Stuffed Sweet Potato

We love sweet potatoes and eat them all the time.  Usually we eat them plain, but some people like to stuff them with other ingredients for a different kind of meal.  Here’s a healthy, tasty alternative to a healthy stuffed sweet potato.

Ingredients:

• 4 sweet potatoes, baked
• 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 avocados, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced (you can leave this out if you don’t like spicy)*
• 1 bunch of cilantro (you can leave this out too)*
• juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and bake the potatoes for about an hour.
2. In the meantime, put your rinsed and drained beans in a bowl and set aside.
3. Prepare the avocado, tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper, and cilantro.
4. Combine them all in a bowl and mix.  Add in lime and mix to combine.
5. Once the potatoes are done, slice them in half and mash the inside with a fork.
6. Add some black beans and then some of the avocado salsa to each potato and serve.

*If you leave these ingredients out of the avocado salsa, serve them on the side for those who want to add to their potato.

We used Japanese sweet potatoes but you can use regular sweet potatoes as well 🙂

Dr. Furhman’s Chocolate Cake

If you have never tried this cake, you must! This chocolate cake is very different than your typical high sugar, high fat, unhealthy cake.  This cake contains vegetables and is a healthier alternative to the typical “chocolate cake”.  Even though this is a healthier cake, you still need to watch portions as there are a lot of dates and nuts in this dessert.

We found the recipe to this cake here.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or quinoa flour for gluten free cake)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups pitted dates, divided
• 1 cup pineapple chunks in own juice, drained
• 1 banana
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup shredded beets
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Nut Icing:

• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts or raw cashews, unsalted
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 2/3 cup pitted dates
• 1/3 cup brazil nuts or hazelnuts
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl.  Set aside.
3. In blender or food processor, puree 3 cups of the dates, pineapple, banana, and applesauce.
4. Slice remaining 1/2 cup dates into 1/2 inch thick pieces.
5. In large bowl, mix sliced dates, beets, carrots, zucchini, cocoa powder, currants, walnuts, water, vanilla and flour mixture.
6. Add the blended mixture and mix well.
7. Spread in a 9.5″ X 13.5″ nonstick baking pan.
8. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Directions for the icing:

1. Using a high powered blender*, combine all icing ingredients until smooth and creamy.
2. Allow the cake to cool before spreading the icing.

* A food processor may be used to combine icing ingredients but the icing will not be as smooth.

This cake is best the next day, cold, straight from the fridge!

Can you believe these ingredients can be turned into a cake!?

Don’t let the ingredients frighten you into trying this cake.  It contains so much natural sweetness from the fruit and dates, you will still be able to satisfy your sweet tooth, and get a serving of vegetables at the same time 🙂

Barbeque Beans and Greens

We love this dish! It is easy and everyone we know who has tried it loves it too! You can eat this as a main meal or add it as a side to your dinner.

This recipe is originally from Forks over Knives:

Ingredients:

• water to sauté
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 entire bunch of greens (kale, chard, collards), chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 can cooked pinto beans (or 1-½ cups dry), drained and rinsed
• 1 can cooked white beans (cannellini or white Northern) (or 1-½ cups dry), drained/rinsed

For the Sauce:

• ¾ cups water
• 5 dates, pitted and chopped
• 1 can (6-ounce) of tomato paste
• 1 can (8-ounce) of chunked pineapple, including juice (in juice, not corn syrup), or ½ cup each of juice and diced pineapple
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon granulated onion
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground paprika (plain or smoky flavor)
• optional: ½ to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy)

Directions:

1. Place the pitted and chopped dates into a blender with the ¾ cups water to soften.
2. In a large soup pot or skillet, sauté the onion in a tablespoon or two of water, just enough so that it does not stick, for 2 minutes until soft.
3. Turn heat to medium-low, and add the chopped greens and beans, and cook for a 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. In the blender, add to the water and dates: the tomato paste, pineapple and juice, apple cider vinegar, mustard, granulated onion and garlic, and paprika. Blend until smooth, about 30 seconds.
5. Add the sauce to the pot of onions, beans and greens, and stir until evenly mixed. Cook on low for 5 to 10 minutes to incorporate the flavors, then serve or  transfer the finished recipe into a baking dish for “baked beans.” Bake covered for 30 minutes at 375ºF.

Enjoy 🙂

Broccoli Bisque

This is a quick and easy soup recipe that has tons of flavor.  We got the recipe from Dr. McDougall’s newsletter.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups fresh potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 2 to 2½ cups non-dairy milk (add to desired consistency)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place broccoli, broth, potatoes, onion, and dill weed in a medium pot.
2. Bring to boil, cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes until broccoli and potatoes are tender.
3. Use an immersion blender to blend.
4. Add non-dairy milk, mustard, and pepper. Heat through and serve.

If you don’t have an immersion blender (which we highly recommend…so easy!), you can blend the soup in a regular blender or Vitamix and then return back to pot to add milk, mustard, and pepper.

Optional:  You can add some nutritional yeast to make this a ‘cheesy’ broccoli bisque.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 6-8

 

BBQ Soy Curls

This is quite a simple recipe to make and very tasty.  We eat this one only on occasion or when we are cooking for non-vegans.  They get the texture from the food without harming any animals.  We’ve had meat eaters not even know this was vegan.  This recipe isn’t totally SOS free because of the ketchup, but you can make a BBQ sauce that is (try the one in the BBQ lentil loaf muffins).

This recipe is from Simple Daily Recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 (8-ounce) package Soy Curls (break them up into pieces)
• 4 cups water (for marinade)
• 2 tablespoons Hickory liquid smoke (for marinade)
• 2 tablespoons tamari, or soy sauce (for marinade)
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 2 cups organic ketchup (We use whatever ketchup has the least amount of sugar and we use a little less than the full 2 cups) (Here’s a recipe for Salt-Free Ketchup)
• 2 tablespoon molasses
• 1 tablespoon Hickory liquid smoke
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder

Directions:

1. Mix together the water, Hickory liquid smoke, and tamari to make the marinade.
2. Add soy curls and allow to soak for 15 minutes.
3. Saute onions. Add the remaining ingredients.
4. Drain soy curls (no need to squeeze water out of them). Combine with sauce.
5. Slow cook for a couple hours on the normal setting in the instant pot. (original recipe says to cook on high for 1 hour, but we found the normal setting works best for us).

You can serve this on buns, in wraps, or in a romaine leaf.  Delicious every way!

Want some soy curls?

We order the soy curls from here.

Chef AJ’s Red Lentil Chili

We make this chili at least once a week.  It is tasty and makes a large serving so there is always leftovers for the next day.  It can also be a quick meal to make if you have the spices premeasured.  We have a few empty spice jars so when we first made this meal as we measured out the spices to put immediately in the instant pot, we also measured out each spice into a separate spice jar. The next few times we made this meal, all we had to do was add an entire one of our premixed “Chef AJ Red Lentil Chili” spices and it saved a lot of time!

Ingredients:

• 2 14.5-ounce cans salt-free diced tomatoes (fire roasted preferred)
• 1 6-ounce can salt-free tomato paste
• 1 pound red bell pepper, (approximately 2 large),
• 8 cloves garlic
• 3 ounces of pitted dates (approximately 12 Deglet Noor dates or 6 Medjool)
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 7 cups water (heated) (if using the crockpot you don’t need to heat it)
• 10 ounces chopped onion (approximately one large)
• 1 pound red lentils
• 1-1⁄2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 1-1⁄2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1-1⁄2 tablespoons salt-free chili powder
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika (different than regular paprika)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder (or more to taste)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
• scallions (for topping at the end)
• spinach (optional)

Directions:

1. Place canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red bell peppers, garlic, dates, and apple cider vinegar in Vitamix and blend until smooth.
2.  In Instant Pot, put in 7 cups of water, onions, red lentils, mixture from the Vitamix, and all the spices. (I don’t stir this until it’s finished cooking) Cook for 10 minutes at high pressure. You can either use manual release or natural release.
3. If using spinach, simply stir into hot chili at the end of pressure cooking and the heat will wilt it.

If using a crock pot: Put in water, onions, red lentils, mixture from Vitamix, and spices. Stir and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

This chili can be served over a baked potato, brown rice, or quinoa. You can top it with the chopped scallions and sprinkle on some vegan Parmesan.

Link to the YouTube video Chef AJ made:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOfxvkqjIS4

Date Paste

Dates are known as nature’s candy.  That is because they are naturally sweet.  Whenever we are craving something sweet, we eat a date.  They are especially good stuffed with a little nut butter!  We use dates, or date paste, as a natural sweetener whenever we bake.  Since dates are a whole food, they are a much healthier alternative to processed sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound pitted dates
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Soak dates in liquid overnight or for several hours until most of the liquid is absorbed.
2. In a food processor, process dates and liquid until completely smooth.

We store the date paste in a mason jar in the freezer where it will last longer and since it doesn’t freeze solid, we can just take it out and use it as soon as we need it.

This recipe yields 2 cups.

We usually make date paste to add in baked goods, but occasionally we’ll spread some date paste on top of an apple.  It tastes like a caramel covered apple! Delicious!

Banana Bread Muffins

This is Ashley’s favorite muffin recipe! She makes these all the time whenever there are enough ripe bananas, which is actually quite difficult with all the bananas we quickly go through.

This recipe was originally for banana bread.  But we found that the muffins baked better than a whole loaf of bread and it made it easier to make a grab-and-go snack that was already portioned.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup millet
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 5 bananas!
• 1/2 cup date paste (or 10 dates)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or 1 small apple)
• Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine millet and oats in a high-speed blender and process into a flour.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
3. Add baking powder and stir.
4. Blend together bananas, date paste or dates, and applesauce until well combined.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir.  Add walnuts, if desired, and stir.
6. Pour into muffin pan (I use a silicon pan) and bake for 20-22 minutes.
7. Allow to cool and enjoy!

BBQ Lentil Loaf Muffins

This recipe take a little bit more time to make but they are very tasty and worth the extra effort on a day when you have a little more time. There are a lot of spices that need to be measured which is why it looks like a lot, but it shouldn’t take too long. We always double this recipe when we make them.  It might not be a bad idea to triple or even quadruple the recipe so you have plenty of leftovers to store in the freezer. You might as well make a big batch!

This original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup greenish/brown lentils (We use one box of Trader Joe’s Steamed Lentils that can be found in the refrigeration section with the vegetables)
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds mixed with 1/4 cup water
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 cup gluten free oats (our favorite brand is from Trader Joe’s)
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon no salt seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce (recipe below)
• 2 tablespoons ketchup (Here’s a recipe for Salt-Free Ketchup)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the ground flaxseeds with 1/4 cup water and set aside.
3. If using uncooked lentils, rinse and drain the lentils. In a medium size sauce pan bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the lentils, turn the heat down and simmer for 30-35 minutes or until the lentils are soft and the water is absorbed. The cooking time will vary depending on what type of lentil you use so check them at the 25 minute mark and keep an eye on them. Drain off any remaining liquid.
4. While the lentils are cooking – add a tablespoon of water or vegetable broth to a skillet along with the diced onion, saute for about 5 minutes, add minced garlic and saute another minute or two adding more water or broth if needed to keep the mixture from sticking to the pan. Turn off the heat, add the flax mixture, tomato sauce, seasonings, oats, and lentils. Mix well – taste it and adjust seasonings if needed. Remember that a lot of the flavor is coming from the topping.
5. Using a silicone muffin pan, fill ten of the muffin cups with lentil loaf mixture – pressing it down gently in the cup so it will stick together.
6. Mix together the BBQ sauce and ketchup and spread it evenly over the top of each lentil muffin.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Barbecue Sauce (Recipe by Shayda Soleymani)

• 1 six-ounce can of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup date paste (or just use 5 dates if you have a high-powered blender like a Vitamix)
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp stone ground mustard (salt-free)
• 1 tbsp minced ginger (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp chipolte powder
• 1/2 tsp “smoked” paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• A little liquid smoke (optional)

Directions: Blend everything in a high-speed blender.

One Pot Pasta

Here’s a recipe for the Instant Pot! It is such an easy recipe to make and you can use any vegetables you have on hand.

This recipe was inspired by this video:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 to 3/4 lbs. pasta of your choice (We love red lentil pasta)
• 1 to 1½ cups chickpeas, already cooked (or 1 can)
• 2½ cups vegetable broth (use only 2 cups if using the can of diced tomatoes)
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1-2 bell peppers, chopped
• 2 lemon slices (can also use 1 tbsp of lemon juice)
• ½ teaspoon miso
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more if you like it spicer
• 4 big leaves fresh basil, torn into pieces
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• Optional: Any other vegetables you want

Directions:

1. Put everything in the Instant Pot and stir.
2. Cook for 8 min in the pressure cooker. We let pressure come down for 15 minutes and released the rest.
3. Toss in some handfuls of spinach when done cooking, stir, and just let the heat wilt it.

We served ours with homemade vegan parmesan. This can also be served with some fresh basil on top and even add some hot sauce if you like.