Recipes from Vegetarian Vegan Cooking Classes

3 yummy recipes made from gluten-free sourdough discard and 2 other gluten-free flours. Sourdough bread has a number of healthy attributes, as we likely all know from our experimentation during the Pandemic Pause.  This time around we are working with a gluten-free starter (1/4 cup of brown rice and 2 tablespoons of filtered water--tap water has chemicals that can slow down the starter).  I take out 1/2 of the starter each morning, and then feed it again. I also feed it in the evening before going to bed. The portion of starter I remove-- the "discard"-- I either put into the fridge or I use it to make something.  GLUTEN FREE SOURDOUGH FOR EVERYONE Amazon Associate The following three recipes are a great way to use up the day's discard in a delicious, gluten-free, vegan way.  Gluten-free, vegan, Lemon-Ginger Pancakes (Firefly generated)   1. Lemon-Ginger Pancakes (4 servings) Ingredients: ½ cup gluten-free sourdough discard ½ cup oat flour* ¼ cup millet flour* ½...

  This main-dish bean stew, or ragout, is a delicious harvest veggie recipe, or a hearty winter entree. It is a satisfying mix of spicy flavours, that you can accommodate to your own palate, and topped with yummy home-made plant-based cheesy, gluten-free cornmeal dumplings. Cook this in either a Dutch oven over medium heat, or in your Instant Pot. It makes six good size servings.  INGREDIENTS: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 large onions, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2-3 tablespoons chili powder (again, your choice. I use a locally produced Taco spice by Clever Crow Farms ). 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 can 28 oz / 796mg  chopped whole tomatoes (not puree or diced and do NOT drain) 2 small zucchini cut into 1/2 inch pieces  2 red bell pepper, chopped 2 cans @14 ounces/  796ml beans-- pinto beans, or one can of pintos and one can of black beans, you choose (drain the beans and rinse the beans) 1 cup corn niblets, frozen or canned or fresh ...

       Bumbleberry Corn Cake- Vegan  Wheat-free The bumbleberry harvest is on with a flourish in our backyard. The saskatoons, blueberries, and blackberries have all had some ripenings this week-- although the blackberries are just beginning and the saskatoons are wizening their way out of the scene. "A mixture of any berries you have on hand" is a great definition of the bumbleberry.  Diversity is delicious!  This is a soft corn cake, like a berry pudding crossed with a cake, more like. Eat it on a plate with a fork and a dollop of coconut yogurt, Mmmm. It has a sweet crunchy crust.  For brekky, lunch or tea! Make it in your toaster/counter oven in a square or round 8 x 8 cake pan. (Can also use a regular oven) INGREDIENTS: 1/4 cup of grapeseed oil  2    cups of bumbleberries (a mix of your on-hand berries) 1/2 cup of cane sugar 1    lemon-- just the zest (the outer skin, not the white part, if possible-- shave it...

Enjoy this simple no-frills and healthy black bean soup.  You can start the soup by soaking the dry beans overnight to use in the soup , or you can just open a couple of cans of beans .  Buying dry organic beans is definitely a less expensive way to go.  Growing your own beans and drying them is better yet!  Whatever works for you! INGREDIENTS: 2 cups of black beans (soaked overnight or from a can) 2 onions, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 stalks of celery, chopped 2 teaspoons salt 5-6 cups of water 2 teaspoons basil (see below**) METHOD: If using soaked beans, drain and rinse the beans and put them in a pot with a tight-fitting lid and all the other ingredients and simmer for 4 hours, covered.  Add more water if needed.  If using canned beans, use slightly less water and simmer for about 30 minutes until all vegetables are tender.   Press the soup through a sieve or whirl up in a blender with a little extra water. De...

  I attempt to cook my vegetables to maintain the most nutrition possible, via the cooking process.  Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org, one of my go-to vegan nutrition gurus, states that sweet potatoes maintain the most nutrition if they are boiled vs. baked .  Sweet potatoes, believe it or not, are classed as a Superfood because of their anti-cancer properties.  So, boil them for the best maintenance of nutrients. INGREDIENTS: (Serves 6 as a one-pot meal, serves 12+ at a Potluck) 1/2 C. Water  2 C.    Chopped Onions 1 T.    Chopped Garlic 4        Bay Leaves 2 tsp.  Dried Thyme 1 C.     Sliced Celery 14.5 oz/412 ml/ 1 1/2 C Stewed Tomatoes with Juice 4 C.    1/2 " Cubed/Peeled Sweet Potatoes (immerse in cold water to prevent discoloration) 6 C.    Vegetable Stock (or 6 cubes of Best Golden Soup Bouillion and 6 C. Water) 2 C.     Green Beans 2 C. ...

This is a purist, classical tofu mayo recipe-- something perhaps your Mom whipped up back in the day (and I mean, "whipped" in that perhaps she used a beater instead of a blender?)  It is creamy, rich, thick, and stick-to-your vegan sandwich content (tomato? tempeh? burger?) Once you have the ingredients and have mixed it up a few times, you can embellish in the way you might want it to taste (with relish? garlic? pepper?) (See some ideas below the recipe) If you have some kind of trendy take on tofu-- that it is not the great high nutrient food that it is-- you might want to check out the Tofu topics by Dr. Michael Greger , the much-esteemed M.D./Science Researcher and founder of NutritionFacts.org .    Just a sample of the great work he does to keep us motivated to keep eating healthy can be found in this video TOFU MAYO RECIPE: INGREDIENTS 350 g/ 12 oz. medium/firm Organic Tofu (broken in chunks) Juice squeezed from 1 fresh organic Lemon 1 teaspoon Di...

If you have ever made yourself some tofu scramble with the expectation that it will be a great sub for your favourite scramble eggs back in the day, well, you know that disappointment. I have to say, though, that there is a new kid in town! I don't know where I actually got this recipe from.  I just found it in scribbled into a book on my never-ending quest to quell the clutter in our home.  I think it may be out of a library cookbook, or maybe someone dictated it to me.  In any case, I apologize if it is your precious recipe.  I have changed some of the wording, and some of the ingredients. So, the glory of this actual recipe is in the mixture that you make up in advance and always have on hand when the urge for a tofu scramble hits! The flavour blend is outstanding.  I also like how the mix is set up to provide just enough of its herby deliciousness (1 1/2 Teaspoons per serving) so that there is not an imbalance in either flavour or moistness. Blen...

As you can see from the following photo, this Almond Sour Cream is a silky, thick, creamy vegan sub for dairy sour cream .  And it costs lots less than Tufutti or other commercial vegan formulations. INGREDIENTS: 1 C. Raw Almonds Filtered Water to soak almonds 1/4 C. Fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice 1 C. Fresh Filtered Water Pinch of Salt METHOD: Soak Almonds in 2 C. Water for 12-48 hours Drain and rinse almonds Remove husks from almonds and set aside Whirl up almonds in blender with fresh water until smooth and fluffy Blend the lemon juice into the almond puree and add a pinch of salt Use this wonderful non-dairy sour cream as a topping on your vegan Taco Salad!  Use it wherever you would have used dairy sour cream in the past. -------------------------------------------

These plum-banana breakfast squares are the result of wanting to use up some of the abundance of a backyard plum harvest.  I will also be making a plum upside-down cake to take to Church tomorrow (but not a very healthy recipe, so it won't be on this blog). We will use some of these plums today: I love these little orbs of sunshine.  I call them "Little Golden Plums" although I know they must have a proper scientific name. 😶You can use any sort/named plum but make sure you remove the stone when prepping them. 😶Set the Oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 180 C. 😶Make your flaxseed or chia seed egg: ·      1 tbsp ground  Flaxseed  or  Chia Seed  + 3 tbsp  water- whisk up together and set aside until it is the consistency of whisked egg white, creamy and sticky (about 10-15 minutes)      😶Add the flaxseed/chia seed egg to the following in your food processor: ·      ...

I have to tell you that this BAKED TOFU recipe is one of my favourite tofu recipes of all time. Baked Tofu: Sesame Surprise  My husband and I have been back and forth on the Tofu Road.   We read a lot of health-related articles and watch a lot of (junk?) science on Youtube, so of course, we are well aware of the controversy around soy products... you know where you can go to read that side of the story as well. Well, here we are back again!  Because we have such great respect for slim heralds of plant-strong health like Dr. Darlene Blaney (recipes on this site),  Dr. Hans Diehl, Dr. John A. McDougall, Lani  Muelrath , Dr. Neal Barnard , among many others, some people we actually rub shoulders with on a regular basis, these tofu-eating crusaders for a healthy lifestyle have won us back again to tofu.   We're sort of like "slacker voters" I guess... we go with who impresses us the most with their pitch for benefits we will receive, and we vo...

A bowl of this delectable Russian potato-green bean-sauerkraut soup (or borscht) will satisfy your tastebuds and your need for something warming and filling on a cold fall or winter evening.  I have vegan-ized the recipe to eliminate any animal products and use an easy-peasy cashew sour cream recipe that you can find on our Veggie School site HERE , or feel free to use a commercial vegan sour cream (or even the real stuff if you are flexitarian). There is no flour thickener, so no worries about gluten. INGREDIENTS 1 T. Coconut Oil (or veggie oil of choice) 1 large or 2 medium Onions , cut in half and sliced thin 2 C. Green Beans, cut in small pieces or left large 3 large Potatoes , peeled and cubed (or unpeeled red potatoes)  5 C. filtered Water or vegetable broth 1 T. dried Dill (or fresh, slightly more)  1/2 C. Cashew Sour Cream recipe (cashew pieces, lemon juice, water, coconut oil) 3/4 C. Sauerkraut and Juice Salt and/or Pepper , to your taste MET...

This pecan nut roast is one of the most popularly viewed recipes on this site.  And it should be cooked up anytime you want a simple, delicious, high nutrient-dense dish for your family or to take to a potluck. Watch this short video  where Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org explains what scientific studies show to be the health benefits of the pecan in staving off cancer!  Measure and assemble the following ingredients: 4 C. Water 1 C. Pecan Halves (or pieces) 1 1/2 tsp. Salt 1 T. Chicken-style Seasoning (Optional) 1 T. Nutritional Yeast 1 T. Turmeric powder (Optional) 1 C. Chopped Onions 3 C. Rolled Oats Blend together: Water, Pecans, Salt, Chicken-Like Seasoning, Nutritional Yeast, Turmeric (no pecans?  Substitute walnut pieces). Add the blended items to a bowl.  Then ad in the onions and oats.   Let stand for at least 30 minutes. I laid down a layer of Parchment Paper in my pan-- you could just dust it with flour   Spo...

Mary Lou Johnson is our Church's star dessert-maker.  Here is the picture of a pull-apart Apple Duff she made for a Fellowship Dinner... yes, it was delicious! ** As the Irish baker in a video states, the apple duff is "not the prettiest dessert in the world" but delicious, nonetheless.  I've taken the recipe in the video and made it both gluten-free and vegan, and somewhat less sucrose-sweet (by using lower-glycemic-indexed Coconut Sugar vs. regular brown sugar). GLUTEN-FREE and VEGAN PIE CRUST: 1 1/2 C. Gluten-free All-purpose Flour (Bob's Red Mill or Pamela's or other) 1/2 tsp.  Salt 1/2 C.    Organic Coconut Oil, cold, not melted 4 - 6 T.  Almond Milk Combine the flour, salt and coconut oil in a bowl and use a pastry blender to cut the mix until it looks like coarse meal Sprinkle on the Almond Milk and mix together with a fork until it is combined and moist Press or roll into a rectangle between two pieces of wax paper.  Remove one of ...

This Green Bean-Potato-Garlic Soup is an invention as the result of coming home from the Church fellowship dinner with about a pound of cooked organic Green Beans (the really long ones that you get in the freezer at Costco, if you're lucky-- *Family Tradition* Brand). The beans had already been frozen and thawed, I didn't want to risk illness by going through the process again.  And I confess, I'm hooked on green beans. Before cooking this soup, assemble, measure out and prep: ~Garlic Cloves, slivered or minced (quantity up to you) ~1 pound Green Beans, bite size pieces ~4 medium large Potatoes, peeled and diced ~1/4 tsp. Marjoram powder (or other desired herb) ~Filtered Water, to cover ~1 C. Almond Milk (unsweetened)   ~Salt and Pepper to taste ~Daiya Shreds for garnish (optional) (or other vegan cheese, or not) Add all ingredients above (except the Almond Milk, Salt and Pepper and Daiya Shreds) to a large pot and bring the water to a boil. ...