I’m in the process of working to shift over to Vegan in the next few months. I was wondering if there was anyone on the forum that was Vegan and had any good receipes to share. Thanks…
I’m not Vegan, but eggplant, marinara and portabellas are all red friendly to me.
I agree with Andrew, look for tomato and/or mushroom-based dishes (although I’ve met a multiple people who consider mushrooms to be not vegetarian). Roasted root vegetables work well too.
I’d share my Caponata recipe but I can pretty much guarantee it will get me flamed.
I hope you can eat Sushi in Aug?
Grilled Brie Sandwich with Apple and Red Onion Confit
Jerry James Stone Living / Green Food
1 8 oz. Brie wheel
Apple and onion confit
Sandwich bread
Butter
Apple and Red Onion Confit
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
1/8 cup of honey
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Extra virgin olive oil
- Add onions, apples and just enough olive oil to coat to a high-sided skillet. Cook on medium-high heat until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce heat and add the remaining ingredients. Slowly cook for about 40 minutes, until the mixture becomes jam-like.
- Remove the crust from your bread slices and butter each one on one side only.
- Cut the brie into thick slices. The soft cheese melts fairly easily, so the thicker the slice, the more substantial your sandwich will be.
- Use the same skillet in which you made the confit. Grill one bread slice, butter-side down, along with some brie.
- When the brie begins to melt a bit, add the confit and grill for a few minutes.
- Add another slice of bread, butter-side up, and flip the sandwich. Cook until the brie just begins to melt into the pan.
- Slice and enjoy!
Even though this is mostly a winter dish, I made it lately. It’s over-the-top good. It can go vegan very easily with one(1) ingredient (garnish) omitted. These were delish.
Quinoa Cakes
by: SABRINA MODEL
FOR THE QUINOA CAKES
1 1/2 cup cooked black quinoa
2 tbsp golden flax seed meal
1 egg beaten or 1/4 cup vegan egg substitute
½ cup grated Parmesan or crumbled very dry/firm tofu
½ lemon juiced + zest
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp smoked paprika
smoked sea salt (about ¼ teaspoon)
fresh black pepper
½ cup steamed broccoli and/or cauliflower finely chopped
FOR GARNISH
roasted tomatoes
hand full of arugula- sliced very thinly into a chiffonade
parmesan cheese, shaved *
FOR ROASTED TOMATOES
Slice tomatoes ½ inch thick
Salt your tomatoes and rest them on a paper towel, flipping once
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper
Pre heat your oven to 450º
Press tomatoes with paper towels to remove moisture
Roast for 15 minutes
FOR QUINOA CAKES
While tomatoes are roasting, mix all quinoa cake ingredients
Refrigerate for 20 minutes
Heat enough oil generously cover the bottom of a heavy bottom sauce pan (or heavy cast skillet) – on medium high
Form quinoa mixture into palm sized patties and add to the pan
Flip as soon as they’ve formed a crust (gently check at 3 minutes)
To assemble these cakes, just add a roasted tomato, some chiffonade of arugula, and shaved Parmesan. Can also be topped with a fried egg.
Kitchari: A Clean, One Pot Vegetarian Meal
Kitchari is like a vegetarian, Indian version of American chili. Unlike chili, it’s cleansing, easy-to-digest and provides a complete protein, entirely plant-based. ***** Just swap-out the ghee for good olive oil.
Brie is Vegan?
Leftover Veggie Quiche
Quiche with Caramelized Onions and Smoked Gouda
There are vegan swap-outs for these ingredients: 1 cup gouda cheese, shredded, 6 large eggs, 1 1/2 cup whipping cream or half-and-half. It’s not difficult to get these swap-outs in any decent sized city.
Am I mistaken in thinking that cheese is a no no for Vegans?
Sorry Roberto. I sorta took for granted that those people of the “vegan” nature were smart enough to figure out the ingredients that needed to be swapped-out, the general intelligence to know what to use in their place and the wherewithal to be able to do it.
I’ll make sure to point these things out in the future.
There are numerous different “vegan cheeses” available if you look. Yes, they do have their peculiarities, but it has gotten a whole lot better lately.
Got it. That works for sandwiches and maybe casseroles but baking (even a quiche) requires pretty specific behavior from the ingredients. Do the vegan “cheeses” melt? Now I’m curious…
LOL. That was one of the said peculiarities. The first vegan cheeses wouldn’t melt even if you put them on the Sun. It’s gotten much better since then. They do get nice and soft and extra creamy, but still nowhere like “Chicago Pizza” cheese. Your general basic Neanderthal won’t like it, but the vegans I’ve fed are always happy. OK. So I can’t positively say “happy”. I just do know that they pay and re-hire me for more meals.
I’ve made this many times. It’s very easy, and has much bigger flavor than you might think. Just swap-out or leave out one(1) garnish (the cheese) and it’s vegan. This needs corn-bread. I’m sure everyone has a good recipe for that.
Roasted Butternut Squash Vegetarian Chili
Quinoa and Brown Rice Bowl with Vegetables and Tahini
Thank You: Gail Simmons and Café Gratitude (LA)
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup long-grain brown rice
1 cup red quinoa
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced crosswise on bias like coins
1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise like half-moons
Salt
1 head of broccoli—stems peeled and sliced into coins, heads cut into small florets
One 12-ounce bunch kale, large stems discarded
1/4 cup tahini, at room temperature
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (zest the lemon first, then juice, use zest as garnish)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I use roasted garlic cloves smashed to a paste)
2 tablespoons warm water
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ripe avocado, small dice
1 cup mung bean sprouts
DIRECTIONS:
~ In a medium saucepan, cover the brown rice with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat until the rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. Drain and return the rice to the saucepan; keep covered.
~ At the same time, in a small saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and simmer over low heat until the quinoa is tender and all of the water has been absorbed, 20 minutes.
~ While that’s all working, heat heat oil. Add the onion and cook about 4 minutes. Add the carrot and cook about 3 minutes. Add the shiitake, cover and cook about 4 minutes. Add the zucchini, season with salt and cook, stirring, about 3 more minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
~ Add some more oil to the skillet. Add the broccoli, cover and cook over moderate heat until deep green, maybe 5 minutes. Add the kale, cover and cook, stirring until the broccoli and kale are just tender, maybe 4 more minutes. Season with salt. Stir in the other vegetables.
~ In a small bowl, whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic, warm water and crushed red pepper. Season with salt.
~ Mix up portions of the brown rice and quinoa in bowls. Top with the cooked vegetables, diced avocado and bean sprouts. Serve, passing the tahini sauce at the table.
Awesome!!! Thank you Francis! Ron…I’m not starting until October…I’m really looking forward to the sushi! Hell even if I do pull this off, I’m going to have a hard time passing by that soft shell crab next year on our Birthdays!
Right!
If you want we can do something before you veg in Oct.
Kirk, there’s a wealth of things to eat that are wine friendly. Mushrooms, legumes (lentils and chickpeas in particular), pasta, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Pretty much any vegetable when roasted will get deeper caramelized flavors which go well with red wines.
There’s also no shortage of blogs, websites, and cookbooks to check out. For “everyday” type of cooking, look at Vegan with a Vengeance and the Veganomicon by Isa Chanda Moskowitz (co-authored by Terry Hope Romero on the Veganomicon). For more upscale food look at the Millennium Cookbook, the Candle 79 Cookbook, and Tal Ronen’s the Conscious Cook. Those last three have great recipes for fancier, restaurant style food, most of which is wine friendly.
A couple of other words of advice: For the first 3-6 months try to avoid faux meat and vegan cheez. The main reason is because successfully going vegan means learning how to eat in a new way and breaking the protein-starch-veg plating and planning mentality that a lot of people have for meals. If you fall back on vegan substitutions for meat and cheese, it’s tougher to break that mold and find a different way of eating and your transition will be harder.
Most vegan cheez is to real cheese what margarine is to butter. It’s a reasonable substitute but it’s not going to fool you into thinking it’s really cheese and you will be sorely disappointed. Yes, they’re better than they were, but they are still a far cry from being able to stand in as a main ingredient in a meal (at least to me). They work well to add something to a dish (like a sprinkling on a burrito), but I wouldn’t try to do baked brie or make a fondue. The same thing goes for faux meat, so avoid them as much as possible at first. After 3-6 months, they seem closer to the real thing, but give your palate and body a period of time to adjust to eating other things.
Try tofu, tempeh, and seitan, but don’t get hung up that you need to eat massive amounts of protein or plan every dish around one of those. You don’t. Most of us do fine getting about 10% protein (as a percentage of calories) and despite the constant question you’ll be asked (“where do your get your protein?”), a whole foods vegan diet has more than enough protein. Remember, 100 calories of broccoli has more protein than 100 calories of beef (according to Dr. Joel Furhman). Most vegetables are 25-50% protein. Eat as many as you want.
Legumes are your friend. They’re cheap, abundant and there’s a huge variety of them, including a lot of great heirlooms. They’re incredibly versatile and there’s a lot of peasant dishes from the wine drinking regions of the Mediterranean that feature them. You can do stews, soups, dips, etc. Do a stew of chickpeas cooked with onions, peppers, pimenton, and lots of garlic and open a Spanish red. Do a green or black lentil soup with greens like kale or chard and open a Southern Rhone on a cold night. Cook some white beans with roasted garlic, dried porcini and rosemary and pop open an Italian red. There’s a lot to choose from.
Go through your existing cookbooks and look at recipes. You’ll find a lot of things that are already vegan or can easily be made vegan (by substituting Earth Balance or oil for butter, replacing milk with soy or almond milk, etc.). Don’t get intimidated that you only can eat new foods. You probably eat a lot of vegan foods right now without realizing it.
PM me if you have any questions or concerns. Cheers.
Great post overall, but this paragraph made me want to make some stew…the chickpea stew, in particular, sounds great.
Todd, I don’t eat that chickpea stew as much in the summer because it does benefit from a long simmer time and I hate to heat up the kitchen, but in colder months I make every week or so. The Coleman Andrews Catalan Cuisine book has great info on making a sofregit as a base for this type of thing. Start with onions and tomatoes to build a good base, use good homemade stock and you’re halfway there.