Thursday, January 27, 2011

First Annual National Vegan Pizza Day, Saturday Jan. 29th

Daiya is a new vegan cheese that melts and stretches like dairy cheese.
Daiya is a new vegan cheese that melts and stretches like dairy cheese.

I am so happy that non-dairy pizza is making it to the main stream!  Read on...

Posted on Thu, Jan. 27, 2011

Excellent vegan pizza is no longer pie in the sky

That's the most common response that the phrase "vegan pizza" generated just a few years ago, and now that we're approaching the first annual Vegan Pizza Day (Jan. 29), that's still the thinking of many.After all, what's pizza without cheese? And if there's one thing we know about vegans, it's that they don't eat cheese.
Actually, authentic Italian pizza doesn't require cheese. But, more importantly, here in the U.S., times are a-changing, and with them, plant-based cheeses.

In the 20 years since processed vegetarian foods started showing up in mainstream grocery stores, nondairy cheese has come a long way. The first attempts were, let's face it, pretty sad. It seemed that the particular chemistry that formed dairy cheese could never be credibly replicated in a plant-based product.
A halfway solution - still out there - was to make cheese from soy but to cheat on the texture (so that it would melt) by adding casein, a protein from cow milk.This was fine for people who only wanted to avoid lactose, but a nonstarter for vegans. Tofutti made some strides with dairy-free sliced "American" cheese, and Vegan Gourmet came pretty close to melting, and tasting, like "real" cheese.

In the past year two new cheeses, Teese (soy-based) and Daiya (tapioca and arrowroot flour), have become widely available and have raised the bar significantly.In fact, Daiya - a rich-tasting, gooey-stretchy faux cheese - played a decisive role in the opening of Blackbird Pizzeria, Philly's first all-vegan pizza joint, located at 6th and Lombard streets, where Gianna's Grille used to be.

"I wanted to do a vegan pizza place," explained former Horizons line cook (and former NYC chef) Mark Mebus, "because I love vegan pizza. But I didn't think it would be viable with soy cheese. The texture is still off the mark for a lot of people. But Daiya is something marketable to the general public - that made the idea more possible." Mebus and partner Ryan Moylan opened Blackbird last fall, grabbing some of Gianna's old clientele and attracting new folks from far and wide. In just a few months they've garnered a lot of buzz, partially because of the unique hook and partially because their pizza is really good (they also do a kick-ass vegan cheesesteak).

Earlier this month, Blackbird expanded its hours to seven days a week. It will launch a self-serve counter in time for the big day Saturday."It's great to see so many people come in," said Mebus. "Mostly young, sure, but really all different kinds of people. We get families coming in from the neighborhood, especially now that we're certified kosher." Blackbird may also have lit a fire under other area pizza ovens, or it just may be at the tip of a major trend, but in the past few months vegan pizza has been popping up in old-school pizza joints all over Philly.

It's not as if Blackbird was the first place in town to do vegan pizza (Ed's added it a year ago, as the Daily News reported last summer). And the mainstreaming of vegan eating has been heralded in several recent major articles. For me, the tipping point was when I got another menu in my door from a local cafe that blared on the front, "Now Offering Vegan Soy Cheese!" Nowadays, regular eateries are adding options to attract vegans, and regular folks are starting to give plant-based products a try, even something as counterintuitive as vegan pizza. That's music to the ears of Dan Reed, whose company, Chicago Soydairy, along with a food blog called quarrygirl.com, created Vegan Pizza Day as the last Saturday in January.
"We're trying to celebrate the phenomenon," said Reed, "and believe me, it's great to see it moving more into the mainstream."

As one of the guys behind Teese, Reed allowed that "as a businessperson, it's great" to have a day focusing on your product, but he stressed that it's not about moving units of his own brand.
"This is a celebration of all things vegan pizza, including all vegan cheese brands and even the cheeseless pizza. We're hoping to open people's eyes to the multitude of ways to do pizza."In fact, it's not just about pizza. "Food is a great way to introduce people to veganism," Reed said, adding that his own lifestyle change was spurred by learning about what goes on in dairy production. "It's just not fair, and the more you learn, the harder it is to turn a blind eye." Blackbird's Mark Mebus concurred. "Hopefully, some people will be motivated to look into veganism in general" as a result of Vegan Pizza Day. "I think people are seeing it now as a plausible thing. It's more normal than, say, that one punk-rock kid in high school."

The official website (veganpizzaday.com) is tracking venues and celebrations nationwide, with parties, promotions and meetups already booked from Indianapolis to Portland to Los Angeles. All the fun, centered on the tasty tradition of pizza, will likely help to normalize veganism further. How much further remains to be seen. "If we can convince 150 people to eat a vegan pizza on January 29," said Reed, "that's a start."
While it looks like that number's already been met, there's always room for more in getting this party started.
Grab a slice - you might find veganism's as easy as pie.

reprinted from the Philadelphia Daily News at philly.com

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The World's Comfort Food

It seems wherever you travel noodles are there for you. Soft, warm, filling ~ comforting as the billowy pillowed, worn out corner of your favorite couch. Nothing says, "home" like a warm mountain of doughy, rolled up spaghetti or a steaming bowl of Mama's chicken noodle soup. From the simplest ingredients; grains, water & sometimes eggs, comes an endless bounty of satisfying deliciousness. Pasta! Macaroni, spaetzle, trahanas, harusame, lokshen, ramen, spaghetti, udon, ragi, soba, lasagne - any way you say it - NOODLES - it's all good! But is it all good for you?

Pastas are not all created equal. Some versions are healthier than others.
Here's the deal:
The "whole" story...Firstly, white pasta, the most common in this country, is made from refined white flour. During the refining process the wheat does a striptease of its outer & middle layers (the bran and germ which contain most of the nutrients), leaving just the not-so-sexy naked starchy inner layer. So, having unrefined, fully-clothed 100% whole grain or 100% whole wheat pasta is nutritionally healthier. Truthfully, though, they are not going to taste the same, (read, not always as good) as the white pasta. If you love your white pasta the taste & texture takes a little getting used to. This is also a tricky area for sensitive insides. We want to be healthier but sometimes the fiber in the whole grain is harder to digest. So, what's a girl to do... I usually eat brown rice pasta by Tinkyada. It tastes really good, it goes down easy, has a soft texture and comes in several shapes. I also like Eden Organics kamut pasta (kuh-MOOT), a whole grain pasta that, to me, tastes better than whole wheat pasta. Other whole grain pastas to try are soba noodles (made from buckwheat), spelt pasta and quinoa pasta. Read labels. It's only 100% whole grain if it says "100%" followed by the type of grain or flour. (fyi, brown rice is automatically a whole grain).
If you're not ready to completely switch to 100% whole grain pasta, there are a lot of pasta blends out there, made from a combo of whole grain & refined flours. They are a good compromise for taste and are nutritionally healthier than the strictly white pasta. (a couple of these brands are Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Blend or Barilla's whole grain blend).



Fusilli Fofredo
Brown rice fusilli pasta
mixed with Earth Balance
and cashew cream
.
(my new favorite comfort food)
Click for
cashew cream recipe.




There's more to the story...
The Glycemic Index thickens the plot.

Here's the not-so-scientific skinny:The refined white pasta contains a high quantity of high GI (glycemic index) carbohydrates. Digesting high GI foods sets a domino effect into motion. They release sugar into your bloodstream very quickly which then dramatically spikes your blood sugar level. Initially, you feel an increase in energy & you're feeling in a spunky good mood. This then forces the pancreas to raise insulin production to counteract the steep rise in blood sugar level (the more sugar in the blood, the more insulin is produced). Insulin lowers blood sugar by converting the sugar into stored fat. (High levels of insulin signal the body to store fat). Round-the-middle-goin'-nowhere-spare tire-muffin-top-waistline-fat! Essentially, insulin is like a cheerleader for Team Fat. Gimme an F-A-T! GOOOO FAT! (Insulin blocks the hormone that's responsible for burning fat; glucagon). So, what happens next? The insulin surge makes your blood sugar come waaaay down quickly. Metabolism slows down. (Yawwwwn. It makes me so sleepy tired - I lovingly and lethargically call it Carb Crash). Are you still with me? Wake up! The peak-&-valley insulin roller-coaster can ruin a perfectly good day at the park. When your blood sugar goes way down you get tired & your body craves energy so you get very hungry... which makes you eat more... more sugar... more insulin... more tired... more fat... lions & tigers & bears, oh my! ... and it goes on...and on... from the roller-coaster to the merry-go-round. This ride is exhausting!

Low glycemic index carbohydrates (the whole grain pastas) release sugar into your bloodstream more slowly, eliminating the body's need to produce extra insulin. Your blood sugar level stays nice and even. Digestion is quiet. When you eat lower GI foods or less carbs, the insulin cheerleaders are benched with duct tape tight over their puckery-pink lipsticked mouths. When insulin levels decrease glucagon levels increase and guess what? Glucagon is what burns the fat! Your metabolism & digestion rates improve. So, what does this mean for you? If your metabolism increases, more of what you eat is digested so you store less fat. When you decrease "Insulin the Fat Storer" you increase "Glucagon the Fat Burner". Team Fat loses and laments in the locker room. No sugar highs & lows. No Carb Crash. Ahhh. Serenity now!

In addition to the 100% whole grain pastas, Dreamfields Pasta, a white pasta, has 65% less digested carbs than other traditional white pastas. While the total number of carbs is the same as other white pastas, it's got a patented formula that protects all but 5 grams of carbs from being digested, lessening a rise in blood sugar. So, you could call this a low carb pasta. It looks and tastes like your old-fashioned, best friend white pasta and is a good solution if you have trouble digesting the whole grains or you just can't get used to the taste of whole grain pastas.

The Bottom line: Use your noodle! Replace refined white flour pasta with more nutritious and lower glycemic index carb pasta. Eating lower GI foods will keep your blood sugar level even, avoiding the highs and lows of Carb Crash and lessening weight gain.