Tess Challis - Vegan Mediterranean Cookbook: Essential Vegiterranean Recipes for the Ultimate Healthy Lifestyle

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Interior and Designer: Peatra Jariya

Art Producer: Karen Beard

Editor: Rachel Feldman

Production Manager: Riley Hoffman

Production Editor: Melissa Edeburn

Photography 2019 Becky Stayner. Food styling by Kathleen Phillips. courtesy of Melissa Schwartz.

ISBN: Print 978-1-64152-614-2 | eBook 978-1-64152-615-9

This book is dedicated to you and to everyone who wants to live a healthier, more joyous lifeand to do so while eating some of the most delicious foods on the planet!

CONTENTS

Its easy to look at the array of vegan cookbooks and restaurant offerings available today and see two apparently contradictory options:

The anything-goes-if-no-animal-was-harmed point of view. This option is epicurean veganism. Foods that are highly processed, deep-fried, and super sweet get a green light, alongside healthier fare. People who choose this equal-opportunity eating style lessen animal suffering, protect the planet, and free their bodies from the burden of exogenous cholesterol, found only in animal foods, and from animal protein, shown through the work of T. Colin Campbell and other researchers to turn on cancer genes.

The whole-foods-plant-based-no-oil strategy (sometimes expanded to SOS: no sugar, oil, or salt). This is the dietary choice of those for whom preventing or reversing heart disease or other maladies is top priority. Extensive scientific data shows that this way of eating, focused on fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, simply prepared, can reverse coronary artery disease, something once believed impossible. Folks who stick with this dietary regimen, even though others may regard it as austere, often have breathtaking turnarounds of disease and exceptional well-being into advanced age.

These options put someone like me in a bit of a quandary. I am a vegan for the animals and, accordingly, I applaud every beef-like burger, sharp and savory nut-based cheese, and tempting vegan pastry that exists. These foods are making the world kinder. Even so, I rarely eat them. My family has a long history of heart disease, coupled with diabetes. I need to be careful. And yet, asceticism is not my jam. In my thirties, I overcame a long-standing binge-eating disorder by replacing the need to use food as a fix with love for myself and others. I began eating in a spirit of celebration, rather than deprivation.

The vegan Mediterranean approach, as described and brought deliciously to life here by Tess Challis, is poised to be the Next Big Thing. The traditional Mediterranean diet has reams of scientific support for promoting health. The veganized version has not yet been well studied, but it eliminates animal protein and cholesterol, slashes saturated fat from which the body makes cholesterol, and is likely to be lower in overall fat than its lauded predecessor. In addition, it includes even more fruits, vegetables, and beans, with their wealth of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Could it be that a good thing just got a whole lot better?

In addition, as Challis explains clearly and then illustrates with her delectable recipes, this food is satisfying for body and soul. Dishes in the culinary heritage of Greece, Italy, and the Middle East have flavor and texture profiles that leave nothing out. This is comfort food at its best: enticing, filling, nourishing, complete.

Perhaps you want to use this cookbook as a source of easy and compliment-catching recipes to supplement the way you eat and feed your family now. Or maybe youre looking to it as a springboard for going vegan Mediterranean all the time. Either way, you can expect your meals to reflect some of the color and beauty and joy of this idyllic part of the world, and you can expect your life to be a bit more bellissimo, too.

Victoria Moran

CHHC, AADP, author of Main Street Vegan and The Love-Powered Diet, host of the Main Street Vegan podcast, and director of Main Street Vegan Academy

Although Ive been vegan since 1991, I havent always been a healthy onein fact, I was an obese vegan for most of my twenties. Yes, thats an actual thing! Onion rings, French fries, potato chips, chocolate cake, and other highly processed foodscombined with a lack of exercisedidnt exactly do my body good. Looking back, I noticed that my poor and excessive eating coincided with the times I ate the least whole, natural foods.

Yes, I was still eating a vegan diet, which I believed in then as much as I do now. Avoiding animal products is one of the most powerful things we can do to prolong our lifespan, preserve the environment, and save animals from unnecessary suffering. Yet, despite feeling good about those aspects of veganism, I was pretty unhappy about the unhealthiness of my approach to eating. I remember thinking, There has to be a way to be a healthy, fit vegan but also still enjoy food. And yes, spoiler alertthis is where the Mediterranean lifestyle came in to work its magic.