Before switching to a plant-based diet, food writer Richard Makin had a decidedly un-vegan job: making ice cream.
He spent three years driving around London, selling ice cream sandwiches – before turning vegan in 2017, something he called a “surprisingly intuitive transition”.
“I overdosed on dairy ingredients, because I was making all of the ice cream myself,” says Makin, 39, now based outside of Manchester.
“So every single day I was pouring cream, eggs and everything into a big pasteuriser.”
Richard Makin, author of Stress-Free Dinners (Image: Handout/PA)
This, coupled with the fact he shared a production premises with a now-defunct vegan street food company, showed him the potential of plant-based food.
“They did the most spectacular vegan Vietnamese food you’ve ever tasted, and it was down to those trades – I would give them a scoop of ice cream, and they’d give me a banh mi or something – that I realised that you can love food and be vegan at the same time,” Makin remembers.
“I don’t think I had put those two things together – I always thought that vegan food was kind of a punishment. A lot of people think of it that way, and it’s just not true. It just takes a little bit of learning and a little bit of kitchen ingenuity, and you can create food that’s absolutely as good – if not better – than anything else.”
Makin’s time working with ice cream introduced him to the world of recipe development: “The thing I loved about making ice cream was coming up with those flavours and making them a reality.”
In 2017, he founded his Instagram account, School Night Vegan, tracking his switch from vegetarian to vegan, and in 2018 he shut down his ice cream business to go all-in on vegan recipe development. In 2023, he wrote his first cookbook – Anything You Can Cook, I Can Cook Vegan – and he’s now releasing his follow-up: Stress-Free Dinners.
While his debut was “very much for vegans”, Makin says, his latest offering is “for absolutely everybody”. You won’t find any unusual ingredients in the recipes, with the dishes designed to be “so accessible and so unintimidating”, he notes.
Richard Makin, author of Stress-Free Dinners (Image: Handout/PA)
He’s also writing in a slightly different food landscape. It seems like veganism was everywhere five or so years ago, but the climate has changed – which Makin calls “a market correction”.
“There was this huge boom in the kind of products that you could buy as a vegan, and that really won a lot of people over – whether it was Beyond Burgers, or the vegan sandwiches at M&S or whatever. It made it a lot easier for people to be vegan.
“I think there was always going to be a pendulum swing, because it was such a huge explosion… But I think most people have just incorporated vegan ideas and vegan meals and vegan recipes into their diet in a way that they never would have 10 years ago, so maybe they don’t identify as a vegan.
“But in terms of the number of plant-based meals that people are eating and the positive attitude towards high-fibre diets and plant-based proteins and things like that, people are just as open as they ever have been, if not more.
“I feel like the tide’s changing, but I don’t necessarily think it’s in a bad way. It’s doing exactly what vegetarianism did 15 years ago, which is it stopped being this buzzword and stopped being the butt of the jokes… It’s just not really a big deal anymore.”
This means that “vegans look different than they used to”, Makin suggests. “There used to be this whole image that went along with being a vegan, and it had this anti-establishment edge to it. Whereas now, my mum and dad are vegan; they’re both 75, and they made the switch the past five years and it wasn’t a big deal.
“It wasn’t a political decision, it wasn’t an identity crisis or anything like that. It was just, oh, we’ll give it a try, and they found it easier than they thought and they felt good on it, so they carried on doing it. It’s as simple as that really.”
Richard Makin, author of Stress-Free Dinners (Image: Handout/PA)
You won’t find much fake meat in Makin’s recipes – in his new book, just one recipe involves plant-based sausages – with a focus on protein sources like tofu and tempeh instead.
Makin suggests that plant-based meat replacements is one area where “the tide has really changed”, suggesting that people were “overexposed” to these ingredients.
“I think overexposure was a big reason for why people started to look elsewhere for their sources of base protein, but also all the conversations around ultra-processed meals and ingredients really put a lot of people off,” he says.
“Whether that’s right or wrong – there’s a lot of pushback on whether that’s actually as big a deal as we thought it was.”
Makin does cook with meat replacements “every now and then” as they can “really help you in a pinch”, but adds: “It’s not something I use every day.”
For anyone who does want to incorporate more vegan meals into their diet, Makin warns against trying too hard.
“People tend to overthink it. They try and find stuff that feels completely new that fits their idea of what vegan food is, when in reality, vegan food can be exactly what you were eating yesterday, but without the animal products,” he notes.
“Whether that means you’re buying store-bought replacements or you’re learning how to use tofu… When you make those switches in your mind, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every meal. You can substitute in a way that feels really intuitive.”
Roasted carrot pasta from Stress-Free Dinners by Richard Makin. (Image: Richard Makin/PA)
Richard Makin’s roasted carrot pasta recipe
Miso brings this simple pasta sauce alive.
“Carrots and pasta don’t hang out together enough, considering how well they get along,” says plant-based food writer Richard Makin.
“In this recipe, we roast up a bunch of carrots that have been massaged with miso paste, then blend to make a sauce that hugs the rigatoni like a long-lost friend. It’s sweet and smoky, like an elevated mac and cheese, but without the mac or the cheese.”
Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
450g carrots (around 4 carrots), peeled and sliced into coins
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2tbsp olive oil
1tbsp miso paste (white or red)
½tsp fine sea salt
¼tsp ground black pepper
1 bulb garlic
160ml vegetable stock
150g silken tofu
1tbsp tomato puree
6 sun-dried tomatoes from a jar
1tsp paprika
340g dried vegan pasta
Fresh parsley, finely chopped, to serve
Chilli flakes, to serve
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/Fan 200°C/Gas Mark 7.
2. Place the sliced carrots and onion in a large baking tray and drizzle with half of the olive oil. Add the miso paste and massage into the carrots with your hands. Sprinkle with the salt and black pepper.
3. Slice the bulb of garlic in half horizontally and place it in the centre of the carrots, cut-sides up. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil.
4. Place the tray in the oven to roast for 30 minutes, tossing the carrots and onion half-way through cooking, or until the carrots are tender and slightly browned.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes. Squeeze the soft roasted garlic cloves out of their skins into the tray with the carrots.
6. In a blender, combine the roasted carrots, onions and garlic with the vegetable stock, silken tofu, tomato puree, sun-dried tomatoes and paprika, and season with salt and black pepper. Blend until smooth and creamy.
7. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted water until it’s al dente. Reserving around a cup of the pasta water, drain and return the pasta to the pan.
8. Pour the creamy sauce over the pasta and place the saucepan back over medium heat. If necessary, use the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce. Stir until just piping hot, then divide the pasta amongst four bowls. Serve immediately, sprinkled with fresh parsley and chilli flakes.
Spicy tahini lime noodles from Stress-Free Dinners by Richard Makin. (Image: Richard Makin/PA)
Richard Makin’s spicy tahini lime noodles recipe
A nutritious and delicious midweek meal that’s easily ready in 10 minutes.
“It’s been one of those days where you blinked somewhere around 9.45am and somehow it’s now 8.30pm,” says plant-based food writer Richard Makin.
“It’s an orange alert for hanger outbursts and that out-of-date granola bar in your handbag barely touched the sides. Luckily this nutritious dinner requires zero cooking and can be on the table in 10 minutes. Crisis averted!”
Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
190g thin rice noodles
40g kale, destemmed and roughly chopped
1tsp toasted sesame oil
2tbsp tahini paste
2tsp gochujang (or substitute with harissa paste)
2tbsp soy sauce (or substitute with tamari sauce)
2tbsp lime juice
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
½tbsp minced fresh ginger
160g cooked edamame beans
½ cucumber, sliced
2 spring onions, sliced
2tsp crispy chilli oil
1tsp sesame seeds
Method:
1. Place the rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them soak for five to seven minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. While the noodles are soaking, put the kale in a separate bowl, drizzle with toasted sesame oil and massage until it softens slightly.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the tahini, gochujang, soy sauce, lime juice, garlic and ginger to create a creamy dressing.
4. Add the drained noodles to the bowl with the kale. Pour the dressing over the noodles and toss everything together until well coated.
5. Divide the dressed noodles between two bowls. Top each bowl with half of the edamame, cucumber slices, spring onion, crispy chilli oil, if using, and sesame seeds.
6. Serve warm or cold.
Tiramisu ice cream sundae from Stress-Free Dinners by Richard Makin. (Image: Richard Makin/PA)
Richard Makin’s tiramisu ice cream sundae recipe
Take your dessert to the next level with this ice cream sundae dish.
“I’m a massive believer that if you have access to good coffee and a scoop of ice cream, you’ve got dessert sorted,” says plant-based food writer Richard Makin.
“This recipe takes that idea and runs with it. You’ll need to use an electric whisk or a stand mixer to get the creamy dalgona-style coffee whip going, but trust me, it’s worth it!”
Tiramisu ice cream sundae
Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
2tbsp instant coffee granules
1tbsp cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
3tbsp caster sugar
2tbsp boiling water
1tbsp coffee liqueur
50ml espresso (or very strong coffee)
8 Lotus Biscoff cookies
4 large scoops vegan vanilla ice cream
Method:
1. In a medium bowl, whip the instant coffee, cocoa powder, caster sugar and boiling water using an electric whisk or stand mixer until creamy, glossy and holding stiff peaks. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix the coffee liqueur and espresso.
3. To assemble, dunk four of the Biscoff cookies into the espresso mixture and place two in the bottom of each of two small bowls or sundae glasses.
4. Top with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream and a spoonful of the whipped coffee mixture. Repeat the layers, finishing with a final spoonful of whipped coffee on top.
5. Serve immediately or freeze for up to 30 minutes. Dust with cocoa powder just before serving.
Stress-Free Dinners by Richard Makin is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing, priced £22. Photography by Richard Makin. Available now.
Stress-Free Dinners by Richard Makin (Bloomsbury Publishing). (Image: Bloomsbury Publishing /PA)
