Cucumber Salad

Cucumber Salad PinThis Cucumber Salad is a fresh and delicious summer favorite that tastes great year round. It’s very easy to make with lots of tasty leftovers. One serving only has 18 calories, so you could eat as much as you want!

My mom has made this recipe my entire life, but I never liked cucumbers until going plant-based. A lot of vegans and plant-based eaters talk about how much their tastes change over time as they eat more plant foods and less of the addictive, taste numbing sugar, salt and fat.

Cucumbers are one of those foods that I tried numerous times throughout my life, but never liked. In fact, you could say I had an aversion to them…they tasted AWFUL! But after about 6 months of eating a healthy plant-based diet, they finally started tasting like food, and now I really like them.

I encourage you to continue trying new and old things on your plant-based journey. As your tastes change, you just might start liking things you used to hate.

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.

Red Bean Burgers

Red Bean Burgers PinThis Red Bean Burgers recipe is very flavorful and satisfying. It’s a delicious and nutritious vegan burger that’s super quick and easy to make. Perfect for a weeknight meal when you’re short on time but long on hunger.

The burger patties are very moist so they won’t do well on the grill, but they great on an electric griddle if you have one. We usually just bake them, though. They’re very flavorful as is, but you can sprinkle the patties with a little garlic salt and black pepper before you cook them for even more flavor.

We like high quality, whole grain buns, but you can use your favorite hamburger buns. Top them with some greens, a slice of tomato and a little spicy mustard or ketchup and you’ve got one delicious vegan burger!

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.

Curried Lentils

Curried Lentils PinCurried lentils are a favorite of ours. These are super flavorful and fill our house with delicious curry smells. We prefer them over brown rice, but you can also serve them over naan bread, pita bread or your favorite asian noodles.

We think green lentils work best in this recipe due to their mild flavor, but you can try other lentils to see which you prefer. Let us know in the comments if you like a different type better.

We also like to add a dollop of plain, unsweetened vegan yogurt and stir it into the lentils. It’s a good source of vitamin B12, and it mimics sour cream when served with spicy foods. A sprinkle of paprika adds some nice color and flavor.

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 Sloppy Joes

Vegan Sloppy Joes PinThese Vegan Sloppy Joes are loaded with 16g protein thanks to the lentils, and they taste just like the Sloppy Joes I had as a kid. To be honest, though, I didn’t like sloppy joes as a kid. But loved them as an adult.

You could make these with Beyond Meat Beefy Crumbles. That would be delicious, but we prefer to stick to whole-foods whenever possible and the lentils are perfect for this recipe.

We ate ours the old fashioned way: on a bun. But they would taste great over pasta, Spaghetti Squash and especially over some Boiled Potatoes.

As a side dish, some Vegan French Fries and Green Beans would be very tasty!

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.

Souper Easy Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup PinThis Souper Easy Split Pea Soup recipe comes to us from Kristie Middleton, Senior Director of Food Policy for the Humane Society of the United States. She’s also the author of the widely popular book, “MeatLess: Transform the Way You Eat and Live – One Meal at a Time.”

Amelia and I had the pleasure of meeting Kristie at a Humane League Gala here in Denver, and also at her book signing at the Tattered Cover. Her mission in life and with the Humane Society is to help people transition to a “meatless” diet.

With tons of recipes like this Split Pea Soup in her book, she’s doing a great job of showing people how to eat a more humane diet without sacrificing any of the flavor they’re used to with more traditional, less humane ingredients.

Follow Kristie on Facebook!

We didn’t have Herbs de Provence so Amelia improvised by using a dash of dried oregano, basil, parsley and rosemary. Delicious!

MeatLess by Kristie Middleton

Kristie-Middleton-Meatless_cover_lo A great resource to have in every transitioning vegan kitchen!

This book is loaded with concrete rationale for reducing or eliminating meat from your diet, as well as showing you how to make the transition easier. Kristie provides substitutes for common animal ingredients and dozens of plant-based recipes that will tease the tastebuds of any standard American food eater.

You don't have to sacrifice flavor for compassion. You can have both!

Get It Now!


Vegan Stir Fry

Vegan Stir FryAmelia cooked this Vegan Stir Fry about 8 times before she was happy with its flavor and veg composition. This one is all hers and it’s delicious!

We used fresh ingredients in this recipe, but if you’re in a hurry or hate chopping up a bunch of veggies, you can use a variety of frozen veggies or a package of mixed veggies. We use frozen mixed veggies quite a bit for this recipe, especially when we’re short on time.

I prefer eating it over brown rice, as this recipe calls for. But we also like it over Tofu Shirataki Spaghetti Noodles, spaghetti squash and spiralized zucchini. Amelia made it a lot, so we tried it with a lot of different things.

Amelia cooks this recipe in a skillet over medium heat covered to keep the veggie broth from evaporating too quickly. If you’re using a wok, the cook time will be less so keep that in mind.

If you want to make this gluten-free, substitute the seitan with sliced mushrooms. That’ll keep it a similar color and texture.

This recipe originally used a teaspoon of sesame oil, but since we’re not eating oil anymore, we removed it. You can add some sesame seeds to this dish to get a similar flavor. It’s a good idea to slightly toast them in a skillet before adding them to your recipe to release the oils and flavors.

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 Stuffed Peppers

Vegan Stuffed Peppers PinThese Vegan Stuffed Peppers are amazing! Thanks to the lentils, the look, taste and texture are almost identical to traditional stuffed peppers made with ground beef. I bet you can fool people if you don’t tell them it’s vegan.

Stuffed peppers are loved around the world with slight variations in the recipes. If you come from an area that uses cheese, you can melt some Daiya on top of the peppers or sprinkle with some Nutritional Yeast.

You can also make these with Beefy Crumbles from Beyond Meat instead of using lentils. However, Daiya and Beyond Meat are both processed foods so they’re not as healthy as the whole plant alternatives.

This recipe calls for Grandpa’s Vegan Dipping Hot Sauce and Vegan Cashew Cream so you’ll either need to make these ahead of time or substitute them with a prepackaged alternative.

You can make a meal out of these, but they also pair well with Healthy Butternut Squash, a Side Salad, a slice of Whole Grain Bread, Steamed Broccoli or your other favorite side dishes.

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.