Veg Out

When I meet with someone who doesn’t know anything about plant-based eating, I’ll put together a little bag to get them started. The documentary film Forks Over Knives and the book The China Study are always the first things I put in the bag.

I found the documentary Devour the Earth online while I was doing research on food and the environment. It’s perfect, because it’s about 20 minutes and filled with facts, so you can watch it in bite-sized pieces.

Eat Vegan on $4 a Day by Ellen Jaffe Jones and Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson are great resources for embarking on an affordable and accessible plant-based diet.

Something that made a huge impact on me is the documentary Earthlings, about animals as food, animals as clothing, animals as entertainment, animals in science. It’s really hard to watch, but it’s so important. After watching it, I told my family not to buy me anything that’s leather.

Google is the best thing ever. I found the greatest vegan pancake recipe. You just punch it in, and there it is!

I’m inspired by chef Tanya Petrovna, who founded the vegan restaurant chain Native Foods Café in California. You can try out some of her recipes in The Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook. She’s so fantastic and funny—she has a blended pea soup recipe called “Whirled Peas.”

For a restaurant splurge, Nobu is pretty high-end, but it has amazing vegan food all over the world.