Category: Soy Free

Roasted Acorn Squash

1/17/2015

This recipe is inspired by one of my old roommates, for those nights when you want something warm, comforting, and healthy, but you don't want to put in too much effort. I made it the other day when I was working from home. I didn't have a whole ton of time to spend on prepping food, because I had to get work done, plus I didn't have many ingredients to work with. I had an acorn squash that had been sitting there for a while and I didn't quite know what to do with it. Then I remembered the countless roasted squash (I'm pretty sure the only thing she used the oven for) that my roommate used to make and inspiration struck!

This is recipe is about as easy as you can get. Slice the squash, scoop out the seeds, add some fat and sugar, and roast until soft. My roommate normally put butter on it, but I decided to use coconut oil. I don't generally have vegan butter on hand. I prefer to replace it with something less processed than fake butter.

This recipe hit the spot! Basically just vegetables with a little bit of decadence - perfect for a light lunch.

You could also serve it as a side dish to a larger meal.

Ingredients:
1 Acorn Squash
2 teaspoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Spread one tablespoon of coconut oil over each half of the squash. Make sure to coat the squash evenly to prevent burnt spots. Sprinkle one tablespoon of brown sugar on each of the squash.

Roast for at least 40 minutes. Cooking time will vary based on the size of your squash. I saw many recipes that recommended roasting for at least an hour, but my squash were too small and were starting to burn after 40 minutes.
You should be able to eat the squash with just a fork when it's done.

Serve and enjoy!

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Beyond Meat Tacos

1/12/2015

4 Comments

I try to eat whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible, but I like to try a new vegan product at least once. I find it exciting when I see advancements in vegan food options and I think vegan meat alternatives are a great way to help those making the transition from omnivore to vegetarian or vegan diets.

These Beyond Meat beef crumbles are so close to the real thing its amazing. Plus they're so convenient. They come frozen and defrost so quickly. You just dump the frozen crumbles right into your saute pan with a little bit of water and they're quickly ready to go. As you'll see in the instructions below, this was a super quick dinner came together in a breeze. The longest part was chopping up the tomato and avocado and putting everything in little bowls!

Cashew sour cream is a great alternative for those trying to avoid soy or if you just don't have any tofu in the house. That's how I found myself the other night, so I decided to whip up some cashew sour cream. Jay loves cashew sour cream more than regular, although tofu sour cream is his favorite, since it's naturally creamier. When I make cashew sour cream I make sure so blend it for as long as possible so that it gets creamier, since it can tend to have more of a grainy texture. Soaking the cashews beforehand can help with this, but I didn't have any time - the crumbles cooked so quickly and we were hungry!

Ingredients:
1 Package Beyond Meat Frozen Beef Crumbles
6 Taco Tortillas (I used La Nina Tortillas)
1 Packet Taco Seasoning (I used Ortega 40% Less Sodium)

Toppings:
1 Avocado
4 oz Cherry Tomatoes
Spinach or other green

Cashew Sour Cream:
1/2 Cup Cashews
1/3 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 6 tacos

Instructions:
Slice the avocado and tomato.

Cook frozen Beyond Meat Crumbles on the stove with a little bit of water until it is no longer frozen. Add the taco seasoning a stir until well combined.

Add the cashews, water, and lemon juice to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Heat a second pan over the stove. Place a tortilla on the pan for about a minute, or until crispy, then flip to the other side and repeat.

Tear the spinach and place it on the tortilla, add a quarter cup of taco mix, sour cream, avocado, and tomato. Enjoy!

4 Comments

Spiral Veggie Tart with Sweet Potato Crust

1/4/2015

2 Comments

I made this dish as a side for our feast on Christmas Eve. I combined two recipes that I found on Pinterest. I saw this vegetable tart on Pinterest and thought it was so cool (check out the video on how they made it). My mom thought the same and decided it would look great on a buffet line! That recipe used pie crust and creme fraiche, so I needed to make it gluten free and vegan so that my brother and I could eat it. I had pinned this quiche with sweet potato crust recipe to try the crust sometime and thought it would work great for this. I decided to replace the creme fraiche with a white bean mixture. I'd used white beans as a tart base years ago. Their neutral nature lends them perfectly to this. You can add in whatever seasonings you'd like so the dish doesn't taste like beans and their moisture keeps the dish from drying out and binds the vegetables to the crust.

Make sure your potato isn't sliced too thin and there's a lot of overlap in your crust. It will look like your crust is too think, but the potato slices will shrink during cooking.

My mom was right. This is a great dish to put on a buffet. It's very impressive and looks much more difficult to make than it actually is. I had to be the first one to cut into it because no one wanted to disrupt how great it looked. While it may not have been difficult, it definitely was time consuming, especially because my mom and I did not have the same expectation of how much we were making. I was already to go with two 9 inch pie sheets and she came in and switched them out for 2 13 inch quiche pans.

I made the recipe for one 9 inch pan, since that is a more typical serving size, and much more manageable. It's also helpful if you have someone slicing the vegetables while you arrange them in the pie pan. Thanks Mom!

Ingredients:

3 Medium Sweet Potatoes

3 Zuchinni
3 Squash
5 Large Carrots
1 Large-Medium Eggplant

1 15oz Can White Beans
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Non-Dairy Milk (I used Almond)
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast (optional)

2 Cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 6 as a side

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice sweet potatoes and arrange in a crust-like fashion in a 9 inch pie pan. You don't want your slices to be paper thin and a make sure that there is significant overlap among the slices. It will look like the crust is too thick, but the potatoes will cook down significantly. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and put in the oven for 15 minutes.

If you end up with gaps in your crust you can cook some more potatoes on a cookie sheet and add them in. They will not need to cook for the full 15 minutes.

While your crust is cooking, prepare the base of the filling. Drain and rinse the white beans. Place them in a bowl and mash them with a fork. Add the lemon juice, milk, and nutritional yeast and mix until well combined.

Slice your vegetables using either a vegetable peeler or a mandolin. You can use a knife you you want, but that would take some great skills. You want the vegetable slices to be paper thin so that you roll them up. If you have some slices that are thicker you can use them on the outer edges that don't need to bend as much. Make sure that you get the skin on at least one edge of the slice.

Once the crust has cooled to the touch, fill in any cracks as necessary. Spread the white bean mixture over the crust. It will be thick, so place dollops of it throughout the crust and spread lightly with a fork. You may need to hold down some of the potato slices so they don't move.

Take a vegetable slice and roll it up in a spiral. Place it in the middle of your pie pan. Continue to wrap vegetable slices around the center in an alternating fashion until you finish the pan. You'll have to do a couple rows of the same thing in order to build up the color. Alternate the dark zucchini and eggplant with the lighter carrot and squash. Try to end with something other than the carrot so that there is separation from the orange crust.

Mince the garlic and sprinkle it over the top of the pan. Lightly pour the balsamic vinegar over the top.

Lower the oven temperature to 375 and put the tart in for 40 minutes. The tart is down when the skins of the vegetable slices have soften enough that you can cut through them.

Serve and Enjoy!

2 Comments

Butternut Squash Latkes

12/21/2014

0 Comments

Happy Chanukkah! Latkes, potato pancakes, fritters, whatever you want to call them, they're delicious. Unfortunately, most recipes call for egg as a binding agent, making them not vegan.

I had a lot of squash that I needed to cook, so I thought since it was Hanukkah I would make a vegan version! This is decidedly not a healthy recipe. I made them the old fashioned way - cooking them on the stove with a ton of oil. It's my first time making vegan latkes so I wanted to make sure I had the ingredient ratio down before I started messing with the cooking method.

Jay thought that the big pile of latkes looked more appetizing than the single latke so he had me take this pic as well

I used Ener G Egg Replacer and was a bit nervous about how good of a job it would do since it normally seems pretty liquidy to me, but it worked great! You could also use flax or chia seeds. I'm interested in how well quinoa or beans would work in place of the bread crumbs and egg replacer as a binding agent. Stay tuned for a recipe using those ingredients! What's your favorite way to make latkes?

Ingredients:
1 Butternut Squash
1 Onion
4 eggs-worth of Egg Replacer
1 Cup Bread Crumbs
Olive oil

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Instructions:
Grate butternut squash into a large bowl. Dice onion and add to the bowl. Prepare egg replacer and combine with squash and onion. Add bread crumbs and mix all the ingredients together well.

Heat a small amount of oil in a pan over medium heat. Grab about a quarter to a half cup of the squash mixture and form into a patty-like shape in your hands. Place on the pan. I was able to get three latkes on my pan at a time, but put whatever fits so that you have room to flip them. Cover and let sit for about 3 minutes. Check the latkes to make sure they are not sticking and are getting crispy on the bottom. Depending on the thickness of your latke you may need to adjust the heat of your stove so that the inside can cook without burning the bottom of your latke. Once you have gotten a desired about of crispness, flip over and do the same on the other side.

Continue until all of your batter has been cooked. Top with some apple sauce or vegan sour cream and enjoy!

0 Comments

Brussel Sprout Casserole

12/12/2014

22 Comments

Ingredients:
Brussel Sprouts
1/2 Cup Dry Millet
1 8 oz Package Tempeh
1 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
Orange Rind

Cranberry Sauce:
1 Pound Cranberries
Juice of 2 Oranges
5 Tablespoons Agave Nectar
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ginger
1/2 Cup Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Water (as needed)

I made this casserole for Thanksgiving this year. Since there's not much else at Thanksgiving that I can eat I wanted to make something that was substantial with vegetables and protein. A casserole seemed like the perfect way to combine everything together. I thought that brussel sprouts and cranberries would be a nice seasonal touch. I added millet and tempeh for some protein. My brother recently went gluten free so I decided to pick items that he could eat.

I hadn't had millet before, it's a gluten free grain from northern Africa, and it reminded me a lot of couscous. Tempeh is fermented soybeans so its a great source of probiotics. The fermentation process forms the soybeans into a loaf that then can be sliced or crumbled. When I used it sliced I like to slice it very thinly because I find it can sometimes be dry and ensure the rest of my recipe has enough moisture to make up for it - hence the cranberry sauce.

The cranberry sauce ended up being more involved than I thought. I wanted it to simply be cranberries and oranges so I didn't have too much sugar, etc. added in but cranberries are way more sour than I thought. I added the agave to temper the sourness and the coconut milk and water to thin it out (the coconut milk adds some sweetness as well). My original reasoning for adding the orange was because it was the featured ingredient in the Virtual Vegan Potluck, but it really adds a lot to the dish, especially the zest at the end. It's a finishing touch that often gets left off, but I urge you not to!

To go back to the previous post in the Virtual Vegan Potluck click here: A Journey with Tiffany
To move on to the next post click here: Coconut & Berries
To go to the beginning of the Virtual Vegan Potluck click here: Virtual Vegan Potluck

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 8 as a side

Instructions:

Prep your brussel sprouts by cutting the end off and slicing them in half. Steam them on top of the stove for about 5 minutes, so that they get soft but aren't cooked too much. If you don't have a steamer then put them in a pot with about half as much water as sprouts. Stir them a bit to even out the cooking, so the ones on the bottom are not super mushy. Coat the sprouts in balsamic vinegar.

Cook the millet according to package directions - bring 1 cup of water to a boil, add the millet and reduce to a simmer until the water is absorbed.

Combine the cranberry sauce ingredients in a sauce pan on the stove over medium heat. It will cook for about 10 minutes. You should hear the cranberries popping. Stir it throughout to prevent the sauce from burning. If the sauce is too tart add more agave or coconut milk - note that the agave will act as a thickener while the coconut milk will thin it out. If you want the sauce thinner but without adding more sweetener, then just add water. You want the sauce to be thin enough that it will drip down to coat all the ingredients in the casserole dish.

Slice the tempeh in thin strips. I find that tempeh can be dry, so I like to cut it thin in order to allow the sauce to soak into it as much as possible.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the sprouts and millet and add to the casserole dish (reserve some sprouts to put on top of the casserole). Cover with the strips of tempeh and pour the cranberry sauce on top. Cover and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Thinly slice the remaining sprouts. Remove the covering from the casserole and top with the thinly sliced sprouts. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the sprouts are browned. Top with orange zest and serve. Enjoy!

22 Comments

Veggie Burger over Sweet Potato

12/11/2014

1 Comment

I needed something quick to eat for dinner the other night so I threw this together. I used a veggie burger that I had in my freezer. This isn't one I made myself, although I've tried man times I have yet to perfect the art of the homemade veggie burger, they're always too mushy and fall apart. I used the best grocery-store bought veggies burgers I've ever had - Blue Mango Burgers. They're hand made in Maine with only 7 ingredients. For the longest time I could only find them at my local New England Whole Foods', but now they're sold by Something GUD so I can add them to my weekly vegetable orders whenever I need to, which is great because Jay loves them also so I like to always have some on hand.

I didn't have any bread on hand and have amassed quite a lot of root vegetables so I thought I would saute up sweet potatoes and use that as a setting for the burger. I figured this was a good time to use some more of my purple carrots and not have to worry about them turning everything purple! I still had some of the great baba ganoush that I had gotten with my previous Something GUD delivery.

Ingredients:
1 Veggie Burger
Sweet Potato
A Hand full of Salad Greens
1 Slice of Vegan Cheese (optional)
Half of a Carrot (shredded)
Dollop of Baba Ganoush

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 1

Instructions:
Slice the potato so that there is enough for the veggie burger to sit on. I had a rather wide sweet potato so I went with 4 large slices, but it depends on the width of your potatoes.

Heat the potato slices and veggie burger on the stove over medium heat, using either oil or water to keep it from sticking. About 5 minutes on each side should be good. If you have vegan cheese you can put that on about a minute before your burger is ready.

Plate the sweet potatoes and lay the veggie burger on it. Top with buba ganoush, some salad greens and shredded carrot. Enjoy!

1 Comment

Purple Carrot Stew

12/3/2014

0 Comments

Purple carrots? yep! Purple is actually carrots original color - orange didn't become the standard color until the late 1600s when the Dutch bred them to be orange in honor of William of Orange. While there are slight difference in flavor based on the color of a carrot, they all generally taste like carrots, so don't be cautious about trying different colors - it'll just add more nutrient variety into your diet, which is something we should all strive for. Since I was using sweet potatoes I thought I would use purple carrots instead of the typical orange to balance out the color in the dish - instead I just turned the whole thing purple.

So you can thank purple carrots for the lovely color of this stew, which turned my sweet potato stew into purple carrot stew. There is something about purple vegetables (I'm looking at you beets) that dyes everything they come in contact with more so than the pigment in any other vegetable. Next time I prepare purple carrots I'll have to cook them on their own, like grilling or roasting.

I added seitan into this dish as a protein source. If you don't have any, fear not, you can easily use beans, tempeh, tofu, or a grain instead - I actually got them all out and deliberated over which I wanted to use. For those who haven't had it before, seitan is an ancient Chinese protein source made with wheat gluten, water, and spices, in it's most basic sense.

Ingredients:
1/2 Onion
1 Cup Almond Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 1/2 Cup Water
2 Large Carrots, chopped
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, chopped
1 Sprig of fresh Thyme
1 Cup Seitan (sub beans, tempeh, or tofu to make it gluten free), chopped to the same size as the carrots and potatoes
1/2 Cup Lentils
2 Cups Kale, chopped
2 teaspoons Ginger
1 teaspoon Garlic

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Servings: 4

Instructions:

Dice the onion and heat it in a large sauce pan on medium heat with a little bit of water or oil until it becomes translucent. Add the milk, water, carrots, potatoes, and thyme. Cover and cook on low heat for about an hour.

Add the seitan and lentils and cook for another 45 or until the lentils have absorbed enough water to your desired consistency. I prefer stews over soups, which is why I added in the lentils (to absorb the water), so you can add more water or cook for less time if you water it to be soupier.

Add the kale, garlic, and ginger and stir until the kale is wilted. Serve and enjoy! Store any leftovers for lunch!

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Spaghetti Squash with Peanut Sauce

11/30/2014

0 Comments

I made this for my family last week while I was at home. My mom, dad, and uncle all ate it and loved it! I love working with spaghetti squash cause it's so versatile - you can make it work with any cuisine. I saw this recipe on Pinterest from Leelalicous and thought it would be a great last minute dinner to make! You can sub out the vegetables for whatever you prefer or have on hand.

Ingredients:
1 medium to large Spaghetti Squash
1/2 Avocado
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
Green Beans
1 Cup Shredded Carrots
Basil

Peanut Sauce:
1/4 Cup Peanut Butter
1/2 Lime
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Cloves of Garlic - minced
1 teaspoon Fresh Ginger - minced
1/2 teaspoon Fresh Lemongrass (optional) - minced

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

Cook Time: 30-45 minutes

Servings: 4 as entree

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash cut side down in a baking pan with a little bit of water on the bottom. Cover it with foil and cook for about 30-45 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your squash.

While the squash is in the oven, prepare the rest of your ingredients. Wash and prep the green beans and steam them for about 5-7 minutes, until they're soft but not mushy. Once they're cool, slice them in long diagonal strips to make them skinnier. Slice the tomatoes in half and cut the avocado into cubes. Put all of the ingredients except the avocado and basil in a large bowl.

Combine the peanut sauce ingredients in another bowl and whisk them all together.

The squash will be done when you can easily stick a fork through the skin, don't let it get too mushy though or all the "spaghetti" strands will stick together. Once the squash has cooled enough that you can touch it, use a fork to scrape apart the inside of the squash, pulling the flesh off of the skin. The flesh will fall apart into spaghetti-like strings.

Add the squash to your bowl of vegetables. Pour in the peanut sauce little by little until you have enough to coat everything but it isn't too soupy. If you have any left over you can use it as dipping sauce. Slice the basil and add that on top, along with the avocado. Enjoy!

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Southwestern Pizza

11/24/2014

0 Comments

This is another recipe inspired by the awesome Vegan Richa (I told you she was one of my favorites).

I'd had pizza dough from Something GUD in the freezer for a while so Jay and I decided to finally make something with it. I let him pick from my Pinterest list of vegan pizzas and this is the one he picked! It was delicious and soooo filling. We divided the pizza into 6 slices and each only had one slice. Jay not only approved of the dish as a whole, but also the Teese Vegan Mozzarella and the dough individually. Jay had to taste the cheese ahead of time before he let me put it on the whole pizza and said it tasted exactly like mozzarella. It melted really well too.

I don't have a pizza stone, so I rolled my dough in a rectangle in order to get it to fit onto the cookie sheet. The original recipe called for spinach, but I had kale and thought it would be a good way to get some into Jay's diet, so I used that instead.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough
1 Cup Kale (or other cooking greens)
2 Cups (1 can) cooked beans - kidney, black, or pinto work best
1 Cup of sliced tomatoes
1/2 package Teese mozzarella (or other vegan cheese)
1/2 Cup BBQ sauce
1/4 Cup corn
1 Avocado

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Servings: 6

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out dough until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Sprinkle a cookie sheet (or pizza stone) with cornmeal or place parchment paper on it. Cook the pizza dough for about 5 minutes on each side, so that its firm enough to hold up on its own, but not cooked all the way.

While the dough is cooking, prep your toppings. Chop/rip up your kale into smaller pieces.

Place toppings on top of dough in this order: kale, tomatoes, beans, cheese, corn, BBQ sauce.

Put the pizza back in the oven and cook for 15 or 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the dough has a nice golden brown color to it.

Let the pizza cool a bit, add avocado, and enjoy!

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Stuffed Acorn Squash

11/19/2014

0 Comments

Stuffed squash is a great recipe to make on those days when you have a ton of random vegetables in your fridge and you don't know what to do with them. Just chop them all up and make some filling for a stuffed squash! If you don't have any squash the filling could also be used as a side dish or as a topping for baked potatoes. What's great too is that you can customize the flavor of your dish based on the spices you add. If you're full fledged into fall mode you can add some sage, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even pumpkin pie seasoning! Or make it spicy with cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes.

Ingredients:
2 Small Acorn Squash
1/2 Cup Barley (or your favorite grain - quinoa, rice, farro, millet, etc.)
1 Small onion
1 Bell Pepper
1 Small head of broccoli
2 Carrots
1 Cup of Kale (or greens of your choice - collars, spinach, chard, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash with the cut side down into a glass dish with 1/4 inch of water in the bottom and cook for at least 30 minutes or until the squash is soft when poked with a fork. This will vary depending on the thickness of your squash. Once they reach the desired softness, remove them from the oven, drain the liquid, and return them to the dish, cut side up.

Meanwhile, cook grains according to package directions. Here is a quick guide to cooking times for various different grains.

While your grains and squash are cooking, prepare the rest of the filling. Chop your vegetables into your preferred size. If you want your carrots, pepper, and broccoli to be softer I would recommend chopping them smaller. Add some water (or oil) to a pan and cook the onions on medium heat, stirring frequently. Once the onions are translucent, add the carrots, bell pepper, broccoli, and greens, in that order. Continue adding water as needed to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. Add the spices and cook for about 5 minutes, depending on how soft you like your vegetables, keeping in mind that they will continue to soften in the oven.

Add the cooked and rinsed grains into the vegetable mixture and stir until well combined. Scoop the mixture into the squash halves and return the squash to the oven. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

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Roasted Acorn Squash

Beyond Meat Tacos

Spiral Veggie Tart with Sweet Potato Crust

Butternut Squash Latkes

Brussel Sprout Casserole

Veggie Burger over Sweet Potato

Purple Carrot Stew

Spaghetti Squash with Peanut Sauce

Southwestern Pizza

Stuffed Acorn Squash

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