5 VEGAN DINNERS: OUR GO TO'S

My friends, here comes the last video of the series I started a couple of weeks back. I’ve now shared five of our go to breakfasts and lunches and this week you get 5 vegan dinners that are reoccurring on our menu.

It’s been great fun making this series and a treat to get so much positive feedback from all of you on youtube and instagram. I’m very glad you’ve found this series useful and inspiring – that was my aim. So thank you for watching, cooking and sharing with me!

These meals are simple but delicious and adapted to the season we’re in right now. Winter for me means a lot of root vegetables, cabbages and hearty dishes. I think that’s apparent in the video, so if you like those things – you’ll like my ideas! With that said I’m thinking that it might be fun to do this again in spring/summer. Let me know if that’s an idea you’re into!

Now I hope you enjoy the video and rough and easy recipes below. Make yourselves some good food and enjoy the process of nourishing yourself and maybe the people around you. It’s a beautiful thing. Much love! x

ROASTED SWEET POTATO W/ SPICY BEANS

Yields 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

2 similarly sized sweet potatoes, pricked with a fork

For the spicy beans:

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

3-4 tbsp salsa sauce, spicy if you wish

Sea salt, to taste

To serve:

2 handfuls green leaves or lettuce

2 small handfuls shredded cabbage

2 generous dollops guacamole

Chopped fresh coriander, optional

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees celsius and line a baking tray. Place your sweet potatoes on the tray and roast in the oven for roughly 35-45 minutes or until soft all the way through. A good way of telling if they’re done is if some of the juices have oozed through the steaming holes you made with your fork.

To prepare the beans start by sauteing your onions in a little water or oil until translucent. Then add your garlic and saute for another minute before adding all your spices. Mix the spices through the onion and then add your beans along with a small splash of water. Add your salsa sauce and let the whole thing simmer away for a couple of minutes. Then mash the beans roughly, leaving about half the beans intact, and give it all a good mix. Season to taste. Take off the heat and start assembling your potato.

Cut jackets in the finished potatoes and open them up. Add your greens to the gap followed by the cabbage, then dollop your beans onto that and add some guacamole. Sprinkle with coriander and enjoy.

THE VERY GREEN SPAGHETTI

Yields 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

Spaghetti of choice to serve 2 people, I used brown rice spaghetti

For the sauce:

1onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1,5 cups frozen or fresh broccoli florets

3/4 cup frozen green peas

3/4 cup frozen kale

3/4 tbsp arrowroot powder

1,5 cup unsweetened oat milk or other unsweetened plant milk

1 tbsp cashew or almond butter

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

Sea salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:

A sprinkling of dried herbs

Sliced spring onion

METHOD:

Cook your pasta and in the meantime prepare your sauce.

Start by sauteing your onion until translucent and then add your garlic and saute another minute, until fragrant. Add your broccoli, either fresh or frozen, and cover with a lid to steam for a few minutes. The frozen broccoli should be more or less thawed or the fresh broccoli bright green before you continue.

Mix your arrowroot powder, or you could use corn starch, with your plant milk making sure there are no clumps. Add this to the pan with the vegetables and dollop in your nut butter. Stir to combine the nut butter with the milk mixture. Let it simmer while you stir, the milk should start to thicken into a sauce.

Add your frozen green peas and your frozen kale and let them thaw and heat through, mixing them into the sauce. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in your nutritional yeast. Season to taste.

Serve mixed through your spaghetti and sprinkle some dried or fresh herbs on top along with some sliced spring onion if you wish.

HUMMUS BOWL W/ ALL THE ROASTED VEGETABLES

Yields 2 servings with vegetables left over to use in other meals.

INGREDIENTS:

3 carrots, roughly chopped

3 small parsnips, roughly chopped

2 large beetroots, roughly chopped

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

Rapeseed oil

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

2 tsp ras el hanout, or smoked paprika

For the bowl:

Half a batch butter bean hummus

1/2 cup cooked grains each, I used a mix

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds each

A small handful sliced spring onion

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees celsius.

Place your chopped carrots, parsnips and beetroot onto a lined baking tray. Cut your vegetables to roughly the same size to make sure them cooking evenly. Drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix with your hands to ensure an even coating and bake int he oven for 20-25 minutes or until tender and a little browned.

Place your cauliflower florets on a separate lined baking tray and drizzle with a little oil before sprinkling with salt and pepper as well as ras el hanout. Rs el hanout is a fragrant middle eastern spice mix which works wonderfully with cauliflower. Again mix with your hands to ensure and even coating and bake in the oven for roughly 15-20 minutes, or until tender and a little browned.

Smear half of the hummus onto each plate and dish up your cooked grains. Then serve a generous amount of roasted vegetables on top before sprinkling with pumpkin seeds and sliced spring onion.

If you wanted it to be extra tasty you could serve with lemon tahini sauce.

NOURISHING + COLOURFUL BUDDHA BOWL W/ BAKED TEMPEH

Yields 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

For the marinated tempeh:

300 g tempeh slab, sliced into desired size

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp liquid smoke

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp grated ginger

Black pepper, to taste

Roasted broccoli:

1 head broccoli, cut into florets and the stem into discs

Rapeseed oil

Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

For the bowl:

2 cups cooked brown rice or grain of choice

4 handfuls green leaves

1 cups sliced red cabbage, massaged with a little lemon juice and salt if you wish

Roughly 1 cup kimchi carrots, kimchi, sauerkraut or other fermented vegetable of choice

Quick pickled red onion

2 avocados, halved

Sesame seeds

Panut butter sauce (swap the tahini for peanut butter in this recipe)

METHOD:

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celsius.

The night before you intend to cook this dish combine all the tempeh marinade ingredients in a tupperware dish with a generous bottom. Then place your tempeh slices into the marinade and make sure all of it is covered before refrigerating. If you remember you can flip the tupperware upside down a couple of times to mix the marinade and tempeh more when passing the fridge.

Place your broccoli on a lined baking tray. Drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle salt and pepper over it before mixing with your hands. Let the broccoli cover about half your baking tray and place your tempeh slices on the other half, don’t let them overlap. Bake for roughly 15-10 minutes.

When your roasting is done arrange your bowls in colour blocks if you wish, the way I have done in the video. Simply by adding each ingredient in its own space to fill the bowl. Add half an avocado to finish and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with a tasty cold or warm peanut sauce.

FRAGRANT RED LENTIL + CARROT DAHL

Yields roughly 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

1 large brown onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 carrots, cut into small cubes

1,5 tbsp curry powder of choice, I used mixed masala

1 tsp garam masala

0,5 tsp black mustard seeds

1,5 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained

1,5 cup water

1 carton of chopped tomatoes

1 can coconut milk

1 heaped cup frozen kale or spinach, or if you prefer 2-3 cups fresh chopped kale or spinach

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Serve with:

Pickled red onion

Salted peanuts, cashews or other nuts

Sliced spring onion

METHOD:

Saute the onions in a little water or rapeseed oil in a large pot until softened. Then add your carrots as well as garlic and saute for another few minutes to start softening the carrots. Add in your spices and let them cook with the onions for another minute and then add you lentils followed by water, chopped tomatoes and coconut milk.

Stir to combine well and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer for roughly 30 minutes. Season to taste and add your kale or spinach. If using frozen let the cubes thaw and spread through your dahl. Let it simmer for a minute. If using fresh kale stir it into the dahl and cover with the lid to simmer another 3-5 minutes, until tender. If using fresh spinach then take your dahl off the heat and stir in your spinach until it wilts.

Serve with pickled red onion, I know I put this on everything but this right here is a stellar combo. Then sprinkle with some salted nuts for crunch and sliced spring onion if you wish.