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Making Panini for VegansSpicy Tofu-Mushroom StirfryVegan No-Meat-Ball SandwichSimple, Tasty, Vegan Spanish Rice for BurritosVegan Blueberry SconesFour Ingredient Vegan Chocolate TrufflesGrilled Tempeh in a Spicy Vegan Manchurian SauceSix-Ingredient Vegan Butterscotch Pudding with Mango and Blueberry

Tag: bean

Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu with Veggies

It's impossible to be vegan without planning. In fact, the intense planning requirements make it pretty easy to fall into a high-carb rut, just because our favourite carbs are easy -- pasta, rice, bread, potatoes -- these all take very little planning and they fill you up. For the sake of my long-term waistline health, I'm always interested in low-carb vegan meal ideas. When someone on one of the many excellent vegan Facebook groups suggested pan-frying slices of tofu in nutritional yeast and cornstarch, my ears perked up. I decided to combine that with a big plate of stir fried veggies and some grilled mushrooms to make a satisfying meal that doesn't depend on simple carbs in any way. More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: tofu, kala_namak, nutritional_yeast, black_salt, stirfry, bean_sprout

Vegan Lima Bean Lentil Soup Satisfies for Hours

It's generally fair to say that most vegans use the plant-based palette available to them to keep their nutrient levels appropriately topped up. But it's also fair to say that it's pretty easy to fall into a menu rut, sticking with the standard tried-and-true recipes week after week, just because life is hectic and being vegan demands a great deal of time in the kitchen as it is. The risk that the dietary rut represents, besides boredom, is that over time we will unknowingly become deficient in important nutrients. I'm an engineer by training, and I have no right to offer advice about nutrition. But I do like visiting the websites of people who are qualified to comment on vegan nutrition and seeing if their advice can help me choose better varieties of plant-based foods to keep my menu interesting and nutritious. This soup recipe came out of one such visit. More

Filed under: Recipes > Soups

Tags: soup, healthy, lentil, lima_bean, spinach, tomato

Vegan Bean Burritos Packed Full of Veggies

I've been working on the individual ingredients for this vegan bean burrito for the past few blog posts. Today, we finally get to put it all together and chow down. More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: Mexican, burrito, tortilla, comfort_food, bean

Really Simple Vegan Black Bean Chili from Scratch

Although comfort food takes many forms, safe to say that most comfort food is not the kind of thing you'd want to put in your body on a daily basis. Even vegan comfort food has its bad actors. Happy to say that this vegan black bean chili gives me all the "mmmm" with none of the guilt. More

Filed under: Recipes > Soups

Tags: healthy, bean, slowcooker, chili

Doubledecker Vegan Tostadas with Refried Black Beans

I struggled a bit with what I should call this. It's something like a quesadilla, but with spicy refried black beans instead of cheese. It also resembles a tostada because it features corn tortillas deliciously pan-fried in oil. But unlike tostadas, it has a second tortilla on top. So it's a doubledecker vegan tostada for want of a better name. What is not in doubt is my love for them. When corn tortillas get a few days old, their texture becomes a little rubbery. The solution is to fry them up. And it's a very good solution. More

Filed under: Recipes > Light Meals & Snacks

Tags: comfort_food, bean, Mexican, spicy, tortilla, peppers

Building Dinner around Grilled Portobellos

As much as I love grilled portobello mushrooms, I have to admit that there isn't a whole lot going on nutritionally, aside from some niacin and minerals. Don't get me wrong, I'm crazy about niacin and minerals, but one mushroom has 2 or 3 grams of protein, and the recommended daily intake is somewhere between 50 and 90 grams depending on your weight and gender. To make a complete vegan meal featuring these juicy flavour bombs requires some nutritional gap-filling, which is not all that tough to do with a little advance planning. More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: mushroom, bean, sweet_potato, sandwich

Ribsticking Vegan Baked Beans for Cold Nights

I've been wanting to do a proper vegan slowcooker beans recipe for a while now. Except for repeated viewings of Blazing Saddles, my only real experience with baked beans as a side dish has been the occasional camping trip, and the canned beans were definitely not a highlight. We're talking unappetizing, mushy beans in a sauce that somehow tastes both weak and excessively sweet at the same time. We have to be able to do something better from scratch -- the bar is not very high. More

Filed under: Recipes > Side Dishes

Tags: bean, maple_syrup, slowcooker

East Meets West Black Bean Burrito

Vegan burritos deserve to have daring and exotic ingredients that complement eachother and leave you satisfied. I was at a local burrito place not too long ago with just such a vegan offering, one that actually seemed more appetizing to me than anything else on their menu. It was chock full of interesting flavours and textures to the point that every bite was different than the one before. I left pleasantly full with my mouth slightly burning and my mind percolating ideas about concocting something similar at home. Toronto's vast cultural mosaic inspires me yet again. More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: burrito, Mexican, Chinese, noodle, bean

Chipotle Refried Black Beans from Scratch

Let's be honest, we're just talking here, would it be fair to say that our past experiences with refried beans from a can have been somewhat ho-hum? That's the way I feel about it, but I can't be sure whether my memories of refried beans past have been blandified by the flavour dynamite that I experiences with this recipe. The source of the explosion is not difficult to pinpoint: it's the smoky heat of chipotle. More

Filed under: Recipes > Light Meals & Snacks

Tags: Mexican, chipotle, bean, healthy, spicy

Vegan Black Bean Tacos from Scratch

A few months ago, I set a little challenge for myself. I love the black bean tacos at the local Mexican burrito place. The challenge was to duplicate these beauties at home using just the basic raw ingredients. And by that, I mean starting with a pound of dry black beans and two cups of corn flour. Well, the last few months have included a few, umm let's call them learning experiences. More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: taco, healthy, bean, avocado, corn, tortilla, Mexican

Quin-Bean Hash is Nothing Like any other Hash

You can call me Quin-Bean and baby I'll ruleeee... More

Filed under: Recipes > Main Dishes

Tags: healthy, quinoa, kidney_bean, bean, chickpea, cashew, nutritional_yeast

Get your Quinoa and Beans with a Side of Flavour

The internet tells us that quinoa has been around as a basic food staple in parts of South America for three or four thousand years, but has only recently become popular in other parts of the world. And there are plenty of good reasons for its rise in popularity: nutritionally, quinoa is a bit of a rockstar. This recipe combines quinoa with classic Tex-Mex flavours. Technically, it's a side-dish, and you can definitely serve it as a small part of a larger meal, but I find it fills a plate well by itself and always makes a satisfying meal. Part of the reason for that satisfaction is the high protein content for sure, but the emotional comfort of the combination of beans, onions, corn, cumin and cilantro is definitely part of the draw. More

Filed under: Recipes > Side Dishes

Tags: quinoa, bean, healthy, tex-mex