Vegan Food Pimp Cook Book

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The ‘cosy’ car journey gave us a chance to get to know each other and a little more about Julian and his team before we arrived at Jacob’s Ridge itself to find the gates closed. “Ah, looks like the horses have got out again,” said Julian before opening the main gates and driving us up to the main house to meet the others. I soon found out that escapees are pretty much the norm at the Ridge with either pigs, donkeys or horses finding clever ways out of their enclosures and into the house or tents.

While waiting it occurred to me how different all of the volunteers were. We were a bizarre mix comprised of one middle aged couple (that’s me and Dean), a set of boy/girl twins in their early twenties, a mother and nine-year-old son, a single girl in her twenties and another lady nearer my own age. Surprisingly they were not all vegans either, but this was fine with the staff at Jacob’s Ridge as long as they ate vegan during their time there. Who knows, it may even convince them to give veganism a go for themselves.Nicholson, a trained nutritionist, previously worked as a vegan chef in South Africa for the Vervet Monkey Foundation. The chef, who hails from Brighton, is driven by a passion to change people’s minds about plant-based food. We’re presented with a typically beautiful dish, a vegetable chilli piled high with riotous colour. Alongside homemade tortilla strips, there’s potato, tomato, sweetcorn, kidney beans and peas, all lightly bathed in a rich and spicy sauce. Individually everything retains its distinctiveness, which is further boosted by delicate seasonings. The potatoes are emboldened by turmeric and soy sauce, while the tomatoes benefit from the overall flavour of the dish. It’s honestly the tastiest meal I’ve eaten for weeks. VeggieVisionTV catches up with vegan chef Lynn Nicholson and finds out what inspires and fuels her passion for creating show stopping recipes. My books are really scrap books of my journeys. The first book covers my time in Spain, the stories of the rescued animals at the sanctuary, along with a range of vegan recipes that anyone can make. The aim was to create a book that could be left out for anyone to read, look at the pictures of the animals, see the recipes and hopefully make the connection towards becoming vegan. I also wanted to create recipes that would inspire people to get into the kitchen and create wonderful food, so no “crazy” ingredients, no long winded methods, just straight forward, home cooked, delicious food. The second book, due out as soon as I can complete all the recipes, is about my journey to South Africa and my time there, with the same style, a scrapbook. Book 3, eventually, will be about my time in Brighton with the restaurants, that is going to be a colourful book and so many more ideas in the pipeline!

In addition to horses and donkeys we met scores of pigs. There is a reason people have called this place Pig Village! Wilbur the pig had his little clan that they share with the goats. Elvis and Oreo who rule the roost in another huge enclosure, and Bill and Ben, two massive pink pigs who had a large area all to themselves, but on our first tour the most important pig was the one who was curiously absent from her enclosure. The same applies to my time in South Africa, Lily, my kitchen assistant who became my friend, taught me so many tips regarding food, I loved being able to communicate through food with her, she did not speak English, but our shared love enabled us to communicate, cook and learn together. I believe there is so much more to food than just the ingredients, love makes all the difference. Now of course we have tried one of your hampers and it was fantastic. What can we expect to see hamper wise from you in the coming months?It was later in life that I became vegan. I cannot explain exactly when it was, I never liked milk, ever (classroom nightmares of warm milk in the window) never was a big red meat eater, eggs had to be cooked to oblivion, I mean, all the signs were there, the big thing for me was cheese. I decided to go cold turkey on the cheese, which must be around 9 years ago now, for a month. At the end of the month I tried a piece of cheese and honestly, it was like having a mouthful of vaseline. I never ate it again. Then one day I was cooking eggs and I actually thought I was going to throw up, that was it, fully vegan. Well food has always been a part of my life. My Nan was an excellent pastry chef and my Mum always cooked everything from scratch. Meal times were always important, we sat at a table, we talked, we shared our day, our positives and discussed anything that was on our minds. Food was always exciting, we looked forward to meal times, which, I feel is important, nothing worse than looking down at a plate and thinking, yawn! ElectroLyfe Juice Bar is the perfect place to satisfy your craving for a good, cold-pressed juice, smoothie, salad, wrap, and even electro-shots. Owner Quavisa Henderson has outdone herself with the veggie wrap, Sunrise Electro-Juice, and Tropical Sensation Electro-Smoothie. For an extra boost to your smoothie, make sure you add on plant-based protein and chia seeds! You can visit daily, noon to 4pm on Sundays and 9am to 5pm Monday through Saturday.