January: Sober Or Plantbased?

New Year’s resolutions are bullshit and fake, just like all those “miracle” life changes.
Gyms and similar places, the entire industry built around healthy lifestyles and self-care, see a sales spike in January.
And of course, food is part of that too.

And of course, already in February, gym memberships and kale chips sales drop back to their previous levels.

And here — despite my joking around — there’s actually a very serious topic. Because issues like being overweight and taking care of physical fitness are crucial for the length and quality of our lives. Sensible action in this area is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and for the society we live in.

I think a more reasonable and realistic approach is a modest one — like committing for just one month and seeing how that change affects your life.
And since a month is enough time for new neural connections to form in the brain, making real habit changes (for example, dietary ones) then becomes much easier.

There are quite a few initiatives, ideas, or challenges like that for January.
The UK-based NGO Alcohol Change UK has been running the Dry January campaign since 2013 (I’ve also come across the term Sober January) — January as a month of sobriety.

My relationship with alcohol is… passionate and complicated, and I strongly support any such initiative. Not that I’m an abstainer. I look with a mix of horror and admiration at people who manage to go through all of this sober.

A sober January or a vegan January is, by design, a false dichotomy — because the best option would be sober and plant-based. Then the problem of whether wine or beer is vegan simply disappears.

There’s also Veganuary, launched a year later than Dry January, also in the UK — a campaign (or challenge) of 31 days without animal products in your diet / on your plate.

I’d say it’s an invitation to test fully plant-based cooking for a month. A 100% plant-based January challenge.
Don’t you think that sounds much better than “going vegan”?
“Going vegan” sounds like something halfway between joining a cult and changing your sexual orientation. Trying plant-based cooking, on the other hand, is a pleasant culinary experience.

And that’s the experience I want to invite you into — not just in January, but all year round — during Veganuary.
As always, from the kitchen side, close to the street, close to the realities of cooking and everyday life.

And my first vegan tip (I’m curious whether I’ll manage to come up with 31):

CHOOSE.

The times when vegan sweets were a problem are definitely over.
There’s a huge number of vegan equivalents, substitutes, and analogues on the market. In the case of some products, this was never really a challenge anyway — whether we’re talking about sweets, ready-made dumplings, or pancakes.

A fixed item on my shopping list is Alnatura tortellini, which I buy at Edeka or Rossmann’s own-brand versions.
Usually, I add diced tofu fried with onions as a topping.

Most of these products — both in terms of ingredients and taste — are not inferior to their animal-based counterparts.

The only thing I don’t recommend, and honestly regret, is cheeses.
Except for a blue mold cheese from France that I ate in Berlin, and a few cases — mainly plant-based feta (with a disastrously bad ingredient list) — vegan cheeses are a fucking tragedy. They taste and feel like a candle. And a low-quality one at that.

Don’t ask how I know the difference between candles of various quality.