Healthy Vegan Nachos

Or, How to Trick Your Kids Into Eating Vegetables

It’s not true that all kids hate vegetables, especially if they have been raised vegan. But they can be picky about their choices. When I was a kid I loved cooked spinach and sliced tomatoes, while my sister wanted cucumbers with every meal. But I think all kids, big and little, want a little comfort food in their lives. These nachos are comfort food personified, packed with nutritious vegetables (tomatoes in the refried beans, carrots and potatoes in the cheeze sauce, cauliflower in the taco “beef”) and every bit as tasty as their fast food counterpart.

Healthy Vegan Nachos

Ingredients

Tortilla Chips

  • 10 corn tortillas, cut into fourths
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, if desired
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

Cheeze Sauce

  • 2 cup coarsley chopped potatoes (about 2-3 potatoes, peeled)
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped carrot
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 1/2 cup almond milk
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1/4 cup salsa, if desired

Taco "Meat"

  • 1 1/2 cup "beef" crumbles (see Notes)
  • 2 tsp taco seasoning

Refried Beans

  • 1 10-oz can vegan refried beans
  • 1/2 cup seeded, peeled and chopped tomato
  • 1 small can diced green chiles
  • 1 tsp chili powder or taco seasoning, if desired
  • salt and pepper to taste

Suggested Garnishes

  • 1/4 cup sliced jalapeños
  • 1/4 cup sliced black olives
  • 1/4 cup diced tomato

Instructions

Prepare Tortilla Chips

  1. Stir together olive oil (if using) and lime juice and brush or spray over quartered tortillas. Sprinkle with salt.
  2. Spread in a single layer on cookie sheet(s) and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through. Keep a close eye on them; you don't want them to get too brown.
  3. Remove chips from oven and let cool.

Prepare Cheeze Sauce

  1. Boil carrots, potatoes and onion until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and put into blender.
  2. Add remaining ingredients except salsa and blend on high speed until very smooth.
  3. Stir in salsa, if using. Keep hot.

Prepare Beans

  1. Stir together beans, tomatoes, and seasoning in a small saucepan. Add a couple of tablespoons of water if needed to achieve a smooth consistency, but keep them thick.
  2. Heat, stirring, until hot. Stir in chiles.

Prepare "Beef"

  1. Stir together crumbles with taco seasoning.

Assemble nachos

  1. Spread refried beans over each tortilla chip.
  2. Add a spoonful of the taco "beef" crumbles to each chip and press into beans to secure it
  3. Put back into the oven at 350F for about 5 minutes or until hot.
  4. Remove from oven and arrange on a plate.
  5. Spoon cheeze sauce (reheat if necessary) over each nacho.
  6. Top with desired garnishes, and serve

Notes

You can use packaged vegan soy crumbles here, but for an extra dose of cruciferous goodness, use the cauliflower minced “beef” from CookingWithPlants.com. It’s much healthier and in my opinion, tastier! I make a couple of batches every month and freeze it in small containers, then reheat in the oven to dry out any excess moisture.

Spicy Many Bean Soup

Bean soup is hearty, filling and cheap! With the right spices and vegetables, you can have a delicious, healthy meal in a bowl. Here’s a bean soup recipe that is just the thing for a cold winter day.

I serve this soup with warm crusty bread or cornbread. It’s delicious and very inexpensive to make. You can vary the spices to suit your taste.

Spicy Many-Bean Soup

Ingredients

  • 1.5 mixed beans - I use black beans, blackeyed peas, navy beans, cranberry or pinto beans, and kidney beans.
  • salt and pepper (optional)
  • 1 tsp dried parsley (optional)
  • 0.5 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 10-oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 0.5 red bell pepper, diced
  • 0.5 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 8 cup vegetable broth

Instructions

  1. Place beans in a large soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, or until beans are tender. Add more water as needed.
  2. When beans are tender, drain them, then add all remaining ingredients except for salt and pepper to the pot.
  3. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add water if necessary, or if you prefer a thinner soup.
  4. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired, and serve

Deep Dish Mexican Pizza

Before I went vegan, Taco Bell’s mexican pizza was a staple of my diet. Lucky for me, there are a million DIY recipes for such pizza on the Web. But I wanted something a little bit different, so instead of using flour tortillas, I decided to use a polenta pie crust and bake it like a pie. The results of my experiment were delicious! I hope you enjoy it too.

This pizza would be good served with a green salad and an ice cold Mexican beer.

Deep Dish Mexican Pizza

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1.5 cup cornmeal
  • 1.5 cup cold water
  • 2 cup boiling water
  • 0.25 tsp olive oil (optional)

Refried Beans

  • 1.75 cup cooked and drained pinto beans (or one 10-oz can)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 small can diced green chiles, drained
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 0.75 tsp chili powder
  • 0.5 tsp salt, or to taste

Taco Meat

  • 1 cup (or more) "beef" crumbles (see notes)
  • 1 tsp taco seasoning (see notes)

Cheeze and Garnishes

  • 2 cup grated "cheeze" (see notes)
  • 0.5 cup taco sauce
  • 0.5 cup crumbled tortilla chips (packaged or make your own for less fat)
  • 0.5 cup chopped tomatoes
  • 0.25 cup sliced green onions
  • 0.25 cup black olives
  • 0.25 cup sliced jalapeño peppers (optional)
  • 0.25 cup vegan sour cream (optional)

Instructions

Make the polenta crust

  1. Stir cornmeal, cold water and salt together in a bowl.
  2. In a medium saucepan, bring the two cups of water to a boil, then gradually whisk in the cornmeal mixture.
  3. Turn heat to low and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes or until very thick. Remove from heat and let cool.
  4. When mixture is cool enough to handle, use a spatula or your clean hands to press the mixture in a smooth layer on the bottom and sides of a 9-inch, non-stick pie pan. Alternatively, use a regular pie pan that you have lightly oiled with olive oil.
  5. Preheat the oven to 375F, brush or spritz with olive oil if desired, and bake about 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Make the refried beans

  1. Saute chopped onion in a few tablespoons of water until translucent. Add cumin and chili powder and stir to coat.
  2. Add beans and 3/4 c. water to skillet and stir until heated. Reduce heat to low.
  3. Mash beans (still in the skillet) with a fork or a potato masher.
  4. Turn heat to high, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until beans are thick.
  5. Stir in chopped green chiles, and salt to taste.

Make the taco "meat"

  1. Toss one cup of crumbles with taco seasoning (or seasoning of your choice.)

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread refried beans over bottom of polenta crust.
  2. Spoon 1/4 cup of taco sauce over beans in an even layer.
  3. Sprinkle taco "meat" over that.
  4. Next, a layer of cheeze - save 1/4 cup for garnish.
  5. Bake in a 375F oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until bubbly. You may want to cover the edge of the crust in aluminum foil to prevent over-browning.
  6. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes.

Garnish pizza

  1. Spread another thin layer of taco sauce over the top of the pizza
  2. Top with crumbled tortilla chips and remaining 1/4 c. cheeze.
  3. Top with chopped tomatoes, jalapeños and sliced black olives. Put a dollop of vegan sour cream in the middle for garnish, if desired.

Notes

For “burger” crumbles, you can either make your own or buy tofu crumbles at the grocery. I prefer making my own, it’s much cheaper and much more nutritious, with no mystery ingredients that you cannot pronounce! I use this recipe from CookingWithPlants.com.

For the cheese, again you can buy vegan cheese at the grocery store, but making your own is more nutritious and cheaper. I use Vegan Richa’s Almond Milk Pepper Jack.

You can buy ready-made taco seasoning and taco sauce everywhere. Just make sure it’s vegan. If you’re ambitious, you could do a Google search for DIY versions and make your own.

Easy Yeast Bread

This bread recipe makes a rustic, sort of dense yeast bread. It’s simple to make and requires very little kneading, although if you like a less dense bread, you can make it the traditional way, kneading for 6-10 minutes. An hour of the prep time is simply waiting for it to rise. It is delicious – and I’m lucky I took the photo before the dog stole the entire loaf off of the table. He likes my bread and hopefully, so will you. And don’t mind the scratch on my table!

Easy Yeast Bread

Ingredients

  • 3.5 cup flour (I use a combination of white and whole wheat)
  • 2.25 tsp yeast
  • 1.5 cup warm water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds (or poppy seed, if desired)

Instructions

  1. Stir yeast and sugar into warm water until dissolved
  2. Stir salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour into mixture. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes in a warm place.
  3. Add remaining flour to form a soft dough
  4. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for a couple of minutes, adding flour as needed
  5. Shape into two loaves and place on baking sheet
  6. Brush tops with warm water and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds
  7. Let rise for 30 minutes
  8. Bake in a 425F oven until golden (about 30 minutes)

Black Bean Enchiladas

I think that if I had a favorite kind of cuisine, it would probably be Mexican. My mom used to make enchiladas much like these, except that she used real cheese and chicken or beef instead of beans. These hearty, “cheezy” enchiladas will satisfy even the most committed Mexican food-lover. I serve these with a green salad and a cold Mexican beer with a lime wedge. Continue reading

Vegan Dog Food

When I first starting eating strictly plant-based foods, I still fed my dogs meat. For a time I switched to a vegetarian diet, giving them eggs and bits of cheese for treats. But then I started reading about the dairy and poultry industries, and I knew that I could not buy these products and support the industries that caused so much pain and suffering. So I decided to investigate vegan dog food and found that although there were many, they were all way too expensive for us. I decided I should make my own, and after doing a little research, I came up with this recipe for my dogs. You can vary the grain and the type of beans or peas you use, but don’t leave out the peanut butter – they love it! Continue reading

Black Bean Calzones

These calzones are hearty and satisfying. Even non-vegans will ask for seconds, so you may want to double the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 10 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 c. baby bella mushrooms
  • 1/2 medium onion, minced
  • 1/2 green pepper, chopped
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 c. tomato sauce
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp italian herb blend
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 c. water
  • Pizza Sauce
  • Pizza Crust (see notes)
  • 1 cup shredded “cheeze” (optional)

Continue reading