Cape Town -
Spicy butternut soup wafted through the air earlier this week as people of Brown’s Farm, in Philippi, learnt to cook delicious plant-based meals.
A long queue, comprised mostly of mothers and wives, quickly formed for the food, with excited hands reaching for everything from basil pasta and spinach pie to sweet rooibos mealie meal and mint-infused smoothies.
Soon, everyone was seated, chatting happily over the steaming plates of healthy food.
“It is so good and I can cook it for my family any day because it is easy,” said Lilian Nyathi, 48.
The cooking event, organised by Humane Society International and hosted as the first Green Monday community outreach programme, was held at Heart Capital in Brown’s Farm, a nursery that grows and sells seeds and vegetables to the local community.
Green Monday is aimed at making people commit to a plant-based or vegan meal at least once a week.
Leozette Roode, of the Humane Society International, said the benefits of eating more plant-based meals are personal and societal.
“Plant-based diets are incredibly beneficial, especially for South Africans. We have a high rate of obesity and other health problems and eating less animal products is the perfect way to combat that.”
In addition to the personal benefits, eating less animal products is also relevant to South Africa’s water shortage.
“The drought is one of the biggest problems we are facing as a country right now and a vegan lifestyle is the best way the average South African can save water.
“Making meat products uses more than double the amount of water that producing plants does,” said Roode.
A group of about 50 residents attended the event, which had five chefs cook a cost-effective plant-based meal.
The cooking equipment was sourced from residents to ensure they would be able to cook the meals in their homes.
The audience, mostly women, watched the demonstrations with interest, asking questions about how they could include more vegetables in their family’s diets.
Nikki Botha, of vegan restaurant Plant Café, cooked a meal of basil spaghetti, impressing the crowd with how quick and simple the recipe was.
“Initiatives like this are so needed in impoverished areas. There is a misconception that going vegan is expensive and complicated, but I wanted to show these women that it doesn’t have to be. Anyone can eat vegan,” she said.
After the cooking class, everyone gathered to taste the food they had just learnt to cook and the happy reactions showed residents were not disappointed.
Roode said she hopes the idea behind Green Monday will spread quickly.
“We will be doing feedback in Philippi to see if the community is responding well to our ideas and then our aim is to get all South Africans, but particularly those in disadvantaged communities, eating more plant-based meals.”
Cape Argus