Vegans are often faced with common misconceptions regarding their lifestyle choices. To help dispel some of these myths, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau developed Compassionate Cooks to educate people on all things vegan — from preparing delicious dishes to the importance of living according to your own ethics. Patrick-Goudreau shared her compassionate journey with Vegan Mainstream and discussed how she is educating people through her website, podcast, lectures, and books.
Vegan Mainstream: What inspired you to become vegan?
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau: I stopped eating land animals when I was 19 or 20 after reading Diet for a New America [by John Robbins]. That really started me on my path of wanting to learn everything I could about this issue that had been hidden from me my whole life. I talk a lot about the process of going from what I believe we all are, which is a “compassionate child” into a “desensitized adult.” I think this is universal and something everyone can identify with. I loved animals, and didn’t want to harm them. Society commend[s] a child who is kind, but at the same time, they were feeding me animals. It’s quite a mixed message to give children.
Then when I read Slaughterhouse [by Gail A. Eisnitz] years later, I became acutely aware of the violent culture that we support when we buy meat, milk, and eggs, and the idea of breeding animals just to kill them became so macabre to me. This was really the book that completely changed everything for me. I became vegan immediately and stepped up my activism, and it’s been the most incredible journey since then.
VM: Tell us about Compassionate Cooks and what people can expect to find there?
CPG: Compassionate Cooks grew out of my desire to give people what they needed to make the change. My transition to veganism was easy enough, but I encountered all the same resistance, hostility and all of the same challenges other people do. The more outreach I would do to raise awareness about the violence inherent in the meat, dairy and egg industries, the more I realized that the question everyone asked was about eating. It really came down to the practical every day aspects of living.
I started teaching cooking classes, because it quite literally filled the gap for people. Compassionate Cooks grew from that; the classes grew into books and DVDs. It’s the umbrella I use for everything.
VM: What are some common myths about veganism you try to dispel?
CPG: There are so many…the biggest thing I do is raise the bar and not let [people] get away with the typical excuses they come up with.
Obviously, nutrition-based myths are really common. I always say that I don’t just want people to believe me — I don’t want people to walk away having listened to what I said. I want the information to make sense to people. Plants have all the nutrients: the calcium is in cow’s milk because cows eat grass and the minerals of calcium are in the greens. To go through an animal to get that nutrient is resource intensive, ethically problematic and makes no sense. It also involves taking in saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, lactose and all these other unnecessary things along with calcium that we can get from the plants.
Another big area is the social aspect — helping people navigate a non-vegan world. Ironically, there’s a lot of hostility when you are living your truth and not eating animals. It can bring up negative responses in other people, because they sometimes feel threatened. I help vegans to understand that those kinds of reactions don’t have anything to do with them: you’re holding up a mirror and reflecting back to others what they may need or want to do but have not done. If we understand that it has nothing to do with us, we are better ambassadors for the vegan lifestyle and guide those people instead of becoming defensive in return.
Want to know more about veganism? Listen to Patrick-Goudreau’s Vegetarian Food for Thought podcasts.
VM: How do you find you are best able to reach people (via your blog, your cookbooks, etc.)?
CPG: I’ve been doing podcasts for six years. It’s such an amazing medium, because it’s accessible to anyone at anytime. It gets 30,000 to 50,000 downloads per month, which is pretty remarkable! I’ve been able to distill what I would be talking about in my cooking classes without having to stop and say, “Let’s stir the onions.”
I’m thrilled to be moving out of cookbooks and into lifestyle books. My fourth book and first non-cookbook, Vegan’s Daily Companion just came out and The 30-Day Vegan Challenge is coming out in August.
VM: Color Me Vegan is your newest book and is organized by Color – can you talk about why you feel that’s a good way to organize what you are eating?
CPG: I realized it’s the way of giving people sound bites that they can go home and digest. It’s very simple to eat by color: choose the most colorful foods when you’re shopping, and you’re going to get the most nutrient dense foods. I’d been teaching this for years, so I wrote a cookbook that is beautifully simple. Now it’s possible to say, “I want to concentrate on blue today or I need more orange…”
Check out Color Me Vegan here.
VM: Your second book, The Vegan Table, has 200 recipes for entertaining – what
do you think is the biggest misconception about entertaining as a vegan?
CPG: If you have a negative attitude and worry about the non-vegetarians at your event or dinner, you’re going to put that into your dishes. Your guests will pick up on that and feel the food is inferior. The main thing is to celebrate really good food that’s familiar to people and serve it unapologetically.
In the North American/Western culture, we are accustomed to a main dish, which is usually meat, and then some token side dishes. We have this perception that when you remove that meat, there’s a big hole in the plate so you have to use side dishes. That’s been a traditional criticism of vegan foods. Give yourself permission to have a plate of side dishes. If you look at cultures around the world, their plates aren’t constructed the way ours are. They have lentils, grains, legumes and beans, etc. I wrote The Vegan Table to help people plate the food.
Try recipes from The Vegan Table for your next dinner party.
VM: The Joy of Vegan Baking was Veg News’ cookbook of the year winner —
how did that recognition impact your business?
CPG: It’s been really wonderful! It’s really become a ‘go-to’ book in most vegans’ repertoire. It was an honor to be recognized, and I’m incredibly proud of that work since it was my first!
Bake up a vegan storm with Patrick-Goudreau’s The Joy of Vegan Baking.
VM: Can you share any basic vegan cooking tips with our readers?
CPG: One of the things I recommend is to prep in advance. Always plan in advance and know the night before what you’re going to have the next evening for dinner. Don’t throw all of your vegetables into the refrigerator when you get home from the grocery store – prep them in advance by taking 10 minutes to chop them up and bag them.
VM: In your opinion, what’s the best way to help veganism become mainstream?
CPG: I think it’s about how we individually represent veganism: we need to do so in an honest way that reflects our own truth, personality and style. And it has to be done in a way that’s very positive! Certainly, food makes a huge difference and cooking for people is really the way in — when it tastes good, people love it. Also just being patient with people is helpful – I think we should remember that we didn’t always look at the world this way, and that acknowledgement goes a long way in making other people feel that you can identify with them.
Follow Patrick-Goudreau on Facebook and Twitter for more vegan tips.
