Vegan Recipes and Plant Based Cooking

I first learned about piri piri sauce watching Masterchef Australia. It's a spicy, vinegary African sauce normally used on chicken. This is a my vegan recipe variation on piri piri sauce using ingredients that speak to vegans and still preserve that hot, sweet and sour flavor profile. The addition of nutritional yeast gives it umami and adds essential vitamins without using meat. There is no cooking in this recipe. No stove top. No oven. So it's perfect for hot weather when you don't want to stand over the heat. The acids and oil and time in the fridge do all the magic to marry the ingredients and give you a beautiful sauce. 2 tbls red wine vinegar 2 tbls olive oil 2 tbls nutritional yeast 1 tbl sriracha 1 tbl hot sauce 1 tbl spicy brown mustard 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp celery seed 1 tsp black pepper 2 1/2 tsps salt 1 jalapeno, minced 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 1/2 medium sweet onion, diced 1 serrano, minced 1 green bell pepper, diced 1 can red beans, rinsed Combine a

I watch a lot of cooking shows. I kinda have an addiction to them. Masterchef is one of my favorites. Masterchef UK is the best. Masterchef US is a little full of itself, but still great. Masterchef Canada is good, but too few episodes. Now I've started watching Masterchef Australia. They speak English, for the most part, so I can follow the action. I'm learning all kinds of weird Australian words for common everyday things. Apparently, a balcony is a gantry there. And chills are called capsicum. On a recent episode they did paella. The entire hour long episode was focused on this very famous Spanish dish. It's full of saffron and paprika. Two flavorings that I adore.  It really made me want it. It's also full of seafood. Obviously, that would need to be omitted in my version. But I am confident that the vegan paella that I created has the same level of depth and unctuousness as any made with murdered marine life. Saffron being incredibly expensive posed an obst

This one's all about the sauce. This sauce is very easy, but damn good. It's basic ingredients. It's no cooking. Just cutting and stirring. It's both beautiful to look at and to eat. Summer tomatoes are so sweet and juicy and flavorful. You've got to take advantage of the season. 3 roma tomatoes, diced 1 jalapeno, miniced 1/2 a long hot pepper, diced 1 serrano, sliced on the bias 1 poblano, diced 1/2 sweet onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 2 tbls apple cider vinegar 3 tbls olive oil 2 tbls hot sauce 1 can garbanzos, rinsed 2 tsps salt 1 tsp  black pepper 1 tsp dill 1 tsp basil The key is to let everything rest a while. We haven't applied heat to extract any of the juices or flavors. So we need to let time work its magic instead. Put it all together. Stir it all up. Leave it alone for at least a couple of hours in the fridge. Let the tomatoes release their juices. Let the flavors intermingle. If you're patient you'll find that beautiful sauce

I don't usually get food cravings, but I had the worst mac and cheese craving. Vegan mac and cheeses I've made in the past crossed my mind, but they were a lot of work. It's summer and it's hot and I didn't want to do a lot of work or buy a lot of ingredients that I didn't already have on hand. Still I wanted some mac and cheese so much that I almost considered buying actual mac and cheese. I did have a can of coconut milk that had been lingering in my cupboards for a while. I always have nutritional yeast in my kitchen. So I decided I would try using a roux to turn the coconut milk into a kind of vegan bechamel that would be the basis for my nutritional yeast cheese sauce. It's summer and it's hot and I did not want to mess around with the food processor or a whole mess of ingredients. I kept it very simple. Sometimes simple is the most important ingredient in the recipe. It turned out so perfect and satisfied my craving so beautifully. I could

Soy and ginger are a great combo. Sweet and salty  and unctuous. Garbanzos love soy and soy loves garbanzos. Let's put all these elements to work for us. This is a simple Asian bean salad. I don't do a lot of Asian. Chinese takeout is already great. But sometimes I want something more raw and fresh. 1 bunch scallions, sliced on the bias 1 inch ginger, minced 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 jalapeno, minced 1 orange bell pepper, diced 1 can garbanzos, drained and rinsed 2 tbls soy sauce 2 tbls apple cider vinegar 2 tbls olive oil 1 tbl asian chili garlic paste 1 tbl hot sauce 1 tsp crushed pepper flakes 2 tsps basil 2 tsps salt ! tsp black pepper Put everything in a large container and stir to combine. Rest in the fridge a few hours. Rice wine vinegar would've been more authentic, but I didn't have any on hand. Orange and yellow bell peppers are something I used to just overlook. I always went red or green. But since a market opened nearby that sel

I don't know about you, but when it's hot I don't like to stand over the stove. One of the major benefits of not eating meat is that you don't need to cook your food. You can eat it raw. So I haven't been cooking much lately, but I have been chopping, dicing, stirring and creating wonderful flavors without the use of heat. Pick up some fresh produce, open a can of beans and raid your pantry for those flavor bombs that you've collected. Here's a panzanella topped with a fresh vegetable and bean mix. The secret to the flavor is in the tomatoes and the sauce that form the dressing. Summer tomatoes are so sweet and delicious. Let's take advantage of that fact. When you allow everything to rest in the fridge for a little while, the tomatoes release their sweet, acidic juice and all the other flavors harmonize. 3 roma tomatoes, diced 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced 1 green bell pepper, diced 1 jalapeno pepper, minced 1 banana pepper, sliced on the bias 1 hab