I'm going to be visiting family for about a month and I'm going to be doing a lot of cooking and baking, so I need some inspiration. Any suggestions are welcome😊
Crispy lemon tofu
Mongolian soycurls
Warm grain salad
Banh mi
Tacos/burritos (lots of potential vegan fillings, but my favorite is caramelized peppers and onions)
Oven roasted veggies and squash
Hummus, Babaganoush, and/or Elote dip and fresh Naan
Southwest blackbean salad
Let me know if you want me to dredge up any specific recipes for the above, but those are all the main dishes I keep in my meal planning rotation.
If you want an entree that's sort of fancy and substantial for a holiday dinner, I like stuffed tofuskin (aka Vegan Mock Duck). I like how chewy/crispy the skins get, and it presents well. Skins are a pain to work with, so it's more of a special occasion meal imo.
It's not going to fool anyone into thinking it's duck. It's a weird name. It's just good.
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Don't feel you have to follow the recipe's filling mix. I do more of a harvesty filling with wild rice, nuts, and shredded veggies. But use your imagination.
Tofu skins can be found at any Hmart in the US, or other asian market.
Miso gravy is great too and super simple too. Just brown some flour in cooking oil, add water and miso paste and some herbs (sage/thyme/rosemary.) Super hearty. Add diced mushrooms too if you like.
This looks like inarizushi, but stuffed with goodies instead of rice. Wow!
Ooh, looks delicious. Tofu skin might be hard to find where I live, but it seems doable to make at home. I'll definitely check out the gravy too.
Another thing, if you're looking for accessible, and coming from a position of non-vegan cooking for vegan: cooked then drained lentils can slot in pretty well for beef crumbles in a lot of recipes, as long as you take care to not cook them until they become mushy.
For instance, lentils in a shepherd's pie is great, just add a touch of soy sauce to make it more savory.
Or last night I made some taco filling with lentils. I just drained them, and mixed them with some good seasoning. You could easily use premade seasoning, but I blend a can of condensed tomato soup with a can of canned chipotles, some dried peppers (to taste), garlic (to taste), and a whole onion.
homemade tortillas:
homogenize 12 oz of flour with 5 tbsp of plant butter (I like it with the miyokos butter);
mix 3.5g salt into 200ml of 105F water;
mix the saltwater into the flour and butter mixture;
knead until smooth;
let rest for 20 minutes;
flatten and sear on iron at 500F;
after searing, allow the tortillas to cool on a plate covered with a towel to prevent them from drying out
Most people in the States (and elsewhere?) seem to see salad as independent from an entrée, but one thing I picked up on, common in Mexican restaurants, was to combine the two, basically sitting the latter on top of the former. To my surprise, the end result was significantly better than either one!
You can of course take this in the 'Taco Bell taco salad' direction, enclosing the whole thing in a giant, fried tortilla, depending upon how healthy or non-healthy you want to make it.
For the entrée, like cilantro - lime ground beef, simply use vegan beef crumbles, shredded Boca sausages / burgers as a substitute for the beef in almost any chili-type recipe. I don't know what the vegan options there are for sour cream, but if you can tolerate some healthy dairy, I'd recommend Greek yogurt. Fresh guacamole, shredded cheese substitute and pico de gallo (very simple to make), round out the toppings.
As for the salad below, it only needs to be be pretty basic, for example using non-cabbage greens, sliced red onions, black olives (Greek olives make a very interesting variation), and sliced cucumbers. If you have time to roast some orange / red bell peppers, that's a big win.
To complete, put chips on the side or even sprinkle on top. Also good to have fresh salsa nearby, and a good hot sauce. The spirit here is to combine things in the bowl, maybe even use the chips as a fork-substitute to eat the whole thing!
EDIT: To the hot entrée-- add nutritional yeast as another cheese sub to boost flavor. You can add MSG as well for similar reason unless you know someone has a sensitivity, which is actually quite rare.
