A Day in The Life: eating vegan

To commemorate the end of Veganuary, I thought I'd do another post featuring some of my favourite vegan recipes. This time I'll be including some ingredients that I consider kitchen cupboard staples - mainly for those who are thinking of going vegan long-term. That's not to say that this post is only for people who are vegan! I think a lot of people think you have to 'be vegan to eat vegan', but that's really not the case. If anyone chooses to re-create these recipes, vegan or not, a little goes a long way, and by incorporating a few vegan meals here and there into your diet, it's still a massive benefit to the environment.

My Kitchen Cupboard Staples

Below I've listed some of the ingredients I am consistently incorporating into my meals. Everyone has their own personal preferences, and some of these ingredients may not suit your taste buds, however for me these are my favourite ingredients for, not only bringing great flavour to any dish, but also for great nutritional benefits!

Nutritional Yeast: deactivated yeast

- Great for creating a cheesy flavour within sauces and works well as a cheese topping alternative

- Good source of Vitamin B12 (it is also recommended that you supplement B12 if you follow a vegetarian/vegan diet, I've linked the supplement I use below)

Brown Miso Paste: fermented soybeans

- Similar to soy sauce but a paste

- A complete source of protein

- Rich in nutrients

- High in salt however so be cautious of how much you have

Tahini: sesame seed butter

- Great for making humous, salad dressings, thickening sauces or drizzling over dishes

- Healthy fat

Peanut Butter:

- Great for adding nutty flavours to dishes, drizzling over porridge or having as a snack with a banana (my favourite flavour combination ever)

- Healthy fat

(Try to avoid supermarket branded peanut butter as they include unnecessary added salt and sugar, Meridian is my favourite example as it's 100% peanuts)

Flaxseeds: flax or linseed

- Great sprinkled on porridge or salads, works as an egg replacement/thickening agent

- Good source of the essential omega-3 fatty acid

Better You Vitamin B12 Supplement: (not a sponsored post unfortunately)

Click the image for the link

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Recipes

This post is a 'day in the life' eating vegan, although this isn't what I'd have typically within a day, I thought I'd do suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner to widen the variety of options on my blog.

Breakfast

Miso Tofu Scram

If I'm not having porridge in the morning (which if you know me well, is rather unlikely), or if I fancy something a little more savoury when I wake up, I usually like to cook up this tofu scram. It's not trying to replicate scrambled eggs, it's a different taste entirely, but the texture is quite similar nonetheless, so if you are concerned about missing your eggs in the morning, maybe give this recipe a try?

Ingredients - serves 1

- 1tsp of vegan spread or oil

- 1/4 block of Smoked Tofu (I use The Tofoo Co)

- 2 mushrooms, chopped

- 1tsp turmeric

- 1tsp brown miso paste

- splash of water

- salt and pepper

(Optional) I like to add in some extra ingredients, depends what I have lying around but some ideas are:

- peas

- peppers

- spinach

- sultanas

- pine nuts

- kidney beans

Method

1. Grease a frying pan with the vegan spread or oil on a low heat

2. Crumble the tofu into a separate bowl

3. Add in the mushrooms and turmeric, making sure the ingredients are coated in the turmeric

4. Push the mixture to one side of the bowl and add the miso paste to the bare side, add a splash of water onto the paste and mix it to create a liquid

5. Mix the ingredients together ensuring that the miso paste and turmeric are well mixed in

6. Season your mixture to taste and add it to the frying pan

7. Add in any optional ingredients to the pan now and stir regularly to ensure the scram doesn't burn and stick to the pan

8. After about 5-10 minutes of cooking on a gentle heat the tofu scram will be done

Usually I serve this on toast or some bakery bread!

Lunch

Veggie Bowl with tahini dressing (or humous)

A veggie bowl is my favourite thing to have for lunch, mainly because there's really nothing complex to it and it varies from day to day. Usually I build the bowl off a carb source, a protein source, greens and a dressing. I'll list some example ingredients below but it's really a case of seeing what vegetables you have, what you fancy, and chucking it all into a bowl.

Carb Source:

- Sweet Potato

- Potato

- Rice

- Cous Cous

- Bulgur Wheat

Protein Source:

- Lentils

- Chickpeas

- Kidney Beans

- Mixed Beans

- Tofu

Greens:

- Spinach

- Broccoli

- Kale

- Lettuce

- Cabbage

Dressing:

- Humous

- Tahini Dressing (recipe below)

Method:

1. Pick your ingredients, use whatever vegetables you have, doesn't have to be something listed above, those are just some ideas

2. Cook any ingredients that need cooking, i.e boiling broccoli or rice

3. Add them to a bowl, cover with the dressing and mix

I like to also add on top: nuts, seeds or sultanas, depending on what ingredients I've originally chosen.

What I love about this lunch is how easy it is to make and how good it is for pack lunches too. It's also great for your gut microbiome to eat a variety of nutrient dense foods/plants, so it's a great way to get your veggies in.

Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

- 1tbsp tahini

- 1tsp wholegrain mustard

- squeeze of lemon

- 1tsp of maple syrup

- salt and pepper to taste

- 1tbsp cold water

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a small dish or mug and add enough water to create the desired consistency of dressing

Dinner

Mushroom Risotto

An easy dairy-free dish that doesn't require a lot of time, or effort, and can be easily adapted to suit your own taste. This recipe uses nutritional yeast instead of parmesan cheese but you can use a dairy free alternative to parmesan if you would prefer. Stirring in some vegan butter at the end is a really nice way to finish off the dish and create a creamy consistency.

Ingredients:

- 1tbsp of oil

- 1 red onion

- 5 mushrooms

- 1/2 cup risotto rice

- 600ml vegetable stock

- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

- 1 x 400g tin of mixed beans

- handful of spinach

- 1/2 cup of peas

- 1/4 cup of walnuts, chopped

- black pepper

- handful of freshly cut parsley

- 2 tbsp vegan butter/spread

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan

2. Fry the onion for 5 minutes or until soft

3. Add in the Mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes

4. Stir in the risotto rice

5. In a separate jug mix the 600ml of vegetable stock with the nutritional yeast

6. Add 200ml of the stock mixture to the saucepan, stir, cover and bring to the boil

7. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes

8. After 5 minutes of cooking, return to the pan and add another 200ml of the stock, stir, cover and simmer for another five minutes

9. Add in the beans, spinach, peas, walnuts and remainder of the stock, stir and cover

10. Once the stock has been absorbed by the rice, season to taste and take off the heat

11. Stir in the vegan butter and parsley, leaving some parsley to garnish on top

Serve with parsley on top!

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I hope this post has been helpful or inspired some of you to get cooking. As I've said before, cooking from scratch is something I really value and I'm really grateful for the privilege to do so. I definitely think that, for anyone looking to go vegan long-term, some of the ingredients I have listed above are certainly worth having. Let me know if you want me to write another post including recipes for the other ingredients mentioned (i.e peanut butter and flaxseeds), I can definitely think of a few sweeter recipes worth mentioning.

I'd love to know how people got on if anyone participated in Veganuary this year and hopefully this post can inspire people to maybe cook a few vegan meals here and there, as I said earlier, a little can go a long way!

Thanks for reading, and as always, let me know of any topics you'd like me to write about, I love hearing all the suggestions!

All my love,

Emily x