Mum’s Recipes with Tessa Meares

Tessa and her husband John moved to Qatar nine years ago from the UK. Now a family of three, Tessa is a full-time mum to their seven-year-old son Woody. Though Tessa has chosen to remove all animal products from her diet, John still eats meat. As a compromise between parents, their son Woody is a vegetarian. “Most of the time Woody doesn’t know he’s eating vegan food. There are some things he doesn’t enjoy such as vegan cheese, but he quite often tells me that I should open a cafe and sell my food so I think he quite likes my cooking. As I’m the main cook in the house, most of the time my boys eat vegan. I don’t even know how to cook meat.”

Vegan diets exclude all animal-based products such as dairy, meat, eggs, seafood and honey. An increasing number of vegans also avoid animal-derived materials such as leather and fur.

Fortunately for Tessa, being the only full-time vegan in the family has not presented too many dietary challenges. “We just kind of accept our differences,” she explains. “John knows that I will not touch, cook or even buy meat for him. Woody also does not want to touch or eat meat and he happily tells people that he’s a vegetarian.”

Eating vegan in Qatar

Luckily for Tessa and a growing number of vegans in Qatar, plant-based products are now stocked in most major supermarkets. She buys most of her meat alternatives such as vegan sausages, burgers and cheese from MegaMart, while alternative plant milks are available at most supermarkets. “I really enjoy Tesco or Frys vegan sausage rolls—they’re so yummy and I quite often put them in my son’s lunchbox.” For sweets, she loves Ben & Jerry’s vegan ice cream from MegaMart. “They have a better selection here than in the UK,” she claims. Her kitchen is always stocked with bananas, frozen blueberries, tinned beans, lentils, pasta, potatoes and passata tomato sauce. Her blender and juicer get used a lot to whip up delicious smoothies and juices.

Breakfast for Tessa usually consists of a smoothie containing fruit, chia seeds, one green vegetable such as spinach, and a plant-based milk. Lunch is a bit sporadic, but it’s whatever she can find in the fridge. Some days it may be a simple vegan cheese sandwich, or avocado and marmite on toast. For dinner, being a Brit, she loves starchy foods such as potatoes—fried, roasted, baked, mashed—plus vegan lasagne, pasta and soups. For Woody, she relies on lots of meat alternatives. He especially likes the vegan braai-style sausages by Frys.

If you’re thinking of taking the plunge into veganism, Tessa recommends that you educate yourself as much as you can and transition slowly. Try Meatless Mondays or introduce one vegan meal per week. Don’t beat yourself up if you eat something with meat or dairy in it, she says. “I haven’t always been perfect, and it’s been a major learning experience for me too. You can get a lot of information from the Internet including recipes and resources but don’t overwhelm yourself with information. Keep it simple.”

Black Bean & Sweet Corn Chilli

A go-to meal for Tessa and her family, this recipe can be made in bulk and stored in the freezer. Serve as an accompaniment to rice, pasta, jacket potatoes or nachos.