Eat Like Madelaine Petsch: ‘Riverdale’ Star Shares Her Favorite Vegan Snack

Madelaine Petsch is on our radar. The Riverdale actress plays a mean-girl on the hit CW television show, but in real life she’s anything but dispassionate — in fact, she’s vegan! One in every ten Millennials these days identify as vegan or vegetarian, and nearly 40 percent of Americans are skipping meat when dining out. Petsch is at the forefront of the movement, and proves that eating vegan is cool.

Also cool? This amazing dress that Petsch wore for her peta2 campaign: it’s made entirely out of bok choy!

peta2

Petsch, who once tweeted out that she’s “been vegan [her] whole life,” sat down and spoke with peta2 about her diet. She described the benefits she experiences for sticking to a 100 percent vegan, plant-based diet, and why she decided to transition to veganism from her vegetarian diet at the age of 14.

“I turned vegan [at] 14,” she said in her promotional video. “I felt a lot healthier. I didn’t feel as lethargic because I wasn’t eating milk or eggs.”

Additionally, Petsch not only gave a shout out to her favorite restaurant in LA to visit for plant-based goodness, Veggie Grill, but she also provided the world with some insider’s intel on her favorite vegan snack: beets!

Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Beets are taking the foodie world by storm these days: not only are they a gorgeous crimson hue, but they have serious nutritional and health benefits. Beyond Meat also uses them to help make their plant-based burger called the Beyond Burger bleed beet “blood.” Beets contain nutrients that could help lower blood pressure, fight cancer and inflammation, boost your stamina, and Support detoxification. They’re also infinitely adaptable.

Petsch specifically mentioned that beet chips are her all-time favorite snack, there are many ways beets can be prepared and consumed. We recommend these Oregano Olive Oil Beet Chips as an example.

But the magic of beets doesn’t stop at chips; they are so adaptable, and just like Petsch we love repurposing them! Beets can be used to turn your typical risotto into a stunning deep red bed of deliciousness, as evidenced by this gluten-free Beet Risotto with Grilled King Oyster Mushroom dish. If you have a spiralizer, you can even use beets in place of traditional noodles, like in this vegan Garlic Zucchini and Beet Noodle Salad. This gluten-free Beet Mac and Cheese is also the perfect thing to serve at a Halloween party for a change of pace. Of course, the purists among us would never dream of swapping out noodles; so why not use beets as a plant-based meatball?

This recipe will help you make these glorious Lentils and Beet Meatballs to pile on top of your favorite kind of pasta; perfect for keeping your energy levels high if you’re on set for hours at a time!

Never fear if you’re not a savory person. For those of you that are always on the hunt to satisfy your sweet tooth, you’re in luck. Beets can be included in a variety of dessert recipes.

These White Chocolate Red Velvet Cake Pops use pureed beets to achieve their gorgeous hue, and are ready in a speedy 20 minutes and are sure to put a smile on anybody’s face. If you’re watching your sugar intake, you can always make these sugar-free Beet Brownie Bites and take them with you on the go.

If you want to continue doing your own research on beet recipes, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App. For those that don’t have it, it’s available for both Android and iPhone and is a great resource for finding vegan recipes that cut out or reduce allergens like meat, dairy, soy, gluten, eggs, grains, and more.

The Food Monster app has over 8000+ recipes and 500 are free. With a paid subscription, not only do you unlock instant access to 8000+ recipes, but you get 10 NEW recipes every day! Check it out.

Lead image source: Madelaine Petsch/Wikipedia