More Vegan Cooking

Wow, with my husband eating vegan most days of the week, this is a huge lifestyle change for him, I have had to get creative with cooking so he doesn't get bored. It is a fun and enjoyable challenge to search for vegan recipes that are healthy, tasty, and I think Dave will enjoy. So far I think I am succeeding with the challenge.

This week I made sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, I modified the recipe slightly, I used collard greens instead of spinach, and did not bake the wraps in the oven covered in salsa. Instead filled the high-fiber wheat tortillas with the sweet potato black bean mix and served them with salsa and pickled beets on the side. A very colorful meal, I guess it became more of a burrito than an enchilada, the filling, I tasted a little, was very, very flavorful. Dave really enjoyed.

Last night I made a dish called African Vegetables - what a delicious meal. I filled a large bowl with brown rice and put an ample portion of the African Vegetables on top, again Dave really enjoyed his meal. The recipe started with onion, garlic, and green pepper sautéed in vegetable broth, to this cinnamon and paprika is added, then about a cup of water, some cubed sweet potato, sliced zucchini, corn, spinach, canned tomato, tomato paste, and just before serving a large scoop of natural peanut butter is added. To me the peanut butter is the ingredient that totally makes all of the flavors fuse together, making a "party in your mouth" kind of experience that is spicy, peanutty, vegetabley, and just the thing for a cold and gloomy November evening.

Tonight I am serving left overs from the past couple of days. But, I have more recipes to try on Dave, a very nice sounding twice baked potato, a black-eyed pea salad, and a masala chickpea dish. There is a recipe for a salad made with couscous, I plan to substitute quinoa, as I am not keen on couscous.

The recipes I am using are all from a cook book I purchased early this year after borrowing a copy from our local library. The cook book is called, The China Study CookBook by Leanne Campbell, PHD.  All of the recipes are whole food plant based and all are very healthy, no added oils or fats, very limited sugar, very limited salt. Most recipes have simple ingredients so are not expensive to make and usually I have most items already in the house, or a suitable substitute.

I have found with cook books it is often best to borrow a copy from the library, really look through it, try a few recipes and then make a decision about whether it is worth buying. I have purchased a few vegan cook books in the past and then not really used them as the recipes are either not very healthy, or call for unusual and expensive ingredients.

Do you have a favorite cook book?

Peace be with you,

Bean