Don't Give Up Your Favorites
VEGANIZED THEM - Includes 9 Recipes
The transition to a whole food, plant-based diet is easier if we can still have the old familiar dishes we’ve been eating all our lives. The stuff we’re used to. And the good news is, we can! All we have to do is take out the animal products, and use whole plant foods instead.
As I’ve experimented with this notion of veganizing my favorites, I’ve discovered that a lot of the time, it’s not the meat or diary product we were ever actually experiencing. It was the seasonings, textures, and cooking methods. And those can be duplicated. Texture is harder, but we can come close.
Any recipe can be veganized. Chili, tacos, burritos, goulash, macaroni and cheese, pizza. Don’t strive to make it the same. Make it even better!
Here’s a rapid-fire look at my favorite old favorites, veganized.
Pasta sauce
No-oil sauté panful of bell peppers in multi-colors, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and some type of leafy green. Generally for me, this will be kale, spinach, or Swiss chard. I shred the greens very fine, sprinkle with balsamic, massage until they’re about half their original volume, let stand for 10 minutes, then put into the pan with the other veggies. Cook the greens thoroughly. I find putting a cover on the pan after the initial browning of the onions helps a lot. In another pan, simmer 3 cans of diced tomatoes, one of which is “diced tomatoes with mild green chilis,” one small can of tomato paste, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari, a generous teaspoon each of oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, about a half teaspoon of cumin and 1/4 tsp turmeric. Simmer a little while, add the oil-free sautéed veggies, simmer a little more. Serve over spaghetti or mix with macaroni for my version of goulash.Mac & Cheese
You can do this two ways. One way uses silken tofu and a can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed. The other way uses a cup of cashews soaked in water overnight, and a can of cannellini beans drained and rinsed. Throw into a food processor. Next add a cup of nutritional yeast, a teaspoon of garlic powder, onion powder, and 1/2 tsp of paprika. Throw it all into the food processor or high speed blender, and take out some veggie broth. Maybe a cup or so. Probably less. Blend, and then add a little broth, blend and add broth. The key to making this sauce is texture and taste, so you have to taste over and over as you go along, and add the liquid slowly, until you like the texture. Blend, add, taste. Personally, I find a nice dose of liquid smoke gives it a smoky flavor that can’t be beat. Use lots of freshly ground pepper. Some folks use lemon juice. I am not a fan. Mix with cooked macaroni, top with bread crumbs and back for a lovely vegan Mac & Cheeze. A little thicker, and this makes a great dip.
Taco Tuesdays!
This is so easy. Just use your same old taco seasoning mix. Ortega and Old El Paso are vegan. Check the ingredients, of course. Instead of using a pound of ground beef, however, use a can of black beans or a can of lentils or a mix of the two. The lentils, in particular, add a texture similar to the ground beef. (For this reason, I often use them in goulash and chili too.) Drain and rinse the beans/lentils, add the seasoning (I usually use two packets, and two cans,) add 3/4 cup water per packet used, stir, cook it down until it’s thick just like always. You can serve on hard taco shells (not the Doritos flavor, sorry) or soft corn tortillas, filled with shredded greens. Not just lettuce—shred in some kale, spinach, chard, arugula. Add tomatoes and mushrooms and red onion in paper-thin slices. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast and slather in Newman’s Own salsa, pineapple or mango flavor.
Chili
Super easy and a batch-cooking favorite. I just get out the crock pot, and put in about 4 cans of beans, drained and rinsed. Black, white, kidney, pinto, whatever I have. I love to mix them up. At least a cup and more like two cups of shredded chard, kale, or spinach. Or a mix. (I don’t use spinach as often as the others because it can block calcium absorption.) To that I add 3 or 4 cans of tomatoes, and/or tomatoes with mild green chilis, two bell peppers of different colors if I have them, a giant yellow onion, 5 to 7 cloves of garlic, minced, 1/2 cup dry red lentils, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari, about a tablespoon of chili powder, and 1-2 teaspoons each onion powder, garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, and a shake or two of turmeric (about 1/4 tsp.) A note on the spices: add, taste, add, taste, add, taste. Too much of any one of them, starts to bring on notes of bitterness. So add a minimal amount, and then once it gets to bubbling, start tasting and adding. Also as the vegetables cook, that too will change the flavor. This cooks in 4 hours on High, and you really want to turn it off or leave it on warm after that. (Or cook all day on low and then reduce to warm) Overcooking can also make it bitter. We had this today. Delish. Nice with tortilla chips (which are not whole food, plant-based, because of their oil content, FYI.)
Carrot Dogs
I know you don’t believe me. But you have to try them, or you’ll never know. The recipe for the brine is on Forks Over Knives. You want to shave the carrots to roughly approximate a hot dog length and girth. Then boil or steam the carrots until they are close to the texture of a grilled hot dog. Don’t overcook them. Then soak the cooked carrots at least overnight in the brine. Cook outdoors on a grill until hot and marked with grill lines. Put them on whole grain hot dog buns with all the toppings you would have used on a hot dog. I do dill relish, ketchup, and mustard. Here’s the link to the brine recipe. You’ll want an additional protein source with this meal, since your main course is a carrot.Potato and/or Macaroni Salad
Put in everything you would put into your old potato or Mac salad except for the eggs and the mayonnaise or salad dressing. Those things, we’re going to substitute. This is the exact same base recipe as the cheese sauce, so you can do it with 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed plus 1 block of silken tofu OR the beans with 1 cup of cashews, soaked in water overnight. Put this into the food processor or blender. Add 2 teaspoons yellow mustard, two tablespoons dill relish, a teaspoon each of celery seed, onion powder, dill weed, and this is key, a generous, and I mean generous shake of kala namak salt. This is where the egg flavor comes in. The regular things I put in potato or Mac salad include a can of drained, rinsed garbanzo beans (chick peas,) chopped celery, chopped onion, cooked potatoes (I prefer russets) or whole grain macaroni of course and cooked, cooled green peas. Oh, it’s delish.Egg Salad or Tuna Salad
Your base for this is a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans,) drained and rinsed. Personally, for this purpose, I pinch off the thin skins. Or you can roll the beans around on a clean towel to remove a lot of them. Mash the chickpeas in a bowl. Add a little yellow mustard, dill relish, minced onion, minced garlic, finely chopped celery, dill weed, celery seed. For egg salad, add kala namak salt. For tuna salad, shake in some dried ground dulce or kelp.
You might notice most of these recipes have at least one ingredient you might not be used to. Trust me, you need to have nutritional yeast, reduced sodium tamari, and kala namak salt on hand.
These are just a handful of my favorites in short form for quick and easy reference. Put your own twists on them.
Have an old favorite recipe you can’t figure out how to veganize? Drop it in comments and I’ll see what I can do. Also, let me know if there’s a recipe you’re looking for, and I’ll try to accommodate.
Thanks for reading! And thanks for doing all you do!
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