Dreaming of cheese was one of the side effects of going vegan, my niece Janna Graham told me when I asked her about transitioning from being a vegetarian to the stricter regimen of avoiding animal-based products.
Real cheese or not? (Hint: See headline.) Vegan Nacho Cheese with lentils and chips.
“Cheese is very addicting, and you go through withdrawal symptoms,” she said. Just as her father, Jez Graham, an accomplished jazz pianist and songwriter, was an early inspiration to become a musician, he had been Janna’s first model as a vegan, though he’d become less strict of late. She had also been affected by a documentary called What the Health about how Big Pharma, agribusiness, and processed animal food companies were harming the nation’s most vulnerable populations. “I just had to do it,” she said.
Veggies from Imperfect Foods, a food delivery service Janna and Nayem used in Brooklyn.
Though not vegan myself (I love baking with butter and eggs too much!), it’s hard not to respect the rising popularity of this food trend. Supermarket shelves are crowded with new plant-based offerings, many looking and tasting quite similar to animal-centric products they replace.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I’ve read that veganism is growing even faster, with many people concerned about their health and worried about the safety of America’s largely factory-produced meat, poultry and dairy supply. Millennials such as Janna are at the forefront of the movement.
Janna says she and partner Nayem Cardenas-Lopez haven’t found switching to a vegan diet all that hard. She had been a vegetarian on and off since high school and Nayem was already a vegetarian when they met in New York City. About six months later, the two decided to become vegans.
Rice bowl Janna and Nayem made with kale, roasted chickpeas, and tofu.
“When you’re first transitioning into being vegan, you might daydream about what you ate before, but when you start learning new recipes and feeling more healthy and less guilty about causing a lot of suffering for animals and hurting the environment, it becomes a lot easier,” she said, “I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.”
Vegan food isn’t just a substitute for meat for Janna and Nayem, though they often take non-vegan dishes they know and “veganize” them and enjoy meat-like products such as Beyond Burgers. Among the major staples in their diet are tofu, vegetables, and nutritional yeast, which they sprinkle on everything that might conceivably have parmesan cheese in it.
Cashew Cheese
One of their favorite cheese substitutes is made with cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic, onion powder, paprika, lemon and oat milk. (I actually tried it and found it to be better than expected, but more like hummus than cheese—a nice dip for carrots or crackers. Here’s a link to the recipe.) Janna said she and Nayem put the cashew cheese on pasta or on cauliflower-crust pizza with pesto and vegetables.
If they want a cheese that melts, there are several store-bought varieties they enjoy, including such brands as Miyoko’s Creamery, Chao, and Violife. No suffering involved for the humans or the animals, Janna insists. The dishes they eat all “taste amazing,” she said. “We love food.”
Another favorite is a nacho dip made with carrots, potatoes, pickled jalapeños, tomato paste, nutritional yeast and other ingredients (recipe here). It calls for a high-power blender, but I was able to make it in my antiquated food processor. It did look quite like a melty cheesy sauce, especially when I poured it over chips and some spicy lentils. I enjoyed a plate of it, but Janna’s Uncle Jeff, a finicky eater on the best of days, opted for an omelet made with real eggs and cheddar.
Speaking of eggs, Janna’s preferred product is Just Egg for omelets or breakfast tacos. It’s made with mung beans yet tastes surprisingly like eggs—and cooks like them too. Though my attempted veggie omelet stuck to the pan and ended up scrambled, Janna and Nayem’s version came out much better when they made them for Janna’s parents.
Nayem serving omelets made from Just Egg, along with roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts to Janna’s parents at their home in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
She and Nayem recently sublet their apartment in Brooklyn and moved back to the home where Janna grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia. That was several months after Janna’s gig as a percussionist in the groundbreaking new production of West Side Story ended abruptly as all Broadway shows went dark and New York City went into lockdown. Both had hoped that life would go back to normal after a month or so, but the future is still uncertain.
“Broadway’s supposed to open back up in the spring or maybe the winter. I’ll be going back whenever that happens,” Janna said.
Meanwhile, Janna, whose website describes her many talents and accomplishments as a percussionist, drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer, continues with all those pursuits. She has also added video editing to her list of accomplishments, stitching together remote performances of singers and instrumentalists into seamless wholes for productions shut down by the pandemic. (You can see an a video she created of “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story here.)
Screen shot from YouTube video of “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story. Janna is second from the right in the top row.
Janna also records music with Nayem, a singer, songwriter and actor; brother Bill Graham, another multitalented family member; and father Jez (check out his piano solo on “The Magic Door”) for her band, which has the vegan-inspired name, Oat Milk. Her latest album is Temporary Tides.
Janna and Nayem in a page from the liner notes from their latest album with Oat Milk.
For now, she and Nayem are sharing a large house—including the kitchen—with Janna’s parents. Jez and Mindy often eat early while she and Nayem eat late, but they share meals on alternate weekends. “We usually eat on our own, but I usually give them a little bit of everything we make,” Janna said.
Her mom “is an awesome cook,” she said, and had a lot of experience catering to husband Jez’s vegan diet before he began adding in some fish, chicken and dairy. On a recent weekend, Mindy made a vegan lasagne with zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and a sausage substitute called Beyond Sausage for the two women. “It was amazing,” Janna said.
A vegan birthday cake Janna and Nayem made for Mindy.
I doubt I’ll be converting to all-vegan fare anytime soon, but having spent the last week making and sampling some of Janna’s suggested dishes, I’m definitely up for more meat-, egg- and dairy-free meals. But, much as I liked the cashew cheese, sorry, Janna, I still prefer mozzarella. However, addicted baker that I am, I tried making a favorite banana bread vegan by subbing Just Egg for the two eggs in the recipe, and it came out just as good. Yay!
Please click on the the tart icon below to hear the podcast of my conversation with Janna. Thanks for checking out this edition of Ruth Talks Food. See you next time.