News on Surrey's Greener Future

This month on the Greener Futures blog Marisa Heath, Surrey County Councillor for Runnymede and Cabinet Member for Environment, shares her tips for Veganuary.

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I love Veganuary as it means lots more plant-based options come onto the market. I moved to a plant-based diet 12 years ago owing to environmental and animal welfare reasons. I love food and when I first changed it was not easy as the options were not as wide as they are today. I am writing this blog from a trip to France where the food on offer is often the most amazing looking custard or cream based cakes and delicious buttery croissants. Sometimes I feel a little tempted but the benefits of my plant-based diet in terms of health and mind override that temptation.

I am not going to preach about the virtues of being a vegan here. All I will say is it is proven and backed by the United Nations and the Government’s own Climate Change Committee that reducing meat and dairy has a huge and vital impact on tackling climate change. Even being partially plant-based can make a huge difference but how do you do it easily and what are the best products to replace the animal-based ones you are so used to? I have helped many friends adapt their diet plus this month I am part of a team supporting 10 MPs to do Veganuary where we help them plan their meals and snacks. Even if you don’t want to become a vegan or even a vegetarian, there are changes you can make to your daily diet quite easily that will reduce your impact on the environment and are more sustainable.

Starting with dairy – tea and coffee – the plant-based milk choice is huge and always growing. From peas to soya to oats and almonds, they all taste a little different and all have different nutritional contents. Many milks tend to split in hot drinks which doesn’t look very nice but the very best version for coffee and tea is oat milk. I find Oatly Barista is particularly good for lattes, cappuccinos and hot chocolates and even non plant based consumers often choose this over normal milk. It comes in a grey carton from most supermarkets. Oatly also does excellent ice cream and sour cream. If you want cream Elmea does a plant-based version of both their single and double dairy creams. For cereals and smoothies I choose Alpro organic soya milk as it is lower in fat and fortified with vitamins. I can honestly say I do not miss animal-based dairy milk at all.

If you are a huge cheese lover it may be the difficult thing to replace but there are some types of cheese which are easier to replicate than others. If you like soft cheese for cooking or in bagels you can chose any of the supermarket own options as they taste pretty much the same and come with options such as herbs or garlic added. You can use these for pasta dishes or cheesecakes or in jacket potatoes. I like the smoked cheese slices from Violife for toasted sandwiches or paninis and they do a great vegan parmesan. Applewood cheddar does a vegan version of their cheese which I love for cheese on toast. Bute Island does ‘blue English style cheese wedge’ which I find melts well onto your favourite pasta dish or on crackers with crunchy celery. This is easily available in many supermarkets.

Yoghurt is easy. There is a huge range of coconut, oat or soya based, lots of flavours and they all taste great. My choice is either Oatly for a more luxurious creamy style in strawberry or Alpro for the vanilla version with granola or fresh fruit. Plant-based custard by Oatly is also easy to find in the chilled section of most supermarkets. Look out for the new plant version of the vanilla or chocolate custard by Judes – I think it’s delicious!

Finally meat – what is really the best replacement. There is a huge range of plant-based meat alternatives from sausages to burgers, steaks to mince but the real answer is to minimise meat replacements and fill your plate with more vegetables and pulses. Mushrooms are a great option for some texture and you can fill your freezer with frozen spinach, broccoli, edamame beans, sweetcorn and chopped sweet potato or butternut squash which makes it affordable and easy to access every day. If I want to make fajitas or a curry or stew I use Quorn vegan chicken pieces but there are a number of options.. For me, Moving Mountains are the best burgers and my meat eating friends are happy to choose them over beef and for sausages I think Richmond have got it very right with their plant-based version. I would say anything where you are mixing flavours you can find a meat option – mince is easy and most people do not notice plant-based mince being used for a lasagne or Bolognese. The tricky issue is steak or a really good cut of meat but the principle here to making a difference to your health and the environment so it is about less but better.

Very finally for any fast food lovers - McDonalds, Burger King and KFC have plant-based versions of their meals and are aiming to get to 50% plant based menus so there are options there too and most pizza restaurants – Zizzis, Pizza Hut, Pappa John’s - have good plant-based menus.

All of the products I have mentioned are easily available in supermarkets. Even die hard meat and dairy eaters have been happy to make some swaps to these products and in doing so have reduced their environmental impact. Give a few options a go this Veganuary and see what you think!