Anita Bean - Vegetarian Meals in 30 Minutes: More than 100 Delicious Recipes for Fitness

BLOOMSBURY SPORT

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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This electronic edition published in 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2019.

Copyright Anita Bean, 2019

Illustrations and design by Louise Turpin

Food photography by Clare Winfield

Food styling by Jayne Cross

Photographs of Anita Bean by Grant Pritchard

Getty photographs

Anita Bean has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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The information contained in this book is provided by way of general guidance in relation to the specific subject matters addressed herein, but it is not a substitute for specialist dietary advice. It should not be relied on for medical, health-care, pharmaceutical or other professional advice on specific dietary or health needs. This book is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health or any other kind of personal or professional services. The reader should consult a competent medical or health professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Vegetarian Meals in 30 Minutes, my second collection of fitness-inspired vegetarian recipes. Its for everyone who enjoys eating delicious, healthy food not just for vegetarians and being active, whether thats working out in a gym, playing competitive sport, or simply taking a daily walk. Its for you if you have a busy life but dont want to spend hours in the kitchen or shopping for lots of specialist ingredients.

When I wrote my first cookbook, The Vegetarian Athletes Cookbook (Bloomsbury, 2017), I wasnt sure whether vegetarian cooking would appeal to many athletes, or whether the myths about needing meat to compete would prevail. Well, I couldnt have been more wrong! I was truly overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response the book received from vegetarians and non-vegetarians, athletes and non-athletes alike, and I was inundated with requests for more veggie recipes.

My aim with Vegetarian Meals in 30 Minutes is to show you how to make delicious vegetarian meals in less than half an hour that will support your sport or active lifestyle. Its a collection of my best recipes and the culmination of 25 years of experience working with athletes and teams from many different food cultures. It is also the product of cooking for my own (vegetarian) children during their competitive swimming years. As any swimming parent will know, feeding teenage swimmers is particularly challenging, as they train between two and four hours each day, mostly early in the morning or late in the evening, so they are always hungry. Needless to say, my kitchen frequently resembled a food factory!

I have my Hungarian parents to thank for my love of vegetarian food. They raised me as a vegetarian from birth. We had a big garden in rural Essex, where we grew lots of produce, and I have vivid memories of picking apples, harvesting sweetcorn and shelling peas. As a child, I was always helping my mum cook in the kitchen, whether it was stirring a vegetarian goulash, chopping onions for a lecs (a Hungarian vegetable stew) or rolling out lngos (a type of flatbread). By the time I started secondary school, Mum allowed me free rein of the kitchen to cook vegetarian meals by myself. As there werent many vegetarian cookbooks around in the 70s, I created lots of my own recipes using produce from the garden and inspiration from home economics lessons at school. And thats really where my passion for food and nutrition began. I went on to study Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Surrey.

In my career as a registered nutritionist, I have never preached a vegetarian diet nor tried to stop people eating meat, as I respect the right for everyone to have the freedom to eat the way that best fits their set of beliefs. While I choose to exclude meat from my diet for ethical, moral, health and environmental reasons, I appreciate that a vegetarian diet may not be for everyone. However, I do think that eating less meat is healthier, more compassionate, sustainable and better for our environment. As a lifelong vegetarian I have never tasted meat, so I do not know how difficult it feels to stop eating it. But, vegetarian or not, I believe that everyone can enjoy vegetarian food and benefit from eating less meat and more plants.

Growing up as a vegetarian in the 60s and 70s wasnt easy, as I was very much in a minority. Vegetarianism was practically unheard of in those days and people assumed either that something was wrong with me or that I must be part of a religious cult. They couldnt understand why I wouldnt eat a hamburger! When I told them I was vegetarian, the reaction I usually got was What do you eat then? or Dont you miss meat? Having never eaten meat, I certainly didnt miss it, and the answer to the first question comprised a very long list of foods. I enjoyed watching their jaws drop. Nowadays, when I get asked the same question (yes, still!), that list of foods has grown even longer, and I can just point people to this book.