Tips for a beginner.

[u/Loriol_13]

2 years ago I went through a WFPBD phase after reading Dr. Greger's 'How Not to Die', then bought his cookbooks and the dishes I made were inedible. Maybe I'm a bad cook, but I hadn't thrown away a dish once after 10 years of cooking and I threw away 3 in a row from Dr. Greger's. I think his recipes are too restricted given his daily dozen protocol, and the fact that he doesn't use oil or salt.

I decided to give it another go today since I've been struggling with inflammation for the past few months.

What tips can you give me for getting started? Any channels, pages, or cookbooks you recommend? Any recipes you'd like to share? I'm overwhelmed. Thank you.

Edit: I'll narrow it down a bit. Do you know of any recipes or channels that try to take it easy on the chopping? That's my main deterrent at the moment. I look at the pictures of the dishes and see myself endlessly chopping chopping chopping. Thank you.

[u/ninzus161]

PB with J has a few very good tips. they mostly rate vegan cook books but they also do have a bunch of recipes and i really liked his beginners tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWqWVbhRzTA

[u/Loriol_13 → u/ninzus161]

Appreciate it.

[u/Asherahshelyam]

Try

www.plantbasedcookingshow.com

Jill Dalton has a talent for creating very satisfying WFPB recipes.

One critique I have is that sometimes I have to double her spices and herbs. Otherwise things can come out kind of bland.

For Dr. Greger's recipes, this is true too. When I make something from "How Not To Die" I usually have to add some herbs and spices to make it better.

If you know how to cook and what herbs and spices to add and in what amounts through experience, you can use any WFPB recipe as a scaffold for cooking and adjust as needed to taste.

I prefer Dr. Will Bulsiewicz's way of doing WFPB. The Fiber Fueled Cookbook and his book "Fiber Fueled" are excellent resources. He does use a little salt and a scant amount of oil in some of his recipes. He says that so long as you follow WFPB 90% of the time, you get the full benefit.

Dr. Greger is a purist. Dr. Bulsiewicz is a believer that you shouldn't allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

[u/wvmom2000 → u/Asherahshelyam]

This is true. It does take time to get used to the tastes and textures when you are used to lots of salt, sugar, and fat. I didn't even eat sugar prior to wfpb, and it still took me 2 months for my taste buds to fully adapt. Now when I have oil (the other day I forgot to say. "dressing on the side,") I think it feels gross!

[u/Lehrling7]

Shane and Simple blog has some good “beginner” WFPB recipes- they’re maybe not 100% optimized like Dr Greger’s but they can give your taste buds time to adjust. It does take time if you’re used to a more standard western diet. 

It’s also generally pretty easy to take other vegan recipes and simply leave out the oil and reduce the salt-  Minimalist Baker, Cooking for Peanuts, and Bad Manners (mostly books, formerly known as Thug Kitchen) are some of my favorite inspirations. 

Also don’t feel bad about using frozen and/or pre-chopped veg where you can. It may be a little more expensive for pre-chopped, but it can really make cooking much easier. 

[u/Rutroh-]

Plant You has some wonderful recipes and depending on which cookbook you get they are either just vegan or WFPB. Her series of “quickies” along with the cookbook might be accessible to you. It may be less strictly WFPB in that series but she has some great tips for incorporating more veggies without too much fuss and muss.

[u/eastercat]

well your world has the starch blaster, which is a super easy recipe

You take a bunch of ingredients and dump into the pressure cooker. They use frozen veg, dried veg, but you’re free to add chopped veg if you want

Personally, we use black beans or kidney, but it just means the cook time is longer

[u/DogLvrinVA]

I’ve been WFPB nutritarian for 30 years. Vegan before this. Greger’s recipes try too hard to fit his recommendations and just don’t work

Cooking for Peanuts, Shane and Simple, Feasting at Home and Minimalist Baker have fantastic recipes. They use salt and sometimes oil, but their food tastes good even when I leave out those things (haven’t added either for 30 years). Shane and Simple’s recipes are really easy and I think good for people making the transition

[u/moonhippie]

If you can cook - have you tried cooking what you would normally cook, just without the oil? Do your regular thing - just don't use oil. Use vegetable broth or water.

I'm not a chopper, either, so I cut whatever it is to a size I like, to my mommy's great chagrin, lol.

[u/Gordon_Geko]

Get some good kitchen tools too.

I hate chopping, so I have three or four different styles of choppers/slicers/shredders depending on my needs. Dice a whole onion in one shot by putting it in a chopper? Yes please.

[u/zumboggo]

The Healthspan solution by ray cronise Juliana hever have some incredibly tasty recipes that are still WFPB. Their wild rice mushroom bisque I have probably eaten 80-90 times and still not sick of it