Vegan Pad Prik King with Tofu

Vegan Pad Prik King PinThis Vegan Pad Prik King was inspired by one of Amelia’s favorite Thai restaurants in Littleton Colorado, Wild Ginger. We used to go there almost weekly when she lived in the area. Now, since we live far away, Amelia decided to make us a vegan version so we can enjoy it whenever and WHEREver we want.

To reduce the calories, cut back on the brown sugar to your preferred level of sweetness. Also, be sure to buy vegan red chili paste. Many brands have fish sauce, which adds cholesterol that you just don’t need.

We like to serve this with brown rice, or you could serve it over some delicious Pad Thai noodles.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Pad Thai

Vegan Pad Thai PinBefore embarking on our plant-based journey, it never occurred to me that we could make our own Pad Thai at home. I always saved it for my occasional trip to a Thai restaurant. But this Vegan Pad Thai with tofu is even better than restaurant Pad Thai! Plus, it’s made without oil!

Super firm tofu works well in this recipe. It has more of a meaty texture and holds together better while stirring the noodles into the mixture.

We used Annie Chun’s Gluten-Free Pad Thai Rice Noodles. They’re delicious and easy to prepare. Just soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes and they’re ready to eat.

Sprinkle a few crushed peanuts and squeeze a lime wedge over the top for a real authentic restaurant experience.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

These Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas are so deliciously amazing we can’t get enough of them! They’re sweet, spicy, savory and oh so flavorful!

If you’ve ever cooked your own enchiladas, especially without deep frying the tortillas in oil, you’ll be able to sympathize with us on how challenging it is to get them to look pretty. We had to cook this recipe 3 times to not only perfect the ingredients, but to get the pictures to come out well enough to post on our website.

But it was SOOOO worth it!

The trick was to steam the tortillas in a steamer pot for about 1o to 15 seconds before assembling them. Kind of like how they do it at Chipotle. That made the tortillas very soft and pliable. We also used Mi Rancho Organic Corn Tortillas with Guar Gum, which also helped hold them together through the steaming and assembly process.

We actually took these photos before we baked them, though. So yours might not look the same when they come out of the oven. You can see in the prep photo below what they look like in the casserole dish fresh from the oven.

These Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas pair well with a little shredded lettuce salad on the side, along with some Corn Tortilla Corn Chips  and some of my Grandpa’s Dipping Hot Sauce. We used grandpa’s hot sauce in our enchiladas, too. If you plan to do the same, be sure to make it ahead of time.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Field Roast Sausage

Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Field Roast Sausage PinThis Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Field Roast Sausage recipe was inspired by an old non-vegan recipe I used to cook for my daughter and me before I went vegan. Cajun red beans and rice with sausage was a favorite on our regular rotation and I’m sure this veganized version will be a new regular meal. It’s absolutely delicious and packed with flavor!

We used the Mexican Chipotle Vegetarian Sausage from Field Roast Grain Meat Co. to give it some extra zing, but you can use pretty much any type of spicy or smoked, flavorful sausage.

If you’re an oil-free or reduced sodium eater, you can skip the sausage, but double the cajun spices to compensate.

This recipe uses dry red beans instead of canned. Dried beans take more prep work, but they’re a lot cheaper and we think they have a lot more flavor. They’re also more environmentally friendly due to reduced processing and packaging.

If you’re in a hurry or don’t want to mess with dry beans, you can use three 16 oz cans of red beans with the juice and reduce the vegetable broth to 1 cup.

This Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Field Roast Sausage dish pairs well with Vegan Cornbread and a Hearty Side Salad.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Fajitas (Oil-Free)

Vegan Fajitas PinThese Vegan Fajitas with roasted portobello mushrooms and sautéed onions and peppers is absolutely delicious, and very nutritious!

Three corn tortillas topped with all the fixin’s has 450 calories, 11 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein. Add to that: 70% RDA of Vitamin A, 315% Vitamin C, 76% Calcium and 24% Iron. And this doesn’t include the optional avocado, brown rice or refried beans!

Looking at these stats for one vegan dish, it’s hard to understand how the protein and calcium deficiency myths gained traction and continue to be two of the most common questions vegans get asked.

We used corn tortillas in our recipe because they’re made with only corn and water. They contain no refined flour or oil. Most flour tortillas we’ve found here in Ecuador have either oil or lard, and we haven’t found any whole wheat tortillas, so we opted for the healthier non-GMO corn tortillas. If you can find oil and lard free whole wheat flour tortillas, feel free to use those instead of corn.

Vegan Fajitas

We like using my Grandpa’s Vegan Dipping Hot Sauce on our vegan fajitas, but you can use your favorite salsa. Just be sure to get a salsa without oil or a lot of added sugar, as most store-bought brands contain one or both.

The avocado, brown rice and Refried Beans are optional since this is already a filling and high calorie meal without them. However, they make great companions for these Vegan Fajitas! These are also fantastic topped with a little Vegan Cashew Sour Cream!

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Smokey Green Hot Sauce

Smokey Green Hot Sauce PinThis Smokey Green Hot Sauce is a delicious and spicy way to save money. Hot sauce is freaking expensive!

We were spending $10 a week on hot sauce and salsa since we started using them as flavorful and healthy toppings for many of our dishes. A regular 16oz jar of salsa or a 6oz bottle of hot sauce goes for $3 to $5. This recipe makes about 24oz and costs less than 4$ to make!

This smokey green hot sauce is a good topping for your Easy Tofu Scramble, Boiled Potatoes, Baked Potatoes, Vegan Chili or any other dish that needs a little extra spice. You can also use it as a dip for your Corn Tortilla Corn Chips.

If you want to make it extra spicy, add one or two small habanero peppers during Step 1. It might induce a little sweat when you eat it, but it’s absolutely delicious!

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Burrito Bowl

Vegan Burrito Bowl PinThis Vegan Burrito Bowl is another quick lunch that you can assemble ahead of time so you can take it to work or school.

Canned refried beans are pre-cooked so you just need to warm them up and add some salt and pepper to make them taste delicious. You can stir in the seasonings straight out of the can and heat the beans on the stove or in the microwave.

Or if you’re more ambitious and have time, try making our Vegan Refried Beans from either dry soaked beans, or canned pinto beans. These taste delicious and don’t have oil or any mystery ingredients.

You can serve this over romaine lettuce or your favorite leafy green if you feel like it, but this recipe serves it over brown rice. You can get creative with this recipe by adding onions, peppers, corn, fresh cilantro, black olives, tofu, pico de gallo, jalapeños or your other favorite veggies.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Nachos

Vegan Nachos PinThese Vegan Nachos are loaded with goodies. Vegan Refried Beans, Potato Cheese Sauce, Vegan Cashew Sour Cream, jalapeños, black olives, avocado and salsa make this one yummy party dish!

Nachos are one of those treats that most people expect to give up when they go vegan, but there’s no need to make such a supreme sacrifice. The potato cheese sauce tastes better than the nasty cheese you find on most non-vegan nachos, and the cashew sour cream is absolutely delicious!

We used the toppings that we like the most, but you can be as creative as you want to be. These vegan nachos would be great with some sautéed onions or mushrooms, seasoned tofu, Tex-Mex jackfruit, vegan chorizo or anything else you can think of.

We bought some yellow and blue corn chips for this recipe, but you can easily make this with some Corn Tortilla Corn Chips.

Just promise me you’ll serve these at your next gathering of non-vegan friends so they can see how good veganized food can taste!

Vegan Nachos Instructional Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros

Vegan Huevos Rancheros PinThis delicious and easy Vegan Huevos Rancheros recipe will have you looking forward to breakfast. It’s loaded with protein and healthy carbs, but it’s oil free and gluten free.

You can use regular refried beans or mash up some pinto beans, but we prefer the refried black beans for a little extra flavor. Use organic corn tortillas instead of flour to keep it gluten free, but also because organic corn has more fiber than flour.

If you’re concerned about the carbs, you can use one tortilla instead of two, but it won’t have as much fiber and won’t be as filling. That means you’ll probably be hungry sooner and feel the need to snack.

You might also enjoy our Tofu Scramble.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros Instructional Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Jambalaya with Black Beans

Vegan Jambalaya PinThis Vegan Jambalaya with Black Beans recipe is like a little taste of Naw Luns (that’s Cajun for New Orleans). This dish is hearty, filling, a little spicy and oh so flavorful.

This jambalaya is also a great recipe for your weight loss plan. With only 200 calories per serving, it packs 11 grams of fiber and 10 grams of protein, as well as 31% RDA of Iron. With a delicious recipe like this, you don’t need to punish yourself with a bland weight loss diet.

I ate the first bowl plain without any toppings. For the second bowl, I put a dollop (about 1 tbsp) of unsweetened So Delicious Plain Yogurt on top. It tastes a bit like sour cream so it gave it a little extra tanginess. Cashew Cream Cheese would be delicious, too. You can also add some hot sauce (Tabasco or Red Hot) and stir it in to give it more kick.

We originally made this recipe with Beefy Crumbles, but now that we don’t eat oil anymore, we removed them. You could add some oil free Lightlife Gimme Lean Sausage to give it even more flavor, but we don’t have that in Ecuador. Booo! 🙁

This pairs well with our Vegan Cornbread recipe (unless you’re an oil-free eater).

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.