If you ever find yourself looking for lunch in Westborough - check out New York Deli and stay tuned to see what other great sandwiches I get from them!
One of my favorite places to get lunch at work is New York Deli. Even though they are a deli they have a wide variety of vegetarian (most of which can be made vegan) and vegan sandwiches. It's one of the only places that I'm willing to drive to to pick up my lunch since they don't deliver. Luckily it isn't too far away! One of my favorites is the Nirvana - grilled curried eggplant, tofu, red onion & Thai peanut sauce on sourdough bread. The curry has a little bit of a kick to it, but it's not overpowering and combines well with the peanut sauce. Many sandwich shops and delis that focus on meat have skimpy vegetables offerings. Not this place. That sandwich is stuffed full of tofu and eggplant just like it was meat. I wish that they had a whole wheat roll, but the sour dough was tasty! Another one of my go-tos is the falafel and tabouli roll up. I love the combination of the two. Having the tabouli evenly spread throughout the roll up and provides balance and moisture till the last bite. The tabouli is more effective that just tomato and lettuce because the tabouli mixes together the sauce, greens, and tomato and ensures an even distribution throughout. Dryness is one of the easiest mistakes to make. The combo of an excellent falafel and the tabouli takes care of that. The parsley in the tabouli also adds a nice freshness that you don't get from standard iceberg lettuce. If you ever find yourself looking for lunch in Westborough - check out New York Deli and stay tuned to see what other great sandwiches I get from them!
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Looking for something healthy to make for St. Patrick's Day? Look no further! This bowl is chock full of awesome, healthy, greenness. It's got edamame, broccoli, basil, salad greens, avocado - what more could you want? You can use it as a side or a main dish. The quinoa and edamame provide a ton of filling protein. The avocado and pine nuts give you some healthy fats. And the broccoli has a ton of potassium and vitamin C. Eating this just makes you feel good! You know you're treating your body well, it tastes great, it fills you up, and you feel festive! Plus, it's super easy to make. Steam the broccoli a bit. Add all the pesto ingredients in a food processor or blender. Then dump everything in a bowl and mix it together - how easy is that? It's so easy I forgot to take pictures of it all! There weren't that many steps to document! I made this for a St. Patrick's themed going away party at work (full of a ton of non-vegans) and it was a big hit!
Instructions: Chop up the broccoli so that you are left with small pieces of the heads - remove all the stems. You don't want the pieces of broccoli to be too much bigger than the edamame so that everything blends together well. Add the broccoli to a pot with enough water to cover about 1/2 of the broccoli. If you have a steaming basket feel free to use it. In that case the water should be below the basket. Cook for about 5 minutes, just so that the broccoli can be easily pierced with a fork. While that is cooking add all the pesto ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Slice open an avocado, remove the pit, and slice the avocado into cubes. If you have large greens, chop them up into smaller pieces. Add everything to a bowl and mix together. Serve and Enjoy! Another breakfast sandwich! This is a protein-packed breakfast sandwich with both beans and tofu, plus a ton of greens and whole wheat bread. Look at all those different colors too! If you're trying to add some variety into you diet this sandwich is for you - there's a wide variety of nutrients in this sandwich! In my typical fashion there's a ton of stuff loaded on this sandwich, which makes it a little messy to eat. The thinner you slice your potatoes the better they'll fit on the sandwich. I was trying to find some oil alternatives to use when cooking my veggies, plus a seasoning for the tofu, so I went with the Alex's Ugly Sauce hot sauce I had in my fridge. It did a great job on both ends but unsurprisingly I ended up with a pretty spicy sandwich! I like combining spicy flavors with tofu because the tofu adds a cool and refreshing texture that helps to temper the spiciness. The Vegg powder adds complexity to the flavor of the tofu, helping to counter-balance the spice and add an egg-like feel.
Instructions: Slice the tofu in half longways and press. Slice onion and sweet potato into thin slices. Heat onion and sweet potato on medium heat with a little bit of water, 1 teaspoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon of hot sauce for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place the black beans on one of your slices of bread and mush/spread into the bread using a fork. It's best to add a little bit at a time so that you have room on the bread. Top with some sriracha if you would like (it's a pretty spicy sandwich). Add the tofu to you pan with the onion and sweet potato. Add the second teaspoon of hot sauce and half of the tumeric, cumin, and Vegg powder. Once the tofu gets a nice crispiness on the bottom, flip the slices over. Sprinkle the second half of the cumin, tumeric, and Vegg powder. Let the other side get crispy and then flip once more. This is where you have to use all of your coordination skills. Make some room on your pan to add your slice of bread with the black beans on it (make sure there's a little bit of liquid under the bread so it doesn't burn - you can add some cooking spray or a bit of oil if you would like. Add the salad greens. Add the two slices of tofu next to each other. Add the potato slices and onion. Try to spread the potato slices out to make them flat on the sandwich. Top with the other slice of bread. Once the bottom slice is toasted flip the sandwich over. You may have to use two hands so be careful not to burn yourself. Slice in half and enjoy! Beans. Beets. Brownies. Yup. You read that right. These brownies have kidney beans and beets in them. Beets are one of the most nutrient rich foods you can eat. Just look at how intense that magenta color is! They're full of fiber, folate, betaine, and manganese. Couple that with the antioxidants from chocolate and these brownies are essentially a health food! I love using vegetables and other healthy ingredients to make desserts because then I can get my chocolate fix in and not feel guilty about it. Plus, many people are intimidated by beets, so this is a great way to add them into your diet or cooking repertoire. Adding beets and beans to brownies not only adds nutritional value, but also allows you to remove unhealthy ingredients such as eggs, sugar, and oil. You may think that with the low amounts of sugar that these brownies are going to taste like a health food - but no worries, that's what the cocoa powder is for! That flavor is so strong and intense that it completely masks the bean and beet flavor. All you get is the added sweetness from the roasted beets. There is a bit more prep work involved than making brownies out of the box because you have to roast the beets. But you can just throw them in the oven and do something else while you wait for them to cook. Many people say to roast the beets with the skins on and then peel them off, but that involves more work waiting for them to cool, which I am not patient enough for. Once those beets are out of the oven I want to start cooking. I use a knife or vegetable peeler - slice off the ends and then peel the skins of the beets. If you slice them a bit then it also cuts down on roasting time. This recipe was a big adventure for me because I generally do more cooking than baking. I like being able to tweak things as I go - experiment and fix any flavor or consistency issues. However, with baking you have to get it right in the beginning and then hope for the best! I wanted to make these gluten free, but after adding all my other ingredients together I felt that the batter was too gooey and needed some more substance, so I caved and added a bit of flour. I've failed at substituting gluten free flours for standard flour in the past so I thought I would play it safe and just use regular flour in this recipe. These turned out way better than I thought so I'll definitely continue to experiment and figure out a way to make them gluten free so that they can be enjoyed by more people.
Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel and slice beets. Drizzle with some olive oil, wrap in an aluminum foil pouch, and place in the oven for 45 minutes. Place them in a food processor and pulse until fine. You want them chopped up super tiny, but not so much that you make a puree. Mash up the cooked beans and add the beets to the same bowl. Add the vanilla extract and combine them all together. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients - chocolate powder, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Add the dry ingredients to the beets and beans and mix them all together. Add the chocolate chips and fold them into the batter. Pour the mixture into a greased (or use parchment paper) 9x9 or 8x8 brownie pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean. I've entered this recipe in the Virtual Vegan Potluck 5
This is a story about making something out of nothing in your fridge (or freezer). Coming home after being out of town my fridge was basically bare. I had veggie burgers, but no buns. I had taco shells, but nothing to make tacos with. The only veggies I had were an avocado about to go bad and a carrot that was losing its crispness. Put it all together and what do you get? A veggie burger on tortillas!
I sliced the carrot thinly and fried it up in some olive oil to compensate for the age of the carrot and add some crisp to the sandwich. I added some baba ganoush, vegan cheese I had on hand, and topped it with the avocado. It almost looks like it was planned! Just goes to show you that you can make a gourmet sandwich out of whatever you can find in your fridge, you just need to be creative!
Instructions:
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add either a little bit of olive oil or water. Add the veggie burger to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes (if frozen) so that it has a nice crispy edge on the bottom. Flip it over and cook for another 5 minutes. If you are going to add a slice of vegan cheese, put it on about a minute before the burger is done. Meanwhile, slice the carrot thinly either using a vegetable peeler, mandolin, or knife. Once the veggie burger is done, in a separate skillet over medium-high heat add the carrots to the skillet. They should need long on each side to get a nice crispiness. Open and slice the avocado. Ideally your burger and carrots are done around the same time. If one is done earlier then turn the heat to low and cover the skillet to keep it warm. Once both are done, remove the carrots from their skillet and add them on top of the burger. Place the tortillas on the open skillet for a couple seconds on each side, just to toast them a bit. Spread the baba ganoush over over one of the tortillas and top with the burger and carrots. Top with the avocado, any condiment you would like such as ketchup, BBQ sauce, or sriracha. Add the second tortilla on top. Serve and enjoy! |
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This blog is about my adventures adhering to a plant-based diet in a meat-based world and incorporating vegan practices into more parts of my life. As many of my friends and family aren't vegan, and the best part of cooking is sharing your food with others, I try to make recipes that can be enjoyed by vegans and meat-eaters alike. Categories
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