I’ve been cooking and baking for even longer than I’ve been eating a plant-based diet (I went vegetarian in 7th grade, over 10 years ago!), and I believe food can and should be fun. It should be fun to find, to make, and to eat. And I hope through this website and my work, I can help you find your way there.

What I’ve realized through working on The Jewish Vegan and spending a lot of time talking to people about food and veganism, is that baking and cooking and eating out and finding delicious treats – especially doing those things as a vegan – can be difficult! So many people I’ve talked to have said something like, “It’s so cool that you know how to bake XYZ thing – I have no idea how to bake!”

And what THAT led me to remember is that I didn’t always know how to cook and bake. In fact, cooking and baking used to be pretty stressful for me (and still sometimes is!). It was a daunting task – I didn’t have the skills the recipes asked for and I didn’t know the language they were speaking (what does it really even mean for something to be room temperature anyway? what is a parboil and why does it sound like something I’d never want to do to my food?).

I also thought about the people I’ve watched cook – in particular, my dad. Growing up, my dad did most of the cooking for my family. If feeding a family of five doesn’t sound stressful, you must not be easily stressed! But what I remember growing up is the joy my dad found in cooking, not any of the stress.

I remember my dad being excited to cook family soup recipes and talking about the recipes he’d make if he were to open a restaurant one day. This joy was passed on to me, and he supported me in the food endeavors I dove into: baking apple pies and attempting to help with holiday recipes.

When I first started out, I did two things: 1) I made stir-fry, and 2) I baked. I made stir-fry because I thought I could do no wrong with a stir-fry – throw veggies and tofu and some soy sauce in a pan and heat it up! This was perfect for me because it was low stress, I didn’t need any special skills, and I could mix up the “recipe” with whatever I felt like eating or had in my kitchen.

I started baking because baking felt like order and structure to me. What I had heard about baking was that you had to follow the recipe exactly – use the exact right measurements, bake for the exact right amount of time, get the exact right consistency – and you would get the exact right finished product. This structure allowed me to build skills (without really knowing that I was doing it) and confidence in what I was doing. I didn’t have to put too much thought into what I was reading – just follow the instructions and out would pop what the blog’s picture showed (most of the time, anyway!).

What the experiences of making stir-fry and baking allowed me to do was be creative in the kitchen (hello cucumbers in my stir-fry!) while learning some of the technical skills that made me feel like I could really be a competent cook and baker in the kitchen.

Now, I’m hoping to bring that same idea here, to The Jewish Vegan. What I hope to accomplish is sharing meals and recipes of varying skill levels, but be upfront about the difficultly level and some of the skills you may learn from making the dish. I’ll share my successes and failures and provide you with the tips and tricks that you can bring with you from recipe to recipe.

Most of my recipes are intended to be adaptable. Don’t have frozen peas at home? Swap it out for corn or chopped carrots or another veggie? Can’t find agave at the grocery store? Use the maple syrup in your pantry. These recipes are for you.

For you to learn. For you to grow. For you to enjoy.

Now let’s get started!