On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, I speak with Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard, Executive Director ofJewish Initiative For Animals (JIFA). JIFA’s mission is to help align people’s food choices with their stated Jewish values. Bernhard shares his food journey, tips for eating and cooking a plant-based diet and his thoughts on the essential role of food. He also shares his wife’s recipe for Shabbat Treat Scones. Recipe is below.
The attachment to food and food memories remains strong, even when the ingredients change.
“Food is important in terms of our memories, our identity and our culture,” Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe Bernhard, Executive Director of Jewish Initiative For Animals (JIFA), told the Journal. JIFA’s mission is to help align people’s food choices with their stated Jewish values.
Bernhard and his wife, Laurie, have been eating a plant-based diet for nearly six years. He was a vegetarian for many years before that. When Laurie was looking for some different ways to prepare food, she came across a plant-based diet, Clean Food Dirty Girl, they decided to give it a try.
“We really liked it, and it was going in the direction that I was already going, so we just went from there,” Bernhard said. “The foods that I used to love, we’ve adapted [or] found substitutes.”
There are really no foods that he misses.
“Growing up, if I’m to be totally completely honest, my favorite food was a bacon cheeseburger,” he said. “Finding good fake cheese, an Impossible Burger and some fine fake bacon actually does okay by me.”
According to Bernhard, it takes 450 gallons of water to create a hamburger.
“You’re talking about what it takes to water the crop to create the food that then feeds the animal, what it takes to actually maintain the animal,” he said.
A Beyond Burger takes two gallons of water. That’s a tremendous difference in environmental impact.
When asked how somebody who grew up loving bacon cheeseburgers became a rabbi, Bernhard said it was a series of small decisions, similar to how he ended up on the path to being plant-based. Each step logically led to the next.
Bernhard believes it’s relatively easy to eat plant-based. With an “explosion” of substitutions for meat and dairy, there are plenty of options out there. For instance, instead of eggs, you can mix flax meal with water, applesauce or aquafaba.
“You might love chicken soup, but there could be different ways of making it,” he said.
It’s really just a matter of incorporating new foods, experimenting and seeing what you like. Eating plant-based doesn’t need to be all or nothing.
“Our feeling is that everything helps,” Bernhard said. “Find the ways that make sense that are authentic to who [you] are … and make those kinds of changes.”
In his home, Bernhard is more sous chef and clean-up crew than chef, though he can put together a meal. Most of the time he assists Laurie, who has learned a lot since they started cooking and eating plant-based.
“What we noticed is that for vegan cooking and plant-based cooking, you have to have a whole range of other spices and ingredients on hand,” he said.
It takes a little bit of time to develop the knowledge-base and skillset, but once you do, plant-based cooking becomes second nature. Furthermore plant-based eating can still evoke those all-important food memories.
When his boys were young, Bernhard would stop by his local bakery each Friday to get a treat for his family to enjoy on Shabbat.
“It would be this thing that makes Shabbat morning special,” he said.
Even though his boys are now grown, and he has changed the way he eats, Bernhard still feels a strong connection to that food tradition. And, since it doesn’t feel like Shabbat without this breakfast treat, Laurie created a vegan scone for them to enjoy.
“They are absolutely delicious. and it’s a way of kind of keeping that memory going,” Bernhard said.
Learn more about Jonathan Bernhard and JIFA.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Laurie’s Shabbat Treat Scones
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
2 teaspoons Penzeys pie seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons cold vegan butter (or solid coconut oil)
1/2 cup oat milk + more as needed (or almond milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4-1 cup fresh blueberries (may use frozen as well) or 1 cup of any combo dry fruit/nuts or chocolate chips. (We like Trader Joe’s dry blueberry and pecan pieces!)
First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Next, in a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, ground flaxseeds, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
Add the cold vegan butter and use a pastry cutter (or your hands if needed) and combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the oat milk and vanilla, and stir until just combined. Then fold in the blueberries.
On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and knead it just a few times until it comes together. Flatten the dough into a circle, about 1 inch thick. Slice into 8 equal triangles with a pizza cutter or large knife.
Place the scones onto the prepared baking sheet, and bake for 22-26 minutes until golden brown on top.
Let the scones cool for at least 15 minutes.
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
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