The Spicy Spatula

Happy Monday, Lovelies!

I hope you all had a good weekend filled with lots of good vegan food, reading and whatever else you get up to in your free time! Please feel free to tell me what you do when you’re not working or vegan cooking & eating.

Today’s vegan dinner recipe is a two-fer, which I often like to do especially in the cooler weather month. In the Spring and Summer I don’t do it as often because usually I eat some type of salad for lunch but in winter I love vegan soups, stews and of course vegan casseroles with a small salad on the side just to make sure we’re getting something fresh and high in fiber.

While I was making this dish, it struck me how we’re often so stuck into what foods “go together” that we miss out some truly great food combinations. This can be doubly true when you’re vegan because you simply get used to doing things a certain way and the past almost decade of living a vegan life had allowed me to stretch my creativity into the kitchen.

Why? Well because I’m not sure that the Natasha I was a decade ago would have looked at oyster mushrooms, potatoes and cannellini (navy) beans and saw a yummy vegan meal. Even in my early years as a vegan I might have looked at this and added a vegan meat alternative instead of beans. But 2024 me looked at those ingredients and saw a one pot vegan meal and she made it happen.

This is an easy vegan recipe that is super tasty and ingredients like beans and potatoes aren’t just budget friendly, they soak up flavors like nobody’s business so you can make this again and again and (almost) never get sick of it!

Kitchen Tools:

*Cutting board
*Kitchen knife
*9×13 casserole dish
*Large mixing bowl

Ingredients:

*Potatoes (scrubbed & chopped)
*Oyster mushrooms (or any other kind)
*Onion
*Soy sauce
*Salt & black pepper
*Sweet paprika, oregano, cumin & garlic powder
*Cannellini beans (drained & rinsed)
*Cocogurt (any plain vegan yogurt)

Instructions:

*Preheat oven to 200C/400F

*Chop your potatoes and onions into uniform-ish sizes just to make sure they cook evenly.

*Tear or chop oyster mushrooms add them to the mixing bowl with the potatoes & onions.

*Add the beans, herbs and spices to the mixing bowl and stir everything together until the seasoning coats everything.

*Add a bit of water or broth to the bottom of the casserole dish if you’re going for an oil free vegan recipe, otherwise this step is unnecessary.

*Place everything into your casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes.

*At the 30-minute mark, check the casserole and give it a stir, cooking uncovered for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender and the mushrooms are a tad crispy along the edges.

*Let cool for 5 minutes–if you can last that long!–and serve.

*I added a cocogurt sauce on the evening portion of this and it was a simple mix of vegan yogurt, the same spices I used for the casserole and a few drops of fresh lemon juice. This is totally optional but it was definitely delicious…just ask my husband!

This was an easy vegan dish that was both tasty and calorie friendly, and it was a totally plant based vegan dinner! Next time I’m going to try sweet potatoes and butter beans.