It’s that time again folks, for another one of my delicious meals that didn’t quite photograph to show off how amazing it was. I’ve been planning to make time to take a course on how to be a better food photographer but there are only so many hours in a day.
But I wanted to share this vegan burger recipe with you because it’s a nice twist on burger night, and even better? You can go crazy with your favorite burger toppings if you decide to skip the fries and save a few calories.
Back in my early 20’s I spent a lot of time learning, or rather re-learning how to cook because my grandmothers cook mostly soul food and my dad was (and is) a huge steak eater and that was pretty much my culinary education. Well unless you count making those Lipton rice packets and ramen noodles, a la nearly every college student ever.
Anyway I watched a lot of Food Network to learn more about cooking. The basics, different ingredients and how they worked together, why we do certain things like rinse or drain pasta. I learned a lot and one of the things that stuck with me was a love of orecchiette.
Weird, right?
Anyway Tyler Florence, Rachel Ray and even Ina Garten used these little pasta “ears” in a variety of ways that I always enjoyed and so whenever I find them, they find their way into my shopping cart. That’s just the way it is.
Not sure what orecchiette is or how to identify it, check it out here.
When it was my partner’s turn to cook I have him just a few parameters about what I wanted: orecchiette, lemons, capers and vegan tuna. “Do what you want,” was my only other direction and this dish is what he came up with.
Vegan tuna, lemon & caper pasta recipes
It’s simple and delicious and earned him two gigantic thumbs up. Ok, I have normal size thumbs but you get what I’m saying, right?
Let’s get to the kitchen and make some vegan food!
Here’s a secret I want to share with you all. Sometimes I can be a bit of a food snob and it’s not necessarily one of those instances where I believe that I’m too good for a certain type or food product but more so that I’m very distrusting of a lot of pre-packaged foods and it gives me extreme anxiety so I just avoid them. This is especially true when it comes to bagged or any other pre-packaged salad products, thanks to a childhood of recalls that left me deathly afraid of food poisoning and other food borne illnesses.
But the more this vegan food blog grows, the more I try to step out of my comfort zone to try new vegan food products because I know I’m not the only one. So when I was at Lidl this week and came across a package of veggie spring rolls from Vitasia, I took a long hard look at the ingredients list and decided to give it a shot.
What goes well with vegan spring rolls? Well to be honest plenty of things but my Hubs requested veggie fried rice so that’s what we went with and it was pretty dang delicious. Mostly.
I wanted to make a quick and easy vegan meal that was plant based and delicious, so I kept it simple but please, tell me what you prefer to eat with vegan spring rolls?
Easy vegan Asian dinner recipes
The pre-packaged spring rolls came with those little packets of what I still call duck sauce even though I have always and only eaten them with egg rolls, but I improvised and added a few things to them, which we will talk about.
DO you have a favorite brand of vegan egg rolls? Brand names & links welcome in the comments!
The thing I love about salad is that that you can do so much with it. You can toss together a quickie salad that looks pretty much what people think vegans eat, or you can go all out and make a proper salad that fills you up with food and nutrients.
Guess which one I enjoy?
If you guess a big ass salad, you are correct, my friend.
Sometimes I enjoy what call it a hot & cold salad because I like to mix fresh raw ingredients with cooked ingredients, especially when it comes to burrito bowls, taco salads and Buddha bowls. Grab your favorite raw veggies, any kind of vegan protein you want and cooked veggies if you’re feeling spunky.
Today’s vegan taco salad is similar to dozens of vegan salad recipes I’ve made over the years but the difference is that I jumped out of my comfort zone and made something that I have yet to have a good experience with: peach & cucumber salsa.
It’s always been a hate-hate relationship with non-tomato salsa because I just don’t find the combination of peaches or nectarines with cucumbers all that pleasant to my taste buds. Today I decided to do it again just to see if my mind or my palate has changed.
So let’s dig into this black bean and corn taco salad.
If you’ve been following this blog for the past year or two or three (has it been 3 years already?) then you’ll know that the town where I live in Romania, Ploiesti, has very VERY limited options when it comes to vegan food. I mean, sure, you can eat anywhere if you don’t mind eating a basic salad, French fries and other items on the ‘side dishes’ list. But if you want something to satisfy your appetite? Well, look outside Ploiesti.
Things have gotten better here, at the grocery store anyway. But everywhere else we’ve gone like Constanta, Cluj and Sinaia have all had incredible options for vegans.
So, imagine my surprise when I decided to torture myself by seeing if there were any new vegan options in Ploiesti because I was feeling a little sluggish and I hadn’t been outside for a few days and I was in the mood for some yummy vegan food on a sunny terrace. And guess what pops up?
Cafeneaua Nației.
Cafeneaua Natiei – Ploiesti Romania
It’s in the city center which was nice–except for the traffic–and the place was great. This was our experience.
For today’s recipe I’m going to get back to one of my favorite vegan recipes. Salads.
I don’t know about you but everyone in my life who isn’t vegan–which is most of the people in my life–loves to make jokes about salad being the only thing my husband and I eat. They think they’re hilarious but any good vegan knows just how delicious a properly made vegan salad can be. I’m not talking about a few tomato wedges or three slices of cucumber with some heavy creamy salad dressing.
Oh no.
If you’re interested in some delicious vegan salad recipes that are a meal on their own, check out these recipes:
Today’s vegan salad recipe is a side salad and it goes great with just about anything. In fact, this salad was a nice little addition to a pizza bread recipe, which you can find here.
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Salad Recipe:
*Just 8 ingredients (mostly ALL pantry staples) *It’s delicious *Packed with nutrients *Uses wakame!
The good news is that we all have those lazy days when it comes to whipping up something healthy and delicious in the kitchen. The better news is that with every passing month, every other day there are more options to allow you to be a lazy vegan cook.
Today I have one such vegan food find, the vegan tortilla pie by Vemondo. This company is a German company and the products are sold exclusively in Lidl, probably wherever Lidl stores exist, but certainly here in Romania.
Are you one of those grocery shoppers who just makes a beeline for only the things they need? That is totally my husband while I go up and down the aisles that are likely to have some kind of new vegan food products. He can usually be found waiting for me at the end of any particular aisle, protecting the cart with his life as if all the Romanians in the store actually want our veggies and vegan food products!
Anyway, my browsing skills are how I found this particular food. Vegan potato, onion and chickpea tortilla pie or cake, however you’d like to classify it.
Lazy vegan meals
However you call it, this was perfect because what I thought was just a one week heatwave has entered its fourth week, making too much time in the kitchen totally unbearable.
I kept it simple and sweet and vegan, because that’s how I roll.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding weird so I’m just gonna say it. I have an ongoing love affair with mushrooms. I LOVE some Pleurotus(oyster) mushrooms and I will use them whenever possible. They are great as a vegan meat alternative, especially if you’re looking for something like Vegan MInce Stuffed Mushrooms, Shredded Vegan BBQ Pork or King Oyster scallops, but they also work well in so many vegan applications that I literally never get tired of eating them.
But there’s also shitake mushrooms, enoki and even wood ear mushrooms, which are great pickled, all of which hold special places in my heart. But chanterelle mushrooms? These elusive beauties are hard to find in even the largest grocery stores throughout Europe so you know when I find them, I always grab a box. Or two.
Chanterelle mushrooms for vegan recipes
There is just one huge, glaring downside to Chanterelle mushrooms. They are dirty. So, so dirty. And yeah, that is a good thing because they are natural and all that jazz, but they can also be a gigantic bitch to clean. After many years of trying–and failing–different methods of cleaning chanterelle mushrooms without noshing on grit and rocks, I’ve finally figured it out and I’m going to share it with you because everyone should be eating this fungi especially if you’re vegan and doubly especially if you have a mushroom addiction.
As soon as I spotted these golden babies I knew exactly what I wanted. Okay well not exactly but I knew tagliatelle pasta would be involved and some kind of cream sauce. So when I got home, that’s where I started and this is where I ended up.
Chanterelle mushrooms & creamy vegan pasta sauce
What’s your favorite quick and easy vegan dinner recipe?
As you guys know, I love to test out different vegan products when they come out, so when I was visiting Metro last week, which is what I like to call Romanian Costco, I found a big ass bag of vegan beef. After some quick math to figure out if the grams versus price was worth it–it was–I dropped it in the giant shopping cart and started creating recipes in my mind.
I’ve cooked a few different vegan gyro recipes including Mediterranean Vegan Gyro Fries, Vegan Gyro Bowl and Vegan Gyro Salad Bowl. But this new vegan beef from Metro is delicious. It’s not too greasy or too dry that you need to add extra fat. And the best part? It soaks up flavors like you would not believe. Whether it’s broth or sauce, you won’t be disappointed with this vegan beef product…if you can find it.
The weather here has been INSANE. So hot that most days I’ve been tempted to make something like salad or sandwiches, anything that doesn’t require turning on the oven or the stove. The air fryer will do in a pinch but I also want to eat good, warm food so that’s my dilemma.
But this was my Hubs’ night to cook so I asked for gyro fries with vegan yogurt tzatziki sauce and even though HE forgot to take photos of the vegan tzatziki sauce, I’m still posting this recipe.
I hope you try it and enjoy it. Leave a link in the comments or find me on Instagram with your recipes.
You guys know how much I love to find new vegan food items, whether in the grocery store or a restaurant. I feel compelled to try them out and as long as it’s something I like or might reasonably like I will test it out.
Once.
Okay, at least once.
Today (or was it yesterday) I was browsing the aisles of my local Lidl and my husband was bored watching me squint to check the ingredients on a tiny package of sun dried tomatoes. Why? To make sure there were no anchovies or crustaceans in the oil or the jar itself. There weren’t.
Anyway he zoomed right through the canned good aisles and went straight to the freezer section and found these babies, Vemondo Coconut & Caramel Ice Cream bars.
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
The Spicy Spatula 
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