‘Turning vegan was as much of a shock for me as it was for all my friends’, says Áine Carlin, who six years ago was settling down to a new life with her husband in Chicago, devouring Reuben sandwiches (the cult corned beef and melted cheese toastie), crab cakes, and local steakhouse specialities on nights out, as well as hosting feasts for friends at home.
They were still cooking from scratch, and enjoyed a wide range of foods, yet over time the newly-married couple realised they ‘weren’t feeling tip-top’. The decision to cut out animal products wasn’t taken, at least at first, for ethical reasons, Carlin explains, but was instead a response to ‘an accumulation of little niggles, like dry hair, brittle nails and skin that wasn’t too great. We’d put on weight, too.’
It was time for a culinary overhaul, time to purge ‘all the processed food and all the c—’ from their diet, and they acted quickly: ‘overnight, we just cleared out our fridge, giving food to friends, and within three weeks we were amazed at how much better we felt’.
Gone were the troublesome skin breakouts and hangnails, and they had shed those extra pounds. ‘Simultaneously,’ Carlin says, ‘I learned more about the ethical and environmental impacts of meat eating, and realised that we’d made a good lifestyle choice.’
Derry-born Carlin now lives in Mousehole with her husband, where their kitchen surfaces are lined with vintage glass jars filled with ingredients, and her approach to veganism is, truly, a breath of fresh Cornish air.
‘Being vegan doesn’t define me,’ she stresses, ‘and I don’t like the finger-wagging approach often associated with veganism’. Far from preaching to her friends and family, Carlin was more concerned with making sure that her cooking remained inclusive: ‘when I told my very good friend I was turning vegan, she was worried that we wouldn’t be able to cook together, as we had always enjoyed.’
Because being vegan can sometimes mean feeling solitary and isolated, especially when eating out, Carlin has endeavoured to promote the big-group, sharing-food ethos on her blog, peasoupeats.com, and in her cookbooks.
The latest, The New Vegan, where these recipes are from, is as much a guide for first-time vegans (with advice on how to survive the inevitable family interrogation, as well as navigating restaurant menus), as it is a tempting recipe collection for anyone looking to reduce their meat intake (even if only on a part-time basis, a la Beyonce), or give Veganuary a blast (yes, it is actually a thing).
Try Carlin’s comforting casseroles, filling pies and lip-smacking lunch ideas (roasted cauli fattoush; or the miso-mushrooms below), and you’ll not even notice they’re minus meat.
Recipe: Layered No-Bake Pesto Tart
