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As you celebrate Hanukkah, make it a green occasion by choosing vegetarian or vegan foods that are sustainable and cruelty-free. By transforming your traditional Hanukkah menu into one made with plant-based ingredients, you’ll spread joy to your guests and creation, too.

How to plan a vegetarian Hanukkah meal

The average American consumes more 270 pounds of meat every year, which is the largest national average in the world. Chicken and beef are the most consumed and both are popular choices at traditional Hanukkah meals.[1] Yet, a growing body of evidence implicates meat in a variety of serious environmental problems—not least of which is climate change. Cutting back on your meat consumption, both during Hanukkah and all year round, is a great way to exercise your eco-friendly consumer muscles.

Cooking a traditional, vegetarian Hanukkah dinner

There are many ways to achieve a vegetarian or vegan Hanukkah, especially with GY’s handy list of recipes and ideas:

• Latkes: Nothing says Hanukkah like organic potato latkes topped with sour cream or cottage cheese. This year, try some egg- and dairy-free latkes with these delicious options: Colorful Vegetable Latkas, Vegan Potato Latkes, Potato Waffle Latkes with Concord Wine Syrup, Sweet Potato Latkes, Romanian Zucchini Potato Latkes, topped with Cheery Applesauce, Chunky Applesauce, or Tofu Sour Cream.
• Main entree: Forgo the fried chicken or roasted meat this Hanukkah and instead try something new using tofu protein and other healthy ingredients. Online recipes abound: Mock Chopped Liver, Stuffed Tofu Roast, Tofu Turkey, Oven-baked Marinated Tempeh, Soy and Seitan “Turkey”, Holiday Tofu Loaf, or simple Southern Baked Tofu. Alternatively, you can buy a pre-made imitation roast and jazz it up with these unique twists (deep fried, maple-roasted, or ginger garlic).
• Hanukkah desserts: Finish off your Hanukkah meal with some dairy-free desserts like vegan blintzes or cheesecake. Or, bake-up some sustainable Soofganiyot or fritters using organic, fair trade, and vegan ingredients.

Need some help convincing family and friends to make the switch? If so, adapt ideas from this GoVeg.com guide to asking your family for a vegan (Christmas) meal, which includes facts about meat consumption, sample letters you can send to loved ones about your desire for a cruelty-free dinner, recipes, and more.

And if after all of this vegetarian Hanukkah inspiration you’re still stumped, make your Hanukkah meal planning easy by eating out at a local green-certified restaurant serving local and organic fair, much of which may already be meat-free. Or, for a home-based, stress-free meal, hire an organic caterer to cook up a Kosher vegetarian delight instead.

Find it! Ingredients for a vegetarian Hanukkah

Replace traditional animal-based menu items with substitutes that are healthy and tasty, many of which can be purchased at your local natural foods store. But if you lack such a venue, many items can now be ordered online.

Preparing a vegetarian Hanukkah meal helps you go green because...

• It reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emitted to produce your meals.
• It protects tropical forests from being cleared for animal pasture.
• It keeps pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, and other chemicals, as well as animal excrement, from polluting waterways.
• It opens up more land to be used for vegetable-based diets, which require less land, water, and fewer resources, thus enabling the production of more food for the world’s hungry.
• It means fewer animals are required to live in cruel, inhumane conditions.

Though the ills of meat production are becoming more well-known, global meat consumption has increased rapidly over the last several decades. Sixty percent of the recent growth in meat consumption has occurred in the developing world, which collectively eats half of all meat.[2] Production of meat is set to double from 229 million tons in 1999/2001 to 465 million tons in 2050.[3] As the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) recently noted: “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”[4]

Local vs. meatless

A study by Carnegie Mellon University scientists has concluded that eating less meat will reduce carbon emissions even more than purchasing food locally.[5] The study found that transporting food is responsible for only 4 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while production contributes 83 percent.[6] Researchers say that means that buying all local food is like driving 1,000 fewer miles in your car annually, which is what you get cutting dairy and meat one day a week. Go totally veggie and you'll slash a whopping 8,000 miles in vehicle emissions.[7]

Related health issues

Vegetarian diets are not only good for the environment, they’re good for your health. According to a position statement made by the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and can aid in the prevention and treatment of some diseases. In general, choosing a meatless diet means lower levels of saturated fat and cholesterol, higher levels of folate, fiber, and phytochemicals, as well as an increase in vitamins (especially C and E) and antioxidants.

By the numbers, vegetarians are nine times less likely to be obese, 40 percent less likely to develop cancer, and have 50 percent fewer instances of heart disease than meat-eaters.[8] One study estimated that the incidence of colo-rectal cancer decreases by about 30 percent for every 100 grams of red meat cut out of a person's diet per day (which is a near 50 percent reduction).[9]

External links

• Amazon.com - Judaism and Vegetarianism
• Bryanna’s Vegan Fest: A sample vegan Hanukkah menu.
• Jewish Veg: Recipes and ideas for all sorts of Jewish holidays and events.
• Simple to Remember: A discussion of Judaism and vegetarianism.
• Sustainable Table - A Very Sustainable Chanukah
• VegCooking
• VegWeb.com