Potatoes – The Spicy Spatula

International vegan cuisine, Mexican Dishes, Plant Based, Potatoes, Salads, Vegan

Lazy Vegan Meals ~ Vegan Tortilla Pie

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

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.

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.

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Bowls, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Potatoes, Vegan

Vegan Beef Gyro Fries & Creamy Vegan Tzatziki

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

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.

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International vegan cuisine, oil free vegan recipes, Plant Based, Potatoes, Sides, Vegan

Summer Vegan BBQ Recipes ~ Vegan Potato Salad

Posted on July. 2022July. 2022 by writinstuff

This is the time of year to fire up the grill and sit outside to enjoy as meals as possible. It’s too hot outside to warm up your kitchen and you can put just about everything on the grill from vegan sausages to vegetables, and even potatoes.

The first year or two after going vegan, it was hard to think of things to bring to cookouts because there weren’t nearly the options then as there are today and we’re only talking about five years’ difference. My pre-vegan days potato salad didn’t include mayo because, yuck. I always preferred Miracle Whip which is an impossible ask to find veganized, so mostly I just went without potato salad.

And then came tons of vegan mayo options and I gave them a try, at least three or four brands. Still, yuck. But then vegan yogurts exploded on the market and I thought to myself, “We’re back in business, baby!”

But…we weren’t. Some of those vegan yogurt brands were too runny to stick to the potatoes and ended up pooling at the bottom of the bowl, taking the rest of the vegan potato salad ingredients with them.

And then came Take It Veggie, a German brand of vegan food products.

Hooray for me!

And for you, because it’s not summer until you’ve made your first batch of vegan potato salad, right?

Yesterday was Independence Day in my homeland, the United States of America, and I whipped this dish together to give the Hubs and I piece of home.

I hope you enjoy it!

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oil free vegan recipes, Potatoes, Sauces & Creams, Sides, Vegan

Easy Vegan Salisbury Steak & Onion Gravy w/Mashed Potatoes

Posted on June. 2022June. 2022 by writinstuff

When you spend much of your time far away from home, traveling the world, is that you find yourself homesick for the weirdest things. Food you haven’t thought about in two decades often pop into your mind and then BAM, it’s all you can think of until you satisfy that craving.

So here I am with vegan Salisbury steak on the brain when the truth is I really disliked it as a kid. Remember those six packs with the grill marks and a brown sauce that passed itself off as real gravy? They were never as good as you thought they would be, but somehow in June 2022 that’s what was on my mind and when a Romanian brand of vegan foods put a burger on the grocery store shelf, I knew what I had to do.

Check out this version of old school Vegan TV Dinners!

Fair warning, this recipe is pure nostalgia. No matter how much you fancy it up, veganize it or whatever else you do to it, this is still Salisbury steak. It’s tasty enough but it serves as a perfect reminder that being homesick is mostly about the memories, so I ate it and then called my sisters.

But some of you won’t listen or your heart will override your head and you’ll want old school Americana meals veganized so, let’s hop to it.

Vegan Salisbury Steak with Onion Gravy & Mashed Potatoes.

Quick & easy vegan Salisbury steak recipe

This is a meal that will transport you right back to the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, so grab your Doc Martens, NKOTB t-shirt or Cross Colors jacket and get ready to go back home.

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Plant Based, Potatoes, Sandwiches, Vegan

Easy Vegan BBQ Mushroom & Onion Sandwiches

Posted on June. 2022June. 2022 by writinstuff

Open or closed, that is often the question I have these days when it comes to making vegan sandwiches. On the one hand a regular closed sandwich is delicious and it has the potential to get really messy, which only makes a vegan sandwich even more enjoyable. On the other hand, an open-faced vegan sandwich allows you to get more sandwich insides without increasing the amount of bread on your plate.

So the question then becomes, open-faced or closed-face sandwiches?

In our house, it depends. When it comes to burgers I am strictly a closed-faced, two-handed juicy burger with the works kind of girl while The Hubs will almost always ask for me to split is Beyond burger into two small diner style patties and serve them open, which I’m happy to do. For him.

But when it comes to things like lentil Sloppy Joe sandwiches or Spinach & Artichoke Sandwiches, I prefer to keep it open face so I can have more creamy, spicy, Sloppy Joe goodness.

So when I found the most beautiful pack of oyster mushrooms I have ever seen, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. Vegan barbecue shredded mushroom sandwiches. They’re like pulled pork but without the suffering.

Open faced vegan bbq mushroom sandwiches

This is an easy to make vegan recipe that can be ready in 40 minutes…or less.

Click here for more Easy Vegan Sandwich ideas!

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Potatoes, Sauces & Creams, Vegan

Mediterranean Vegan Tuna & Potato Cakes w/ Oven Roasted Asparagus

Posted on June. 2022June. 2022 by writinstuff

Yesterday was a long and hot day, but it was also a nice day. The Hubs and I spent some time outside with the family on probably the hottest day of the year so far. But there were cherries! Lots and lots of organic wild cherries that grow in a small plot of land next door to my cousin-in-law’s home.

So…we picked cherries!

And ate cherries.

And I will probably offer up a cherry-based recipe or two sometime soon.

When we got home, my writing was done for the day (mostly) and the hunger was real. But it was my night to cook, which meant that in keeping with our Midnight Tokyo Diner idea, it was his turn to pick and he chose something I hadn’t made in a long time, if ever.

Vegan tuna and potato cakes.

Right?

Well I haven’t made anything similar to this since I was a non-vegan girl and would take canned salmon, seasonings and Saltine crackers to make salmon cakes, which I would happily eat with sliced white bread and maple syrup.

Oops, I forgot about my cabbage cakes, get the recipe here!!

These vegan tuna cakes are a little updated, all the way vegan and much more grown up, so I hope you enjoy them.

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International vegan cuisine, oil free vegan recipes, Potatoes, Vegan

Vegan Junk Food ~ Mediterranean Style Vegan Gyro Fries

Posted on April. 2022April. 2022 by writinstuff

I don’t have cheat days but there are days where I’ll request a dish that has more calories or fat than I usually do. This is part of my effort to maintain and continue my weight loss without getting bogged down in the notion that I have to eat like an Olympian just to be fit and healthy.

With some caveats. When it comes to vegan junk food, I am no different than any other vegan on the planet. I want to try out new vegan foods when they come on the market but I don’t want to succumb to the craze of just constant over-the-top dishes. So these vegan gyro fries are delicious and a splurge but not as much as they could have been.

And I should add that I did eat these on my workout day to mitigate some of the damage because those last few kilos are really hard to lose!!!

Vegan gyro fries are the perfect vegan junk food

I’ll give you a few tips and ingredients that you can add to enhance your culinary experience, or to change out ingredients you might not like.

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Bowls, Cheese, Potatoes, Vegan

Retro Comfort Food ~ Vegan Mashed Potato Casserole

Posted on April. 2022April. 2022 by writinstuff

I don’t know about you all out there in the world but when I was a kid I loved a good mashed potato casserole. Sometimes it would be like an off-shot of a Shepherd’s Pie with ground beef and peas, other times it would just be straight up cheesy goodness with some animal served on the side.

Check out this vegan comfort food recipe: Vegan Schnitzel & Cheesy Pasta

However it was done, I loved nothing more than an old-fashioned mashed potato casserole. So I decided, why not take this classic recipe and veganize it?

Why not, indeed?

The key to any good mashed potato casserole is, of course, the mashed potatoes, which leaves you free to do whatever else you please…if you want anything else at all.

This recipe is pretty easy to complete, very delicious and it promises to provide loads of comfort, whether you need it or not!

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one pot recipes, Potatoes, Vegan

Creamy Vegan Potato Chowder

Posted on April. 2022April. 2022 by writinstuff

So this is my second time making vegan potato chowder. The first time I made this vegan chowder, I followed (mostly) a recipe that appeared on my Facebook timeline and it came out…all right. There was nothing wrong with it but it wasn’t quite as thick and creamy as I’d been hoping for.

So, this is vegan potato chowder…take two!

This time I decided to just wing it. Okay, not wing it in reality but I took my time to get a thick bisque-like chowder that people are always raving about. Also, I kept it simple. Instead of overloading the dish with veggies that might overpower the potatoes, I kept the vegan ingredients list to a minimum.

Let’s get to today’s vegan chowdah!

Gather your ingredients and let’s get started!

If you like my silicone oven pads, check out similar ones here!

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Bowls, International vegan cuisine, Potatoes, Vegan

Easy Vegan Colcannon ~ Cabbage & Leek Colcannon

Posted on March. 2022March. 2022 by writinstuff

I know, I know, St. Paddy’s day was yesterday and I had a blast, thanks for asking.

You may not know this, but I grew up in Chicago and we did March 17th right always. Thanks to a large Irish population the city has many ways to help celebrate, including the annual tradition of turning the Chicago River green! So though I am only adopted Irish, it’s proximity to my birthday has always been the kick-off to my own birthday celebrations.

This year was no different.

I mean, I was hoping that I could make vegan corned beef this year but coming across vital wheat gluten (seitan) has been harder than finding gold or BitCoin so I decided to try something a little different.

If you’re interested, check out my Seitan Gyros recipe!

Colcannon. I’ve always had a fascination with this dish but thanks to many, many, MANY years of loathing kale, I’ve stayed away. And since we all know that I recently amended my opinion of the dark leafy green with my Kale Stir Fry, I figured a vegan Colcannon was an excellent way to switch things up.

So…here we are.

Happy Friday and let’s get into this quick and easy vegan recipe for St. Patrick’s Day, Sunday dinner or any damn day you please!