Jasmine Harman’s plant-based life

As the face of one of the UK’s favourite TV property shows for the last 17 years, a job that also happens to involve lots of travel to sunnier destinations, Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun presenter Jasmine Harman is thrilled to be coming out of lockdown and getting back to work. ‘It’s a really fun, rewarding job and I have really missed filming during lockdown,’ she says. ‘We film all year round and we have a great team of presenters, directors, producers and crew so we all move around and go wherever we are required. It’s a big operation because there are a lot of episodes, but it’s a small team for the actual filming – just a director, producer, presenter, sound recordist and camera operator on location, as well as the house hunters and the contributors. We don’t have anyone to do makeup or anything – it’s so glamorous!’

But successive lockdowns have had a silver lining for Jasmine, as she’s been spending more time at home with the family, rediscovering how much she enjoys cooking vegan dishes for her husband and two young children. Jasmine became vegetarian at a young age and recalls vividly the day she made the decision to give up meat. ‘I remember going vegetarian so clearly because it was Bonfire Night and my seventh birthday is in November,’ she says. ‘We had been to visit some family friends for a bonfire party, and they served a very meaty lunch, and I just couldn’t eat any of it. I had never really enjoyed meat that much – I only ate things like sausages and fish fingers and processed stuff but not ‘real’ meat. Something just clicked for me and I knew I couldn’t eat meat anymore. Back at home, mum had made shepherd’s pie for dinner and she told me I could be vegetarian from tomorrow. I remember crying into the shepherd’s pie because I didn’t want to eat it. And that was it!’

Jasmine’s vegan journey

Now Jasmine is an ambassador for Veganuary and uses her public profile to raise awareness of animal welfare issues and ethical eating, after first dipping her toe into veganism during the very first Veganuary campaign in 2014. The decision came after a lightbulb moment sparked by breastfeeding her daughter. ‘It was just after my daughter Joy was born in October 2013 that I decided I wanted to cut out dairy,’ she says. ‘I was already vegetarian because I loved animals and didn’t want to harm them, but when I became a mother, it struck me that like all mammals, whether it’s a woman or a cow, I only produce milk because I have a baby to feed. I couldn’t believe I got to the age of 38 before it dawned on me that a cow doesn’t just produce milk by magic, they have to have a calf first. You don’t just turn a tap and the milk is there! It just made me think about how I’d feel to have my baby taken away and I decided I didn’t want to eat dairy anymore. With Veganuary coming up I decided to try it out, and I liked the idea of being able to give it a go without having to commit. And here we are eight years down the line and I’m a Veganuary ambassador now.’

It certainly wasn’t a smooth path to going vegan, however, and Jasmine admits she found it more challenging to give up dairy than meat. ‘It was really hard at first and back then we didn’t have the same quality and range of alternatives available as there are now,’ she says. ‘My husband and I used to have cheese and wine evenings with lots of lovely cheeses, and if we went skiing, we’d always go out for fondue. All that had to change, so it was difficult for lots of reasons. Cheese was the hardest thing for me to give up, and my husband found it hard too, but we adapted gradually. My children aren’t strictly vegan although they eat mostly vegan at home, but if they go to a birthday party, for example, I’m not going to say they can’t have a piece of cake and things like that. We agreed before Joy was born that our children would be vegetarian, in fact I insisted on it, but she is now saying she thinks she’d like to be vegan too.’

The growing availability and range of interesting plant-based alternatives has been a big help for people adopting vegan eating in recent years, and Jasmine is excited to see how far things have come – and how well food businesses, restaurants and retailers have responded to the growing vegan trend. ‘There are still a few gaps in the vegan alternatives market but on the whole you can go into any supermarket and you can find stacks of products now, and everything is much better labeled,’ she says. ‘Back when I first went vegan it was so hit and miss. There always seemed to be so many animal ingredients in things that didn’t need to be there, like gelatin in desserts and milk powder in crisps, but I think a lot of these unnecessary ingredients have been removed from a lot of products to make them more inclusive for vegans, vegetarians and people with allergies now.

Cooking for the family

So, what does Jasmine normally serve up to her family, and is cooking a chore or a pleasure? ‘I do like cooking, and my husband is a great cook too. I think because I love cooking and food that’s partly why initially becoming a vegan was difficult, I just didn’t know how to go about it because I couldn’t make any of my usual dishes anymore. But I have a much better repertoire of vegan recipes I can make now. In fact, going vegan made me a better cook as I had to be more creative and more inventive to make things taste lovely, and please the kids – who, like most children, can be fussy sometimes.

‘Something like shepherd’s pie would be a typical family meal. I’d usually use lentils for us or a mince alternative for the whole family, although some of the vegan mince brands are now so realistic I can’t eat them! My husband bought a vegan salt beef roll from M&S the other day, but it just looked too authentic, I didn’t want to try it. It looked too much like real meat. I’ve got used to vegan burgers because I used to eat Quorn mince, burgers and sausages. I don’t eat so much Quorn now as most of it isn’t vegan. I made lentil ‘meatballs’ with a tomato and aubergine ragu with spaghetti recently and the kids loved it.

‘I became a partner in a vegan food company a few years back – The Brook – and we’ve recently launched seafood cakes, and although I’ve never eaten seafood my business partner says they taste incredibly authentic. One of my favourite products is our ‘cheese’ sauce, which is great for making cauliflower or macaroni cheese, it tastes amazing, and I use it a lot for family meals. We love macaroni cheese with the Brook sauce and some veggies on the side, it’s great for when I need something quick and easy. The cheese sauce is actually based on lentils, so it’s a lot healthier than real cheese sauce.’

Healthy vegan eating

There’s a common misconception that a vegan diet is automatically healthier, but it’s never been so easy to be a junk food vegan. ‘Some people might lose weight on a vegan diet, but with so many vegan cakes, wine, chocolate, crisps, pizzas and all the other processed food available now, it’s very easy to be an unhealthy vegan,’ laughs Jasmine. ‘More alternatives are a good thing as it does encourage more people to go vegan, but there can be extremes – from a really great healthy wholefood plant-based diet to a high sugar, high salt, processed plant-based diet.’

Jasmine admits she has a few vegan vices herself and says she’s never going to be a kale smoothie fan. ‘The idea of eating kale smoothies – kill me now! The texture of kale is horrible, I know it’s nutritious but it’s so chewy, I just don’t like it. I much prefer spinach. My big weakness though is good bread. The vegan butter by Naturli is so delicious that I just can’t have it in the house as I can’t stop eating it! I also love salt and vinegar crisps. Luckily I don’t have that much of a sweet tooth but I am partial to the vegan peanut butter Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and we recently tried some of the new vegan Lindt chocolates, which were amazing. So yes, it’s very easy to be a junk food vegan if you want to!’