Basically the title, I am a very picky eater, and I’ve been eating the same 5-6 things for decades (mostly white meat with rice and potatoes). I want to switch to veganism but I simply don’t know much about cooking or food. Are there any websites/guides you could recommend to me.
Thank you.
Just substitute the white meat with a vegan option?
I guess firm tofu gets close. It tastes about the same if you don’t do anything with it as unseasoned white meat, i.e. pretty much nothing. Rest is up to you, rice and potatoes are vegan as it is.
Tofu is great marinated and that doesn’t exactly require any cooking skill, if you can mix ingredients together and panfry things you’re good to go on that one. Price depends on where you are I guess, Tofu definitely has even cheap meat beat in my part of the world.
As for learning how to cook, I think it’s best to look up recipes that sound like something you’d want to eat (in vegan) and then googling all the fancy cooking words to see if you can pull it off / have the equipment. All the super fancy pan-fried-to-perfection or something is for professional chefs and meat-nerds who don’t actually know how to cook anyways. You put the thing in a hot pan, make sure it actually sizzles instead of steaming and bob’s your uncle.
If you’re not a good cook and not creative, just buy a vegan cookbook that’s somewhat easy. Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking is one that comes to mind, since as the minimalist name suggests, she focuses on making recipes that need very few ingredients and are pretty simple. Her website is here. Maybe make a goal to cook so many things out of that a week and write down what you need to make them before you go shopping.
A few others I like:
Bad manners has some really solid recipes that aren’t too difficult.
There is an iOS and android app I like called Food Monster that has a huge library of recipes and they make it searchable by ingredients. It’s really cool, but it is a paid app.
If you like, chicken, rice, and potatoes, maybe start making some interesting switches in that dinner. Obviously you can use tofu or tempeh instead of meat, but maybe try a different source of protein like some roasted chickpeas, or some nice herby white beans. Try swapping in a different starchy veg like sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, or squash instead of the potatoes, try some other grains like farro, millet, or wheat berries. A lot of these are just as easy to cook and can be much healthier and more interesting. Try to incorporate some greens like kale, chard, spinach, or broccoli.
If you start eating plant based full time, you will need a supplement for B12 most likely. I just take a cheap, vegan multivitamin from Costco, but you can find them at any grocery store or pharmacy.
I actually was extremely picky too. I barely ate any vegetables and didn’t eat any fruit (still don’t actually, they’re gross). I found it easy to introduce like one vegetable at a time very slowly. Like I ate broccoli when a friend made me a pasta with broccoli. I got used to that taste in different things, found a recipe to cook broccoli in the oven that was easy and just kept slowly introducing stuff like that. I’m still introducing new things. Seems like you have good resources on recipes, but I wanted to share there’s hope for us picky eaters lol. I never thought I’d be exciting to eat asparagus with dinner but now I am.
Thank you, I am exactly in your scenario, so this comment is very encouraging.
Happy to help! I definitely know how intimidating it can be lol
A really easy way to cook broccoli in the oven is coat in olive oil, add some salt, black pepper, paprika, then cut up some garlic and place it around the broccoli. Cook on 400 F for 20 minutes. It’s quick and easy and tastes good.
