I'm interested in simple, inexpensive recipes that attract low-energy nonvegetarians to incorporate health-supporting plant-based foods into their diets.

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hi, Guys,

i am not at all a raw foodist, although we do have a delicious vegan raw food restaurant here in minneapolis (called Ecopolitan).  however, i love this little virtual raw cookbook called the "good heart recipe book."  click on the link, and then use your mouse to "turn" the pages,  (http://jonsiandalex.com/media/recipebook/).  i thought of this when another poster mentioned that she was looking for gluten free recipes, and it occurred to me that raw food resources (like anything by ani phyo, or the excellent blog "choosing raw" http://www.choosingraw.com/) might be helpful.

i've only made the "classic green soup" out of this little recipe book, but i've had something very similar to the thai coconut curry soup at Ecopolitan, and i love them both!

sincerely,

michelle

btw, here's another newish, but fun vegan food bog, by one of the co-owners of herbivore clothing--the rice & beans plate she describes looks like what i eat for dinner about 5 days a week! lol  i like that she talks about some basic skills, rather than recipes per se. http://eatlikeyougiveadamnbook.blogspot.com/

I need recipes!!! Most vegan recipes call for beans, tofu, etc... And I can't handle anything based on beans... I get a bad reaction even from soya milk! I do eat nuts, and I even eat some amount of beans, peas, etc., just enough to get a variety of proteins, but it is always a juggling act of how much I am ready to suffer... And yes, I did try to soak the different beans and/or legumes overnight with dulse, to cook verryyyy slowly, to skim the foam while cooking, etc... Nothing works! I have about 6 or 7 vegan cookbooks with a maximum of 10 recipes I can use or modify. Any help for me out there? Thank you in advance!

Monique, If you think you might like raw vegan foods, you can check out my blog: Raw on $10 a Day (or Less)

Thank you very much Kerry! I use almond milk and I guess this rice protein supplement would be really nice! And I did nto know the relationship between onions and B12, but I always take B12 vitamins.

@Lisa Viger: OMG!!! I checked your raw vegan blog and I am afraid the keyboard will never recuperate!!! I was drooling over the pictures and the ingredients. It all sounds wonderful! Now I have to buy a dehydrator, because it seems that I need it a lot! (Any brand/make is recommended?) Can't wait to try those salmon patties! And boy oh boy!! the chocolate ice cream!! Awesome!!

Dino Sarma's impromptu recipe for chilli using TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein).

This week in the main chat window Dino and Jason had a conversation about cooking using TVP. During that conversation Dino offered this great recipe. A member suggested that it would be good to copy the recipe so it can more easily be shared. Thanks for the suggestion to do that, and thanks for the recipe.

Chilli with TVP.
Sautee onions, garlic, and thyme together in a stock pot, add cumin and
coriander, and cook till softened. Add a few peppers, some chiles, and a bit of chili powder. Sautee another 10 minutes. Add tomato paste, and cook with the veg for 4 minutes. Then throw in a bit of diced tomato, and the dry TVP along with some beer, and crank up the heat to high. The TVP will hydrate, the tomatoes will break down, and the beer will cook out the alcohol all at once. Mhmm! And then finish it off with a bit of tequila, and simmer for 15 minutes, and you're done. :-D No messy millions of pots to clean up. And while you're there? Might as well bake off a load of potatoes in the oven. And stuff them piled high with your freshly made chili. And make like a 2 second tofu sour cream,
buy whizzing a block of tofu, some lime juice, and a pinch of salt. And you can sautee buns in olive oil and garlic, and have croutons for your chili. Your house will smell awesome, you'll have enough food to feed a vegan army, and you've got leftovers. And all of it took less than 45 minutes! No need for five million hours of simmering. The TVP, when added dry, soaks up all the excess liquid (and flavour), and prevents you from having to simmer forever to get it thick. And cooking the ground spices with the onions and garlic releases the flavours quickly. Also, the beer and tequila bring out the alcohol soluble flavours.
Thanks Dino for the inpiration!!!

Hello all, I just joined the group and have an original recipe to share. 

Also, only yesterday I made available a vegan recipes book .pdf download.  Autumn + Winter Vegan Recipes, lots of holiday favorites too. 

www.raw-kitchen.com/Vegan-Holiday-Recipes.php

Yam and Shiitake Soup

makes 10 cups

ingredients:

3 garlic cloves

¼ of onion

5 shiitake + 1 portobello mushroom

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 very large jewel yam

1 small head broccoli

2 cups broth

6 cups water

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

½ – 1 teaspoon smoked paprika or chipotle, ½ teaspoon sage

2 teaspoons fresh thyme, 2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped

¼ cup nutritional yeast

1 package field roast apple sage sausage, sliced into ¼ inch slices

1 small bunch of kale

1 tablespoon coconut oil

directions:

For oil-free sautéing, saute garlic and onion in a little broth. Or sauté in sesame oil. Add mushrooms and continue to cook. Mash some of the sweet potatoes in the pan before adding broccoli. Add all of the additional ingredients except the sausage, kale, and coconut oil. Cook for about 30 minutes and then add the sausage cook for 10 minutes more or so, add kale and a spoon full of coconut oil. Cook covered until the kale wilts and is bright green.

Stir well and serve with plain unsweetened soy yogurt (Whole Soy & Co. is non-GMO).

Thanks Tara.  I will give it a go.  Here is a request for some helpful suggestions from this community.  I have had in mind for some time now to organise a Vegan Expo, that will be intended to showcase the best in food and vegan friendly clothing and footwear that will attract lots of people who aren't vegan or vegetarian.  I live in Melbourne Australia which is quite a vegan friendly city in food outlets etc, but the clothing and footwear is not so easy to identify as it is all over the place. Some ideas on how to go about this will be greatly appreciated. I'm aiming for 2013.  Melbourne has an annual food and wine festival about February (our Summer) and was hoping to coincide with that to get vegan food more accepted as mainstream. I was quite horrified to see some of the titles for the festival coming up in February, just making light of eating animals, and couldn't see anything that vaguely included vegan diets. What I was thinking was seeing if there are some top chefs who do vegan and seeing if they may be interested in coming to such an event. Do you know of any other similar events elsewhere in the world?  Any ideas will be appreciated.  Cheers and Happy Cruelty-free Christmas to all.

This is a wonderful idea!  I was recently at the Animal Rights Conference here and there was a vegan shoe company there as a vendor.  I will find the name and send it to you. 

Also, I would love to be there either a vegan educator, chef, or to speak on genetically modified organisms. 

I do know of someone who has created a vegan expo in your part of the world.  This does not mean that you have to do the same thing he did, great to partner and mind share with though :-)  I will find his website and send it to you.  Also, will send the vegan clothing companies here in the states. 

Also, most everything I teach is infused with the message in The World Peace Diet written by Will Tuttle.  I could however speak on the WPD as well as I am one of Will's facilitators.

Hi Tara.  Thanks for this and yes any contacts will be gratefully received.  I am constantly becoming more aware of how many products use animal content that is so unnecessary, even car tyres for example.  So I would like to get awareness out that you can have everything you need without necessarily having to torture animals to have it. I have introduced vegan cupcakes for example to people at work and they are becoming more aware and respectful of the issues. I do think it's high time to get the clear message out that being vegan is 'cool' and you can have delicious food and really fashionable clothing and footwear as a vegan. I will keep you in the loop. I will need advice and help from someone who has experience in arranging these large expo's but I guess where there's a will there is always a way.  Cheers

My directions were unclear, here is a better version:

directions:

For oil-free sautéing, saute garlic and onion in a little broth. Or sauté in sesame oil. Add mushrooms and continue to cook.

Add all of the additional ingredients except the sausage, kale, and coconut oil. Cook for about 30 minutes.  Mash some of the sweet potatoes when they start to get soft in the soup pot (for a creamy soup).

Add the sausage cook for 10 minutes more or so, add kale and a spoon full of coconut oil. Cook covered until the kale wilts and is bright green.

Stir well, taste test and make sure everything is cooked through.  Serve with plain unsweetened soy yogurt (Whole Soy & Co. is non-GMO).

Sources of vegan cooking classes locally (wouldn't it be nice tobe able to document this through some existing online resource?):

* Macrobiotics

* Quan Yin (Loving Hut) groups

* Seventh Day Adventist Churches
* Buddhist Centers (some ARE vegetarian; Westernized groups are often tragically 'selective' and are therefore only NOMINALLY 'Buddhist' - though they continue to use the term 'advisedly' - without accountability) 
* Vegetarian Societis and vegan groups

* Animal Rights groups

* Vegetarian and vegan restaurants

* Independent culinary teachers
* Community centers, free schools, some colleges, some cultural groups

* Jain centers 
* Online instruction 

* Videos and DVDs - could be shared with friends in one's own home

* Books and magazines [but usually not much more than recipes; shares little if anything about technique, philosophy of (a) veganism OR (b) cooking and food and its relationship to the planet or health]. 

Every source has ITS drawbacks, but with drawbacks sometimes comes a resource that can be selectively valued for its utility.

Hi.  See link to a site advocating a plant based diet to achieve optimum health.  Has anybody seen this film or obtained the book? 

http://www.forksoverknives.com/

I'm planning on ordering it but am interested to know if anyone has obtained and tried the recipes in the books available on the website.  They don't do international postage yet unfortunately but they are all available from Amazon at comparable prices.

Hi Kerry! I saw your comment about the Forks Over Knives movie and recipes.  I saw the movie and highly recommend it as a way to help people understand the level of knowledge and research that has been done to support a vegan diet.  And the level of research around disease and the causes of disease.  

I looked at the recipes and they look delicious!  Try and find versions of the corn and soy ingredients that have not been genetically modified (non-GMO) though.  Those corn tortillas and soy sour cream sound really great until you realize they are packed with more than you asked for.  

Here is a link to a website where you can check your brands and see if they truly are GMO free.  http://www.nongmoproject.org/take-action/search-participating-produ...

P.S.  This is the same genetically modified or genetically engineered corn that is being forced on the farm animals.  Also, buying organic is a better bet, however not a sure thing especially with corn and soy.

Thanks Tara.  I have ordered the DVD and the book from amazon and waiting for them to arrive.  I'm currently trying to be mostly raw vegan and feel much better for it, but always good to have the recipes for the variety.  I'll be interested to see their health claims because that is the main reason people use why they don't become vegan or vegetarian. So having something to refer people to will be helpful when i comes up in discussion.  Thanks for the link too but not a lot here that is sold in Oz I think.  However I do go for the organic and non-gmo food and avoid those that aren't labelled.  For example I never buy anything with canola oil, or that just states it has 'vegetable oil' as this is usually canola. Tastes awful anyway and can't understand why anybody would prefer canola over good old olive oil.  Cheers

Does anyone have experience in raw juicing?  I have recently invested in an Angel juicer and a Vitamix.  I have found that trying to juice beetroot is a bit difficult as it tends to clog up the grinders and I'm not sure I'm getting the best out of them.  Carrots, kale, parsley and so on are all fine and the juice is great, but I'd really like to include the beetroot.  I'm also wondering about pomegranate, is anyone has suggestions about juicing those.  Cheers

Hi Kerry,i am doing raw juicing everyday and i add just abit of beetroot.I haven't found it clogging up my juicer and that might be because of how little beetroot i put into it.I add ginger and garlic with my fruits and carrot and celery.I find the beetroot really colours my juice too :)

Thanks Tracey and a very big welcome.  I have found that cutting the beetroot in slices works well.  I bought an Angel juicer which is fabulous and I'm finding that by alternating the vege's that I'm putting through makes it blend really well.  I put a lot of carrot and celery and kale into it as well.  Delicious with the beetroot and a dash of ginger.

Thanks for the welcome Kerry :) I think you have the right way of doing it and the variety of fruits and veggies can only make it more interesting and taste so good.

I have recently become aware of the nutritional vale of hemp seeds.  They are illegal to buy as human food here in Australia but can be bought for livestock (suitable for humans too), but legal it seems rest of the world. For anybody not aware this link is informative.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/hemp-seed-nutritional-v...

I thought for those who may be looking for a good quality vegan B12 or D3, check out the ones on this website.

http://veganproteins.com/

I buy quite a bit from here as it's much cheaper than buying in Australia. Now that it's almost the busiest time of year for wildlife rescue when the they start coming out from the winter with babies in pouch I rely a lot on the nutrition bars to take out on a rescue. The Vega products are really good and give a great energy boost.  I am delighted to see now that Vegan Proteins stock vegan B12 and D3 as well.

Recently discovered a new product here called COYO, which is a brand made in Australia that makes coconut milk yoghurt and ice cream.  It's on the expensive side but heaps better than the soy products widely available tat I don't really like. I found a recipe on the Net;

http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/2009/04/25/homemade-coconut-mil...

I'll give it a go over the Christmas - New Year break. The COYO yoghurt was absolutely delicious.

Is this vegan RECIPES or vegan PREPARED FOODS?