Gureeva - Earthy Vegan Eats: 60 Delicious Gluten-Free Plant-Based Recipes

Founder of
EARTH OF MARIA

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TO MY MUM, DAD AND EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME THROUGHOUT MY JOURNEY TO BECOME A BETTER ME.

Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for being here, reading this book. I hope you get a huge amount of value out of it and that the recipes you make brighten your day. Before we jump into the food, I want to quickly share how I came to this point in my journey with food and veganism, and also explain the core values of my first cookbook.

Where do I start? Looking back, my health journey had countless phases and even numerous starting points given the number of times I slipped up and had to return to square one. But for us to get to know each other, Ill try to tell the story of what led to me writing Earthy Vegan Eats as linearly as possible, explaining along the way my reasoning for adopting a healthy vegan diet.

I was born in a mid-sized Russian town on an unusually cold afternoon in May. Growing up in a family of foodies with large appetites, I learned to love cooking from scratch at an early age with the help of my mum and grandma. Even before I entered formal education, they equipped me with fundamental life skillsoften when I would have preferred to spend my afternoons playing outside or mindlessly watching cartoons. But looking back, I know that without my familys influence I may not have developed my creative energy later in life.

Now, if you ever visit Russia, youll instantly recognize the importance of food to Russian culture. My childhood was no different. And while many Russian dishes are heavy in animal products, my family chose a diet centered on whole foods that came straight from the earth. In 2008, my mum and I left our entire lives behind and moved to the U.K. An astronomical change in cuisine awaited us, but we stuck as closely as possible to our old ways of eating: lots of fruits and vegetables, cooking everything ourselves, limiting restaurants and takeout to a few times a month.

My first obstacle came in my early teenage years, when I developed unhealthy restrictive eating habits and was quickly diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. Eating disorders are incredibly complicated and difficult to attribute to a single cause; I, after all, had a great relationship with food until that point, did not limit my calorie intake and stayed in shape easily through exercise. But my anxiety from school, perfectionism and a self-critical nature came together to push me over the edge; I gradually lost my carefree attitude toward food and my body.

Im glad to see that more people are recognizing that eating disorders are never as simple as just wanting to be skinny. Their complexity is exactly what makes treatment so difficult. Often, as in my case, the affected individual has to recognize that the life that lies beyond their unhealthy habits and routines is much, much happier.

I was in a relapse when I first came across veganism. At first cutting out all animal products from ones diet and life seemed radical to me, as it did to most people half a decade ago. But it didnt take a lot of research to understand why more people were switching over to a plant-based lifestyle, and why it resonated so strongly with my own core values.

I knew a little bit about where our food came from, but researching the vegan movement opened my eyes to the detrimental impact of animal agriculture on our planet and the lives of animals. Its the ethical component of veganism which had the most profound impact on me. I could no longer look at animal products in the same way, and I felt an urge to transform my whole lifestyle overnight. At the same time, I couldnt simply ignore what I was going through personally, and I used veganism as a way to reclaim my life, gain weight and change my attitude toward food.

Taking this plunge into seeing food in an entirely different way, I recovered with far fewer setbacks than I expected. With our final school exams around the corner, I knew I needed to eat and challenge myself to cut back my excessive exercise to get the grades I wanted and increase my chances of getting into my dream university, the University of Oxford.

I finally went vegan in September 2015, and I have never doubted my decision. Given my inherent love for wholesome plant-based food, I found the transition easy. Furthermore, it revived my love for food. My mum and I take an annual trip to visit our family, and when one of my best friends joined our two-week trip in 2017, the five-course meals served up to us by each household we visited surprised her, and resulted in an embarrassing number of food comas for both of us. Thankfully, everyone was fascinated with, rather than confused by, my new way of eating.

Veganism does require a lot of commitment and research. You have to be vigilant about hidden animal products andgiven the lower calorie density of a lot of vegan foodyou need to eat enough to sustain your lifestyle. For this to be a long-term lifestyle, its also important to supplement certain vitamins and minerals, such as B12. But these days, veganism feels like an inherent part of who I am and I will forever be grateful for how it changed me and my life for the better.

My upbringing had a strong influence on my journey with food and my transition to veganism. Veganism also helped me to discover my passions and skills, and I found a community which helped me grow not just in terms of my career, but also as a person.

I launched the Earth of Maria Instagram account in the summer of 2017 as a side project with zero expectations, just to test the waters a little bit and see what the whole social media thing was about. I enjoyed browsing Instagram to gather inspiration for my own cooking and quickly acquainted myself with vegan cuisine through the work of countless talented chefs. I developed my own recipes and took photos using an old DSLR camera, posting them online on a casual schedule during my pre-university gap year. I grew a small community of a few thousand, and in 2018, I got much more serious about growing my social media and also launching my website packed full of my favorite recipes.

After massively expanding my cooking skills and getting a taste of an online presence, I poured more effort into the other facets of blogging: search engine optimization, better recipe writing and photographywhich is now my favorite creative outlet. Around this time, I also switched to a predominantly gluten-free diet. I had experienced symptoms of gluten intolerance, and when I developed recipes that were both plant-based and gluten-free, I received a lot of positive feedback from people who couldnt eat gluten for medical reasons.