Speaker 3: Awesome. And speaking of you being a chef, how did
Speaker 3: you get into this whole area?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's it's always a good question to
Speaker 1: to think about.
Speaker 4: I think we can.
Speaker 2: All probably think about how did I get to where
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 4: To begin with?
Speaker 1: So, how I ended up in the hospitality industry now
Speaker 1: in culinary education. Growing up, I was very into food.
Speaker 1: It was my way of connecting with other people. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed baking. Growing up, I spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: with my grandparents and we had these raspberry bushes where
Speaker 1: we would harvest them and sell bushels of them, and
Speaker 1: the court containers and stuff like that. So I sort
Speaker 1: of fell in love with the food production side and
Speaker 1: seeing like fresh vibrant raspberries, like in the peak of
Speaker 1: the sun where it's kind of warm and it glistens
Speaker 1: in your hand.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It was just really beautiful as a kid, and I
Speaker 1: loved that I was able to do something with my
Speaker 1: hands and then be able to nourish and provide it
Speaker 1: to somebody else. So that's really where it started. How
Speaker 1: I then ended up in the industry. It sort of
Speaker 1: meandered over time. When I was in high school, I
Speaker 1: started really critically analyzing the food system. It's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why I went to study ecology, and for me,
Speaker 1: it really led me down a path towards veganism because
Speaker 1: of where the American food system was.
Speaker 2: I felt like it was the best way, especially as.
Speaker 1: A teenager with a limited ability to make any food
Speaker 1: choices myself, to have some sort of control and what
Speaker 1: I was able to buy into essentially, So that's really
Speaker 1: where it started for me. It's twisted and meandered a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. I worked in high volume cookery,
Speaker 1: I worked at a yoga institute and retreat center, and
Speaker 1: west of Master choose It, I worked in the wine
Speaker 1: industry in Germany, so I kind of went around, did
Speaker 1: my tour. I got a master's in food studies and
Speaker 1: then Throughout this time, I really worked a fair amount
Speaker 1: with teaching kitchen. So when I was in my undergraduate
Speaker 1: at the Culinaries to America, we had this feasibility pilot
Speaker 1: study looking at health and wellness principles and that was
Speaker 1: a collaboration with the Samuelly Institute.
Speaker 4: And Harvard's Public School of Health.
Speaker 1: So I sort of fell in love with teaching during
Speaker 1: the pilot study and you know, being able to see
Speaker 1: other people really learn to love food through health, So
Speaker 1: that always stuck with me. And then when I was
Speaker 1: finishing my master's, I was working for some other company
Speaker 1: and I got this call saying, Hey, there's a teaching
Speaker 1: kitchen on an organic farm in Cincinnati, Ohio. They're part
Speaker 1: of this teaching kitchen collaborative. Would you want to be
Speaker 1: the chef there? And it was like everything was sort
Speaker 1: of aligning, It made total sense. Nobody else kind of
Speaker 1: questioned as soon as I told them why I was moving.
Speaker 2: To Ohio from the East Coast about.
Speaker 1: That life decision. So that's really where I started being
Speaker 1: much more.
Speaker 4: In the education space.
Speaker 1: I was at Turner Farm for quite a number of
Speaker 1: years and we did a lot of work with University
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, as well, and then I transitioned to aescafaie,
Speaker 1: which is a really amazing online education. We also have
Speaker 1: two campuses, one in Boulder, Colorado and one in Austin, Texas,
Speaker 1: but I work in the online space. I started a
Speaker 1: faculty member and then sort of moved up through administration
Speaker 1: as I was working on my doctorate. So I think
Speaker 1: that's probably the short way I can explain how I
Speaker 1: ended up in this space.
Speaker 3: And you created at Askafia, you created their plant based programs.
Speaker 1: Correct, so they already were developing it once I got involved,
Speaker 1: but I really helped to develop the recipes and the
Speaker 1: content and curricula for it, so they sort of had
Speaker 1: this scaffold of how they wanted the program to come together,
Speaker 1: and I had the really amazing opportunity to help write
Speaker 1: a lot of the content for it. And then once
Speaker 1: we sort of had all this content developed, I helped
Speaker 1: actually record a lot of the these recipe videos for students,
Speaker 1: so they're cooking in their own homes, which is a
Speaker 1: really amazing way for them to get a call in
Speaker 1: education without having to move states or totally upheave their
Speaker 1: life and the process. But the way that we're able
Speaker 1: to have professionally done demonstrations for them is by having
Speaker 1: them recorded in a film studio. So I got to
Speaker 1: do a large bulk of our plant based recipe videos
Speaker 1: and then as a sort of a mid level administrator,
Speaker 1: I oversaw that program specifically for quite a while. We
Speaker 1: also have a holistic nutrition wellness program that I was overseeing.
Speaker 1: So they're very near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. And the for the audience who's listening, and
Speaker 3: given that it's the beginning of our fifth season, we
Speaker 3: might have some new listeners. Can you help them understand?
Speaker 3: When you say plant based versus vegan, let's say, right, well,
Speaker 3: what does plant based mean to you?
Speaker 1: You know, that's an awesome question. I think it's one
Speaker 1: that continues to evolve. For me, plant based is much
Speaker 1: broader than if somebody were to say I'm vegan. Veganism
Speaker 1: is plant based. However, it's not the only way to
Speaker 1: be plant based. So when I think about what being
Speaker 1: plant based is is it's predominantly whole foods that are
Speaker 1: plant based in origin, So you can still consume animal
Speaker 1: products following a plant based diet. However, it's much heavier
Speaker 1: on plants, and I like to see it as something
Speaker 1: where you minimize the amount of processed food as well.
Speaker 1: But obviously there are a lot of variations on that.
Speaker 1: Like when some people say I'm whole food plant based,
Speaker 1: many of them may not do a lot of seed
Speaker 1: oils or other ingredients like that, so it can really
Speaker 1: it sort of depends on who you're asking to define
Speaker 1: plant based. But for me, it's much more focused on
Speaker 1: how do we make plants taste delicious along with grains
Speaker 1: and lugomes and really beautiful products, spices and herbs and
Speaker 1: things that really make dishes sing beyond sort of are
Speaker 1: especially in America and North American general, the like meat
Speaker 1: centric focus we've had as a society for a long time.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of changing that narrative of what's the
Speaker 1: center of the plate?
Speaker 3: Okay, And now I want to talk about the person
Speaker 3: who's just starting out, and also for let's say someone
Speaker 3: who's been, you know, trying to eat more plant based
Speaker 3: foods for a while, how to keep them successful at it.
Speaker 3: So let's let's start with it's January. Let's say New
Speaker 3: Year's resolution, you want to get on a plant based
Speaker 3: what would you suggest to them?
Speaker 1: I know this sometimes can sound try, but start small
Speaker 1: is such an important element to any lifestyle changes. So
Speaker 1: when we're thinking about plant based cooking, you can think
Speaker 1: about what dishes do you already, like, what do you
Speaker 1: like making on a daily basis, You know what's in
Speaker 1: your repertoire already, what are you confident cooking? From there,
Speaker 1: thinking about, okay, how can we either change the ratio
Speaker 1: of what's in this dish so it's more plant heavy,
Speaker 1: or how can we start adding whole grains, or how
Speaker 1: can we add in additional fruits and vegetables that may otherwise.
Speaker 4: Not be there.
Speaker 1: So starting with what you're already confident in and then
Speaker 1: finding small tweaks I find is much more sustainable than
Speaker 1: being like we're gonna throw everything out of the pantry,
Speaker 1: we're starting from scratch. That works for some people, but
Speaker 1: generally speaking, when we're thinking about behavioral changes, that is
Speaker 1: not a sustainable behavior.
Speaker 4: So I would say start.
Speaker 1: Small, find little things that you feel comfortable changing or
Speaker 1: adding or tweaking, and then from there build on that.
Speaker 1: So maybe set a goal every week to try a
Speaker 1: new vegetable or to change the portions of how many
Speaker 1: whole grains or lagums that you're consuming in the week
Speaker 1: in comparison to some of the other items you might
Speaker 1: be consuming. That's really where it would start, especially if
Speaker 1: it's somebody who's never done this before but really wants
Speaker 1: to get into it. It can feel really overwhelming really quickly,
Speaker 1: and that can lead to a lot of people being like, well, screwed,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it, And that's not the point. None
Speaker 1: of us are perfect, and I think that giving us
Speaker 1: ourselves grace and process as well to try things, even
Speaker 1: if you're not hitting your goal one hundred percent every
Speaker 1: single week, thinking about what worked really well, maybe some
Speaker 1: hurdles that you had, how can you approach them in
Speaker 1: the future. That way you're continuously evolving and practicing and
Speaker 1: gaining confidence.
Speaker 3: And even if you're starting small, as you suggested, can
Speaker 3: you give some examples of maybe basic staples that someone
Speaker 3: should have in their pantry or in their fridge or wherever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely so, thinking about we'll start with the
Speaker 1: pantry first, so a lot of things that can be
Speaker 1: really helpful to make a wide variety of dishes, so
Speaker 1: you're not like, I know this one dish and I'm
Speaker 1: only going to eat chickpeas.
Speaker 4: I love chickpeas.
Speaker 1: But they get old just like any other food if
Speaker 1: you're consuming it on a daily basis, So finding different
Speaker 1: varieties of I like dried beans because.
Speaker 4: They're more economically friendly than canned.
Speaker 1: That being said, it takes longer to soak them and
Speaker 1: then cook them, so.
Speaker 4: Canned it's totally cool.
Speaker 1: Still, I tend to also recommend trying to do lower
Speaker 1: no sodium if you're going to go the canned route
Speaker 1: for beans. But those are really great stables because you
Speaker 1: can puree them into different types of hummices, or make
Speaker 1: them into a sauce, or you can use them in
Speaker 1: a braize, you can roast them. You can do so
Speaker 1: many different things with them and their shelf stable, which
Speaker 1: is awesome.
Speaker 4: I also really.
Speaker 1: Love lentils, which is one of the reasons why I
Speaker 1: shared a lentil soup recipe, because they cook so fast
Speaker 1: unlike other lagomes that you don't have to pre soak them.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of different types of lagumes as well.
Speaker 2: We've got brown, green, red, you.
Speaker 1: Know, think about the different dolls that are out there
Speaker 1: as well, so you can really play with the flavor
Speaker 1: that you're using with lagoomes. So I think lentils tend
Speaker 1: to be quite forgiving, especially if you're using it in
Speaker 1: a soup application. I find that sometimes if you're cooking them,
Speaker 1: like brown lentils into a salad, fabulous and lovely and
Speaker 1: an excellent way to incorporate them. But for somebody who
Speaker 1: may not be confident or comfortable cooking lentils just yet,
Speaker 1: you may accidentally overcook them. So when you put them
Speaker 1: in a soup, it's very forgiving because you can't really
Speaker 1: overcook it. So it's a really nice nice way to
Speaker 1: start off other sort of pantry items. So thinking about
Speaker 1: whole grains, mostly everybody probably has rice, but branching out
Speaker 1: in the types of rice that you have, going from
Speaker 1: white rice can be totally fine, but thinking about brown
Speaker 1: rice can be a really great way to add additional
Speaker 1: fiber and minerals and new you know, like it can
Speaker 1: be a very simple switch that can be beneficial. But
Speaker 1: also thinking about other grains and how they can bring
Speaker 1: different flavors and textures, so quinoa and faroh and barley.
Speaker 1: There's just so many different options. So I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: go to the store buy them all, serve with a
Speaker 1: few and start introducing them, see how you like them,
Speaker 1: and then from there, thinking about like what should be
Speaker 1: in a fridge, It's fridge is going to look different
Speaker 1: for everybody. So I will say like condiments like dijon
Speaker 1: mustard or other things like that can be really helpful
Speaker 1: when you're making different dishes because they're pretty stable and
Speaker 1: they're going to complement a lot of flavor profiles. But
Speaker 1: thinking about different veggies, I really like to cook in
Speaker 1: the season or seasonal cooking, which is going to look
Speaker 1: different for probably all of our listeners depending on where
Speaker 1: they're listening to this at any different time exactly, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. So when we think about seasonal cooking, what's
Speaker 1: seasonal in Toronto in January versus what's seasonal in California
Speaker 1: in January is going to look totally different, and so
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's locally available can be a
Speaker 1: really nice way to stock fresh items. But I also
Speaker 1: really love toting frozen produce because it's picked at its peak,
Speaker 1: which means that it's not you know, with some fresh
Speaker 1: produce that's distributed halfway across the world, it's spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time and in that process to train start
Speaker 1: breaking down, so it's not as fresh. But when you
Speaker 1: buy frozen, even if it's out of season, it's.
Speaker 4: Fresh and it was picked when it was in season.
Speaker 1: So that can be a really nice economically friendly option,
Speaker 1: and it makes it so that if you're in the
Speaker 1: middle of the winter and in a place that's not
Speaker 1: conducive to a lot of growing during the winter, you're
Speaker 1: not just relegated to.
Speaker 4: Root vegetables. Although I love root vegetables.
Speaker 1: They're fabulous and delightful and super complex and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of them, so you can have fun with it.
Speaker 1: But I think we all have that seasonal fluctuation where
Speaker 1: at some point where like man I miss as sparious
Speaker 1: or man I miss those strawberries. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the key thing is finding little tricks like frozen items
Speaker 1: that can help create more variety but also kind of
Speaker 1: honoring the seasons.
Speaker 3: And frozen's economical as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And when it comes to the fresh seasonal fresh,
Speaker 3: how would one know? I mean we kind of know
Speaker 3: what's seasonal, Yeah, but maybe there's someone out there who
Speaker 3: just doesn't know what is a seasonal vegetable in their area.
Speaker 3: Are there any resources or anything where they could Yeah,
Speaker 3: before they go to the supermarket, they just go, oh, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: I should be looking for this because it's seasonal. It's
Speaker 3: just going to taste.
Speaker 4: Better, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, that's an excellent question because I think especially if
Speaker 1: you're you're not exposed to it, how could you know
Speaker 1: with our globalized food system, because we go to the
Speaker 1: grocery store and there's zucchini in January, even if you're
Speaker 1: in a northern state or in Canada or any you know,
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world where that's just not in season,
Speaker 1: but we have it available, which is a blessing and.
Speaker 4: Curse with our food system.
Speaker 1: So one resource that I really love is seasonalfoodguide dot org.
Speaker 1: They have an entire platform that you can basically plug
Speaker 1: in where you are one.
Speaker 4: Month or like beginning or end of the month.
Speaker 1: Is I will say that like it just gives a
Speaker 1: general viewpoint of what may be seasonal.
Speaker 4: In your area at that time.
Speaker 1: That being said, what is going to be available locally
Speaker 1: in your area can depend on microclimates, It can depend
Speaker 1: on your local growers.
Speaker 4: And like I live.
Speaker 1: Pretty close to Cincinnati, I'm in northern Kentucky and we
Speaker 1: have a lot of really cool local farms that use
Speaker 1: really great growing methods to extend seasons. So there are
Speaker 1: a lot of farms that actually do have lettuce in
Speaker 1: January in the area. It's local, it's fresh, but it's
Speaker 1: been grown and a hoop house so it stays warm.
Speaker 1: So we have it available, but you wouldn't otherwise expect.
Speaker 3: Where did you say it was grown in a what house?
Speaker 4: Like a greenhouse? Yeah, it's like a greenhouse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So basically it helps trap in the heat so
Speaker 1: that it creates.
Speaker 4: The environment where because if otherwise, if.
Speaker 1: You just grew lettuce outside of your house in the snow,
Speaker 1: it's it's not going to last very long. So there
Speaker 1: are different ways that also indoor farming and vertical farming, aquaculture, aeroponics,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different ways to grow food locally
Speaker 1: that then extends or changes the notion of what's in season.
Speaker 1: So the seasonal food guid is a really grecious overview
Speaker 1: of like what's generally available in my area. From there,
Speaker 1: what I tend to recommend is get a little curious
Speaker 1: and find out if you have any local markets in
Speaker 1: your area, because that's a really great way to just
Speaker 1: see like what's available at a farmer's market, because that
Speaker 1: is going to be local predominantly, and you get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk to farmers who can tell you about
Speaker 1: how they're growing it or what's going to be in
Speaker 1: season next month, and you build a relationship and a network,
Speaker 1: but also build your knowledge.
Speaker 4: So tons of online.
Speaker 1: Resources, but I do also think even though we live
Speaker 1: in a very digital era, there's definitely something to be
Speaker 1: said about connecting to the people that are around you
Speaker 1: in your community.
Speaker 3: Okay, and since we're talking so much about vegetables, do
Speaker 3: you have a favorite way of preparing vegetables?
Speaker 1: Oh, you know, also seasonally driven, so like thinking about
Speaker 1: the winter. I really love doing braises and roasts because
Speaker 1: it's a really awesome way thinking about like brut vegetables.
Speaker 1: When you roast them, it brings out some of that
Speaker 1: natural sweetness that's in them. So I know, beats can
Speaker 1: be very divisive for some folks because they can be
Speaker 1: quite earthy. But there's golden beats, there's chioga beats, There's
Speaker 1: tons of different types of beats, which it can also
Speaker 1: change of flavor profiles of them. But when you roast them,
Speaker 1: they just naturally get sweeter from the residual sugars that
Speaker 1: are in them, So it can kind of become like
Speaker 1: candy in a way. I mean, I wouldn't eat it
Speaker 1: as a dessert, although you can't totally use beets in dessert,
Speaker 1: not relegating that, but generally speak, it's a really awesome
Speaker 1: way to prepare them. You can do it in large batches,
Speaker 1: so it makes a lot of sense for meal prepping.
Speaker 1: I think that's another strategy, especially if you're new to
Speaker 1: plant based or trying to get into it, figuring out
Speaker 1: how you can prep in large batches so that you're
Speaker 1: not continuously making things from scratch every single day, because you'll,
Speaker 1: unless you really love to cook and you have a
Speaker 1: lot of time, that can become cumbersome as well. So
Speaker 1: finding ways to say, roast beats, then you could do
Speaker 1: the beets in a salad, or you could actually pure
Speaker 1: some and make us spread for sandwiches.
Speaker 4: You can do a bunch with that.
Speaker 1: So I would say during the winter, I really love
Speaker 1: roasting produce, but during the summer I like a lot
Speaker 1: more raw applications or even pickling things because then you
Speaker 1: get the nice brain acidic crunch to it. So it
Speaker 1: just depends. But I would say right now, especially with
Speaker 1: cold I'm I'm going roasting.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, you mentioned batch cooking, and I would imagine
Speaker 3: that's a great way to keep someone successfully eating plant
Speaker 3: based because you're trying to save time in the kitchen
Speaker 3: as well. Do you have any other tips about you know,
Speaker 3: once people have started, what can keep them going and
Speaker 3: being successful with plant based eating?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so similar to batch cooking, thinking about how you
Speaker 1: can strategically use your ingredients for multiple different dishes. So
Speaker 1: not just making like I'm going to meal prep the
Speaker 1: same thing Monday through Friday.
Speaker 4: Some people love that.
Speaker 1: I will say that I get bored of the same
Speaker 1: thing pretty quickly. So what I like to do is
Speaker 1: prepare food items, so say those beets, or say I
Speaker 1: do a big badge of rice. I don't incorporate other
Speaker 1: ingredients just yet until I go to finalize my dish.
Speaker 1: That way, say, for the example of the rice, I
Speaker 1: could use that as a component for dinner, maybe with
Speaker 1: some I don't know, roasted tofu with chimney, chery sauce,
Speaker 1: and some veggies. But then if I have more rice
Speaker 1: that I have prepped, I could use it to make
Speaker 1: fried rice one day. If I didn't add any spices
Speaker 1: to it, I could even turn it into rice pudding.
Speaker 2: If I had leftover rice that I was like, I
Speaker 2: just got to.
Speaker 4: Use this now.
Speaker 1: So when you prep in batches, like pretty much straightforward ingredients,
Speaker 1: you can use them in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: Some folks will call that prepping over, which essentially is
Speaker 1: sort of like leftovers but intentional. So that is definitely
Speaker 1: something that can be really advantageous, particularly if you're trying
Speaker 1: to make this sustainable, but you don't want to be
Speaker 1: in the kitchen every day, or like be in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: but just you know, to finish things, to heat things up.
Speaker 1: That can be a really lovely application. The other thing
Speaker 1: that I love to do, which is batch cooking, but
Speaker 1: if you do want to make an actual meal, so
Speaker 1: say this, say our lentil.
Speaker 4: Soup, you make a big batch, but then you.
Speaker 1: Can freeze it into smaller portions so that as you're
Speaker 1: going throughout a season, you can pull it out in
Speaker 1: small batches so you're not like, I got to eat
Speaker 1: a gallonus soup?
Speaker 4: What am I going to do?
Speaker 1: And not that that's necessarily a bad predicament, but it
Speaker 1: can be a boring predicament. So so I find that
Speaker 1: if you freeze in smaller portions.
Speaker 4: It becomes much easier, especially.
Speaker 1: If it's like you had a really long day you
Speaker 1: didn't get to the prep that you wanted to do.
Speaker 1: If you have something in your freezer that you can
Speaker 1: pull out pretty quickly, it can be a really great
Speaker 1: way to stay consistent with whatever your goals are, but
Speaker 1: not feel like.
Speaker 2: You have to like suck it up and start cooking.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So, while soups are great for freezing, you can do
Speaker 1: other things like casserole dishes and things like that that
Speaker 1: freeze really well. There's a lot of things that freeze
Speaker 1: pretty well. You can even freeze whole grains once they're cooked.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll do that with keen wass. I'll cook it
Speaker 1: and then put it on a sheet tray to cool
Speaker 1: down rapidly. That way, you don't accidentally overcook your quene wall.
Speaker 1: But once it's cool you can put it into. If
Speaker 1: you like doing glass containers, you can otherwise like plastic
Speaker 1: airtight containers. You can lay them flat and then you
Speaker 1: can kind of stack them in your freezer. That way,
Speaker 1: if you're putting together a dish and you really want
Speaker 1: to grain really quickly, but you don't want to cook
Speaker 1: it from scratch, you've got it in the freezer, you
Speaker 1: just heat it up and then it's part of it.
Speaker 1: So I would say that that can be a really
Speaker 1: effective way to help keep going without it feeling like
Speaker 1: a burden constantly.
Speaker 3: I'm always amazing, you know. Every now and again I
Speaker 3: meet someone who does not like to freeze things and
Speaker 3: does not like leftovers, and I'm like, why, they're the
Speaker 3: best things ever.
Speaker 4: I love both.
Speaker 1: But that's one of the reasons why with like leftovers,
Speaker 1: I try to be very strict, like explain that you
Speaker 1: can be strategic about it so it's not just like
Speaker 1: I'm reheating the same thing over again. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: you can use those elements for other things, so you
Speaker 1: give it a new life. It's no longer a leftover.
Speaker 1: It is just something that you prepped in advance. Like
Speaker 1: thinking about restaurant cooking, people are not cooking from scratch
Speaker 1: to finish for your order. For every recipe, we are
Speaker 1: prepping things in advance, like say blanching and shocking vegetables,
Speaker 1: so that once we go to saute them to order,
Speaker 1: they take a minute or two. They don't take the
Speaker 1: twenty minutes that the carrot might need. So these are
Speaker 1: strategies that professional cooks used to. It just looks and
Speaker 1: feels different at home, and I think that's sometimes our
Speaker 1: notion of like how to have something fresh at home
Speaker 1: sort of gets in the way of us being as
Speaker 1: efficient and effective as possible.
Speaker 3: That that was a little behind the scenes restaurant behind
Speaker 3: the scenes there. That's great you mentioned the lentil soup
Speaker 3: and that you had provided us with a recipe. And
Speaker 3: for those of you who are listening and are wondering
Speaker 3: where this lentil soup is, it's going to be in
Speaker 3: our monthly newsletter for January. So if you are not
Speaker 3: already signed up to our newsletter, you can go on
Speaker 3: Alternative Foodnetwork dot com and sign up for the newsletter there.
Speaker 3: I'll put a link in the show notes as well,
Speaker 3: but that's where you will find Stephanie's lentil soup. Now,
Speaker 3: one thing I wanted to ask you vegetables need to
Speaker 3: be organic.
Speaker 4: You know, it's a really great question.
Speaker 1: I think it's one that plagues a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and it's an important question because organic growing can be
Speaker 1: really beneficial to our soil but also to what we're consuming.
Speaker 1: I like to reference the environmental working groups Dirty dozen.
Speaker 1: They also have a separate list called the Clean fifteen,
Speaker 1: which essentially what they do is a lot of research
Speaker 1: in looking at the residual pesticide that may be on
Speaker 1: specific food items or crops. So they curate this list
Speaker 1: every single year based on the data that they're gathering,
Speaker 1: and essentially that Dirty dozen is the vegetables or produce
Speaker 1: because there's also fruit unless so I'm going to say
Speaker 1: produce that may have the highest sort of concentration or
Speaker 1: residual pessicides on them. So I would say going organic
Speaker 1: can be really beneficial for those twelve beyond that you know,
Speaker 1: or organic growing. It's a good thing to support. That
Speaker 1: being said, it's not always the most economically friendly for everyone,
Speaker 1: and I think that's where some people might feel defeated
Speaker 1: as like I can't buy everything organic, so I can't
Speaker 1: do this, when really, I mean like that dirty dozen
Speaker 1: is a good tool. That being said, when we're thinking
Speaker 1: about local growers, that can be an awesome way to
Speaker 1: connect with farmers locally. Because not all farms have organic
Speaker 1: licensing it's expensive, but many other farmers, especially smaller farmers,
Speaker 1: may use those principles or something even better than what
Speaker 1: the standards are, but they're not able to use the
Speaker 1: label because they haven't bought into the certification, the whole
Speaker 1: certification process. So I tend to recommend, like, if you
Speaker 1: don't have the capacity to start researching local farms and
Speaker 1: figuring that out, I would say focus on the Dirty Dozen.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, though, there are a lot of amazing opportunities
Speaker 1: for produce that are not specifically organic, and that is okay,
Speaker 1: but that is sort of a good area of opportunity
Speaker 1: for folks if they do want to consume organic, but
Speaker 1: may have price considerations. I think most of us have
Speaker 1: to consider price on pretty much everything. Keep saying exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: and you know, it is sort of just a reality
Speaker 1: right now. So I would say, if you really want
Speaker 1: to buy into organic, I would go for the Dirty dozen.
Speaker 4: Beyond that, if you do have the time.
Speaker 1: Start just chatting up some local farmers to see what
Speaker 1: their growing practices are. Many of them do also have
Speaker 1: websites these days. It's not like farms are totally online,
Speaker 1: just sometimes not all websites will have it. But farmers
Speaker 1: love to talk about how they grow their food, so
Speaker 1: it's not a hard conversation to have. They're also depending
Speaker 1: on where you live, different types of food co ops
Speaker 1: that may aggregate, so it's kind of like farmers' markets,
Speaker 1: but some of them will even have online distribution, and
Speaker 1: sometimes they are also really great at at finding out
Speaker 1: how people are growing in your area and sort of
Speaker 1: if you feel confident and good about those growing practices,
Speaker 1: because are you know?
Speaker 4: Organic can be great not just for our.
Speaker 1: Health, but like I said before, our soil health, which
Speaker 1: is incredibly important than for the nutrient density over veggies
Speaker 1: now but also in fifty years. So it's an important
Speaker 1: thing for us to consider. But there are different ways
Speaker 1: for us to approach it beyond just looking for a label.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I think we've reached the end for this episode,
Speaker 3: but I do want to ask you if someone is
Speaker 3: interested in finding you, where should they do that.
Speaker 4: That's an excellent question.
Speaker 1: So if you're interested in finding more about Escafier that
Speaker 1: is ees C O, F F I E R dot edu.
Speaker 1: My contact information through Skaffia is on the websites under
Speaker 1: the chef Instructors tab.
Speaker 4: We have all of our bios there.
Speaker 1: They're amazing faculty members and many other folks beyond me
Speaker 1: that make the magic happen there. So if you ever
Speaker 1: want to contact any one of them, I'm sure they'd
Speaker 1: be happy.
Speaker 4: To Outside of that, For me personally, I am on.
Speaker 2: Instagram at doctor Chef Andy, so it's.
Speaker 1: Pretty easy to find me on this but Skaffee is
Speaker 1: definitely probably the easiest way to get a hold of me.
Speaker 2: I've got my email and work number there.
Speaker 1: But I'm always happy to hear from anybody, whether or
Speaker 1: not you're just dabbling into plant based or if you
Speaker 1: know you're trying to make this your life's pursuit. Wherever
Speaker 1: you are on your journey, I'd be happy to hear
Speaker 1: from you.
Speaker 3: Well, it was great to have you on the show.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that you were on to kick off
Speaker 3: the season, and really I hope some of the tips
Speaker 3: will help our audience.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure and I do hope the tips help,
Speaker 1: and like I said, if people need more tips, I'm
Speaker 1: always around to help.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I hope you found this episode helpful. Please share, rate,
Speaker 3: leave a review, and follow Plant Based Diet on your
Speaker 3: favorite podcast listening platform and on the Alternative Food Network
Speaker 3: YouTube channel, where you can also find recipe videos. If
Speaker 3: you're on social media, Please follow Hello Us on Instagram.
Speaker 3: At Alternative Food Network, we also publish a monthly newsletter
Speaker 3: that includes plant based recipes, our latest podcasts, and the
Speaker 3: occasional giveaway. You can sign up by going on our
Speaker 3: website at alternativefoodnetwork dot com and click the newsletter sign
Speaker 3: up button. Until next time, thanks for listening. All content
Speaker 3: provided or opinions expressed in this podcast or for informational
Speaker 3: purposes only, and are not a substitute for professional medical advice.
Speaker 3: Please seek advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare practitioner.