Vegan January, Part 1 – Overview

Part 1 – Overview

Almost every year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is related to veganism, usually something like “go vegan three days a week.”  While I do try every year to succeed, it usually doesn’t last very long, and my attempts become woefully unhealthy.  On my “off” days, I tend to consume more dairy than I would normally because I’m either anticipating a day when I won’t be able to have it or coming back to something I love that I wasn’t able to eat for a whole day.  On my “on” days, I tend to focus more on what I can’t eat than what I can, so I make generally unhealthy eating decisions that border on just not eating or grazing on anything in the house (crackers, etc.) that doesn’t contain dairy.

My Reasons for Doing Veganuary

Last year around this time I had just finished a series on the benefits of Community Supported Agriculture.[1]  In my research I discovered just how bad cheese is for the environment from a carbon footprint standpoint (and was duly heartbroken).  Renewed in my commitment to lower my own footprint, I modified my New Year’s resolution so that I didn’t have a certain number of days when I had to be vegan, but rather simply cooked more vegan food.  I made at least one vegan dish a week, and, while I didn’t buy any new dairy products at the store, I allowed myself to finish whatever I had in the form of Christmas cookies or cakes so they wouldn’t go to waste.

Since my focus was on making things that I liked to eat (that just happened to be vegan), rather than eliminating things I couldn’t eat, it was a far easier mental shift, and I wound up eating far less dairy in the long run.  Of course, as most New Year’s resolutions do, this one lapsed for me pretty early in 2021.  As much as I love cooking, it’s usually the first thing to go when I’m busy.  Most evenings when I’m tired, it’s all I can do to boil water for spaghetti and spoon pesto out of a jar.  As the pandemic continued, we still avoided eating out to an extent, but delivery became much more common in our house.

So, given that I’ve got an incredibly busy couple of months ahead of me at work, I seemed to think it would be a good idea to go completely vegan for January this year as part of the “Veganuary” movement.  Another part of this decision is my desire to eat healthier foods, which I do when I actually cook for myself. And I do cook for myself when I assign myself an unreasonably difficult food-related task, like participating in the Whole30 Challenge [3] or subscribing to a Community Supported Agriculture program. I also have friends who participate in Veganuary and encouraged me to join this year – there’s something to be said for peer pressure.

Popular Reasons for Doing Veganuary

Veganuary is a UK-based charity that advocates for veganism, most notably through its annual challenge, which started in 2014. Their mission is “to inspire and support people to try vegan, drive corporate change, and create a global mass movement championing compassionate food choices with the aim of ending animal farming, protecting the planet, and improving human health.”  The month-long challenge has seen increasing numbers of participants every year, with over half a million registered in January 2021.[4]

According to their website, participants give three major reasons for going vegan: animal welfare (46%), improved health (22%), and reduced environmental impact (21%).  There was a significant chunk in “other” (11%) which did not provide additional detail as to what other reasons might be, but a piece by the BBC may lend some insight here. A 2016 survey showed that, after those first three reasons, people (particularly young people) were going vegan to take control over their dietary content, to follow a trend or a celebrity endorsement, and/or to take advantage of more vegan food options becoming available.[5] 

What I hope to do in this series is examine each of the main three reasons listed above in further detail.  Where possible, I will explore the pros and cons of the argument, including popular perceptions (or misconceptions) and the relative amount of impact. And I will be doing this while on a vegan diet for the longest amount of time I have ever tried it: one month.  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating that I see food choices as a personal decision, and I have never lectured others on what choices they should make.  This series is meant to be informative, not preachy.  If it helps you make decisions that you believe better align with your individual values, I will consider that a win on my part as a researcher/writer.

Recipe: “Pork” and Sauerkraut

I prefer to make vegetarian/vegan dishes that highlight the ingredients in the dish, rather than trying to hide the lack of meat or make up for it with a meat substitute.  However, there are some times that call specifically for meat, or something that resembles it.  Pork and sauerkraut is eaten for luck on New Year’s Day in Pennsylvania Dutch families, so to kick off Veganuary, I tried two different “pork” products in this traditional dish.

The two candidates were Tofurky’s “plant-based ham style roast” [6] (the name alone made Christian gag) and Field Roast’s “plant-based celebration roast.”[7] Tofurky is, as the name would suggest, part tofu, with wheat gluten as its other major source of protein.   The Tofurky flavor and texture was reminiscent of vegetarian hot dogs, which was not what I was hoping for from this dish. The Field Roast option uses wheat gluten as its major ingredient, but also incorporates whole foods that I love, such as squash, apples, and mushrooms.  While no one would have confused the Field Roast “meat” for real meat, I vastly preferred it in this dish, mostly from a flavor standpoint, but the texture and appearance were better too.

The recipe was simple enough – so simple that it’s not even what I would consider a recipe. I even put the pork roasts in frozen, making as little work for myself as possible.

Combine the following ingredients in a slow cooker, stirring occasionally until everything is heated through:

• 1-2 “pork” roasts (the ones I found looked small, so I used two)
• 1 jar sauerkraut
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, diced

For reasons we’ll cover in the weeks to come, I’m not a big fan of using mock meat products, but New Year’s Day was a special enough occasion that it called for a low-effort meal with a fancy ingredient.

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Have you ever tried Veganuary, or would you?  I’d love to hear about your experience below.
Happy New Year to you and thanks for reading!

Keep Reading –>

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[1] https://radicalmoderate.online/community-supported-agriculture-part-1/

[2] https://imgix.ranker.com/user_node_img/50089/1001766397/original/truth-hurts-photo-u1?auto=format&q=60&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&dpr=2&w=375

[3] https://whole30.com/

[4] https://veganuary.com

[5] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5PBX369GxWfBHFHFRrkCvCl/seven-reasons-why-people-are-going-vegan

[6] https://tofurky.com/what-we-make/roasts/ham-roast/

[7] https://fieldroast.com/product/sage-garlic-roast/

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