About
BEHIND THE BLOG
Hi, I’m Kim-Julie.
I’m passionate about helping people eat more plants & take steps towards living a slower, more conscious, and inspired life.
I’m the founder and creative director of the vegan food and lifestyle brands Best of Vegan and Vegan Reset, as well as the author of the books Vegan Reset: The 28-Day Plan to Kickstart Your Healthy Lifestyle, its U.K. counterpart The 28-Day Vegan Plan, and the official Best of Vegan Cookbook.
When I don’t cook, eat, photograph, or write about vegan food, you can usually find me in a bookstore, on a yoga mat, traveling, or at home, enjoying doing absolutely nothing and chilling with my dog Leila.
Before going vegan (somewhat accidentally and overnight) in 2011, I was the furthest thing from a vegan you could possibly imagine. I LOVED meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and honey. That’s why I know how overwhelming it can seem to change your lifestyle and eating habits. On my Vegan Reset blog, I teach people how to do it one step at a time, with lots of delicious, quick and easy recipes.
Outside of veganism, I’m passionate about social justice, art, history, and my friends and family.
Kim-Julie
What I do
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Best of Vegan®
Best of Vegan® is a digital culinary and lifestyle publication I started in January 2014. It features recipes and articles from chefs, bloggers, and passionate foodies worldwide. It’s dedicated to showcasing all that the vegan lifestyle and plant-based cuisine have to offer, including restaurant reviews, travel guides, interviews, tutorials, and much more. The official Best of Vegan Cookbook, which includes 100 recipes, was published by HarperCollins in December 2022. View the Best of Vegan website here.
BLOGGER & RECIPE DEVELOPER
Vegan Reset®
Vegan Reset® started as an online program that has since expanded to a book, a blog, and several eBooks. The blog features a majority of healthy(ish) plant-based recipes, as well as some more indulgent ones (it’s all about balance, right?), alongside vegan lifestyle tips and guides. The book, with was published in 2018, is a cookbook, a practical guide to plant-based cooking and the vegan lifestyle, and a 28-Day Vegan Meal Plan & Shopping List. View the Vegan Reset website here.
WRITER & RESEARCHER
Kim-Julie Hansen (Blog)
The first blog I launched in early 2013 was called Brussels Vegan (because I was vegan and lived in Brussels). Years later, after leaving Brussels and starting two other vegan platforms, I was craving a space that felt more personal and where I could share more about my other passions, including social justice, mental health, and wellbeing beyond food. In 2018, the food portion therefore moved to Vegan Reset and the personal one moved here. This is where you’ll find all things lifestyle, culture, mental health, personal growth etc. (Note: this blog is currently being revamped and will be back soon!)
The Quiz
Forever On Repeat
Tracy chapman
Spending all my money On
books, plants, travels & my dog
Birth Chart
☉ GEMINI, ☾ LEO, ↑ SCORPIO
FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH
New York city
My Favorite TV Show ATM
The bear
My Happy Place IS
any place that feels like home
SECRET TALENT
drawing
My Favorite Person
my granny
Favorite Colors
bordeaux red & khaki green
I Can’t Live Without
my friends
Up Close & Personal
To read more about how and why I went vegan, check out the about section of my vegan food blog. Here are a few more things about me (“fun facts” if you will) that are unrelated to veganism:
- I was born in West Berlin, two years before the wall fell. My dad was one of the people who rushed to the wall that day, hammer in hand, and joined the crowds in tearing it down. I still have one of the pieces of the wall that he took with him that day.
- My parents were both avid travelers all throughout their late teens and twenties. My dad would work as a waiter at night and on weekends while in school full-time so that he could spend months at a time hitch hiking and riding his bicycle through the U.S., Sri Lanka, and all of Europe. It’s during one of those trips that he met my mother (who was an au pair in London). They became penpals for years before eventually moving in together.
- They always encouraged me doing the same. I worked in hotels in a few different countries (including Egypt, Italy, and France) for a couple of years before starting college and have continued traveling and moving every few years since.
- I can neither whistle nor snap my fingers!
- I adopted a rescue dog in December 2023 and named her Leila (after the song “Leila et les Chasseurs” by Francis Cabrel). I was inspired to adopt after meeting some of my friends’ rescues (especially my friend Joanne’s dog Lulu) and after seeing another friend, Tedi, foster over 23 dogs over the years. Even though it was so much harder than I expected at first, I now can’t imagine my life without Leila.
- I’m obsessed with languages and before starting my vegan business, the plan was to continue going to school in order to one day become a professor. I studied at university for six years before moving to New York to focus on my online business and writing cookbooks full time. After many years, I’ve recently decided to go back to grad school part-time in order to continue both of these passions.
- I have ADHD. I didn’t get diagnosed until I was in my thirties, but once I did, my whole life suddenly started making A LOT more sense.
- I left New York City during the pandemic and now live in Ghent, Belgium. Luckily, I still get to go back to New York and Los Angeles regularly.
- I’m an introvert (INFP for those who are familiar with the MBTI personality test) and can spend endless time alone (which isn’t always good for me!)
- I’m a Gemini sun, Leo moon, and Scorpio rising (if that means anything to you!).
- My mother, grandmother, great-grandmother (and all generations before that) were all born in the Congo. It’s a long and complex story that I’m hoping to tell in a book one day!
- My first name is Kim-Julie and for the first 10 years of my life, that’s what teachers and almost everyone else called me. When I switched schools in 5th grade, someone forgot the hyphen when enrolling me and I was too shy to correct them, so it just became Kim for many years. I started going by Kim-Julie again when I started my online business in 2013. I prefer people calling me Kim-Julie (Kim or KJ are OK too), but hate being called just Julie (the best way I can describe is this: imagine your name is Amanda and people start randomly calling you “Da”).