Talking with Janani Kumar; Plant Based Recipe Developer & Blogger

Today I am talking with Janani Kumar. Janani is a plant-based recipe developer and lifestyle coach at The Vegetarian Carnivore. Her mission is to inspire people to transition to a lifestyle that is compassionate towards all animals, the environment, and their own health. She emphasizes creating comfort food recipes, many of which are vegan recreations of traditionally non-vegan comfort foods. Janani enjoys nerding out over nutrition facts and binge watching puppy videos in her spare time.

 

Key points addressed were  

• Janani’s efforts of showing people how to veganize their favorite non- vegan meals and comfort foods to show everyone how they can lessen their carbon footprint and contribute to a healthier lifestyle whether or not they are vegan themselves

 

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to Vegan research, businesses, art, and society. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media.

TRANSCRIPTION

*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors

 

[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with plant based recipe developer and blogger Janani Kumar Key Points Addressed where Janani efforts of showing people how to Vegan ize their favorite non Vegan meals and comfort foods in order to show everyone how they can lessen their carbon footprint and contribute to a healthier lifestyle, whether or not they are Vegan themselves. Stay tuned for my wonderful chat with Janani Kumar.

 

[00:00:31] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from food and fashion to tech and agriculture, from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas. The dialog captured here is part of our ongoing effort to host transparent and honest rhetoric. For those of you who, like myself, find great value in hearing the expertize and opinions of individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to their ideals. If you're enjoying these podcasts, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Fasting and roundtable topics they can be found on our Web site. Patricia Kathleen Acom, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.

 

[00:01:29] Come back. I am your host, Patricia. And today I am so excited to be sitting down with Janani Kumar. She is a plant based recipe developer and blogger. You can find out more on both of her Web sites. My veggie hacks, dot com, as well as my plant mood dot com. Welcome, Jenny.

 

[00:01:47] Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

 

[00:01:50] Absolutely. And for those of you listening, I will proffer a quick roadmap of the inquiry for today's podcast, and then I will read a bio on Janani before we get started. So everyone has a good basis of who we are talking to today. The roadmap will begin with looking at Janani's education, professional and experience, as well as her personal story with Vegan Vegan life. All of those things will ask her then to unpack her blog. My veggie hacks ask her to look at terms as a Vegan that we all use, but I think are individually defined differently. And we'll also look at my plant dot com and what the work that she's doing there. And then we'll look at some of the particulars about recipe curation, how she decides what goes onto each of those sites. And we'll unpack the course that she offers on my plant, me dot com and other things like that. And then we'll get into we'll wrap everything up with rapid fire questions. These are based on questions that you, our audience has written in asking that we ask some of the experts in the field and the guests that we are bringing on regarding Vegan life and your inquiries within that, as promised, a quick bio on Janani before I start peppering her with questions. Janani is a plant based recipe developer and lifestyle coach at the vegetarian Carnivore. Her mission is to inspire people to transition to a lifestyle that is a compassionate towards all animals, the environment and their own health. She emphasizes creating comfort food recipes, many of which are Vegan recreations of traditionally nonbanking comfort foods. Genitally enjoys nursing out over nutrition facts and binge watching puppy videos in her spare time. You and me both generally.

 

[00:03:35] It's nothing short of mandatory for my wellness and health. That's hysterical.

 

[00:03:41] So before we kind of unpack your your two different sites and the endeavors and the work that you do within that, I'm hoping you can draw out a quick educational and professional background and experience it as well as your personal story as it kind of interrelates. I know that you draw this out really well on my veggie hack's dot com. You've got a great bio. Can you kind of enumerate on it for everyone listening today?

 

[00:04:04] Yes. So I was actually praised vegetarian from birth. I was born into a vegetarian household. Traditional, indeed, a vegetarian. And I really never questioned it. It was kind of just a given that I would say no to the hot dogs at school or the burgers at recess. And I never really questioned it. And and it really wasn't until I got to college and I was studying. I studied engineering. I have an engineering background. And as I was doing research into engineering and now understanding, well, why does this happen? Well, why does that happen? And I was really getting stuck down into, like, really, really the basics. I started to apply that in to my into my personal life, into my food choices. And I really started to become more interested in finding out where my food came from and really the supply chain, if you will. For it to, you know, get into the grocery store and play. And that was really where I learned that the diet in this country was really not all as compassionate as I could be because I learned about the dairy industry and I learned about the egg industry. And that was something that was incredibly difficult for me to stomach because I was a cheese addict, like I would be eating cheese every single day. And I, I really I didn't know the impact of that of the dairy industry. And so the college was really the dividing point for me, because college was where I had a lot of friends, you know, go from being a vegetarian to seeing, oh, well, I'm a I'm away from family, so I'm going to start not being vegetarian. Or I saw people going the other way saying, OK, well, this is my chance to actually make a change to my life that I might have not been able to make when I was living with my parents. And so for me, I went the other way and I said, I am going to start, you know, eating more plant based food and I'm going to start really understanding, you know, my impact and, you know, understand the impact that my choices are making on the world and the welfare of animals and my own health. And actually, when I started cutting out dairy and eggs, honestly, I started feeling so much better. I like my bloat, went away and I started having so much more energy. And and that was something that I was not expecting because something that the media keeps pushing on us is that, you know, you need eggs, you need dairy for it to be a strong person and to have strong bones and and all this stuff. So I was I was getting all these like I was getting all these results that were so contradictory to. What we are. We have been taught. And and so that just made me go deeper down. That's when I started vegetarian Carnivore. It started out as a vegetarian blog. And and since then, I have had a slow transition to to veganism where I've been cutting out dairy, cutting out dairy, cutting out dairy. Until one day I was, you know, I'd need any dairy at all. And so that that was probably the biggest. The biggest thing that I've done in my life is to understand that this transition is. It's not what you see on social media that you have to do it all in one day or that you have to do it. You know, in a very certain way. And you can take it at your own step. And that and that's really what I. And that's really what I did. I'm very glad that I did it. And so because of my engineering background, everything that I read and I believe and that I that I teach and that I share with my audience has to be rooted in in data. I do not believe in supporting. I do not believe in presenting any kind of claim without winning like a random eye, some piece of scientific peer reviewed journal that kind of backs it up because there is so much garbage on the Internet and it's so easy to become a statistic like that. So, yeah, that's a little bit about my thought process and how I think about it and how I think about my journey into where I am today.

 

[00:08:39] It's interesting because when I hit, you know, my veggie hack Starcom, I think that there is sometimes a disconnect between generations and there at least when I started out, you know, veganism, it felt like you needed to be a chef. The advent of the industry itself in the Vegan culture and plant based foods in general, but also Vegan foods and things like that are starting to really take over by storm over the past five years. But also the voice of it, you know, it was this very esoteric industry. And if you didn't come from a culinary place and you didn't know it like Gaga was, you were just up a creek. And now, especially with what your blog and things like that really exemplify for me is it's this voice of the young, you know, of the young Vegan, your mac and cheese recipes. You incorporate, you know, store bought cheeses, you know, in it. It's not making your own from scratch. And I think that that kind of brings in this younger, maybe college based individual who is, you know, entertaining the vegan lifestyle. And does it want to be immediately taught that, you know, you can make a cheese out of coconut oil, but rather just that there's one out there that you can make great vak, mac and cheese substitute or, you know, all of those things that we all kind of care about in addition to going to restaurants that serve those things, you know, Vegan nature as well. So I think you do a really well at kind of exemplifying this younger voice and this next generation of vegans coming up. And I love that. I'm wondering before we get into unpacking each my veggie hacks as well as my plant, Mediacom, if you can kind of suss out a couple of terms for us. I'd like to know how you define Vegan as well as plant based. And what if they are different or similar, how they connect to one another?

 

[00:10:26] Sure. And that's a great question. So I think the the general consensus among the the community, the general community is something that I don't agree with. They kind of lump Vegan and plant based as the same thing. And and I don't necessarily agree with that because for me, veganism is more of a lifestyle where it doesn't just extend to your food choices. It extends to cruelty free health care, care or makeup or, you know, choosing ethically sourced clothing. And and so to me, that's what veganism is. But but plant based is where you focus more on your food choices and where you focus on more whole foods in in a plant based diet. So that's not exclusively only only plants, but for the majority part, it is. And and so I would definitely put myself in the category as both Vegan and plant based, because there is such a term as a as a junk food vegan. And and as much as I love you and junk food, I, I love it. Those Magnum Vegan ice cream bars are you know, they're my kryptonite. But I, I do really emphasize that the importance of eating, you know, Whole Foods plant based for optimal diet because, you know, you you can't just sit around and eat, I don't know, chips all day, even though they're Vegan and expect to achieve good health.

 

[00:12:00] Yeah, absolutely. All right. And then how do you define Whole Foods? That's another term that you dropped. What what do you mean when you say that?

 

[00:12:11] When I say Whole Foods, I mean fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, grains. I eat a lot of fero, Bulger, brown rice, Qin Y. And I think those are such nutrition powerhouses that we don't necessarily see. Really, the only grain that I think in Western culture we have heard of is rice, brown, rice and now wa. But the idea of like amaranth and buckwheat and millet is still making its way to making its way up.

 

[00:12:51] Yeah, I agree. Absolutely. OK. Let's get into some of your sights.

 

[00:12:55] I first want to start with my veggie hack's dot com. When when was it launched and what is the main goal of that site?

 

[00:13:05] So I launched my veggie tax Starcom when I was a senior in college, so that was in 2000 and a teen 2018 and I it was with the sole purpose of showing people that you could have a really delicious and nutritious meatless meals. The name the vegetarian Carnivore. You know, it's kind of a it's kind of a shocking Jux juxtaposition that that really came from like a defiance. I was just I had just had it with people telling me that I couldn't eat good food, that I was missing out somehow and I just wasn't having it. I didn't want to hear that. And so when they said, I can't have chicken, I can't have Bolognese, I can't have all this stuff. I just decided that there had to be a way to. To do it without hurting the animal, to do it without hurting our bodies and to do it without, you know, emitting tons of methane into the atmosphere. So I realized that there had to be a way so that I really started the vegetarian carnivore with that intention.

 

[00:14:24] And you still have the Instagram account. You still have on Instagram. It's the vegetarian carnivore. Yes.

 

[00:14:31] OK. For everyone listening, there's that kind of connection there. There's a few different labels were throwing around. I want to read from your Web site something that kind of reached my team.

 

[00:14:41] And I said one of my goals here is to create a platform for people to read and experiment with my recipes in a way that gives them the opportunity to have more than one measly option on a restaurant menu. I want to encourage people to incorporate more vegetarian meals into their diet to give it a chance. I want us to leave a smaller carbon footprint on this planet and move toward a more sustainable future. And I think it's interesting because, you know, a lot of vegans and rightfully so to their own degree, just you know, they do not communicate with non vegan environments. They want to push people into veganism, whole vegans. But you have this kind of Meatless Monday approach in this in this rhetoric right here of years where you're like, just give it a shot, start incorporating some of these things into your diet. And because you have a reach into the younger audience, I think it is interesting saying, you know, look at some of these meatless alternatives like what you were saying before. Have a look. It doesn't always have to be this. And I do think a lot of people resonate. People with any dietary restrictions that, you know, there might be something on the menu for you. But it's one. And you'd better like whatever it is they made Vegan because there's not. Oh, yeah. You know, and I like your site for that reason. My veggie hack's does do this example of saying it's like a plethora of things like you were just saying it's everything from comfort food to, you know, these these other aspects. People think of Vegan if they're not the intent to think of salad or pasta, and that's it. And I think you do a really good job of kind of showing people that I want to switch now to my plant mooed dot com. What do you do with that? And can you tell us a little bit about the course?

 

[00:16:19] Yes. So my plant moved dot com is a Web site, you know, predominantly for hosting my course, which I launched actually this last week. My course is a plant based transition course. It is where I teach about. Well, I guess I'll tell you where it came from. First, it was born out of this. This gap in the industry that I saw about, you know, are you Vegan or are you not? Are you. It's like, are you destroyed? Are you there? And I realized that that is the single most daunting thing for someone who is who is looking for a change. But it's like you can't ask someone to, you know, just uproot their everything that they have grown up with all at once. And that is a very scary thing. You know, I'll speak for myself from experience. And so, you know, I grew up in a traditional Indian household. So even though I didn't eat meat, we ate a lot of dairy. So that goes for milk and butter and key and and cheese and and just all of our stuff is just absolutely slathered with butter and milk and and yogurt. How could I forget that? That was literally my kryptonite. Yogurt. Yogurt. Rice was like a staple South Indian comfort food. It's like our chicken soup for the soul. And and so for me, when I decided to go vegan, I realized that I couldn't I couldn't say, OK, today I eat yogurt tomorrow. I don't. I realized I had to create a sustainable transition, but there was no there was no support community for that. There was no the you know, people on the Internet, they are so polarized. You're either, you know, a vegan who is totally, like going to die of protein deficiency or you are a hardcore carnivore that. That, you know, doesn't believe in eating plants. You know, it's so there was no nice middle ground. And I really wanted to help people understand that there is a middle ground and that every every. Choice that you make should be a deliberate choice. And it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing. I think that is what really resonates with my own audience, is that it's not an all or nothing thing. You don't have to do that. And so I decided to create this course as a as an introduction to plant based nutrition and as a way to help people tramp's transition into eating more plants, whether meet them to achieve whatever goals that they want to achieve, whether they want to become Vegan, or whether they just want to, you know, improve their life and lessen their impact on this world by eating more plants. So that is what this course is intended to do. It's intended on focusing on on basics of plant based nutrition, as well as my tips for eating outside. So you don't just have that one lame option on the menu as well as like some mindset shifts.

 

[00:19:33] A lot of people say, well, I tried going vegan and I, I just I fell off the bandwagon and now I'm just eating like 10 steaks a day, you know? And it's kind of like, you know, it's it's it's not a one or the other thing. You can fall off the bandwagon. It happens. We we're all just human. Right. But what's more important is to recognize that it's OK and to get on track again.

 

[00:19:57] Yeah, absolutely, I agree. How long is each course? How is it set up? What are the particulars? How would someone get on to learn more about it?

 

[00:20:06] Yeah, so there's one course currently. I just I just launched it and it is it's an hour and a half long and you can sign up through my website. My plant, MEDCOM. And there are some really cool bonus resources that I've included as well. I've included my personal grocery shopping list so that I don't forget anything at the grocery store. It really sucks to go to the grocery store with no less. They come back and realize that I left out the maple sirup or oh, I left out like the literally the main ingredient and you don't have something left. So I've included that. And I've also included my favorite and Vegan junk food, treat, cheat. And I don't think it's really important to do that because a lot of people think of veganism as restrictive and Vegan still eat burgers. You can still eat ice cream. Vegan still eat. You know, we still eat a lot of this stuff. And I think that that a treat day shouldn't compromise on on ethics. It shouldn't compromise on taste.

 

[00:21:13] And so that's and that's the reason that I've included a vegan cheat sheet, is that the same thing is your plant based alternative checklist or is that completely different?

 

[00:21:23] My plant based alternative checklist. Is oh, gosh, I can't remember how I how I named them right now. Windrush looks like it would be like a dairy alternative.

 

[00:21:34] Like you mentioned, a lot of cooking with, like, dih and different kinds of cheeses that melt. I have these great different flavors and things and I. Right. It would be an introduction into that. And along that same line, I kind of wonder, do you feel like there will be a maturation with your as you start to garner more of a community and an audience than you already have?

 

[00:21:55] Do you think that you'll start getting into, you know, vegans who want more than just this store bought substitute? You know, there's a there's a huge line of vegans, but a lot of those cheeses, as magnificent as they taste and don't get me started on like this milk howdah and stuff like that that they've really nailed, but that don't want to deal with a lot of the ingredients that are in. There are some of the vegetable oils that people don't sign off on. You know, there's a huge body of work I won't get into it about, you know, the difference between canola versus olive oil for one's body. And I'm wondering if you will ever think that you'll take on the. Or endeavored to kind of unpack from a culinary standpoint how to make your own cheese or how to get this or get that, or do you think you'll kind of just stay with this shopping substitution, that type of it, as a Slaínte with it?

 

[00:22:44] So that's a great question. And so the primary reason that I use store bought cheeses in my recipes is to show people that it's not all that different from what they're already doing. You know? So if you go to the grocery store and you buy dairy cheddar, there is a there is a way that you can go to the store and buy plant based cheddar. So it's that comes out of a out of a desire on my part to demonstrate to people that it doesn't have to be this this complicated, long, winding method to getting your your mac and cheese. You can get your mac and cheese. And that's not a problem. But I have experimented to a really nice extent, too, with Viðga and cashew cheeses and my my Vegan spinach artichoke dip, which is on my website, actually does use cashew cheese that I made from scratch at home. And and I think that. I think that in veganism should be accessible to people who there are some vegans that I know who. Who who've never set foot in the kitchen, you know, they don't like cooking. They don't care about cooking and minimum work is the best for them. But for someone like me who you know, I thrive in the kitchen. I love being in the kitchen. And I just, you know, with the Gaga and the, you know, the the cashews and all that, all that good stuff. And so, yes, there is definitely a lot of scope for developing out more of the artisanal cheeses, if you will, and the artisanal wool substitutes.

 

[00:24:40] And to that end, how do you cure it? Which recipes you go up with? Is it kind of self led and self designed or do you take a note from your Facebook groups or people who are looking for more translations? How do you decide which recipes you're going to throw up and which recipes?

 

[00:24:55] You're not both, actually. So I always love getting feedback from from my from my followers, my viewers.

 

[00:25:05] And and to that extent, I love creating comfort food and like we've mentioned before, but when I get when I get the recipe requests for can you recreate this as a comfort food for me, that that really that really hits a really special place for me. And then I will pretty much go out of my way to to to make it, because I believe that everyone should be. It's the it kind of goes back to the to the curd rice example, the yogurt rice that I was talking about earlier. For me, that was literally the the biggest achievement of my life when I was able to make that Vegan. And and that was really the the push off point for me to say I am. I'm able to fully not eat any animal products now. Yeah. So, yes, to vote for that. And to that end. So I do like getting examples from from people. And also, I'm sorry that there might be a little lag in the connection.

 

[00:26:15] Yeah, no, it's great. I was I was just pointing out that you kind of enumerate you fully elaborate in your on your blog about that yogurt, you know, revolution and kind of the shout out to anyone, you know, of Southeast's like the Indian descent of like, you know, it's like the yogurt's here, which is true. Every culture has their, like, break of like, you know, I think the impossible burger in the States, you know, if Americans are attached to burgers, which my America isn't, but let's just say it is, you know, the impossible burger and things that we're really creating this like you cannot differentiate the moments and you really experience still that same culture. It really broke that barrier for people, which it sounds like your yogurt did for you. So I love and wondering how we're into our rapid fire questions moment now because we're kind of peeling out of time here. Janani And I'm going to ask you just a quick few questions, and this is for everyone who's listening. This is a segment that we kind of added in because we have so many people writing in and we love our audience and we want to honor you and your inquiry's with everything. So those of you that wrote in asked us to kind of posture questions to plant based recipe developers and bloggers. Here we go. Where do you see the vegan food scene in the USA headed in the next three years or California in particular?

 

[00:27:38] I am actually very, very positive about the. You can see an expansion, I follow a lot of I follow a lot of I follow veg news and I follow live kindly and I follow a lot of these Vegan news outlets on social media. It seems like every other day they're coming out with a new pop up or a new advent or a new or a new invention. And also, I think that if if Corona virus has done nothing else, it has really alerted people to the to the dangers and to not only the dangers of eating animal products, but also to the benefits of shifting to plant based. And because of this, Vegan sales have skyrocketed across the world. And and I feel very, very positive about it.

 

[00:28:25] Nice. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. What are the top three things you wish people just starting off cooking Vegan recipes would know?

 

[00:28:35] OK. Right. I think the most important thing to do is to incorporate as much color as you can into your diet. Right. So if you go to the farmer's market, you go to the grocery store, try to find something in every color, red bell, pepper, beetroot, broccoli, kale, something and every something and every color. And then just try to saute it together, try to try to experiment with it. And I mean, really, what's the worst that could happen? It it turns out botched. But but really, that's that's the most important thing. I think my and my thing. The second most important thing would be to. Don't be so hard on yourself. Right. So don't be so hard on yourself. Even if you're trying if you're cutting out meat from one recipe but really, really want to use butter. Fine. Go ahead and use the butter. It's like I said, it's not an all or nothing thing. It is about taking the small steps. And the third most important thing would be find some inspiration. Definitely. Think back on the recipes that you like. Think back on what you what made you feel happy and warm and fuzzy on the inside when you were little and. An experiment. I mean, there's there's mushrooms for me. You can make chicken tenders out of oyster mushrooms, you can use soy crumbles as a beef substitute. You can use Sainte-Anne as a chicken substitute. And oh, and while some of these are getting into the. Into a little bit more advanced, I would say style definitely. Look, to get enough calories, getting enough calories is so important. And people who are trying to restrict themselves will always feel hungry on a vegan diet or even an omnivorous diet. So get enough calories.

 

[00:30:29] Nice. Yeah. All right. And the final one is, what are your go tos forgetting Vegan inspiration and knowledge for cooking.

 

[00:30:39] Vegan inspiration and knowledge for cooking. Google, Google, Google, Google. Yeah. So I'll tell you something I'm going through right now. Actually, I'm not much of a baker. I'm I'm just just venturing out into baking. And so while I'm pretty well versed in the cooking world, the baking world is kind of like crazy. So when I when I discovered applesauce as an egg substitute, that was kind of like a like an aha moment. Like, I can make cookies now, you know, so it it's not always what you think. And and so some of the my other go to inspirations are just looking at cooking videos. It doesn't even have to be Vegan cooking videos. I look at a lot of cooking videos and then I think of stuff that I can substitute instead of the meat. So maybe beans instead of beef or or lentils or or whole grains or something. But it doesn't have to be even like a Vegan video system. So don't limit yourself by only looking at Vegan stuff. Look at everything and then see where you can substitute something out. Just put a different source of protein, put a different source of put nutritional yeast instead of parmesan.

 

[00:31:58] Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And I'd love to make some nutritional yeast with hem parts.

 

[00:32:04] It's going to feel like palmy oceanic moment to it as well. And also going on off your tandem, the just a quick tent, like a side note, is cheap seeds and tablespoon of water. Ground seeds is a great substitute for an egg. Yes. Which I love. And I love applesauce. I love doing both of those because the applesauce cuts out half the sugar. Right.

 

[00:32:27] Getting healthy. Yes. Absolutely. Those things really do as the chief seeds add like the omega 3s too. And they're filling. They're filling like I put them into cookies actually last week. And I had one cookie and I was like, well, I don't feel like having a second cookie. So that kind of cut down that craving.

 

[00:32:46] Yeah. I won't make any baked goods without throwing in flax. And she said I won't just because it's such an easy way to deliver your omega 3s and they are so righteous for you and the studies being done on them, vegans and non vegans alike is just you know, it's it's they're tantamount to not having them in one's diet. And we are out of time. And and I want to say thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate like all of that. You're so expansive. You know, you have so many different areas you go into. And I really do appreciate you kind of like drawing out each point of what you're doing. Hopefully we can bring you back around after another year or so and find out where all of your endeavors with, you know, my plant mood and maybe other courses that you have moving forward have kind of ended up.

 

[00:33:33] I would love that. Yeah, it's been great to be here.

 

[00:33:36] Absolutely. And for everyone listening, we've been speaking with Janani Kumar. She's a plant based recipe developer and blogger. You can find out more on both her Web sites, my veggie hack's dot com, as well as my plant mooed dot com. And until we speak again next time, thank you so much for giving us your time.

 

[00:33:53] And remember to stay safe, eat responsibly and clean and always bet on yourself. Slainte.