Another vegan pasta recipe: kale pasta

I like to take inspiration where I can for quick and easy meals to cook at home. With the OH being a chef who also likes some variety in what we eat (unlike me who’s quite happy to stick with the same ol’ meals day after day), it’s a nice challenge to know what else I can rustle up for lunch or dinner on a whim.

A lot of friends have commented how celebrity chefs like to share meals that are ‘quick and easy’ and oh so simple to make in 5 minutes, but it never works out that way. Derek and Chad Sarno of Wicked Healthy are great for sharing quick and easy recipes like this pasta dish below because when they say it’s quick and easy, it really is.

Quick and simple vegan recipe hack: linguine mushroom bolognese

Nothing excites me more than seeing the abundance of vegan options being offered at restaurants and supermarkets now, especially the Wicked Kitchen range that’s gaining momentum in Tesco stores across the UK (see my review of the products I’ve sampled so far here), but the OH and I do enjoy cooking our own meals at home too.

I loved the idea of using mushrooms as a vegan alternative to minced beef and instead of using soy mince. We try not to cook with processed foods too often preferring to cook our own meals with whole foods and enhancing flavour with herbs and spices. Trying my hand at making a dish similar to the Wicked Kitchen Nana’s linguine mushroom bolognese was so fun and simple, I really enjoyed making it myself.

Homemade three-layer vegan berry cheesecake: the recipe

A lot of non-vegans are usually worried about missing out on foods they enjoy, “but what do you do about protein?”, “how do you eat enough to feel full?” and “I’ll miss the taste of (insert dish here)”. What non-vegans don’t realise is that not everyone was born vegan and there are a lot of dishes that we missed as well when we decided to make the switch.

This is something I can confidently say whenever I’m told non-vegans will miss out on this dish or that: being vegan and missing a non-vegan dish means that whatever you think you’ll be missing out on, another vegan will have also missed it and come up with a vegan version that tastes just the same, if not better.

A nostalgic vegan recipe: the BEST chocolate chip cookies I call Rebecca

If I sound a bit too excited about these cookies, I’m sorry but I can’t help myself! I do have reason to be though, because

1) I’ve been looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe even before I became vegan that gave me thick cookies that were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and

2) I got my order from The Doughnut Family this morning and as I’m writing this, I’m indulging in a vegan chocolate glazed doughnut. Sooo good!

I’ve got a really sweet tooth and finding the treats I liked to eat before I became vegan has been something I’ve been determined to find, whether it’s bought or homemade by my own two hands. Luckily for me, my Aussie vegan friends have been at it for longer than I have and made the perfect chocolate chip cookies that are out of this world.

Vegan sweet tooth: toffee apple upside down cake recipe

It’s no secret that I love my sweets and cakes. I’ve been baking for as long as I can remember, even if my earlier attempts in high school were made from Betty Crocker cake mix packets and failed attempts at following recipes. Since those earlier years, I’ve become a bit more experienced with making different kinds of cakes, but since becoming vegan while I do know of vegan hacks to original non-vegan friendly recipes (apart from my chocolate and peanut butter pin wheels, see here) I haven’t really been trying my hand too often at making cakes apart from the one I’m about to share with you and a vegan cheesecake I’ll be posting about later on.

I used to be very picky about what goes in my cakes, the thought of banana bread and carrot cake didn’t appeal to me. I did end up trying both of these, and the after taste of banana in a loaf still doesn’t really appeal to me, but I did come to like carrot cake. It’s surprising how this orange stick of a vegetable that is mostly associated with hummus or boiled as a side to go with a main dish can be grated and used in cake.

This recipe from Jamie Oliver follows a similar concept…except we turn to something a bit sweeter and used more often for sweet dishes and desserts.

A heartwarming vegan meal: mixed vegetable risotto recipe

The versatility of cooking a vegan meal at home makes it easy to be vegan. When you decide to cook a meal, a lot of the time you end up thinking whether or not this will go with that, will this go with those two ingredients? With vegan meals, because you’re working with plant-based food, you only need to think about what you want to throw in it and it’s done. There’s no need to worry about mushrooms not going together well with kale or asparagus; they’re all plants and don’t have as strong a flavour as meat and somehow each complement each other perfectly.

One thing I eat a lot of is rice, to switch it up for the OH I decided to cook risotto based on this recipe here from Veganuary’s website for risotto primavera…except I winged it. My way.

Vegan sweet tooth: chocolate peanut butter pinwheel recipe

A common misconception about being vegan is that we only eat vegetables. You would be wrong if you thought that. Being vegan doesn’t mean eating unappetising salads and raw vegetables all the time. Once I started looking into what it means to be vegan and if you search #whatveganseat you’ll find there are a lot of amazing food that we do eat!

You do eat healthier because you’re eating a lot more plant based products and less processed foods, but as I mentioned in my first post about Veganuary (see here), there are also a lot of sweet stuff we can eat as well, like ice cream! The other thing I’ve also come to learn is how easy it is to substitute non-vegan ingredients in recipes for vegan substitutes. This is exactly what I’ve done with a recipe from The Recipe Rebel here for chocolate peanut butter pinwheels.

Vegan sushi dinner! Make your own nak’d sushi bowl for dinner

The fun of cooking your own meals at home is experimenting with recipes. I’ve been searching for vegan recipes to cook meals for the OH and I since I feel a bit out of my depth with cooking vegan meals. Just to clarify, I’ve signed up to Veganuary to eat vegan for a month (I’m now on my 16th day!), but the OH is still an omnivore (he unfortunately doesn’t believe in supporting veganism). He is however being the ever supportive husband in that he’ll eat vegan when we’re cooking together at home, but I don’t have a problem with him eating meat and animal products (like cheese and dairy) when we’re eating out or when he’s cooking/eating himself.

One of the recipes I found was on the Veganuary website here for a nak’d sushi bowl. I’ve always had sashimi (raw fish) with my sushi, so I was excited to be able to prepare a sushi type dish for a vegan meal at home!

A list of my favourite vegan recipes

Sometimes trying to cook a tasty meal can be quite a task, even more so when you feel out of your depth with vegan meals (you can read more about my start of my journey to veganism here)! My instinct is to just boil the vegetable (like lettuce or broccoli), fry it up with some garlic and add soy sauce which is what you sometimes do with Chinese cooking, but every now and then you want to switch it up…but don’t know how. This is where I’m starting to feel a bit stuck.

Veganuary has a bank of recipes (here) that you can try, but there are so many to sort through that I sifted through a few and felt a bit overwhelmed when I came to the British Recipes section. I didn’t have any particular food in mind that I really wanted, but I think having an idea would help you navigate the recipes section.

Instead, I decided to venture off on my own and found some yummy looking vegan recipes that I’ll be attempting over the next few weeks.

Dairy free and vegan delight: garlic and herb cashew cheese recipe

I’ve spoken freely about my food intolerance and one of the most problematic ones for me is my lactose intolerance. You can’t really have pasta or pizza without cheese, creme brûlée without cream and milk or mushroom soup without cream. I’ve really come to appreciate the different types of cheese you can get in the shops and it’s something I really enjoy adding to my meals.

I wasn’t sure what to replace cheese with as a dairy free/vegan alternative…until I discovered the wonder of vegan cheese through The Buddhist Chef. Now, I’m pleased to say that my first attempt at making vegan cheese has been a success and I’m sharing my altered recipe with you.