‘A vegan version of everything’: Festival at Monroeville convention center showcases animal-free fare

Folks who are vegan, forsaking food derived from animals, tend to field the question:

How do you do it?

Rebecca Gilbert enjoys telling people that these days, it can be a breeze.

“I mean, there is a vegan version of everything. The foods that we know and love, that we’re comfortable with — pizzas and bacon cheeseburgers — we can still have those, just made with different ingredients,” she said. “Twenty-five years ago, it was rice and beans and soy milk.”

An abundance of animal-free fare, including faux seafood from Florida, was on the menu July 8 during the Original Pittsburgh Vegan Expo & Arts Festival at the Monroeville Convention and Events Center.

Gilbert was among the vendors filling the center’s North Hall for the annual event, ready to talk about her book, “It’s Easy to Start Eating Vegan.”

“It’s basically written as a step-by-step guide so that anyone can read it in 30 minutes or less and know everything they need to know to get started,” she said. “It’s everything I wish I had when it went vegan.”

In 1998, the Beaver County native was about to give up competitive figure skating because of an injury.

“No one could figure out what was wrong with me,” Gilbert said. “I did everything Western medicine says you should do, and I never healed.”

Then she read about a Scandinavian study in which subjects who ate only vegetables for six months reported a significant a significant reduction in knee pain.

“I went vegan the next day,” she said, “and five weeks later I was back on the ice.”

Fellow author Anne Lynch of Swissvale sold out of her international-cuisine book “Globetrotting With the Vegan Goddess” during the festival, and she also has written “Quod Dea Vegan,” an homage to Greek and Italian dishes, and “The Vegan Queen of Halloween.”

“I’m one of those people where Halloween is a lifestyle, not a holiday,” she said about the latter. “It was the most fun to write.”

The book offers recipes for fall favorites like pumpkin and butternut squash, plus vegan-friendly versions of “spookified” food. For example, red dye often shows up in seasonal suggestions because of its resemblance to blood.

“Well, that red dye has insects in it,” Lynch said, referring to the practice started by the Aztec and Inca civilizations of using cochineal bugs to attain a ruby hue.

Another seemingly plant-based ingredient is gelatin, which actually is derived from animal skin, bones and connective tissue.

“You can do ‘spooky’ and not betray your veganism,” Lynch asserted.

While that particular concept may seem at odds with America’s meat-and-potato tradition, the appeal of plant-based food was on full display at the Pittsburgh Vegan Expo & Arts Festival.

“Today, we had doors open at 11. And at 10 o’clock, there was a huge line outside already waiting to come in,” event owner and CEO Amy “Amethyst” Cottrill reported. “I’m always hoping that we’ll have a huge turnout, and it always does turn out to be great. So I always know it’s going to happen. But when you see it in person, it’s like, aaah. I can relax a little bit.”

This year, a reconfiguration inside the convention center’s North Hall allowed for more vendors compared with 2022, including sellers of a wide variety of products and representative of animal-supporting organizations. And an extra day of festivities took place July 9 at Lolev Beer in Lawrenceville

As someone who made the dietary transition to animal-free at age 16, Cottrill takes pride in making plenty of plant-based options available, especially for young people.

“They can just show up to something where the huge event is all vegan. When I was a kid, that would never have happened,” the Mt. Lebanon resident said. “I’m happy that they don’t have the stress of trying to find food. It’s all over the place now.”

And of course, everyone is invited to sample the cuisine.

“The point from the beginning also was not just to preach to the choir and have vegans show up. I want the non-vegans to come, and they do,” Cottrill said. “They enjoy the food, and they love it.”

By extension, they may want to consider dropping the “non” part, especially if they have some guidance.

“It can feel really overwhelming when someone first makes the choice to make that type of switch,” Gilbert said. “I always tell people, ‘If you’re getting ready to make the switch, make a list of what you normally eat.’ Then go buy vegan versions of those things as you’re transitioning, because as we start changing what we eat, our taste buds actually change.

“And then you’ll see that what you’re craving will start changing.”