We checked in with sisters of Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg, authors and owners of Spork Foods and Sporkonline.com, for vegan inspiration and cooking tips for the new year. Spork Foods specializes in vegan foods, providing organic vegan cooking classes, in-home consultations, and catering in Los Angeles, CA. Engle and Goldberg are co-authors of the wildly popular Spork-Fed Cookbook.
We checked in with sisters of Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg, authors and owners of Spork Foods and Sporkonline.com, for vegan inspiration and cooking tips for the new year. Spork Foods specializes in vegan foods, providing organic vegan cooking classes, in-home consultations, and catering in Los Angeles, CA. Engle and Goldberg are co-authors of the wildly popular Spork-Fed Cookbook.
Q&A with the Spork-Fed sisters Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg
1. What inspired the Spork sisters to go vegan?
We were both very motivated by the environmental and political statement that a person makes when they become vegan. This was something we were exposed to in college as we both studied environmental science, Jenny at UC Santa Cruz and Heather at San Francisco State University. We were influenced by different friends of ours, and professors in college who introduced us to the connection between the degradation of the planet and the meat and dairy industry. As soon as we learned about this we decided to be vegan (separately but each with our bestie), and now, 12 years later we are still as devoted as ever! Soon after learning about the environmental connection, we also became educated on the health benefits and animal rights issues. Today we have about a billion reasons for being vegan and along the way we have converted our parents!
2. What are five tips for new vegans to make their diet exciting and something they want to adopt for life?
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- Go vegan with a buddy — Having someone by your side to cook with, do dishes with and talk to about the whole experience will help keep you on track.
- Make weekly visits to your local farmer’s market — Fresh fruits and veggies are where it’s at. With organic fresh produce you hardly need to spice anything up at all.
- Educate yourself — Watch documentaries and read books to understand the many reasons that people go vegan and how they were inspired to stick with it. We recommend reading Skinny Bitch and Eating Animals, watching Bold Native and Vegucated, subscribe to VegNews, and go to lectures and veg fairs. You will meet like-minded individuals and make new friendzies.
- Stock your pantry — You can’t make delicious food without delicious ingredients! Don’t be afraid to buy all sorts of spice blends and do a pantry revamp! Good food doesn’t come out of thin air.
- Learn how to cook — Buy our cookbook, Spork-Fed, or joining our online classes. We’ve already created a bunch of resources for you to help enrich your cooking repertoire to keep you excited and satisfied all year long. Your sporkies are here to help!
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3. What are your favorite products for vegan substitutions for dairy, eggs, meat, and honey?
OH! This is a complicated question with lots of answers for specific dishes!
As far as dairy, we use almond or soymilk. (Video: How to make cashew cheese)
For eggs sometimes we use EnerG Egg Replacer or if we want something like an omelet or quiche we will blend up tofu with tons of flavors and goodies in our food processor.
For meat we use tempeh, seitan, tofu, beans, nuts, etc.
For honey we love brown rice syrup!
4. Where do you see yourself in five years?
We see ourselves continuing to work together as sisters and getting the word out about how amazing vegan cuisine is…the rest is a secret!
More on the vegan diet!
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