Vegan Guacamole

Vegan Guacamole PinThis Vegan Guacamole recipe is simple and delicious. It’s sure to be a big hit at your next party or gathering of friends and family…even non-vegans will love it!

Guac is a special treat, especially with the high cost of avocados in the states. But if you have a craving for a rich, savory appetizer that’s perfect for your corn chips, look no further. This recipe is amazing!

You start with 3 medium sized avocados that are pretty soft when squeezed. That means they need to be ripe, but not over-ripe or they turn black and stringy on the inside, which isn’t very appetizing. Scoop out the yummy goodness into a large mixing bowl and discard the seeds.

Some people suggest saving the seeds and putting them in your guac to keep it from turning brown, but that’s an old wives-tale. The lime juice will keep your guac from turning brown, not the seed.

The reason guac (and avocados) turn brown is because of oxidation. Since the flesh of avocados have very few antioxidants (like apples and bananas), they turn brown when exposed to oxygen (the air we breath). The seed doesn’t generate a magical force field alla Star Trek to keep the oxygen from touching the guac. That would be cool, but that’s not physically possible. Instead, the lime juice is loaded with antioxidants and it coats the guac, preventing it from being assaulted by oxygen.

Squeeze the lime juice over the avocado and blend with a fork or potato masher until smooth but still lumpy. Fresh lime juice is ideal, rather than the lime juice from concentrate. If you’re going to fork out the dough for avocados, just buy a lime while you’re at it.

Finely dice a medium onion, a medium tomato (seeds removed) and a small jalapeño (seeds removed). If your jalapeño is large, you may only want to use half of it. That depends on how spicy you like your guac. Add these to your avocado/lime juice mixture.

It’s important to remove the seeds from your tomato or your guac may be too runny/liquidy. The seeds also don’t look great in the finished product. You can peel the tomato if you don’t like the peeling, but if you finely chop the tomato, it’s not necessary.

Mince your garlic and add it to the mixture as well. I used 3 cloves of garlic, but you can use more or less to your taste. 3 is usually my minimum for any recipe since Amelia and I love garlic.

The spices (salt, cumin and cayenne pepper) add a lot of flavor. I especially like the taste of cumin and love any recipe with it, so it’s extra good in this Vegan Guacamole. Add your spices to the bowl with everything else and stir to combine well.

Optionally, some fresh chopped cilantro would go great, but we didn’t have any on hand.

Let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour for all the flavors to combine.

This Vegan Guacamole recipe goes great with your favorite corn chips, oil-free corn tortilla corn chips or as a condiment on your Burrito Bowl or your favorite sandwich.

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.

Spinach Salad

Spinach Salad PinThis Spinach Salad is one of our mainstays. With only 48 calories per serving, it’s a low calorie delicious nutritious powerhouse side salad!

Spinach is a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium and folate. It may also help prevent cancer and heart disease, making it one of the most important dark leafy greens you can eat. We try to eat it several times per week, if not every day.

Making a delicious salad like this takes time. That’s why we make enough for 6 servings, eat 2 servings and store the other 4 servings for up to 3 days in a sealable container in the fridge.

We do this with all of our salads to save time. Just be sure to add the vinegar or other liquid toppings when you serve the salad to prevent it from becoming soggy.

We use this recipe as a simple side salad, but we also like to jazz it up with some garbanzo beans, walnuts, pecans, sesame seeds, diced avocado, shaved carrots, celery, dried cranberries or whatever else we have on hand. These ingredients add a lot of extra calories and protein, making them ideal for turning this side salad into a main course.

This salad pairs well with some Broccoli Soup or Celery and Potato Soup for a healthy, low calorie, filling lunch.

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.

Vegan BLT with Avocado

Vegan BLT PinThis Vegan BLT with Avocado means you can still enjoy your bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on a hot summer day even after you switch to a plant-based way of eating. This sandwich goes great with Vegan French Fries.

BLT’s were always a summer mainstay in the Stonestreet household. My grandpa lived about a mile from us on the other end of Gardner Lake in Kansas and he had a huge garden with tons of tomato plants. We used to go visit and never left without a bunch of fresh veggies and amazing tomatoes that were the perfect size and taste for a delicious BLT.

Happily, I can still enjoy a tasty BLT (sans cruelty) thanks to some Tofu Bacon. If you put this stuff on a sandwich and blindfold a meat eater, they wouldn’t know it’s not real bacon.

We cooked ours without oil because we try to eat oil-free as much as possible, but if you fry it up in a skillet with a little vegetable oil, you’ll be able to fool anyone into thinking it’s real bacon.

Remember to prepare your Vegan Cashew Cream ahead of time as well. Or you can use Vegan Mayo if you prefer that and don’t care about your oil consumption.

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 Black Bean Burgers

Vegan Black Bean Burgers PinThese Vegan Black Bean Burgers are quick and easy to make, but it’s also filling and delicious. Tastes great on a whole grain bun with Swiss chard, a slice of tomato and spicy mustard.

The texture and consistency of the patties is a lot like ground beef. We baked them in the oven, but you could easily throw them on the grill to get some of that extra smoky flavor or fry them in a skillet if you’re not concerned with keeping them oil free.

You can make up a batch of these and keep them in the refrigerator for several days. Since they’re not made of meat, they won’t spoil or stink up your fridge. You can even individually freeze them and pull out one or two at a 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.

Beet Burger w/ Black Beans & Quinoa

Beet BurgerThis Beet Burger w/ Black Beans & Quinoa is a colorful, healthy and delicious alternative to traditional veggie burgers. The beets, black beans and quinoa provide 12 grams of fiber, 18 grams of protein and 39% RDV iron.

Beets are very versatile and high in iron. You don’t need to cook them before preparing this recipe. Just grate them in your food processor and they’ll cook up in the oven.

Quinoa is a high protein grain that makes a great binding agent. Be sure to rinse it thoroughly before cooking to remove the saponin coating that gives quinoa a bitter taste.

We opted to bake the burgers in the oven since they’re pretty delicate and come apart easily. Baking them also cuts out the oil needed to fry them in the pan. But if you prefer to fry your beet burger, add a little oil to a large skillet and cook them for a few minutes on each side until crispy.

Pairs well with Oven Roasted Red Potatoes or Vegan Green Beans with Bacon 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.

Tofu Breakfast Sandwich w/ Avocado

Tofu Breakfast Sandwich PinYou can eat this delicious, high protein and nutrient rich Tofu Breakfast Sandwich naked (without the bread), as an open-face sandwich or as a full sandwich. This is a great, high energy way to start your day. Plus, it makes leftovers that you can quickly heat up for your busy morning schedule.

We originally made this recipe with an english muffin, but it’s hard to find those without oil, milk and/or eggs so we switched it to a whole grain bread sandwich. Whole grains are healthier anyway.

The bread in our pictures is a whole wheat bread with chia seeds. We get it from a local baker here in Cuenca, Ecuador called ArteSana Panadería y Pastelería. They aren’t a vegan baker, but they do make delicious vegan bread.

We like to eat this as a breakfast sandwich, but you can eat it for lunch or dinner, too. We used to put vegan butter on our sandwiches until we realized how much oil and how many calories vegan butter has. Now we either buy really high quality bread that doesn’t need anything added to it, or we use a nut butter, jam or hummus, depending on what we’re eating. Some of our Vegan Hummus or White Bean Dip or Spread would go great on this tofu breakfast sandwich.

Tofu Breakfast Sandwich

This breakfast meal has 16 grams of protein, 8 grams of fiber, 19% RDA Iron, 50% Vitamin C and 14% Calcium. Pair it with a bowl of fresh or frozen fruit and this makes one filling breakfast. I can’t think of a better way to start your day than with a nutrient dense tofu breakfast sandwich like this.

If you’re on a weight loss plan, you can skip the avocado to reduce the fat content and calories.

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 Lentil Burger

Vegan Lentil BurgerBefore switching to a vegan diet, I had never eaten a lentil in my life. I had no idea what they were or how delicious they could be. Now, Amelia is making all sorts of amazing things with lentils, including this delicious Vegan Lentil Burger.

People always ask us vegan eaters where we get our protein. Lentils are one of the best sources of plant based protein and this recipe packs 19 grams of it. To put that in perspective, plant based nutrition experts like Dr. John McDougall say that most adults only need between 30 and 50 grams of protein per day. That means this burger has about half of your daily protein requirements.

We like the Ozery Bakery OneBuns to cut down on processed carbs, but you can use regular hamburger buns if you want to. You can also use ketchup, mustard, Vegenaise or your other favorite toppings. Pairs well with oven roasted red potatoes or a 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.

Cauliflower Tacos w/ Lentils & Spicy Avocado Sauce

Cauliflower Tacos PinThe Spicy Avocado Sauce makes these Cauliflower Tacos w/ Lentils very tangy and fresh. We made ours open-faced using soft corn tortillas and then folded them to eat. It’s difficult to find taco shells here in Ecuador that don’t have oil, but these corn tortillas contain only non-GMO corn and water.

Both the cauliflower and lentils have lots of fiber, but the protein comes mainly from the lentils. One cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein.

You can cook the cauliflower and lentils ahead of time and heat them up when you’re ready to assemble the tacos. That’ll speed things up at meal time.

We topped our tacos with some diced tomatoes for pop of color for the pictures, and they tasted good, too. You can squeeze a little extra lime juice over them if you want, and some hot sauce or salsa would also be delicious. Nutritional yeast would give it a cheesy flavor if you like that sorta thing.

The Spicy Avocado Sauce only takes a few minutes to make so you can get that done while the lentils are cooking. If you have any leftover sauce, you can use it as a salad dressing. It’ll keep for a few days in the fridge without browning thanks to the lime juice.

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.