Nuts about Veganism
Happy New Year all! I hope you have had a great start to 2021 so far.
January’s guest spotlight is none other than Steven Seighman, aka. The Nut-Free Vegan. When I first started my blog in 2018, I wrote a post to thank some people in the online food allergy community for inspiring me - Steven was one of them - the blog post was called ‘We are the X people’. I have had a treacherous path with vegetarian and veganism, but I have always understood the motive and the drive behind them, and even attempted these diets/lifestyles in the past. I keep coming to the same conclusion - I can’t get sufficient protein without animal-based products. I am allergic to beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, luckily not soy (which is what my diet consisted of when I went vegan). If I could eat those sources of protein, I mentioned, I probably would be 80 -90% vegan. However, what I do-do, is focus on the lifestyle aspect what can I do to be vegan, sustainable and help the planet. As time has gone on, I realised that we should give ourselves compassion, especially for food allergy reactors. It is hard enough thinking about what you need to stay away from, putting the mental energy into if it is sustainable, might not always be plausible.
What I love about Steven’s approach is that he shares meals and recipes that are delicious, but also takes into account the allergy aspect. It must have been hard to begin this vegan journey with a food allergy, especially as nuts are normally the primary resource for vegans. He shows that you can change your lifestyle and diet to help the planet, animals and you can do it with a food allergy.
I have featured him in two other blogs in 2020, where I prepared a dish from his website. Be sure to check out Basic Mexican Tofu Scramble & Tempeh Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sanwhich - he is my go-to vegan supplier.
January is Veganuary, and it is a great way to get you started on a vegan journey, however, it doesn’t have to end on February 1st. I challenge you, to have one meal a week that is vegan! Steven gives his go-to recipes at the end of this blog - if you cannot the ingredients suggested, be sure to message him on Instagram or email him, and he might be able to help.
Tag both @the.allergytable and @nutfreevegan when you share your #veganchallengerecipes!
You might not want to cut out any more food groups from yours or your child’s diet, I get that. Why not add in - add in some more vegan options, such as another type of vegetable, soy protein nuggets, coconut yoghurt or vegan butter. I switched my milk and butter with vegan alternatives almost two years ago and I am very glad I did. Steven has much better tips, don’t worry!
Read to the end of Steven’s story, to get his tips & tricks for beginning a vegan lifestyle, recipes and make sure to leave a comment!
Steven’s Story
I was born with both asthma and an allergy to tree nuts (along with various types of pollen, animal dander, trees, grass and more). As an infant I made several trips to the emergency room for closing airways and rashes on my body. As I got older my nut allergy became milder - If I was exposed to, say, pecans I’d itch and my throat would start closing, but never enough that I required a hospital visit. Even still, nuts were not going in my diet.
I grew up in York, Pennsylvania, which is a manufacturing town encircled by farmland. When I was a child, the community there was primarily blue collar, and everyone knew at least one farmer. My elementary school class would take field trips to local farms to see how cows were milked or hens laid eggs, and our county fair had pig races every year. These kinds of things were part of the culture, and I didn’t think much of them until I was almost twenty.
I can’t recall a specific instance that made me realize eating meat was something I didn’t want to do anymore. But whatever the reason, something clicked and I could no longer eat animals. I wasn’t aware yet, of what happens in the dairy industry - and probably hadn’t even heard the word “vegan” - so vegetarianism was the path I took. As readers of this site know all too well, you really need to be aware of what you’re putting into your body. But you also need to know what you’re not getting enough of. That was a problem I ran into as a new vegetarian: I didn’t do research on nutrients. This led to some severe deficiencies, which I never actively corrected. I was lazy and didn’t properly prepare to change my diet. This time in my life occurred in the pre-internet days and during its infancy, when there wasn’t a lot of information at the click of a mouse. Because of this, I spent several years not getting the adequate nutrition I needed.
Three years later I moved to Philadelphia for a year, and then on to Seattle, where I ended up caving, after walking by a restaurant that only sold turkey dishes I was fascinated (I’m still baffled by this concept). From then on I ate meat, but only for a few years.
Despite being back on an omnivore diet, around 2010, I could feel that my conscience didn’t want me eating that way anymore. I found myself reading books like Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. What I was learning slowly sunk in and made me more aware of how my eating affected the planet. But reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals was the tipping point for me. It was a deeper examination of how food - especially in America - is produced and its effects not only on humans, but also the animals and the environment. After one chapter I declared that I was moving to a fully vegan lifestyle (meaning no animal products in my life at all—food, apparel) and haven’t looked back since.
I was probably four or five and my parents had bought me a toy ambulance big enough that required pushing it with both of my tiny hands around the thick carpet in our living room. I loved playing with it so much, but one night it occurred to me that I could use this car to be of service, kind of like its real-life analog. So, I opened its wide back door and removed the stretcher from the hollow interior and inserted, in its place, my pet hamster - Seymour. My prized possession was now a vehicle through which I could bring fun and excitement into the life of this little creature I loved. Whether or not he saw it that way is ambiguous to me now. I like to remember him like Stuart Little, racing around the living room and having the time of his life.
To varying degrees, this is how I’ve always tried to live: with compassion and in service to others - especially those without a voice. Whether that means feeding homeless cats or serving food at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving day, it’s in my nature to help. But as much as I’ve always wanted to do this, for a long time I was missing the biggest change I could make to have an impact in the world: the food I ate.
In 2010 vegan dishes included a lot of nuts. Back then there wasn’t Beyond Meat or Daiya cheese. It was all nut-based products and gross tofu dogs, but you were lucky if you could find almond butter, cashew cheese, macadamia nut milk in the grocery store (if you could have them). Unlike when I went vegetarian, I did research and figured out, not only where to get my nutrients, but also how to cook vegan dishes without nuts.
For the first few years almost all of my meals were made at home. The nut-free vegan lifestyle was so new to me that I didn’t trust anyone to make my food. Honestly, I was shy about bringing up my dietary choice around others - especially in restaurants. But as time went on, it seemed like veganism was on the rise, and since necessity is the mother of invention, new products began hitting the market. A lot of the “dairy” items still had nuts as an ingredient, but a few years ago more cheeses and milks came out that had a base of something like coconut or oats. At last, this diet was getting easier! I was able to loosen my grip on the reins and enjoy more dinners in restaurants without worrying as much about my allergies. This trend of nut-free products continues today.
My third year in Seattle I met a girl online. She sent me an instant message out of the blue and despite my attempts to ignore her, she persisted and three months later we were talking on the computer every night. Her name was Laura, and she lived in Delaware. She was on the verge of moving to New York for an internship at an art magazine. I’d been to New York a few times and loved it, so I decided to visit her. After three months, I was living in New York, too.
Laura and I got married in 2016. Our wedding was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at a place we’d visited together and loved. One concern as the planning went on was the meals that would be available, because I was now fully vegan.
Four years ago it occurred to me that I’d spent six years not only veganizing recipes but also removing the nuts from them; and if I could do it, maybe others could too. So I started my blog, The Nut-Free Vegan, as a resource, to take the fear out of a plant-based diet for people with a nut allergy. I also created it for people with allergies in general (that’s a direction I’m focusing on more in 2021). This goes back to my being of service. I love the idea of helping other people and ultimately, helping animals and the environment, too.
The blog is going well and I get emails every week or two from someone who tells me their allergy story and how I’ve helped them to move more in the direction of a plant-based diet. Getting those emails is so fulfilling that I’ll keep it going for the foreseeable future. They say that the best creative projects are the ones that scratch your own itch, which means making something that solves your problem when no one else has. That’s what I’ve done with The Nut-Free Vegan. If you’re thinking about trying it, take a look below for a few tips to make it easier to transition.
A lot of people see veganism as a restrictive diet, but that’s not true. Even if you have a nut allergy, there are still a ton of things you can eat. Instead of focusing on what you can’t have if you go vegan, write a list of the things you can have. You’ll see that there are infinite opportunities to have healthy and delicious meals.
TIPS & TRICKS
“Look at it with a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. ”
Ease into it with familiar foods
While I don’t condone living exclusively off of processed faux ‘meat’ and faux ‘cheese’ products, they are great during your transition into veganism, because they are things you’re used to eating. I still have them once in a while, but the further I’ve gone with this diet the more I’ve learned the versatility of whole foods like vegetables, legumes and grains. If you want to dive in and focus only on those, great! But things like Beyond Meat and VioLife cheese are there to help if that seems like too big of a leap at the beginning.
Use the internet
There are a lot of vegan blogs out there. Most of them have amazing recipes that you can either make outright or adjust to meet your allergy concerns. In addition to my site, a few that help you narrow your search to nut-free dishes are Vegan Richa and The Full Helping.
Ask for help
It might seem like going vegan is easy, but after a lifetime of eating meat and dairy you might get stuck. If you do, check out the New Leaf Vegan Mentor Program that Catskill Animal Sanctuary offers. It’s free, and you’ll get paired with someone who has a strong vegan background to answer any questions you might have or make you feel OK with accidentally (or intentionally) eating cheese in your Thursday dinner.
Visit an animal sanctuary
There is a disconnect between how we view the pets we live with and animals kept on factory farms. This is by design. If you’re considering veganism or not, sometimes it is good to get a little reminder of how it affects animals - visit a sanctuary and see these animals in conditions which are conducive to long, happy lives. They have personalities, they like to play and have fun; they’re no different from a cat or dog. When you connect with a cow or a goat or a chicken, it really helps to change your perspective on eating animals. There are sanctuaries just about everywhere, so chances are you can find one where you live that will let you come visit.
US - 10 Animal sanctuaries in America
THE NUT FREE VEGAN RECIPES
“For a legume-free challenge - a tip would be replace the legumes with tofu (if you can have soy), tempeh, grains like quinoa, farro and sourgum - along with tons of vegetables and you’ll cover all the nutrients you’ll lose by omitting the legumes”
Jack
fruit Carne Asada
What I love about this recipe is, its versatility. It’s basically a filling that you can add to burritos, soups, sandwiches, pretty much anything. It is really easy to make.
Green Chile Chickpea
“Tuna” Melt
This recipe is a sandwich, but like the Jackfruit Carne Asada, the chickpea “tuna” can be used just about anywhere. This is a basic recipe that remains a staple for a lot of vegans, even after they’ve been adhering to the diet for a long time. I still eat it regularly.
Sheet Pan Potatoes O’Brien
Another easy and familiar recipe, this one is so simple to make and great for when you need a quick breakfast.
Jerk Tempeh Empanadas
I love this recipe because it’s easy and it’s also really good. I love the Caribbean spices and tempeh is probably my favorite protein. I think you’ll enjoy it too.
It isn’t very hard to adopt a plant-based diet these days, even with a nut allergy. I encourage you to give it a try and see how you feel. And I’m always around if you have questions. Contact me through the website or on social media (I’m @nutfreevegan everywhere), and I’ll be happy to share whatever I can to help you along.
Steven
Instagram @nutfreevegan
Website www.thenutfreevegan.net
IF THERE IS ANYTHING THAT RESONATED WITH YOU IN THIS POST OR ON THE BLOG PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT, LIKE THE PAGE AND/OR SHARE WITH SOMEBODY ELSE. THANK YOU, FOR READING!
—> Make sure to check out my podcast with Grace Friendly DESSERTED with Lindi & Grace. The next episode will be with my best friend who is also a vegan! You will learn more of my journey with veganism and some more inspiring dishes. Available on apple podcasts, google podcasts and spotify.
New epsiodes
bi-weekly!
