I was excited. I looked at ingredients in my local grocery stores, searched through various websites, watched YouTube videos, and followed some very nice looking accounts on Instagram... all for some new food and recipe inspiration. Luckily there was a lot of information out there, but maybe just a little bit too much to digest in one sitting.
I found it hard to trawl through the myriad of curries, stews and chillies using unfamiliar ingredients such as TVP, Seitan and Nutritional Yeast. I did not know what they were, or where to buy them, let alone have them to hand in my kitchen. With all this new information to take in, I felt slightly confused. How can I eat a balanced and healthy diet relying solely on plants and unusual sounding new ingredients? I needed this to be simplified.
I began to think about the foods and flavours I already enjoyed. I decided to make plant based versions of those. I got started with a Shepherd's pie. This is a dish I grew up with and is a comforting and hearty meal everyone in the family can enjoy. I realised that very few changes were needed to make this a fully plant based recipe. Green lentils became the star of the show as they have a good texture, are filling and nutritious. The rest of the recipe was already plant based (potato, carrots, peas, vegetable stock, garlic and herbs). It was the simple introduction of lentils and dairy free butter for the creamy mash that completed the dish. It was a success.
Now that I had created a delicious meal that was similar to one I already knew, things started to feel much more achievable. Never satisfied with the status quo, I wanted to know what all these new and unusual sounding ingredients were all about, what they tasted like and how to use them.
Thanksgiving is next week! 🤯 The comment section of my original post below has a lot of good plant based holiday recipes & ideas (click on the photo to see the comments. I know it says “Log into FB” in the linked boxes below but ignore that. If you click on the box 👇🏼it will take you to my post)
Make your holidays compassionate ones & leave animals off your plate. It’s very easy to do now a days. There are plant based versions of any meat of dairy item you can think of available online or at your local grocery store. As always, if I can be of help feel free to message me
Extend your kindness & compassion to ALL animals, not just the ones we call pets 💗🦃🐷🐮🐣🐰🦆🐙🐟💗
These vegan-friendly breakfast sandwiches are a great way to start your morning off right. They’re great served alongside some coffee and a small side of hash browns. It’s so nice because you don’t even need to leave your house or sit through a drive-through. They also freeze well so you can meal-prep them for a quick grab n’ go breakfast.
This one is for all the mango lovers! Inspired by my latest adventure in Thailand, I had to make an easy, at home version of their most iconic Thai dessert! 🤩