Recipes

Vegan Béchamel

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Lasagna topped with vegan Béchamel sauce.

As a French American, I love getting back to my roots for cooking. This French inspired vegan Béchamel sauce is perfect for all of your gratin dishes or to top your lasagna. Adding this to my vegan lasagna has made the ingredients needed simpler, as I don’t need to buy as much vegan ricotta and mozzarella to fill an entire dish.

You will need:

1/4 cup butter (I used Earth Balance)

1/4 cup flour

4 cups soy milk

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

Optional:

1/4 cup vegan mozzarella

The process:

Melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour slowly. Whisk together until smooth. Slowly add 4 cups soy milk. Add vegan mozzarella and whisk until melted. Bring heat to low for 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Voila! Top your favorite dish and bake until perfection.

Béchamel after being cooked in the oven a top a vegan lasagna.

Vegan Beef Mushroom Stroganoff

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This creamy, full-flavor stroganoff is now on my regular dinner rotations. I absolutely love this savory, hearty meal.

Vegan Beef Mushroom Stroganoff

You will need:

1 generous tablespoon Vegemite

1 generous tablespoon veggie bouillon

3 cups water

1 table spoon vegan Worcestershire’s sauce (I use 365 from Whole Foods)

1 tablespoon Soy sauce

1 table spoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon Smoked Paprika

1 tablespoon Thyme

1/4cup Flour

1/2 tub vegan Sour Cream (I used Tofutti brand)

2 cups apprx. Sliced Mushrooms

1/2 Onion, sliced longways

Optional: frozen Beyond Meatballs

Splash of Wine or alcohol of choice

1 stem of fresh Dill

1 bag of Fusilli Pasta

The process:

If you are opting for the frozen meatballs, begin thawing them with a little olive oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Mix water with Vegemite and broth and bring to a boil in sauce pan.

Add Worcestershire’s sauce, Dijon Mustard and Dry Seasonings. Stir well.

Add flour, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Mix in sour cream until smooth.

Let simmer for 15 minutes.

Sauté onions and mushrooms without oil, flipping mushrooms until browned. Add alcohol of choice and let evaporate over heat (I used whiskey on hand, but you can use white wine).

Add broth mixture to pan with meatballs. Cook another 25 minutes.

Cook pasta as directed, then drain and add to broth and meatball mixture. Let cool.

Stir in mushroom and onion mixture. Sprinkle fresh dill on top before serving.

Oh my goodness was this ever tasty. I hope you enjoy this rich, creamy comfort food. ✨

The Best Vegan Spanikopita

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Vegan Spanikopita I made for a morning staff meeting… big hit!

It’s 2022 so I felt it was time to update my Spanikopita recipe. I decided to give the fancy shapes a rest and just go back to basics… the results were incredibly tasty! There is no exact science to this. Feel free to modify quantities.

You will need:

500g of fresh spinach

150g Violife feta, crumbled

170g Follow Your Heart feta crumbles

(Your choice on type of Vegan feta cheese; I personally love the taste and texture of combining two particular kinds)

2 vegan eggs (I used Follow Your Heart)

115g vegan butter, melted

1 box frozen phyllo dough, thawed at room temperature

21g fresh chives, chopped

21g fresh dill, chopped

Optional: 1/2 lemon, squeezed

I used the largest tub of spinach they sell at Whole Foods and the full packets of fresh chives and dill. I provided ingredient measurements for guidance but truly I just eye balled everything. Don’t be afraid to just get in there!

The process:

I cooked down chopped fresh chives and dill with spinach in skillet.

Let the greens cool for a few minutes. Mix in your feta and vegan egg. Optional step: squeeze half a lemon over mixture.

Brush your melted butter on the pan.

Lay a Phyllo sheet along the bottom. Brush butter. Add another layer. Repeat layer, butter, layer for about 4 or 5 layers.

Add your filling mixture spreading evenly among dough.

Then top with a few more layers of dough and butter. I let these lay messily over the sides and tuck them under all of the layers when I’m done, giving it a nice crust.

Score all the way through, cutting pieces prior to cooking. Cutting after the dough is crusty can be difficult.

I was able to premake this the night before, covering tightly in my fridge overnight.

I popped it in oven this morning for 75 minutes at 375 degrees. 💚

Apparently I am to make this for every morning meeting henceforth. 😂 I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we do!

Everything Sourdough Discard Cheese Crackers

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Compassion begins on your plate! 💚✨ Everything Sourdough Discard Crackers using Vegan Cheese

Everything Sourdough Discard Crackers

One of the best things about maintaining a sourdough starter at home is making a variety of flavorful food without using any animal products completely from scratch.

The Magic: ✨

190-200g Sourdough Discard

2 Tablespoons oil or butter

1/2 tablespoon flour

1/3 cup vegan cheese of choice

1/2 tablespoon dried chives

Sprinkled salt and everything seasoning to taste

Directions: ✨

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix discard with oil, flour, cheese, and chives.

Spread out evenly on parchment paper lined cookie sheet as thin as possible.

Sprinkle top with sea salt and everything seasoning till desired.

Place cookie sheet on center rack for 10 minutes.

Score as desired. (I make simple squares pressing down with a long edge of a dough scraper.)

Place back in oven and cook for 30 more minutes or until it has started to crisp.

Let cool… break apart squares, and serve! Enjoy!

Vegan Cheese Sticks

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Being able to order an appetizer of cheese sticks is a staple in dairy-obsessed America, and is one of those hard things vegans feel they need to give up… well, no more!!

I have seriously perfected the vegan cheese stick using Miyoko’s Fresh Mozz cashew cheese product.

My best friend said these taste just like she remembers from TGIFridays. You ready for this goodness?

You Will Need:

Just Egg, Soy or Almond Milk unsweetened, Organic Flour, Italian Bread Crumbs, Garlic Powder, Miyoko’s Mozz.

My Process:

I cut and freeze the Miyoko’s cheese to make it firmer for about 10 minutes.

Then I dip it in a mixture of just egg and soy milk (1:2 ratio whipped together), then toss in a cup of organic flour mixed with a little garlic powder. Make sure it’s coated completely.

I put it in the freezer for a few minutes so the coating stays together better.

Then I dip it into the egg mixture one more time and roll it in Italian bread crumbs, completely covering the stick.

I fried these with a little olive oil. 🙌🏼

Get ready for your dreams to come true. 🥳🤩 Enjoy! Tell me how it turned out in the comments. ✨

Vegan Breakfast Quiche

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This vegan dish has the perfect flaky crust and savory flavors you’d expect from a breakfast quiche.

Crust ingredients:

⁃ 1 vegan egg (2 tbs of Follow Your Heart powder with 1/2 cup ice water, whisked)

⁃ 2 1/2 tablespoons ice water

⁃ 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

⁃ 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

⁃ 10 tablespoons vegan butter (I used Miyoko’s Oat Milk Butter)

Filling:

– 1 Yellow Onion, chopped into cubes

– 3 VeganEggs (6 level Tbsp Follow Your Heart VeganEgg whisked with 1 1/2 cups ice cold water)

– 1 cup homemade cashew cheese (cashews blended with nutritional yeast, veggie bouillon, veggie broth, garlic, and hot water)

– 1 tbsp vegan butter

– pinch red pepper flakes

– 1 tsp pepper

– 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

– 1 cup of Hashbrowns (I used dehydrated shredded potatoes, salted to taste)

– 1 10 oz package fresh spinach

– Tbsp chopped fresh garlic

• Optional: vegan meat of your choice or vegan bac’n bits. (I personally used sautéed Chorizo bits from Nutcase Vegan Meats.) Top quiche with additional cheese if you like.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Whisk salt and flour

Add vegan egg

Add butter

Knead until dough consistency.

Roll out on floured cutting board until it is the size of your pie pan.

Work dough into pie pan, pinching the ends to form a crust around the edge.

Finish with fork impressions on edge.

Freeze for 25 minutes.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

If crust bubbles up, pierce with fork.

Sautée onions until soft. Add hashbrowns with vegan butter until desired browning.

Pack the pan with spinach only allowing to remove excess water for one to two minutes tops.

Whisk vegan egg with additional water. Add garlic, onion, pepper, red pepper flakes, hashbrowns and spinach. Mix well.

Slightly stir in homemade vegan cheese and chorizo. I left clumps together and it turned out amazing.

Pour into crust.

Turn down oven to 325 degrees.

Cook for 55 minutes.

Voila! Enjoy!

For tips on making your own homemade cashew cheese, check out the full video on how it’s made.

Full-Flavor Vegan French Onion Soup

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french onion

Creamy, rich vegan french onion soup.

Compassion begins on your plate! French Onion soup was a childhood favorite of mine that I didn’t think I could ever master from scratch. This rich, decadent soup supposedly came from onions, and I didn’t know what other witchcraft lead to it’s tastiness. It wasn’t until I was quarantined at home staring at a sprouted onion and some stale bread to even think to look into how people have made it traditionally. While many people take short cuts to rich flavor like adding wine and beef stock, I found myself with limited ingredients, a vegan heart, and plenty of time to start browning some onions and adding some decadent flavor to this dish. A big plus: I made this in one glass dish with things I had on hand! This was the best French Onion soup I ever had and I wanted to share it with you as you find you may also have day-old bread and onions on hand. French Onion Soup is like food for the soul.

 

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hrs 45 minutes | Total Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

6 Yellow Onions, sliced
1/2 cup Vegan Butter (or 1 stick)
1/3 cup Veggie Bouillon Stock
1/3 cup Flour
4 1/2 cups Water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional:
Day old bread of your choosing (sourdough used here)
Your choice of vegan cheese
Garlic

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place sliced onions in glass pan. Separate butter into globs on every corner of onions in the pan. Cover with foil, and put in the oven. Let cook for 1 hr and 30 minutes. This is where the magic begins. Your entire home will smell like you are the best cook in the entire world. Chef Ramsey, who?

IMG_2301

Onions after being cooked for 1 hr 30 mins.

Uncover the onions. You should see the onions sitting in their own water once cooked and that the tops are starting to brown. Put veggie stock, and flour on top of the onions, and mix.goodstuff

Place back into the oven, uncovered for 45 more minutes or until the pan looks completely browned. This is the key to your flavor. The more browning you see around the onions, the more flavor will be in your soup.

Once you see a good accumulation of browning (see photo), now it is time to add water. Yes, you read that right. You seriously just add water.

Cook uncovered for 30 more minutes.

In the meantime (in about 15 minutes), get your bread ready. Put slices with a little olive oil on a cookie sheet. I topped mine with a little garlic and Violife Mozzarella. Put the bread in the oven until it is toasted and the cheese is melted.

 

IMG_2340

Once the soup has cooked for 30 minutes with water, and it looks like it has thickened, remove from the oven.

 

Spoon soup into bowls, top with cheesy garlic toast, and serve! Enjoy that rich, natural flavor.

Compassion begins in your bowl! 😉

Vegan Spanikopita

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Compassion begins on your plate!! 💚🌱✨ Did you know most phyllo dough is vegan? I created a spinach feta mixture with 365 organic chopped spinach, garlic, onion, and Violife Foods Feta cheese and wrapped it up into little crispy triangles. 🤤🍃🌍💚 (Before I found Violife, I also used chèvre from Heidi Ho for that tangy, cheesy flavor you’d expect from a feta.) I am such a sucker for anything spinach and feta that I just had to veganize spanakopita that I missed so much! Give it a try😋!

You will need: (makes 12)

1 – 5 oz bag fresh organic spinach, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

2 – blocks of Violife Feta Cheese, crumbled

1- clove garlic, chopped

1/2 – white onion, chopped

6 – sheets of Fillo Dough (I prefer to buy the Fillo Factory Organic Dough 16 oz box)

1- Melted stick of vegan butter (I prefer Earth Balance)

Directions:

(Pro tip: Dough must sit at room temp and thaw for two hours for easily malleable dough for folding.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add chopped garlic and onion. Sauté until onions slightly brown then add chopped spinach, stirring until wilts. Strain mixture, draining any extra liquid and let cool.

Crumble blocks of feta in separate bowl. Once the spinach mixture is cooled, mix with crumbled feta.

Warm stick of butter in pan.

Roll out phyllo dough sheet on cookie sheet or cutting board. Cut down the middle. Brush melted butter on top. Place heaping spoonful of spinach feta mixture at bottom of one side of the halved sheet. Fold over the phyllo dough, flag-style rotating each fold to become a triangle. Brush top of filled triangle with butter again.

Repeat until spinach feta mixture is empty.

Place triangles evenly on cookie sheets and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the dough is flaky, and browning at edges.

Let triangles cool for 5 minutes, and enjoy!!

Beer-Battered Chick’n Fried Tofu

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Compassion begins on your plate! 💚🌱 I am sharing this delicious, indulgent chicken fried tofu recipe just in time for Super Bowl Sunday! This tofu has the texture of chicken and is full of flavor. Enjoy the flavors of a juicy chicken, beer battered and seasoned to perfection, while refraining from harming any living being. ✌🏼

Ingredients

Beer Batter:

2 cups flour

12 oz of lager beer (I used Stella Artois)

1 vegan egg (2 tbsp Follow Your Heart egg powder and 1/2 cup iced cold water, whisked)

2/3 tsp salt

1/2 tsp basil

1/3 tsp oregano

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp mustard seed

4 tsp paprika

3 tsp garlic salt

3 tsp white pepper

Seasoned Flour:

1 cup flour

1 cup traditional bread crumbs

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp white pepper

The “Chicken”:

Organic canola oil (enough for 4 inches of oil in large pan)

24oz traditional or medium tofu

1 cup vegan chicken broth

1 cup flour

Preparation

You will need to freeze your tofu twice to attain a chicken-like texture.

Place tofu package in freezer for 6 hrs (or overnight) and thaw for 4 hrs. Repeat.

Once your tofu is thawed, you will need to drain it of moisture using either a tofu press or two cutting boards. I personally do not own a press, so I press my tofu on a cutting board with paper towels and a big glass pan.

Once the tofu is drained, it should be easily broken apart to reveal chicken-like tofu pieces. Did your tofu fall into bits? No worries! We will prepare this like popcorn chicken.

Place drained tofu pieces into bowl.

Pour chicken-style vegan broth as a tofu marinade. Let soak for 5 mins.

Drain tofu of excess broth.

Dip each piece in plain flour and set aside.

Mix seasoned flour ingredients and set aside.

Mix beer batter ingredients and set aside.

Fill 4 inches of oil into the bottom of a wok or large pan.

Heat frying oil to 350 degrees.

Now, this next part gets a little messy. Commit to the fact they will turn out perfect and charge on through any flour messes along the way.

You are going to take your pieces of marinaded tofu and dip them in the beer batter, coating it completely.

Roll the outside of the tofu in the seasoned flour mixture making sure the outside is coated with breadcrumbs.

Once you’ve done all the bigger pieces of tofu, make sure to dip all the smaller ones as well. They will turn out like popcorn chicken.

Drop tofu into the oil in small batches, turning each side until darkened like fried chicken.

Once cooked evenly, set aside on paper towel or a rack, draining any excess oil from the finished pieces.

Let cool for at least 5 mins before eating.

Serve like a finger food with your favorite dipping sauces, like Organicville Vegan Ranch, or serve it atop some vegan waffles for a southern feel.

Enjoy!

Vegan No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

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Compassion begins on your plate! These rich, no-bake peanut butter chocolate bars will satisfy even the most mouth watering sweet tooth while being vegan and gluten-free diet friendly.

You only need Four Ingredients:

Filling

  • 2 cups peanut butter (I prefer 365 brand, organic & unsweetened)
  • 1 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

Topping

  • 2 cups vegan chocolate chips (I prefer the Enjoy Life brand)
  • 1 cup peanut butter

Combine filling ingredients in large bowl, until it becomes difficult to stir.

Line a large pan with parchment paper.

Press peanut butter “dough” into large pan, ensuring it is evenly spread, and set aside.

Melt vegan chocolate chips in pan using the double boiler method. I personally boil water in a medium pan, and place a smaller pan over it to melt the ingredients. Stir in cup of peanut butter as chips begin to melt.

Pour melted chocolate mixture over peanut butter dough spread in pan. Make sure melted chocolate is spread evenly.

Cover and place in the freezer for 45 minutes.

Remove pan, and cut chocolate and peanut butter layers into bars. (Store in the refrigerator.) And enjoy! 💚🌱✨