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Dinner

Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

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Nothing like a decadent, creamy, lemony, thick sauce to douse that vegan brunch with! This vegan hollandaise sauce is even delicious on dinner your plate (think taters & sauce, broccoli & sauce, glory bowls & sauce, burritos & sauce…)

Being plant-based, means falling in love with sauces. All the sauces.

Tomato-based, bean-based, cashew-based, tahini-based, nooch-based, miso-based, veggie-based… endless bases of sauciness.

Today’s all about this cashew raw vegan hollandaise.

It’s time to cure those creamy cravings with total satisfaction by drizzling this stuff over any savoury dish to create a culinary masterpiece.

Super simple.

Super delish.

With just 7 ingredients and a blender, you’ll be on your way to sauce o’clock, saucy heaven, 10 on the sauce-o-meter, 100% sauciness… You get it.

Benefits:

  • Cashews are packed with minerals, and dietary monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to help the body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and vitamin K and produce fatty acids needed for yo’ brain!
  • NO DAIRY – this is a big plus. Typical hollandaise has a whole lotta butter and eggs. Replacing these two with cashews will help you prevent cancer, inflammation, acidity, weight gain and animal suffering 🙂 Go nuts.


Vegan Hollandaise Sauce
 
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A hollandaise sauce to bring back those eggs benny memories. Make a bunch of this because you'll be wanting to pair it with everything.
Author:
Recipe type: sauce, vegan sauce, brunch
Serves: 1 cup
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup cashews, soaked over night (or 10 minutes in hot water), then strained
  • ¼ cup lemon juice (juice of 1½ lemons)
  • ½ cup unsweeted, unflavoured plant milk (almond, coconut or soy)
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • ¼ tsp sea salt
Instructions
  1. BLEND! Seriously. That's it. Until smooth.
  2. Drizzle away.

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This week’s email was all about NYC vegan goodness and Main Street Vegan !

Hooked On Plants Interview: Cheap Lazy Vegan + Crispy Korean Tofu

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Extreme. Expensive. Difficult. Time consuming. Bland….Not when it comes to Cheap Lazy Vegan food! 

Do those words pop into your mind when someone says ‘vegan’?

Well, you obviously haven’t heard of the Cheap Lazy Vegan.

Rose is the Cheap Lazy Vegan. With over 450,000 youtube subscribers, she’s doing an amazing job at spreading the word that vegan doesn’t have to mean complicated or expensive.

She makes vegan easy and attainable. If you’re still skepticle… watch one of Rose’s youtube videos showing the ease of delicious 10 minutes meals, and you’ll be blown away at the simplicity of it all.

Along with being a youtube star, she now has an all vegan café (SaVeg Café) in Calgary, AB.

To celebrate National Vegetarian Week, it’s the perfect time to get to know Rose and bring some inspiration to you guys for cheap and easy vegan meals!


I was lucky enough to stop by the new café with my glorious Grandma to meet this beautiful soul! We also met her Mama who cooked up an amazing Tofu Sweet Potato Korean dish and a super spicy soup that we easily polished off (so dang good).

Let’s get to know Rose.

Hooked On Plants: Cheap Lazy Vegan resonates with hundreds of thousands of people now!  What was your first youtube video about?

Cheap Lazy Vegan: The first video I did was a simple introduction of my channel where I explain that you can be cheap AND lazy on a vegan diet… along with a “What I Ate in a Day” where I showed viewers some easy, simple meals that I ate in a day.

HOP: Did you come up with the awesome name, Cheap Lazy Vegan? Is there a story behind that?

CLV: I did… I had just moved to London, UK at the time and I was making very little money but spending a lot simply because I was living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I found myself buying affordable groceries and making very inexpensive meals. I realized that I was super lazy when it came to cooking. At the same time, I’ve always been a foodie so I always have enjoyed taking photos of food. So I just came up with an Instagram page with the handle @cheaplazyvegan which is how it all started… 🙂

 

HOP: How long have you been vegan, and what was the main reason? Animals? Environment? or Health?

CLV: I’ve been mostly plant-based for about 7 years total (I became a pescatarian at first, staying away from meat, dairy and eggs, but still had a hard time staying away from fish) and now I’ve been VEGAN for almost 4 years. I went vegan purely for ethical & animal rights reasons and the other stuff (like health and environmental benefits) were just little bonuses for me. I read some books and watched some movies, which really opened up my eyes to the realities of what happens to the animals that I claimed to “love”. 

HOP: Did you take your time to take animal products out of your diet, or did you go completely vegan overnight?

CLV: It took time. I think it takes time to get used to the dietary aspect but also to mentally get your head around the whole idea. I first gave up meat, then about a month later stopped eating dairy and eggs, then lastly I quit fish, years later.

 

HOP: It is SO exciting that you’ve opened a 100% vegan café in ‘CowTown’! With Calgary being known for it’s Alberta Beef, it’s so it’s so inspiring that you’ve taken the initiative to get more vegan food into people’s mouths! Plus, you’re working with your Mom! How did you come up with the name SaVeg?

CLV: Haha, I really wish I could take credit for the name, but it was actually my friend’s sister that had the idea. I liked the trendiness of the name and the smart play-on-words.

HOP: What was the catalyst for opening SaVeg Café?

CLV: My mom already owned the cafe but it wasn’t a vegan one. I helped out there for just a few hours each day and I felt that my own time and the cafe space could be used in a better way. I wanted to be more involved and help out more, but I knew I couldn’t invest my own time/money/energy in a business that sold animal products. So, I approached my mom about the idea of fully changing the menu and concept of the cafe into a vegan one (and of course, me taking half ownership!). Calgary also is lacking in vegan establishments (in my opinion), so it made sense from a business perspective as well.

HOP: What are you excited about this year? Do you have any other cool projects you’re working on?

CLV: At the moment, I’m trying to juggle doing my social media and running the cafe! I’m focusing on getting the cafe established and learning to manage my time before moving onto other projects. I definitely would like to get involved in some new projects in the future!

Here’s a playlist of Rose’s quick meal ideas: Cheap Lazy Vegan quick meals

I had to share this recipe of hers. These spicy korean tofu bits were the special at her café when we came to visit. They were deeeeeelicious.


Spicy Korean Fried Chicken-Style Tofu
 
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Rose AKA Cheap Lazy Vegan's crispy, comfort food style tofu that's good in any dinner bowl or wrap!
Author:
Recipe type: vegan meat, lunch, dinner, tofu recipe
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 block extra firm tofu
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • ¼ cup almond flour OR bread crumbs
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

  • Sauce
  • 1 tbsp gochujang (Korean red hot pepper paste)
  • ½ tbsp maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder (or you can use 1 clove of fresh minced garlic)
Instructions
  1. Press your tofu to take out some of the liquid for about 10-20 minutes… I’ll be honest, I rarely do this because I don’t have the patience.
  2. Cut up your tofu into small bite sized pieces.
  3. Add your tofu pieces into a mixing bowl and add in soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Mix until well combined.
  4. Toss your tofu pieces with almond flour or bread crumbs until each piece is nicely coated.
  5. Add into your air fryer at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes – moving them around at around the halfway point to make sure they cook evenly.
  6. While your tofu is in the air fryer, you can prepare the sauce by adding all the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and mixing very well.
  7. When your tofu is finished, mix in the sauce and sesame seeds (optional) so that the tofu is nicely coated in the delicious red sauce.
  8. Now you can enjoy….!!! Warning: these are ridiculously addictive!

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15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta

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The magic of Avo is at it again. Avocado pasta is the answer to your dinner woes.

Whether you’re vegan or not, this pasta is a super easy weekday dinner to fall back on and it’s packed with a ton of nutrients and flavour…all in under 10 minutes. Serve it up with a salad and you’ve got yourself a super satisfying, delicious dinner staple.

If you’re making the switch, it’s all about figuring out your new staples as a new vegan.

Think about it. How many different types of dinners do you make in a month? I’m guessing it’s probably just a handful of go-to recipes you have in your repertoire that you cycle through (nothin’ wrong with that!). Turning veg just means veganizing these go-to’s, or finding a handful of vegan dinner options you love, then creating a new recipe cycle. The longevity of this lifestyle relies on simplicity (and tastiness, of course), and that’s where recipes like this avocado pasta shine.

Not only is the past simple, but it’s such a crowd pleaser. It’s creaminess without the heaviness of your typical creamy pasta.

Kids will gobble this stuff up too, so if your tasters are little munchkins, then definitely give this one a try!

I get overly excited every time I use the spirilizer, like a kid in a candy shop. You get so much ‘spaghetti’ out of just one yam (or any other veggie you choose to spirilize, like yicama, carrot, beet, or zucchini).

Benefits:

  • Yams are packed with vitamin C to boost your immunity and aid in healing your wounds.
  • Avocados are packed with monounsaturated fats, minimizing joint pain and arthritis, hydrating your skin and strengthening your hair.
  • Garlic is an antibiotic and anti-fungal. The sulfur compounds will help keep your blood pressure in tact. Adding lemon to the crushed garlic enhances the sulfur compound allicin, so this sauce is a perfecto comination-o!

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10-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta
 
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This is a go-to staple dinner recipe! It takes 10 minutes and curbs that creamy, comfort-food craving.
Author:
Recipe type: pasta, easy dinner, 15 minute dinner, lunch idea
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
  • 1-2 yams, spiralized or 1 package spaghetti of choice (I like brown rice pasta)
  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • Lemon zest from 2 lemons (do this before you juice the lemons)
  • Juice of 2 lemons
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • ½ cup black beans, rinsed
Instructions
  1. If using pasta instead of yams, boil water in a large pot and cook pasta according to directions
  2. Meanwhile make the sauce: add avocado, lemon juice, garlic, nutritional yeast to food processor and blend until smooth.
  3. Strain pasta and pour it back into the large pot. Add the sauce and mix into pasta thouroughly
  4. Top it off with beans, red pepper, lemon zest and this vegan parm!
Notes
-Use half spaghetti, half spiralized yam
-Use any other vegetable you like to spiralize

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Easy Vegan Cashew Cheese Sauce | 7 Ingredients

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The good ol’ days of broccoli and cheese sauce are making a comeback, this time in the form of this next-level raw vegan cashew cheese sauce.

Totally nostalgic…who’s with me on that?

In the attempt to get me to eat those veggies in any way possible… cheese sauce, and sometimes mayo, made it onto the plate beside those greens.

It worked like a dream, just like this new & improved eat-yo-veggies cashew cheese hack will.

Something special happens to broccoli when it’s paired with a creamy, tangy, cheesy sauce. Dip away with all the other veggies, and you’re easily munching away on greens like their goin’ outta style.

All you need to do for this recipe is soak the cashews, blend it all up, and then drizzle, spread, dip, scoop…

I’m all about the sauce.

If you’re looking for a veggie-based cheese sauce option, check out this Mind-Blowing Nut-Free cheese sauce recipe I posted not too long ago.

Either one is perfect for a colourful side dish for a holiday like……. Easter!

Benefits:

  • Cashews are packed with healthy fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) to help the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and vitamin K) found in the nutrient-dense greens. Plus, these healthy fats help brain development and memory!
  • Nutritional Yeast (NOOCH) is a vegan’s best friend. Not only does it taste cheesy, but it also is packed with Vitamin B12 (which comes from microorganisms in soil), the one nutrient that you might be lacking in on a vegan diet.
  • Turmeric is a magical ingredient. Not only does it change any recipe into a smashingly colourful dish, but it’s also one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients out there. Add a bit of pepper to increase the bioavailability of the curcumin in the turmeric by 2000%!


Easy Vegan Cashew Cheese Sauce
 
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Answer that cheese craving with this super easy vegan cheese sauce, ready to be best friends with anything that calls for cheese. Pizza, pasta, veggies, nachos, you name it!
Author:
Recipe type: sauce, condiment, snack
Serves: 5
Ingredients
  • 1 cup raw cashews (soaked at least 30 minutes and rinsed)
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • ⅛ tsp sea salt + pepper
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • ¼ cup + 2 tbsp plain unsweetened plant based milk (I used almond)
Instructions
  1. Blend all ingredients in high-speed blender until smooth! You might have to turn it off and scrape down the sides with a spatula every now and then...
  2. Use it for dipping, drizzling, spreading... anything! Pizza, pasta, cracker plates, or saucin' anything up!

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Creamy Vegan Spinach Artichoke White Bean Dip | 8 Ingredients

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Creaminess alert! I’m in love with this Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip.

White beans come into play to create that creamy texture you’re craving, minus the dairy.

If you come across this dip in the store, the veg-sounding name will probably fool ya. The usual culprits show up in full force in the store-bought version… cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, and parmesano. Yup, it’s an overload of the type of creaminess that won’t do your body any favours.

That brings me to one of life’s must-knows.

 

There are 2 important aspects of the act of eating. The physical side & the mental side.

The way you love and appreciate your food makes a big difference in how your body is going to assimilate those nutrients. If you’re stressed out or worried about that thing you’re eating while you’re eating it (‘oh god, I shouldn’t be eating this…’), your digestion won’t run smoothly (because your adrenal system ~ AKA, your stress centre ~ simply cannot work at the same time as your digestive system).

Step 1 – you’ve got to love the taste.

Step 2- you’ve got to appreciate the food and feel good about eating it.

 

It’s a lot easier to follow through with step 2 when the food you’re eating is actually good for you, and it helps when it doesn’t taste like cardboard, am I right!?

That’s what it’s all about here. This dip is even better than ‘guilt-free’, I’ll go as far as saying it’s a ‘life-giving’ dip. It’s next-level awesome for your taste buds and your health.

And oooh man, does it ever taste good warmed up with a side of rye sourdough, crackers and veggies.

The white beans give this dip the dip-able texture we’re looking for.

Don’t limit it to a dip! Spread it all over your toast, sandwiches, wraps, or even make it into a pasta sauce by adding almond milk!

 

There’s just two steps to get to this deliciousness.

Blend

Bake

… that’s it.

 

Benefits:

  • White beans (cannellini beans) are of the legume family. Enough said. Legumes have tons of antioxidants, inulin fibre (prebiotics), minerals, vitamins, and protein. They’re low in fat, cholesterol, and calories (in comparison to the meaty alternative). This is your time to get in yo’ beans! Soak them first, then rinse if you feel that you get gas from them.
  • Artichokes = antioxidants. They’re #7 on USDA’s antioxidant-rich foods list! Plus, Vitamin C in artichoke is going to help you absorb the iron in the spinach. What a combo.
  • Spinach. We all know it’s Pop-Eye’s fave. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s packed with the good stuff (iron, water content, fibre, plant protein, chlorophyll, plus… niacin, manganese, zinc, vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate,potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper), but missing the bad stuff (saturated fat & cholesterol). A recipe for Pop-Eye’s physique.

 

Spinach Artichoke White Bean Dip | Vegan
 
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This dip is easy, but so impressive. We're keeping it on the lighter side by using beans as the base instead of nuts. It's creamy and delicious!
Author:
Recipe type: dip, appetizer, spread
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 can white cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
  • ½ cup + 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice (about a ½ lemon)
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup packed spinach, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup artichoke hearts (about 1 can, drained), roughly chopped
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F.
  2. In your food processor, blend beans with ½ cup nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic, lemon juice, and salt.
  3. In an oven safe serving dish, mix the bean mixture with the spinach and artichokes.
  4. Cover with tin foil, then bake for 12 minutes.
  5. Take the foil off, sprinkle with extra nutitional yeast (or vegan parmesan like Violife's or this recipe) and broil on high for 2 minutes.
  6. Serve this saucy goodness up with your favourite raw veggies, chips, crackers...you name it.

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