Plant-Power with Gaz Oakley: a First-Hand Experience
Though personally not a full-time vegan, I do like to dip into the exciting world of plant-based cuisine. After moving off-campus in Autumn, cooking my own meals became a part of my day to day, in the aims of resisting an over-consumption of Pret’s ready-to-go. With the new year, Veganuary started gaining attention, sparking my curiosity and leading me to dig deeper about this movement powered by plant-fuel.
Now, before January came about, I had actually been enjoying this new part of my daily routine, with a great feeling of reward after preparing my own food. It was interesting learning about the process from scratch, experimenting with spices and trying to create balanced combinations of our beloved “proteins, carbs, fats and veggies.” Yet originality was starting to plateau – fish with sweet potatoes and greens, or a super grain bowl with tofu no longer seemed as exciting after a few months, and I knew that something had to change. I was determined to find a solution before reaching out for delivery services or pre-prepared packs. This is when my research finally yielded its fruit, as I came across Gaz Oakley, a.k.a. @avantgardevegan on YouTube and Instagram.
By no means was I actively looking for recipes or cooking videos, but as is often the case with YouTube, my ‘suggests’ section started acquiring some variety, to say the least. Many hours later and I had watched countless of this plant-powered, fitness-enthusiast, health-advocate, revolutionary chef’s videos (find out more here) and read his online recipes, astounded by the simplicity and beauty of them all. Plant-power became so attractive, and I caught myself craving these “no-dairy creamy mushrooms” and colourful creams and soups. They seemed so flavoursome, so effortless, and so within reach! I couldn’t wait to head over for some fresh produce and get into the kitchen! Who would’ve thought?
Sunday night, I concluded that given the changing times, it was worth a try to implement at least one or two plant-based meals a day, as a test run.
Three weeks in, and feeding myself during working days has never felt more effortless and delicious. Gaz Oakley’s easy-to-follow yet flavour-packed recipes had me setting aside no more than 30mins a day for lunch and dinner combined, and I was eating such tasty AND plant-based meals. To top it off, extras made for the perfect packed lunches on busy days. How wrong was I to think that cooking, plant-power, and time efficiency cannot co-exist in a student’s life?
With this, I invite you to try some of his 5-minute recipes to begin with, or more elaborate ones if you have time during the weekend (the high protein chili bake is a personal favourite!). I hope you’ll definitely find yourself just as amazed by how effortlessly beautiful it all feels when following a clear recipe. Not to mention the renewed grocery lists you’ll start compiling, because we all know how tempting it is to raid Trader Joe’s ready-made, single-meal freezers.
Coming across @avantgardevegan shed a light on how important it is to try things before dismissing them, because you never know how much you stand to learn, and how positively they could impact your everyday.
Find out more, and discover Gaz’s recipes here. He already has two fully plant-based cooking books out, and is due to launch a third one this April, so look out for that too!
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