Ask Jack 7 with Jack McNulty
Welcome to the second season premiere of Ask Jack, featuring the prodigious culinary talents of professional chef, writer, and OMSer Jack McNulty answering food and cooking questions from our community that inform their healthy OMS lifestyle. Check out the show notes below that dig deeper into this episode’s topic. You can submit your questions for Jack anytime by emailing them to [email protected].
Welcome back for this season’s second instalment of Ask Jack, and have we got a ‘meaty’ topic for you today.
Jack has carefully curated several questions around this topic, and we have solicited some directly from the OMS community. With summer around the corner, at least for those in the northern hemisphere, we expect people will be cleaning off their grills and readying them for action. But since research shows meat is a no-fly zone for people with MS, how do you capture that texture and flavour without the negative health consequences?
Thanks to Jack McNulty, we are about to get some answers. Happy to chat with you again, Jack. We’ve got an audience hungry for advice on this episode’s topic, so let’s dig right into our first question.
Jack, some people can give up meat itself, but not the taste or texture of it. Are meat placements OK in general within the OMS program? Also, if one does choose to use meat replacements, what should they be on the lookout for in the ingredients? Are there specific ones to avoid?
Do you have any fun ideas for creating meat-like yet OMS friendly foods with ingredients like seitan and tofu?
Jack, what is your absolute favourite type of veggie burger, and how can our audience source your favourite recipe for it?
Switching gears to hear from some specific members of our global OMS community, Linda from Germany has taken to using soy crumbles which have to be rehydrated, making them like chicken or meat. Are they OK to use or are they too processed? And jumping continents but on a related note, Vickie from the US has another soy question. She’s curious about your take on soy curls. She’s not sure if you can access them everywhere, but her understanding is they are extruded and dehydrated soybeans. Can you explain the differences between Soy Curls and TVP?
Here’s a question from Leissa: there are so many different types of vegan meat alternatives. It’s often easy to use these alternatives when cooking for a mixed crowd or for the family when you’re tired and need a quick meal. Can you recommend specific options for a quick, easy, OMS friendly, meat alternative meal?
Nicola from Canterbury in the UK had a saucy question… about Bolognese. She wanted your best advice for a good ragu. She’s used red, green and brown lentils, but others suggest finely-chopped mushrooms or crumbled tofu. What are your thoughts, Jack?
Finally, Jack, I know you’ve been vegan for a long while, so meat has been nowhere near your radar. When one makes a health-based or ethical choice to forgo meat, do you think it’s a good idea to even find substitutes that taste similar, or just leave it behind and explore the bountiful world of other delicious options that are nowhere near the same flavour profile?
Thanks for another illuminating episode, Jack. And I look forward to having you back in the thick soup of more questions on the next episode of Ask Jack, which will premiere on July 6th!
Jack McNulty has been involved in food and cooking most of his life. He’s walked many paths during his culinary journey, including transforming himself from an interested amateur ‘foodie’ to a professional chef with classical training. He has worked for talented and knowledgeable chefs in high-end restaurants in Switzerland, Italy, and France. Jack has operated his own catering business and cooking school, while also finding time to write about cooking. He is currently operating his own subscription-based website providing instruction and recipes supporting a vegan lifestyle. Jack has followed the OMS lifestyle since 2009. He has actively worked on providing recipes and information to the OMS website, was the contributing editor to the OMS Cookbook, and authored the Eat Well chapter in the Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis Handbook.
To get the veggie burger and grilled tofu recipes Jack mention in this episode, click here.
Visit Jack’s website myfreshattitude.com for mouth-watering OMS-compliant vegan recipes, and ingredient information, and to learn useful vegan cooking techniques.
Be sure to check out Jack’s weekly international newsletter – VeganWeekly – written with the aim to inspire people to cook healthy plant-based food.
Jack’s social media links are all here: https://linktr.ee/jackmcn.
On May 16, “travel” to Paris to meet Nigel Bartram on Living Well with MS Coffee Break #31. Nigel is from the UK and has been a member of the OMS community since 2014. His latest project – publishing a book of humorous essays on his experiences with MS. You’ll want to smile after hearing his tongue-in-cheek impressions of life with MS, so please tune in!
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