Vegan Cooking Tips

Warm Bean, Rice, and Potato Salad

• Rice-and-bean mix
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• Canned potatoes
• Your choice of spices

Prepare your favorite boxed rice-and-bean combo, without seasoning. Heat a medium frying pan and add oil. Drain and cut canned potatoes. Sauté with oregano, basil, and parsley, or a seasoning blend of your choice. Cook until potatoes are golden brown (about 5 minutes). Add cooked rice and beans to potatoes, toss to combine, and eat!

Tabbouleh

• One box of tabbouleh
• One 16-ounce can of beans
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 Tablespoons dried parsley
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup thawed frozen peas

Prepare tabbouleh according to package directions (usually serves about four). However, don’t add the oil the directions call for. Add a 16-ounce can of drained white, butter, or great Northern white beans. Toss with lemon juice, oregano, parsley, tomatoes, and peas. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

Curried Couscous

• Oil spray
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds or whole pine nuts
• 1 cup whole wheat couscous
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 cups chopped veggies

Spray a medium frying pan with vegetable oil. Quickly toast almonds or pine nuts until brown. Remove from heat and set aside, but don’t clean the pan. Add couscous and curry powder to the frying pan and stir and toast for 1 minute, coating the couscous with the small amount of oil left from cooking the nuts. Add the nuts back in. Pour in broth and veggies and bring to a fast boil. Reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit for about 5 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed. Fluff up with a fork and serve hot.

Bean Chili

• Oil spray
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Rice-and-bean mix
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1-1/2 cups chopped canned tomatoes, liquid reserved

Spray a medium frying pan with oil. Sauté onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add rice-and-bean mix (don’t use the seasoning package if there is one), chili powder, and pepper. Add water called for on the package, and stir. Add tomatoes (with juice) and bring to a fast boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer according to package directions or until all liquid is absorbed.

Serve hot with cornbread muffins and some fresh raw veggies or a salad.

The Well-Stocked Pantry for Easy Meals

Look at your plate—is it two-thirds veggies or fruit and beans or grains and less than one-third solid protein (tofu or soy cheeses)? If so, then you’re doing it right. Take a look at the table on the right for tips on how to set up the perfect veggie pantry for making easy meals.

Of course, you’ll check to see if your mixes are vegan. Be sure to consider the salt and fat content. For example, those cup o’ soup containers look innocent enough, but are fairly high in fat and very high in sodium. The secret: many ramen-style noodles are fried before they’re dried. Skip those and look for some just plain noodles. Many times the salt is mainly in the seasoning packets, so scrap the packet and use your own fresh or dried herbs and spices.

If the mixes call for using margarine, work with vegetable oils instead, or even better yet, see if some liquid can be used instead of the fat. Are you ready?

1. Purchase boxed mixes of rice and beans, rice pilaf, wild rice mixes, bean combinations, noodles, and veggies.
2. Pick up frozen items such as cut veggies, beans, and greens.
3. Populate your pantry with dried herbs and spices, vegan low-sodium soy sauce, chopped walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, almonds, pine nuts, raisins, dates, and dried figs and apples and white and sweet potatoes.
4. Get plenty of mixes that contain rice, kasha, barley, quinoa, whole wheat couscous, wild rice, and beans.
5. Fill the refrigerator with tofu, seitan, meat analogs, soymilk or rice milk, soy cheese and plain soy yogurt, bagged (precut) salads, veggie sticks, cherry tomatoes, radishes, and lemons.
6. Stock up on canned items such as chopped tomatoes, tomato purée or tomato sauce, chopped olives, beans, corn, salsa, vegetable broth, and vegetable oil spray.