vegan salad recipes

Asian Food, International vegan cuisine, Noodles, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

New Vegan Product + Vegan Fish Filets & Noodle Salad Recipe

Posted on November. 2022November. 2022 by writinstuff

Hello folks out there in vegan recipe land! How are you?

Today I’m doing a combo post featuring a new vegan food product find and a recipe with said food. Usually my new products are vegan snacks or random vegan ingredients, but today we’ve got the best of both worlds.

As you might recall, I’ve used the vegan brand Unfished a few times here and there, in my Vegan Tuna Orecchiette with Lemon & Capers recipe or my Mediterranean Vegan Tuna & Potato Cakes w/ Oven Roasted Asparagus. You can find more tuna recipes here on the blog. So, imagine my surprise when I’m pushing my cart through my local Kaufland and I spot a refrigerated shelf featuring non-canned Unfished vegan products. If ever given the choice between vegan fish filets and vegan fish fingers/sticks, I will never choose vegan fish sticks.

Not ever.

Never!

So what’s a vegan girl to do when she’s got a package of vegan fish steaks and no idea what to do with them?

Something? Anything?

I decided to do something off the beaten path but it turned out super delicious and healthy-ish, so let’s see what we can do with vegan fish filets!

What is your favorite vegan fish alternative?

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Beans, Mexican Dishes, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Vegan Taco Salads ~ Black Bean & Corn Taco Salad

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

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.

Check out my Sushi Salad Bowl or the Chickpea Rainbow Salad or Buffalo Chicken Salad or this Summer BBQ Salad recipe.

Sometimes I prefer something a little more traditional like potato salad, or a mostly raw vegan salad.

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.

Gather your ingredients and let’s get started!

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Asian Food, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Quick & Easy Vegan Salads ~ Cucumber & Wakame Salad w/Ponzu Dressing

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

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:

(Mostly) Raw Vegan Cabbage Salad
Vegan Sushi Salad
Crispy Chickpea Rainbow Salad
Vegan Buffalo Chicken Salad
Vegan Potato Salad

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!

Let’s get to it, shall we?

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Bowls, Grains, Herbs, oil free vegan recipes, Plant Based, Salads, Sauces & Creams, Vegan

(Mostly) Raw Vegan Cabbage Salad Recipe

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

With the heatwave sweeping through both the United States and Europe, now is the perfect time to revisit one of my favorite lunch time recipes; salad.

I love salad because it is a low calorie dish that is packed with wonderfully colorful vegetables, nutrients and fiber. It’s a win-win-win for my tastebuds and my palate and better than that, it doesn’t require you to use the stove at all…unless you need to rehydrate some TVP, which I used for this recipe.

Some people might quibble over my use of the word ‘salad’ when this recipe lacks any form of lettuce, and the use of cabbage might prompt some to think its a slaw, but I promise that it is a salad. The problem is that here in Romania there seems to be a fresh salad shortage. If you want any type of leafy green that’s (allegedly) been washed for you and packed, you have some options but I prefer my salad with some dirt on it that I wash off myself and that, has been sadly lacking for the past few weeks, maybe a month.

So I’ve had to get creative with my salads because it’s too dang hot for stoves and ovens and all that jazz.

For today’s vegan salad recipe, I decided to use a mix of green and red cabbage, keeping it 95 % raw and vegan.

You can forego the protein altogether or replace with chickpeas or quinoa, or any type of vegan meat alternative you choose.

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Asian Food, Bowls, International vegan cuisine, Salads, Vegan

Vegan Sushi-Style Salad

Posted on June. 2022June. 2022 by writinstuff

As much as I love when the weather turns warm, it’s always kind of a daunting task to find things to make for lunch that are calorie friendly, cold-ish and not salad.

Not that I have anything against salad, you know, it is one of the dishes I love and eat most frequently. You can check out some of my favorite salad recipes here, here and here. But the truth is that a girl needs a little variety in her life to switch things up, ya know? And no matter how many different ways you make salad, something other than dark leafy greens and tomatoes and cucumbers needs to go in my tummy.

Anyway on this particular day I was feeling a little bit creative so I went a little crazy with this idea of a sushi style salad in that it is sushi-like but not actually sushi.

And it began with the idea of a soy sauce and wasabi style salad dressing. Weird, right?

I know.

But here we are, vegan sushi salad.

Change up any of the ingredients you like or don’t like, or add some vegan ingredients I don’t have access to like vegan salmon or something similar and tag me on it.

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Salads, Sides, Vegan

Easy Vegan Salads ~ Buffalo Chicken Salad

Posted on February. 2022February. 2022 by writinstuff

Salads are…everything. They are a great way to fill your bowl with vitamins and minerals, making sure you get all the nutrients your body needs to stay fit and healthy. It’s also a low calorie way to sprinkle in some of the things you love–and miss–in your effort to eat better.

I love to make salad a mainstay in my diet, adding things like ramen noodles, quinoa, couscous and even bulgur (check out my Pesto & Chickpea Tabbouleh Salad recipe). You get the carbs and therefore the energy you need to satisfy your hunger, while still eating healthy. Or like today’s vegan recipe, you get to add something delicious like a spicy buffalo sauce on your favorite vegan alternative such as TVP, tofu, seitan or tempeh.

What I’m trying to say is that salads are a great way to have the best of both worlds, eating healthy and getting some of the foods you’ve put on your no-no list.

This vegan salad recipe is easy, relatively quick and wickedly delicious. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to add buffalo vegan chicken to salad. I must be crazy!

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Bowls, Grains, Herbs, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Pesto & Chickpea Tabbouleh Salad

Posted on January. 2022January. 2022 by writinstuff

We all know how much I love salads and Buddha bowls (get my vegan sushi bowl recipe here). I can eat them just about every single day of the week without eating the same thing, or getting sick of them. But, that doesn’t mean that I’m not always trying to improve a recipe or improvise on existing recipes. The possibilities are endless and it’s important in general, but especially when you’re trying to eat clean and healthy, that you keep things fresh.

It’s easy to get sick of eating anything, but that is especially true of healthy, whole foods that aren’t fatty and addictive, that aren’t made to keep you coming back for more. So it requires some effort, not a lot, but some.

So a while back my niece made tabbouleh for me and the husband since we’re the only two vegans in the family. She was adorable, at fourteen years old, making this dish for us. So proud of herself and I was too, honestly. And when I was in need of a new vegan salad recipe, I thought back to Alex and her tabbouleh.

This is technically tabbouleh, but not in it’s traditional way. This is how vegans fancy up a simple salad.

Before we even begin, I’ll let you know that chickpeas aren’t a traditional ingredient in tabbouleh and I, of course, omitted the oil. Those are the major changes I made so if you’re still interested, keep reading for a unique twist on tabbouleh salad.

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Bowls, Grains, Herbs, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Couscous & Tofu Salad w/Green Goddess Salad Dressing

Posted on September. 2021September. 2021 by writinstuff

It’s time for another vegan salad with all the delicious goodies you know and love, but this time the focus is on the vegan salad dressing.

Want a unique vegan salad? Check out my vegan sushi salad bowl recipe here!

When I first got on the Salad Train, I can admit that I wasn’t very imaginative, not with my ingredients and certainly not with healthy salad dressing options. I started with simple vinagrettes and then creamy dressings made with vegan yogurt, mustard and even Sriracha. But the oil is a real killer.

I know, I know, life isn’t just about calories. But when you’re trying to lose weight, which was my original goal, much of your eating life is about calories and oil comes in at 120 calories per tablespoon which is INSANE. Add in how much you need to use to make a proper vinaigrette and you can see why I started to explore other options.

So when the weather permits and when the supermarket or farmer’s market has them, I pile up on herbs. Dill, parsley, basil, mint, and pretty much whatever else green I can find. Except cilantro, it is not my jam and never has been.

So, let’s do this, shall we?

This is a hot & cold salad, which means you don’t need to cook everything but that also makes it versatile enough to eat during the hottest day of summer or as the autumn chill sets in.

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Bowls, Grains, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Graffiti Eggplant & Courgette Couscous Salad ~ Easy Vegan Meals

Posted on August. 2021August. 2021 by writinstuff

Have any of you noticed that it’s not as easy to find all the foods you need at one supermarket these days? I used to be able to hit up Kaufland and get most of what I needed, using a delivery service for the rest. But given everything going on in the world, it seems to be hit or miss with lots of things.

At the top of that list I would put lettuce. Romaine lettuce has been gone for months, which leaves very few options because I’m not a fan of bagged lettuce or salad mix. There have just been too many problems over the years so I try to stay away from those. But I LOVE to eat a big, hearty salad for lunch on most days.

So, what am I to do?

Improvise, of course.

This warm couscous salad with graffiti eggplant and zucchini fits the technical definition of a salad, and it was delicious to boot, so here we go!

I came across some beautiful graffiti eggplant and my husband asked me to get some because he loves the stuff. I, on the other hand, have just started to like eggplant and not out of necessity. Here in Romania there’s a dish called vinete, which is basically an eggplant dip. For me, it’s hit or miss but we were recently visiting Sinaia and I actually slathered it on two slices of bread…and ate them both.

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Asian Food, Bowls, Dips, Grains, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Salads, Vegan

Vegan Sushi Salad Bowl

Posted on July. 2021July. 2021 by writinstuff

As I’ve mentioned before, I have been working on upping my salad game and so, the trend continues into a new week. I had a dental appointment today which was, let’s just say, less than quick & easy. We went grocery shopping today because tomorrow is my release day for my newest novel, and it was 32 degrees Celsius all day.

All day.

So what else is an exhausted, overheated vegan, author and wife to do? Salad.

But I wanted to do something a little bit different from what I usually do, while also making a salad that was substantial enough to satisfy.

Enter, vegan sushi salad bowl. We probably need a better name, don’t we?

Yeah, but this is the name we got and I promise, the dish tastes much better than the title.

There are quite a few components to this vegan salad recipe, but it’s not difficult at all. Honestly, this recipe is all about the prep work. If you’re willing to prep, this is another easy vegan recipe you can add to your repertoire.

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