If there’s one thing Ashtabula County residents enjoy, it’s all-American comfort food. From greasy fries to hamburgers; from Buffalo wings to chili, this county’s residents love their comfort food, as long as it’s made with meat.

Saybrook Township residents Tamasin Noyes and her husband Jim, the executive director of the Ashtabula Metropolitan Housing Agency (AMHA), also embrace the comfort food they grew up eating, but their “blue-plate specials” are made with tofu, seitan and tempeh rather than the flesh of animals.

Tamasin’s constant experimenting with ways to reconcile a plant-free diet with the familiar American favorites has resulted in a new cookbook, “American Vegan Kitchen: Delicious Comfort Food, From Blue Plate Specials to Homestyle Favorites.”

Published by Vegan Heritage Press, the book grew out of her blog on www. veganappetite.com. A vegan blogger for about three years, Tamasin has a huge following of online readers, about 20,000 a month. That kind of readership drew the attention of Vegan Heritage, which contacted her about a year ago with a cookbook offer.

Tamasin, who was winding down a handmade soap business at the time, signed on to the offer. She was well prepared for such a venture as a result of cooking at least two vegan meals a day, usually from scratch.

“I was lucky. I had years of recipes in notebooks to draw upon. I could pick and choose rather than have to create recipes specifically for the book,” she says.

The publisher gave Tamasin the freedom to determine the book’s concept. She decided to go back to her roots, to those happy afternoons spent with her mother, Jackie Schwind, creating memorable comfort-food meals for their family. Rather than add one more vegan cookbook stuffed with world recipes and ingredients available only in big cities, Tamasin created a cookbook for vegans afflicted with both a conscience and nostalgic longing for the comfort food from their omnivorous past.

“I love cooking because of the creativity in taking basic vegan ingredients and transforming them into delicious new dishes,” Tamasin wrote in the author biography. “Improvising, and creating recipes in the kitchen, is a way to put yourself out there and discover common ground with others. I especially like the practicality of cooking (we all have to eat), as well as the art of it. To me, vegan cooking is the most nutritious thing we can do for our planet and those we love, and I’ve dreamed of creating comfort food for vegans for a long time.”

The process of taste-testing every recipe was expedited by the Internet. There were 20 testers in far-flung locations, including Australia and Austria, who prepared and served the dishes to family and friends in real time, using a video connection to the Internet. These testers provided input that helped Tamasin tweak the recipes.

Kirsten Lakso, one of the testers, comments on the Amazon.com review section of the book that “the recipes are not only tasty but awesome for people who are phobic of anything vegan. … I could go on and on about all the tasty recipes but really you need to try them yourself.”

The book has more than 200 recipes, including sandwich and main dishes like burgers, burritos, goulash, ribs, meatloaf, lasagna and stroganoff, all made with vegan ingredients. There are vegan appetizers, soups, salads, sides and desserts, as well. Tamasin even did a section on breakfast options, including Hubby’s Home Fries, Seitan Breakfast Strips (a bacon substitute), Noodle Omlet and several scrambles.

Her recipe for apple pancakes is not in the book, however.

“I finally just gave up on that,” she says. “It sounded fantastic in my head, but the execution fell flat. It was like a lead pancake.”



Vegan journey

Jim, a native of Massachusetts, and Tamasin, a native of Chagrin Falls, met while college students at Ohio Wesleyan. Shortly after leaving college, they adopted the vegetarian diet, which evolved into a vegan diet about six years ago (vegans, in addition to not eating meat, don’t eat eggs, dairy and so on).

They credit books like “Diet for a Small Planet” for helping them come to grips with the impact of their diet and the huge problem of hunger in other parts of the world. It takes around 25 pounds of grain to produce a pound of beef. By giving up meat, Jim and Tamasin feel as though they are freeing up more of the planet’s resources for others.

The couple strongly supports local food producers and buy their fresh vegetables at area farmers markets. They’ve also started growing their own vegetables and herbs in raised beds. It’s all about treating the planet and all its living inhabitants with respect.

“We don’t want anything to suffer in order for us to live,” Tamasin says, summing up their approach to eating. “We want the planet to be a better place for both people and animals.”

Those same reasons eventually helped them transition from vegetarian to vegan. Jim said they often found themselves eating vegan meals for long stretches, and making a complete break with animal products really was not all that difficult. The transition was made easier by the proliferation of vegan products in the marketplace, particularly cheeses that did a much better job of mimicking the real thing.

They’ve really noticed a difference in the way they feel since going 100 percent vegan.

“Once we started to do it, we felt so much better,” Tamasin says.

“We feel better,” Jim adds. “A lot of people will think you’ll lose weight if you go vegan. We didn’t lose weight, but we felt so much better: more clear, more vibrant, more energy.”

Jim and Tamasin say they haven’t lost weight because the vegan food is so good, they want to go back for a second helping.

Tamasin says it is easier to become a vegetarian now than when she and Jim started down that road. Back then, she had to make their soy milk and it was difficult to find seitan, also known as “wheat meat,” in the markets. Tamasin learned to make her own seitan and includes her recipe in the book, along with other vegan essentials, like basic vegetable broth and egg substitutes.

While most of her recipes can be made from scratch, Tamasin says there is also the option of purchasing ready-made vegan products like burgers, sausage and crumbles, to expedite preparation. Some of these foods are available at local grocery and big-box stores, but a trip to Erie, Pa., or Lake County will probably be necessary to stock a pantry with many of the ingredients used in Tamasin’s “American Vegan Kitchen” recipes.

She knows her book probably won’t be a big seller in Ashtabula County, but indications are that the world vegan community is enthusiastically embracing it. Its release created a lot of buzz on her blog, and she already has done some blog interviews about it and one book signing in an Erie, Pa., vegan restaurant.

Jim says they’ve noticed that people are testing the waters with an occasional meatless meal once or twice a month. The Great American Meat Out event is March 20, and on March 19, Tamasin plans to make a vegan meal — sandwiches and soup — for the staff at AMHA. Jim says his co-workers are usually pretty open-minded to at least sampling the food.

“They think we are odd, but are very supportive and open-minded,” he says.