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Help me find vegan recipes, with caveats
Calica
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'd like to try vegan cooking, not so much for ethical or health reasons as practicality. I have ADHD, feeding myself is already a struggle, and meat is perishable and requires careful handling. "Vegetarian" food seems to rely heavily on cheese and/or eggs, which I've got nothing against, but I'd like more variety, you know?
I've been having trouble finding vegan recipes, though, for a couple of reasons:
Obviously some ingredients can be substituted, in some recipes, but onions and peppers specifically are so prevalent in everything that I'm left wading through a ton of recipes to find ones that work with the ingredients I have, with the kitchen I have, and can be made in a big batch for leftovers.
Halp?
I've been having trouble finding vegan recipes, though, for a couple of reasons:
- The big one: specific food dislikes. Specifically, onions, peppers, and beets. I hate onions. Hate 'em. I can eat them when either a) cooked/caramelized to a point where they have zero texture remaining, or b) caramelized to the point where they are entirely crispy, zero moisture. Anything between those two extremes is a no-go. Onion powder is fine; garlic is fine. It's just actual onions I can't tolerate.
As for peppers, I want to like peppers, I've tried to like peppers; but there is something about the taste of peppers that makes my brain go, "Danger! Something bad is about to happen!"
And beets, well, they taste like dirt. Not pleasantly earthy, like mushrooms or carrots; like bad dirt. Like dirt where you shouldn't plant things. They also taste a little sweet sometimes, I guess; but it's like corrupted dirt with a little sugar sprinkled on top. I have no problem with most other root vegetables; just beets. - Onions and peppers seem to form the flavor basis of most foods, but especially vegetarian and vegan foods. Vegans also seem to love putting beets in things.
- I live in the Midwest, so my produce choices are limited. I love fresh figs! We only get them for maybe a week in summer, and they cost over $1 apiece.
- I live in an apartment and can't grill. The Broiler Room (previously Thug Kitchen) has some great-looking recipes, but a lot of them involve grilling. Also beets. And figs.
- I can follow instructions, but I don't (yet) have the skill to improvise when cooking.
Obviously some ingredients can be substituted, in some recipes, but onions and peppers specifically are so prevalent in everything that I'm left wading through a ton of recipes to find ones that work with the ingredients I have, with the kitchen I have, and can be made in a big batch for leftovers.
Halp?
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Peppers though, does that mean we're ruling out chilli and paprika? Or just the big peppers as the large chunks of pepper/capisicum?
Also not sure that vegan is the route to go down here, as if you want easily storable things that will completely change a meal you do have access to stock cubes which will easily last a year.
Also no open windows or extractor fan from your oven/cooker? That seems a little hard to imagine, you can grill stuff using the element of a cooker with the door open which the rest of the world will recognise as grilling without having to set a flame to charcoal or light a gas canister.
If peppers are fine except as large chunks, the definitely you can do some nice Thai curries with things like squash and sweet potato which will be even better with a bit of chicken stock.
Honestly batch cooking might even be more what you're looking for, if it's the one event and then just microwaving things when time and attention is shorter.
Fresh veg doesn't tend to last that much longer than fresh meat in a fridge, and I'd say it generally doesn't take to freezing as well. You can freeze cooked chicken and then just dethaw it and throw it in something with some sauce and it'll perform far better than say some nice broccoli, babycorn or spinach frozen fresh.
Peppers: it's mostly big chunks I don't like. I can't do super spicy either (had a really bad cough a few years ago, and now capsaicin in the wrong spot makes my throat spasm), but that's a separate thing. I like chili, paprika, mole, curry, etc.
Grilling: Okay, that's news to me. The more you know!
I know (boy do I know) that produce goes bad quickly also, but plants are just easier to deal with than meat. And when I say "for leftovers," I mean like in the same week. I don't have the freezer space to store large amounts of things anyway.
If you can't grill things you can almost assuredly just bake roast them like normal instead. Add some liquid smoke if you really need to add the smoked flavor but don't have a grill.
Caveats:
- instead of salt and fat, flavor comes from spice and fermentation. Koreans use gochujang, which is a combo of chili and bean paste, to make food interesting. If you can't handle that, try foods made from doenjang, which is just fermented soybeans. Miso is the Japanese counterpart.
- You will have a hard time escaping eggs and meat broth. It will be almost impossible to escape fish if you really want a comprehensive experience.
- consider non-vegan recipes from these cultures if all you're worried about is perishability. A lot of traditional southeast Asian food is from before refrigerators.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Salt pepper and olive oil just brush it on the veggies put them on a baking sheet and into a high heat oven (400 degree) if you don’t have a grill. 5 or 6 minutes for most things 8-10 minutes For mushrooms. They’ll change color. When they do give ‘em a poke in the middle, and if they are hot take them out. Once you get the timing on your oven then you can just set an alarm, but remember mushrooms take longer.
carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans and mushrooms all cook well like that. Veggies and instant rice is a good reasonably cheap meal.
When I was broke I used to do mushrooms bacon and rice pretty frequently. But since you are going vegan you can cut the bacon. It used to work out to 3 bucks a meal. These days it’s probably closer to 5 or 6.
To start, I'd recommend getting a cookbook, or several. My favorite starter is Vegan for Everybody by the team at America's Test Kitchen. These are pretty standard meals, most of them quite easy to produce, and while some of them do have beets and onions, you can avoid them or try replacing those ingredients to change things up. Turnips would be a fun exchange for beets! We also have vegan cookbooks about southern cooking, foraging, Korean food, and so many more, but it might help to just start with one and grow the collection from there.
I'll add a caveat that in any recipe book, vegan or otherwise, it's a great idea to read the recipe first. The book above has a lasagna recipe (one of my favorites in the book) that has steps that seem out of order. Stuff like that is good to know ahead of time if you're concerned about attention span complications.
After trying a few of those meals, you'll probably start to build a library of vegan star foods - tofu, seitan, tempeh, cashews, and any number of beans. We enjoy taking one of those, sometimes add a rice or pasta, and then just a bunch of veggies.
As a perfectly wonderful alternative to outdoor grilling, you can roast pretty much anything in the oven at 400-425F for a bit and it'll be delicious. Just toss it all with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and leave it in the oven until it gets golden brown or some crispy brown bits. One favorite is yellow squash, cut into 1/4" rounds.
On the beef stock note, there are lots of vegan options there too. We buy a small jar of vegan stock mix that you add to boiling water and get some amazing flavor. We also freeze select leftover food items (tops of carrots or celery, potato skins, stuff like that) and once we have enough you can make your own vegan stock. I think there's even a recipe for it in that book above.
There's so much fun and flavor to be had cooking vegan food. One of my favorite meals ever came from Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry. This particular recipe is shown on the cover, it's collard wrapped tofu with a sauce and garlic chips on top. Unreal flavor. His recipes tend to be a bit more involved, but he also gives a song recommendation with each recipe so when you're cooking you can get in his mindset a bit!
I think there is some different terminology used between the UK and the US.
So in the UK at least, most cookers will have two settings in at least one of the ovens. There will be a heating element in the top of the 'oven' which you will use to grill things. With the door closed you'd set the oven to a specific temperature but with the door open you'd either be setting it to grill or choosing whether you want the full element on or just half of it.
When you do this, you'd usually be using a grill pan (where the food sits on a wire grid so fat drips down into the pan) and cook with the door open. Generally anything that you could BBQ would also be cooked this way and it would be referred to as 'grilling' - probably more common to cook bacon and burgers this way than frying over here. You could also toast things this way, which is how I assumed you'd make a 'grilled cheese sandwich' (toasted cheese sandwich or cheese toastie this side of the pond) if you weren't using a dedicated sandwich maker.
You might call it broiling over there, I've never quite been sure what that refers to (or worked out how/why you would broil/grill a chicken?).
But long story short, if a recipe calls for something to be grilled it's not required to cook it over an open flame.
When I broil things at home I still keep the over door closed.
Google shows a lot of results saying to keep the door open, though.
Something else to google!
Basically, broilers are upside down grills. Gas broilers create a fiery hell ceiling, and electric broilers create a white hot ceiling coil. Leave the door open with a gas broiler, and you smoke up your house. Close the door with an electric broiler and you've made an uneven, heat inefficient stove that also has the chance of steaming your food instead of searing it. I assume this isn't as much a problem with a gas broiler as flames can reach super hot local temperatures instantly, so the food will be cremated before the fire radiates heat through the entire oven to turn it into a steam trap. This does probably mean that you'll have to do some trial and error with burnt food and fire alarms before you become an expert in gas broiling.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Reading into it, I suppose that the air circulation of the convection oven would also speed up full thickness cooking like usual while the broiler would focus sear the exposed side of the food item, also like normal. The difference between that and regular convection oven cooking is the sear capability and the need to preheat the oven
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Ah, yes oven compartments often have a top heating element we call a "broiler" over here, it's for applying strong radiant heat from a close heating element, either a gas burner or an electric element like a toaster, rather than heating by convection via increasing the ambient air temperature inside the compartment like the normal oven heating elements do. Tends to cook the surface faster than the inside compared to the convection heating. I guess it's probably more similar to heating over a charcoal grill than normal oven or pan frying? I don't use it much, didn't know doing it with the door open was a thing.
The usual way I know to make a grilled cheese sandwich is in a pan on the stovetop burners, which makes the "grilled" part of the name a little odd now that I think about it, but other toasted bread/sandwich recipes like patty melts and garlic bread and such I would use the broiler with the door closed.
@spool32 I just want you to know I'm still chuckling over this post
https://www.seriouseats.com/vegan-garbanzos-con-espinacas-jengibre-spinach-chickpea-stew-ginger-spanish