Earth Day Extra — Introducing Vegan Stories . . . and You

I’ve had it with social media (she said, via social media).  Likes, follows, market share are all great, but they’re no measure of the real mucky business of living.  And loving. And changing. Google analytics can’t assess how something unexpected can open you up, can spark your heart, or make you nod your head and say, that’s right, that’s right. It can be an image you see, a song you hear, the words you read or something you learn from a stranger that shifts your world a degree or two. Or shifts the world itself.  Here’s where you come in.

Making a difference, a positive one, matters to me (there are worse quirks).  Study after study indicates a plant-based diet is one of the best presents you can give yourself and the planet. Going vegan reduces carbon and deforestation, saves water, animals and us.  All good reasons.  What’s yours?  My new section Vegan Stories opens a dialogue, inviting you to share why you went vegan or how being vegan has changed you. Winner, selected quarterly, will receive a free download of my e-book, Beans: A Handful of Magic.  If you’re not vegan and just hanging out, welcome.  I’m the vegan inviting everyone to the table. Help yourself to stories and recipes, including this new herbal-as-anything green-to-the-max pesto, a harvest of everything in my little garden.  Have a read, have a taste.

Plant-based diet is one of the best presents you can give yourself - Soulful Vegan Click To Tweet

As I write in Feeding the Hungry Ghost, “Both the planet and you are miracles, superior in form and function to anything we mere mortals have dreamed up.  You are madly significant. The fate of the whole world depends on you and what you eat for dinner.”

Happy Earth Day. You can make it even happier.  Yes, you.

Herbal-as-Anything Garden Pesto

This is nice slathered on crostini or vegetables. To enjoy as a pasta sauce, cook pasta in plenty of water and retain one cup of pasta water before draining pasta. Toss hot pasta with several tablespoons of pesto, add 1/4 cup pasta cooking water and toss. Add more water, as needed, till the pesto hugs the pasta completely. Season generously with sea salt and pepper. Keeps refrigerated in an airtight jar for up to 5 days.

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Servings 1 1/2 cup

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 cups sorrel leaves
• 1 cup arugula leaves
• 1 cup basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves from a nice-sized sprig of thyme
• 3 cups kale leaves
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast the nuts for 8 to 10 minutes, or until browned and fragrant. Allow to cool slightly.
• Pour the walnuts into a food processor and blitz briefly, until powdery — less than a minute. Add garlic clove, sorrel, arugula, basil, thyme and kale and process again, until mixture forms a thick, green paste.
• Pour olive oil in a slow, steady stream until you’ve achieved a gorgeous, green paste. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Thank you for reading my vegan stories and plant-based recipes. I sincerely love to connect with listeners and would like to hear your feedback, takeaways, “ah-ha!” moments, etc in the comments.

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