Two friends of my daughter’s (they don’t live in the area) will be at a work training program near our home. They will stay with us for three nights (the training sessions are from 9-5) and I said I’d cook dinner for them one night. They are very strict vegans. If anyone has ideas for dinner, I’d love recommendations. I have several Ottolenghi cookbooks, which probably have vegan recipes. If anyone has favorites from his books, please let know.
1 Like
Fresh pasta w/Calabrian chili tomato sauce -
Ingredients: 2 TBSP EVOO 1 shallot, diced
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 jar of sun dried tomatoes (drained)
1 small can of tomato paste
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, washed and tops discarded
Pepper to taste (salt not needed)
2 TBSP of Calabrian chili paste
1 lb pasta
Instructions: Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium sized heavy bottomed pan. Add shallot and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until shallots are translucent and garlic begins to caramelize. Add cherry tomatoes and stir until they soften and start splitting. Add tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, and the Calabrian chili paste. Add cracked pepper to taste. Stir well to combine and let simmer for 30 minutes.
Cook pasta per instructions and add to the pot with the sauce along with a bit of pasta water, and stir to coat.
You can add sautéed zucchini, eggplant and mushroom as well.
Is there a vegan version?
I love Eden Grinshpan’s cookbook Tahini Baby, nearly all of the recipes are vegetarian or vegan. (She is the host of Top Chef Canada)
Here are three recipes that might work - the strawberry rhubarb might be timely as it’s about rhubarb time!
Vegan chili. Easy to make, and there are plenty of recipes online. Here’s one we’ve tried.
Can top with vegan “sour cream” or “cheese”, but that’s entirely optional if you can’t find any at your local grocery store.
Sesame noodles are another favorite.
1 Like
Oh yeah! Omit the cream! It’s not necessary! I’ve edited my post!
1 Like
Vegan Swedish Meatballs - Vegan Swedish Meatballs - Vegan Huggs
How about a veggie stir fry with rice. Cut up whatever veggies you want and use soy for flavor. Serve over rice.
Similar idea for pasta primavera. Cut up whatever veggies you want, sauté and add in some cherry tomatoes. Mix in with pasta. You can serve this with a salad and bread.
Chana masala or veggie curry with coconut milk over rice. Serve with naan.
3 Likes
You can make pesto with nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan if you want an easy pasta dish.
If you have Ottolenghi “Comfort” the red lentil dal with fennel is delicious. Like so many of his recipes, it requires a million ingredients that you probably don’t have on hand but is really amazing. You can skip the curry leaves if you can’t find them at an Asian or Indian market.
NYT cooking app also has great vegan recipes -here are some of my favorites:
Tacos/tortillas with beans, salsa, guac, etc is also an easy delicious dinner. Enjoy!
2 Likes
I like the sweet potato cakes in Ottolenghi’s Plenty cookbook. The sauce has sour cream but you could make a vegan pesto or cilantro mint chutney instead.
There are a few vegan versions. Silk, Country Crock and A few others make them. At MB they are usually somewhere near the other creams
1 Like
S23s gf loved when I made shwarma because it’s not the pasta and stir fry everyone else makes. I’ve made it with tofu, but I also found a really cool recipe where you roll the Beyond Beef between parchment paper and cook it into sheer but I can’t find that right now. Shredding firm tofu is so easy and once you do it, I bet you add it to your repertoire even if you aren’t vegan
If you don’t want to make the sauce in the recipe, Trader Joe’s has a vegan Tzatziki.
Since you did not say also GF (phew), nice that you have options for pasta dishes.
We are basically pescatarian and my husband can’t tolerate dairy so I cook vegan all the time. I don’t typically use recipes, though.
For young adults I would do build your own burrito bowl or make your own tacos. You guys can have ground beef or chicken if you want and they can have beans. You can buy Daiya vegan cheese if you think they would like it. I usually make rice because I like rice, but it’s not necessary. We eat a lot of tofu so might include that or some other fake meat, but it’s not necessary if you’re not comfortable cooking with it. Just beans, rice, peppers, zucchini, onions, corn, avocado (or guac), maybe some mango if you’re feeling fruity, lettuce, lots of cilantro and lime, could sauté some mushrooms, sweet potatoes are always a nice addition if you like them. I like sweet red bell peppers and maybe some fresh or pickled jalapeños.
Veggie pasta is always easy too. Use a jarred sauce or just fresh veggies. I like to sauté fresh tomatoes, onions, and garlic, with other veggies like zucchini and mushrooms, maybe asparagus or peas and lemon. Have real and/or fake parmesan as a condiment.
And most Asian foods are easily made vegan with tofu. I like those Momofuku noodles (Wegman’s carries them and so does Costco, the Trader Joe’s version is pretty good too). Just chop up a bunch of veggies and tofu and saute with a little soy sauce (the veggies need their own seasoning, but the noodles come with a seasoning packet). Just leave out the fish sauce.
A veggie summer roll would be great too. I need to make those soon. They are so refreshing this time of year. Get your rice paper wrappers and wrap lots of veggies!
Falafels are great for vegans. Just leave off the tzatziki (made with yogurt, or make your own with soy yogurt). Hummus and baba ganoush are already vegan as is the falafel. You can buy frozen falafels to make it easy. We do make your own falafel night fairly often.
You could do a vegan risotto. Just use veggie broth instead of chicken broth. I like the Beyond Boullion brand, specifically the “no chicken”, but you can buy veggie broth in a carton from Pacific brand or other brands. Remember that parmesan can be a condiment and doesn’t go into the risotto.
Hit me up if you need more suggestions. I haven’t cooked with real dairy in 30 years (except butter, because that doesn’t bother my husband, but margarine is an easy sub there). Cheese is only used as a condiment in my house. I don’t buy cow milk. Like I literally don’t remember the last time I had it in the house. Soy milk or any of the other alternative milks usually sub just fine 1 to 1.
Loveandlemons.com has lots of good vegetarian and vegan recipes to browse. Vegan Dinner Recipes - Love and Lemons
2 Likes