Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

Brown rice is kinda bland in my opinion. It's not bad. Just dull. When I accidentally bought a big can of tomatoes sauce when I intended to by diced tomatoes I was struck with this idea to use it up. Ingredients 1.5 cups dry brown rice (soak overnight to speed up cooking) 1 16 ounce can tomato sauce 1 cup water 8-10 cloves garlic 1/3 cup frozen broccoli 1/2 cup frozen peas 1 tsp olive oil salt, pepper and basil Soak rice in water for 12-24 hours. For easiest cleanup and storage soak it in the pan you will use to cook it. Drain water from rice. Add olive oil, few shakes of salt, water and tomato sauce. Cover and simmer on low for about 25-30 minutes. Monitoring and stirring to prevent stickage. When 25 minutes are up taste to check rice for tenderness. If rice is chewier than you'd like add a 1/2 more water, cover and simmer 5-7 minutes more. Otherwise, turn off heat. Add frozen broccoli and frozen peas. Stir to combine. Replace cover to pot and let sit on warm

I got this idea from watching Gordon Ramsey when he did that cook along with celebs show. When potatoes are low priced its a great way to utilize them. Ingredients 1-1.5 lbs. russet potatoes 2 tsp olive oil 7 cloves garlic salt, pepper and basil Bring half a large pot of salted water to a boil. While waiting for water to boil cut your potatoes into 1/2 inch chunks. When water is boiling rapidly add potatoes. Set oven timer for 12 minutes. Raise heat to bring back to a boil. Stir occasionally. When it comes back to the boil, lower heat and boil gently for remaining time. Test potatoes after 10 minutes. You want them firm, but almost fork tender. Gently poke one with a fork. If it goes in with only minimal resistance, they are done. If not, cook a few minutes more - until timer expires. When ready remove potatoes from pot back to cutting board. Heat a large skillet with 1 tsp oil. When fairly hot add garlic and saute 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer garlic to temporary resting pl

Let's make veggies tasty and easy and convenient. We'll use frozen vegetables to create a quick, easy and tasty salsa style blend. Great on sandwiches, by itself or mixed with beans and/or nuts. Ingredients 1/2 frozen chopped kale 1/3 cup frozen bell peppers 1/2 cup frozen yellow corn niblets 2 tbls white or red vinegar 2 tsp olive oil divided into 1 tsp portions salt and pepper 4 cloves garlic 1/3 cup chick peas 1 ounce almonds (optional) Add 1 tsp olive oil to a medium non-stick fry pan and heat on medium. When oil is hot add garlic and saute one minute. Add kale and corn. Cover and cook three minutes. Add a few shakes of salt and pepper. Add peppers. Cook three minutes more. Few shakes more salt and pepper. Remove from pan to storage container. Dress with vinegar, olive oil and additional salt and pepper to taste. Stir in chick peas and almonds (or other nuts and beans you favor). Dress immediately if serving soon. Let sit 10-15 minutes to cool. Then

Manwich brand sauce mix is vegan. The new chunky one is especially good. The original flavor it good too. Manwich is an easy way to make a vegan meal quickly. I like to cook and experiment and all that, but sometimes I just want fast and simple. This recipe will work for those times. Ingredients 1 can manwich 1/2 box pasta beans of choice nutritional yeast Manwich already has lotsa vegetables in it. You don't have to add any. Of course you can if you want. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas would all go really well. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Set aside. Return pasta pot to burner. Add manwich mix, nutritional yeast and beans. Cover and heat on medium low for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionaly. Add pasta back to pot. Stir. Cover. Heat for 5 minutes more. If you wish to add additional vegetables add them when you add the beans. If you like really spicy, add some hot sauce in the last two minutes of the

Broccoli rabe was 99 cents a pound at the supermarket last week, so I figured I'd give it a try. I like most leafy greens. I also had some cumin seed and was eager to try that out as well. I found the cumin really good, but the rabe a little bitter. Not horrible, but more bitter than the kale and mustard greens I usually eat. What I also found was that they taste a million times better when tomato sauce is involved. I guess tomato sauce can pretty much make anything good. Ingredients 1 lb broccoli rabe 6 cloves garlic sliced thin 2 tsps cumin seed 1 cup your favorite jar tomato sauce salt and pepper olive oil Rinse your broccoli rabe thoroughly under cool running water. Cut off thick end stems and discard. Rough chop the rest. Slice your garlic into thin ovals. Coat a large skillet with 1 tsp olive oil and heat on medium-low for 2 minutes. Add cumin seed, cover and cook 1 minute. Add garlic, stir, cover and cook 2 more minutes. Add broccoli rabe. Salt and pepper to

Top Ramen Noodle brand oriental flavor is vegan. It contains no animal products. The flavor packet is basically powdered soy sauce. The noodles are fried flour and water. But good ramen needs some accompaniments. Ingredients 1 packet oriental ramen 1/3 cup frozen green peas 1/3 cup frozen bell peppers water In your serving bowl pour your peas and peppers. Set aside. Fill a small sauce pan half way with water. Break ramen noodle brick into quarters. Heat pan on medium high. Add ramen noodles and the flavor packet. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Once it has come to a boil, lower heat to medium and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until noodles are soft and have darkened slightly. When ramen is done use a sieve to strain of water and return noodles to hot pan. Alternatively you can use a fork to hold the noodles in while you pour off the liquid. Return pot to original burner on stove. Add peas and peppers. Stir to combine. Cover pan. Set burner to low and heat 2-4 minutes more

Did you know you can order domino's pizza and get it vegan? Their thin crust pizza dough contains no eggs, milk or cheese. You can order your thin crust pizza sans cheese and add any veggie toppings you like. They offer quite a lot of interesting ones. Hot peppers, spinach, pineapple, hot sauce, sweet peppers, olives and more. Unfortunately you won't save any money foregoing the cheese. It would be nice to get an extra topping gratis (hint, hint) since they are saving money not giving us cheese. A good deal though, is the two medium, two topping pizza's for $5.99. No, I don't work for domino's. I just thought it was cool that they offer the ability to configure one's pizza to meet a vegan lifestyle choice. Their meditterian oven baked sandwich is not to bad either. It's probably better for vegetarians. It kinda needs cheese. But if you're willing to add some of your own beans to the sandwich cheeseless, it's pretty darn good. A bit on the sma

I made vegan rice pudding the other day. It was scrumptious straight from the pan. But after it sat awhile it got kinda dry and hard. I'll need to adjsut my recipe to include more liquid. but otherwise it was very delicious. It was also really easy to make. Here is the adjusted recipe 1 cup white rice 2 cups almond milk 3/4 cup water 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup maple syrup cinnamon and nutmeg if you have them Cook rice in the water first. when most is aborbed add milk and continue cooking gently until the rice is tender. you'll wnat a fair amount of milk still remaining. a soupy consistency. remove from heat. add syrup, vanilla and spices. let sit two minutes covered in warm pot. then transfer to cool, covered storage container. chill in fridge 3-4 hours before consuming. When ready to serve top with a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I love risotto. It's so creamy and moist. It's not as hard to make as restaurant would lead you to belive. And it's really easy to veganize. this risotto is also accompanied by a vegan pesto sauce. the basis for which is from a packet. simply organics pesto sauce is cheese free and entirely vegan and easy to make. Ingredients 1.5 cups arborrio rice 1 can vegatable broth 1/2 can water 1/2 medium yellow onion 6 cloves garlic 1 tsp olive oil 1/3 cup frozen carrots 1/2 cup frozen bell peppers pinch salt and pepper Heat olive oil a large skillet with high sides and then add onion. season lightly with salt and pepper. Saute onion 3-4 minutes over medium heat until tender and translucent. Add garlic and dry rice. Saute 2 minute smore. Add 1/2 the can of broth and let rice steep in broth over low-medium heat. Stir ocassionally. When most has been absorbed add rest of broth and continue cooking and stirring every so often. When that liquid is gone add 1/2 can or 3/4 cup water. Cook

Here's a good, quick vegan sandwich you can make on the fly. I love sandwiches. Lots of nutrition wiht minimal effort. Ingredients 2 slice bread toasted 1 tbl jar tomato suace beans or combo of beans of your choice any crispy veg (onion, garlic, lettuce, pre-cooked aspargus, corn nibblets) nutrional yeast Toast your bread. If it's a firmer bread you don't need to toast it. If it's a soft bread you're better off toasting it. Smear one side of one slice with tomato sauce. add beans. veg. yeast. top sandwich with other slice of bread and cut in half. Enjoy. The sauce helps to keep the beans on the bread. It also add a lot of flavor. The cripsy veg add that textural element. The yeast add the extra nutrition you need. See to your liking. salt, pepepr, garlic powder. Experiment.

what is vegan and what does it mean to you? strictly speaking vegan means eschewing all animal derived products. including meat, milk, eggs, honey and anything which contains such ingredients. Essentially a vegan is someone who wishes to avoid the use and/or mistreatment of animals. Often during the manufacture process animals are cruelly treated and abused. A vegetarian usually has a similar motivation. But vegetarians still eat milk and egg products. why is veganism good? there are many reasons beside limiting animal cruelty. veganism is a very green lifestyle. raising food animals uses up far more resources than raising vegetables and grains. the bulk of grains cultivated in the united states are allocated to feeding animals that will eventually become food. avoiding the middle man is the obvious answer to conservation. why feed the cows corn, when we can simply feed the corn to people. cow don't even want to eat corn. cow are natrually designed to eat grass. the meat industry f

If you're vegan or thinking about becoming one you've no doubt heard about knorr red bell pepper pesto. It was supposedly vegan, but I cannot attest to that since it no longer exists. What I can tell you is that Simply Organic makes a vegan pesto sauce packet. I found some at shoprite and was quite pleased. The directions say to add cheese, but the product does not contain any. Nutritional yeast can be added for a note of chessiness. Things like this are always good to know. The more people that buy it the more likely it is to stay on the store shelves and remain true to its vegan origins.