With everyone staying home these days, I'm sure that many people have been doing more cooking than usual. Luckily for me, I love to cook and am accustomed to cooking dinner almost every night, so I haven't had much of a change in routine there. Over the years, I've accumulated a pretty great catalog of recipes that are easy, nutritious, and as of more recently, vegetarian/vegan.
Today I wanted to share ten of the recipes that I've cooked while staying at home over the past few weeks. The benefits of these particular recipes are that they use a lot of pantry staples, they store (or freeze) well and make great leftovers, and they're pretty easy. I don't like having tons of pots and pans to wash after cooking, so many of these dishes are cooked in one pot (lots of soups/stews/chilis around here). Easy! Not all of them are vegan as they're written, but I'm including any substitutions that I use to make them vegan. And of course if that's not a concern of yours, you can make them as they're written.
I like to choose 4-5 recipes at a time and buy all of the ingredients I'll need to make them all during the same grocery run. I usually make the ones with the most perishable ingredients first and go from there.
Chili mac: This recipe is newer to me, but it became a favorite instantly! I've already made it twice in the past few weeks. It's already vegan, and is made all in one pot. It's also customizable, I add all of the suggested "optional" ingredients, and you could really add anything you wanted to it.
Mushroom and wild rice soup: This recipe is vegan as well, but still as creamy as a soup filled with heavy cream! It's all thanks to one of my favorite vegan ingredients: coconut milk. I promise it doesn't make the soup taste like coconut (use the canned kind, not the kind that comes in a carton), and you won't miss the dairy one bit.
White bean soup: This might be the best white bean soup I've ever had! It's hearty and comforting, and Kenny and I love the quinoa in it. The recipe calls for one cup of kale, but I always add way more than that (at least four cups, chopped into thin strips). It wilts down majorly during cooking, so I like to pack it in. Kenny loves the texture it adds to the soup, and I agree! You could add a splash of coconut milk to it to make it creamy. Yum!
Black bean and lentil soup: I make this all the time, it's one of Kenny's and my favorites (I have some simmering on the on the stove as I write this). It's closer to a chili than a soup, it's super hearty and not very brothy (although you could add more broth to make it more of a soup). It's vegan as it's written, and packed with protein and minerals from the beans and lentils, not to mention additional vitamins from the carrots and tomatoes. I also sometimes add diced celery as well. It tastes even better the second day!
Southwest tofu scramble: This is another favorite of ours, who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? One of our favorite local restaurants serves a tofu scramble that's good, but I think this is even better! I like to add a bag of baby spinach to it, it wilts down and blends in so you basically don't notice it, but it adds extra vitamins and minerals. When tomatoes aren't in season, I like to use a can of petite diced tomatoes in place of the 3 romas it calls for. I also like to throw in some crumbled vegan chorizo sausage too (Trader Joe's is the best). I usually serve it with sauteed sweet potatoes on the side.
Dumplings and stir fry: This is super quick and easy because the main two components can be kept in the freezer. I like keeping a package of the
Nasoya vegan tofu dumplings around for a quick dinner (I find them in the produce department). You can steam them or fry them. I serve them with a stir fry made with a frozen Asian vegetable mix and stir fry sauce (
this is a good recipe, sub veggie broth or water for chicken broth, and agave for honey to make it vegan).
Vegan frittata: I started using this recipe during a quest to dupe a vegan frittata that I love from a local brunch restaurant. While this isn't the same, it's so good! And the best part is that you can prep all of the vegetables and freeze them to have on hand for whenever you want to whip this recipe up. Almost everything else it calls for can be stored in the pantry, so you can make it anytime. I like serving it with a side salad.
Quinoa soup: This is a new recipe for me, but I know it's gonna be good. It's not vegan, but can be easily altered to be. Use veggie broth, and sub a can of coconut milk in place of the heavy cream that it calls for, and top it with nutritional yeast (one of my favorite vegan seasonings) instead of parmesan cheese. Easy and YUM!
French onion dip pasta: This is another new-to-me recipe, but the author,
Rabbit and Wolves, has never steered me wrong before. Some of my favorite vegan recipes are hers, so definitely check her blog out for more vegan recipe inspo! I like using
Banza shell pasta for most pasta recipes \because it's a little healthier than regular pasta and has added protein.
Roasted sausage, sweet potatoes, and peppers: This is probably the easiest recipe on this list! Obviously it calls for sausage, but that can easily be replaced with your favorite meatless sausage substitute (I like the
Field Roast smoked apple sage, and it's pretty easy to find). For the veggies, I like using the spice mix from
this recipe.
I hope you found at least one recipe that you want to try! You don't have to be vegan to eat vegan; I don't claim to be fully vegan, but I do eat plant based about 95% of the time. It doesn't hurt to give up meat, I promise. I seriously used to say that I would NEVER be able to live without meawt, but two and a half years later, I barely miss it (although I would enjoy a good vegetarian calamari dupe if I could find one!)
I hope you're having a productive week, see you on Friday!
xoxx, Laura
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