Don’t miss the 1st Annual VegFest Houston, presented by the Vegan Society of PEACE. This community event for all ages will be held in the heart of the historic Montrose District in Houston, the nation’s 4th largest city! The theme for VegFest Houston 2011 is “Promoting an ethical, compassionate and sustainable world for all.” VegFest will include Houston’s superb vegan restaurants, guest speakers, live music, Kids Zone, food demos, vegan vendors and services, product samples, educational films, community booths, green businesses, and prize giveaways. Admission is free! The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is proud to be a sponsor of this exciting vegan festival.

WHEN: Saturday, June 11, 2011; 10 am – 4 pm
WHERE: Pecore Hall and St. Stephen’s Campus, Houston, Texas
WEB: http://www.vegansocietyofpeace.org/vegfesthouston
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: (832) 3030-VEG

This article originally appeared in Vegetarian Journal Issue 4 2010. To subscribe, either: join VRG online with $25, call us at (410) 366-8343 and order by phone with your Mastercard® or Visa®, or complete this form.

Vegan Cooking Tips
Mashed and Stuffed Potatoes
By Chef Nancy Berkoff, RD, EdD, CCE

Rule number one for making mashed or stuffed potatoes is to select baking potatoes, such as Russets, Idahos, or Oregon-type potatoes. If you can, store the unwashed potatoes in a cool, dark cupboard, pantry, or drawer. Colder temperatures allow the potatoes to convert a lot of their sugar to starch. Believe it or not, even a white potato tastes better when some of its sugar develops.

When you’re ready to start cooking, wash and scrub your potatoes under cold, running water. Get them really clean so you can eat the skin. (Much of a fruit or vegetable’s nutrient content is close to its peel, so the more peel you can leave on, the better.) Don’t soak your potatoes; that will make them soggy and remove some of their nutrients. Also, don’t use hot water. It will start cooking the outside of the potato, but the inside won’t catch up.

BAKING THE POTATOES

Before you mash or stuff your potatoes, you’ll need to bake them. It is easy to make a great baked potato. You’ll want the baking temperature to be very hot, approximately 400 degrees for a standard oven. Allow washed potatoes to dry, prick in several places, place on an ungreased baking sheet, and allow the potatoes to bake until a fork can poke a hole easily in the center. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on your oven and the size of the potatoes. Once your potatoes are baked, allow them to cool only until you can safely handle them. Cut the baked potatoes in half lengthwise, scraping the flesh into a heat-proof bowl. If you intend to serve stuffed potatoes, make sure you save the skins.

FLAVORING THE POTATOES

OK, you are now ready to mash, and maybe stuff, your potatoes. If your freshly baked potatoes are dry, you can add small amounts of heated soymilk or heated broth. Try mushroom broth since it works really well! For creaminess, mix in some vegan sour cream or silken soft tofu. This is the base for your potato. For flavorings, consider adding minced fresh onions or fresh garlic, finely minced (almost puréed) celery, prepared horseradish (usually sold in a jar in the refrigerated section at the supermarket), or finely chopped fresh chilies. For seasonings, use your favorite seasoning blend or a small amount of ground white pepper (which can pack some heat!), dried parsley or rosemary, red pepper flakes, or nutritional yeast. If you’d like some ‘add-ins,’ think about tossing in minced fresh mushrooms, finely minced vegan sausage or Tofurky™, minced broccoli or cauliflower florets, or minced black or green olives.

MASHING AND STUFFING

Stir, mix, and mash the flesh from your baked potatoes until the flavors are mixed in and you have the consistency that you’d like. If you are serving mashed potatoes, place the amount you’re going to serve into a microwaveable container to reheat, or reheat on the stovetop, stirring to prevent burning. To make stuffed potatoes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place your saved potato skins on an ungreased baking sheet. Fill each skin with flavored mashed potatoes and bake just until hot. To add flavor to your potato skins, rub them with the cut side of a fresh garlic clove or onion, or rub on a bit of soy sauce. You can also use seasoned vegetable oil you’ve made yourself. Sprinkle oil with your favorite dry herb, such as black pepper, onion flakes, or ground sage, and lightly rub into the potato skin. Adding these flavors can be done before or after baking the potatoes. After the potatoes are baked, you can garnish them with chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped fresh bell peppers, shredded vegan cheese, chopped pecans or walnuts, or a mixture of several items.

We have one needs-based internship still available. The Eleanor Wolff Scholarship is a $2,500 paid internship at the VRG office in Baltimore for a student who is motivated to use the knowledge and skills they gain from the internship to impact and make effective change on behalf of vegetarianism.

Eleanor Miltimore Wolff became a committed vegan late in life. Once she learned and understood that dietary choices affected not only one’s personal health, but also the health of the planet and the well being of the animals, there was no looking back. Leather shoes and purses, along with non-vegan food products went out the door. Her children and grandchildren were showered with vegan reading material. When she exercised she would sport a T-shirt proclaiming: “I think, therefore I am — a vegetarian”. Eleanor was a military censor during World War II, but there was no censoring her commitment to a plant based diet and lifestyle.

In her memory, the Eleanor Wolff Scholarship is a $2,500 paid internship at the VRG office in Baltimore (plus $1,000 toward housing) for a student who:

1. Wants to be an effective change agent on behalf of vegetarianism
2. Is motivated to use knowledge gained from the internship to make a significant impact within his/her world
3. Could not participate in this development effort without a little financial assistance

VRG also offers unpaid internships.

If you would like to apply for a VRG internship, please send a resume, writing sample, and cover letter detailing your interests, skills, goals, and vegetarian knowledge to:

The Vegetarian Resource Group
P.O. Box 1463
Baltimore, MD 21203

or e-mail to [email protected]

For more information about the Eleanor Wolff Scholarship and to view what past recipients have said of their experiences, click here.

by Jeanne Yacoubou, MS
VRG Research Director

Wendy’s now offers skin-on French fries made from whole Russet potatoes and seasoned with sea salt. Ingredient information posted on their website indicates that the “natural flavors” used in these fries are vegetable-derived. All other ingredients appear to be all-vegetable or synthetic.

The VRG called Wendy’s in May 2011 to find out more information about this new side menu item. We spoke with Rachel, a consumer relations specialist. When we asked if the Natural-Cut French Fries were all-vegetable, she replied “I can read off the ingredients from the list to you; that’s all I can say.” When we inquired whether she would confirm that the fries were all-vegetable, as they appear to be, she would not confirm it.

Rachel stated that there is no designated fryer for French fries at Wendy’s. In fact, the fries are cooked in the same oil as Wendy’s fish and chicken products. Rachel also said that “even if there were designated fryers, cross-contamination [with meat products] would still be possible because the cooking oil used in all the fryers would be filtered at the same time.”

Wendy’s Natural-Cut French Fries are available at all participating Wendy’s restaurants nationwide.

The following study participation request is from a doctoral student at Walden University. This research is part of a doctoral dissertation examining the health status of vegans vs vegetarians as measured by BMI (Body Mass Index).

Please click on the following link to access the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FJVXJGC

A reader was told by his doctor to reduce his intake of oxalic acid and asked about oxalic acid content in foods. This is what VRG Nutrition Advisor Reed Mangels, PhD, RD had to say:

Some soy products are high in oxalic acid. Others have lower levels. Generally, for people who avoid oxalic acid due to kidney stones, a food containing 10 milligrams or less of oxalic acid per serving is considered acceptable in limited amounts. Researchers in Iowa looked at how much oxalic acid was in a serving of tofu and found that the following brands had less than 10 milligrams of oxalic acid in a 3-ounce serving:

• Pete’s
• Mori-Nu
• Hinoichi
• PacSoy
• Soy Deli
• White Wave
• Azumaya
• Nasoya
• Small Planet

Of all the brands they tested, only Soy Deli had more than 10 milligrams of oxalic acid per serving.

They also found that 1 cup of Pacific Soy and WestSoy Soymilk (the only brands they tested) had less than 10 milligrams of oxalic acid. Soy sauce was also found to be low in oxalic acid. General recommendations that I’ve seen for a low oxalic acid diet call for 2-3 servings daily of foods that have 2-10 milligrams of oxalic acid per serving. Foods falling into this category would be 3 ounces of tofu, 1 cup of Pacific Soy soymilk, 1 cup of WestSoy soymilk, 1 tablespoon of roasted soynuts, and 2 Tablespoons of soy nut butter (not low carb soy nut butter).

Soy foods that are too high in oxalic acid for many low oxalate diets are edamame, textured soy protein, and tempeh.

Speak with your doctor and dietitian concerning your upper limit of oxalic acid.

The reference for the study on oxalic acid in soy products is:

Al-Wahsh IA, Horner HT, Palmer RG, Reddy MB, Massey LK.
Oxalate and phytate of soy foods.
J Agric Food Chem. 2005 Jul 13; 53 ( 14 ): 5670-4 .

The USDA has published a table of the oxalic acid content of vegetables at:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Other/oxalic.html

This scientific article also has information about oxalic acid in some foods:
http://www.nature.com/ki/journal/v57/n4/pdf/4491506a.pdf

The Oxalosis and Hyperoxaluria foundation has published tables of oxalates in foods.
See: http://www.ohf.org/docs/Oxalate2008.pdf

The contents of this blog, website, and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.

To Support VRG research and education, please donate at:
https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=1565

Come visit VRG’s booth at these events!

• Ecofair 2011 – Reisterstown, MD – 6/5
• Federal Hill Jazz Festival – Baltimore, MD – 6/5
• Richmond Vegetarian Festival – Richmond, VA – 6/18
• VegFest Colorado – Golden, CO – 7/2
• Naperville-Chicago Veggie Fest – Naperville, IL – 8/12-8/13
• HampdenFest – Baltimore, MD – 9/10
• Natural Products Expo East – Baltimore, MD – 9/22-9/24
• VRG’s Vegan Indian Dinner – San Diego, CA – 9/25
• American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo – San Diego, CA – 9/24-9/27
• San Francisco VegFest – San Francisco, CA – 10/2-10/3

Vegetarian Journal’s Guide to Food Ingredients is now available on Amazon Kindle!
Price: $6.92, includes VAT & free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
Click here to order the Kindle Edition

Also available on Amazon.co.uk for £4.26

The Guide to Food Ingredients is indispensable in deciphering ingredient labels. It lists the uses, sources, and definitions of over 200 common food ingredients. This easy-to-read list of ingredients commonly found in many foods and beverages indicates whether they are vegetarian, vegan, typically vegetarian, typically vegan, may be non-vegetarian, or non-vegetarian. The emphasis is on commercial sources of ingredients most commonly used today. Each entry lists commercial sources, alternative names (if any), foods or beverages containing the ingredient, and in some cases manufacturer’s information about current supply sourcing.

Print copies of Vegetarian Journal’s Guide to Food Ingredients are available for $6 from our online catalog, and can also be ordered by calling us at 410-366-8343, M-F, 9-5.

Click here to view FAQs about VRG’s new Visa® Platinum Rewards Card such as: Is there an annual fee? What is the APR on the card? What can I redeem for with my points earned?

VRG’s new affinity Visa® Platinum Rewards credit card is now available!

When a cardholder activates the card, VRG receives $50. Then for the life of the program, VRG will receive a portion of every dollar that each cardholder charges. The VRG Visa® Platinum Rewards card offers qualified cardholders exceptional benefits including no annual fee, a low APR and reward points for shopping at participating merchants.

Add your support with every purchase when you use the The Vegetarian Resource Group Visa® Platinum Rewards card. To apply, see:
http://www.cardpartner.com/app/vrg

Recently VRG was visited by dietetic interns from the University of Maryland Dietetic Internship Program. Below is one student’s report about the day. Thanks for visiting with us – we enjoyed having you all here at the office!

The Vegetarian Resource Group
By: Kait Fortunato

I sit here tonight with my grilled veggie burger and home made sweet potato fries reflecting on the great day my fellow interns and I had at the Vegetarian Resource Group. While I am not vegetarian, I do try to eat a plant based diet and participate in Meatless Monday. Not only did we receive a wealth of printed materials and educational brochures to gain knowledge of a vegetarian diet to share with our clients, we also took park in intriguing discussions regarding ethical concerns in dietetics. As a follow up to the recent release of the Dietary Guidelines we split into groups to create meal plans for vegan clients based on certain calorie limits. It was fun to come up with dairy, protein, and grain sources while adding variety and considering all age groups. We also had fun taste testing various vegan items including Justin’s maple almond butter, BBQ flavored Pirates Booty, rice chips, carrot ginger soup, and vegan granola and animal crackers. The Vegetarian Resource Group has an excellent website that includes recipes, a blog, a guide for eating out, handouts and resources, and list serves to discuss various topics with people having the same questions and concerns as you are. The group works closely with 3 Registered Dietitians who help create resources and publications and assist with list serve questions. This group is great for new vegetarians seeking guidance, parents of vegetarian children, and even experienced vegetarians/vegans looking for new recipes and information. All in all it was a great experience with a kind staff and I am grateful to have learned so much to share with clients in the future!

If you would like to support Vegetarian Resource Group projects, such as education of dietetic interns, please donate at https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=1565.